Proverbs 30:18-19. 18Three things are too wonderful for me; four I do not understand: 19the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent on a rock, the way of a ship on the high seas, and the way of a man with a virgin.
Agur loves a good quatrain, a list of four things to illustrate a point. What point is Agur trying to make here? Agur’s humility is front and center again as there are things that are just too wonderful for him, and for all of us. Things we simply cannot understand. Full wisdom is on display when we admit that we can’t explain everything, and when we simply find wonder in those same things. Awe, more than knowledge, will always be the measure of the life well lived.
It is also clear that Agur is not comparing the eagle, the serpent, the ship, and the man. He is comparing their way. This is a very common word in Proverbs. Way or path symbolizes a person’s life – their way of life. It also seems clear that the first three are all meant to point to the fourth, and that fourth is inspire the awe and wonder of sexual expression between two lovers.
Sexual intimacy is meant to be wonderful and enjoyable, even if not completely understandable. God has given sex to mankind as a precious gift to be expressed within the covenant of marriage. Inside of these gracious boundaries, love-making is truly something that reaches beyond the limits of the physical and natural world. But some have wondered if Agur isn’t speaking of illicit sexual activity here. In the next verse, Agur seems to add a fifth way to his quatrain.
Proverbs 30:20. This is the way of an adulteress: she eats and wipes her mouth and says, “I have done no wrong.”
Agur simply can’t understand how something as divine and powerful as sex can be engaged in so brazenly, without any sign of loving commitment. For this adulteress, sex is just another appetite to be satisfied – she eats and wipes her mouth. She takes no pause to see sex as something too wonderful for her to understand, and to engage in from the fear of the Lord within his holy limits. Her conscious is seared, therefore her way is sinful. When nothing is a sin to you, everything is, for nothing is done from faith.
Romans 14:23. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.
Besides the gifts of the Spirit themselves, the gift of sex may be God’s most powerful earthly gift. Agur was wise to understand this, and to put it into its proper place at the height of all natural wonder and majesty. The Apostle Paul will take it one step further in his letter to the Corinthians. He refuses to separate the spiritual world from the natural world. Sex isn’t just too wonderful because it is a powerful natural force, like wind beneath an eagle, or the waves moving a ship. Sex is too wonderful because it is a spiritual act, especially for those who are in Christ. Was Paul thinking of Agur’s proverb when he wrote these words:
1 Corinthians 6:15-18. 15Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18Flee from sexual immorality.
When you are one spirit with the Lord Jesus everything becomes spiritual. Everything is too wonderful. There are no simple appetites. All is awe inspiring majesty. All is from Christ and for Christ.
You: How do you see your sexuality? Is it appetite only? Is it spiritual?
You in Christ: How does union with Christ re-define our sexuality?
Christ in you: How might you need to change your attitude toward sex and sexuality to bring it in line with the fear of the Lord?
Pray: Father, let me see everything as worship, even my sex life. Amen.
To Live is Christ 