Two things I ask of you; deny them not to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches…. [Proverbs 30:7-8a (ESV)]
The only prayer found in Proverbs is that of Agur in Proverbs 30. While he probably was one of the sages of Solomon’s day who helped compile the proverbs, other than saying he was the son of Jakeh, we really know nothing about the man. In his prayer, Agur asked for two unusual things, the first of which was that God would, “Remove far from me falsehood and lying.” His second prayer was that God give him neither poverty nor riches. These are not typical requests and I suspect that we’ve prayed neither prayer. The first one because we don’t see the need and the second because we can’t imagine not wanting something a little more than just enough!
While we might ask God to remove liars and deceivers from our dealings, Agur wants more. He’s asking God to remove any deception from his heart. He wants nothing to do with falsehood in the way he thinks, believes, speaks, and lives. Integrity is a way to live without anxiety and Agur knows that, with nothing to hide, he’ll have nothing to fear! I’m not sure that honesty and integrity are prayer requests we often make. After all, asking God to keep us from hypocrisy and deception implies we acknowledge our insincerity and falseness both to ourselves and others!
I suspect we more readily spot hypocrisy and deceit in others than we can in ourselves but, truth be told, I suspect we lie more to ourselves than we lie to others! However, we’re so good at rationalizing and excusing that we don’t even know we’re doing it! We tell ourselves we “deserve it,” when we can’t afford it and that something can’t be done when we’re afraid to try. We excuse our bad behavior by saying we can’t help it or by shifting the blame to someone else. We call our sins momentary lapses and convince ourselves that they don’t matter because nobody will know, no one got hurt, or that everyone’s doing it. We tell ourselves we’re doing or not doing something for the sake of someone else when we’re really doing (or not doing) it for ourselves. We say we’re trying something just once when we know we aren’t and we tell ourselves there wasn’t enough time when we wasted the time we had. We hold grudges, gossip, gripe, brag, lie, judge, and are selfish and prideful (among other things) and yet, we don’t feel the need to confess to God because we’ve learned to deceive ourselves into thinking those “little” sins don’t matter. They do!
Scripture tells us the “heart is deceitful;” indeed, it is. Since God can see into our deceitful hearts, He knows our sins whether or not we acknowledge them! We need to be honest with ourselves if we ever hope to be honest with God and it’s only by seeing ourselves as God sees us that we can do that. Agur’s prayer that God “Remove far from me falsehood and lying” is a prayer for us all.
The human heart has so many crannies where vanity hides, so many holes where falsehood lurks, is so decked out with deceiving hypocrisy, that it often dupes itself. [John Calvin]
When writing about enemies earlier this week, I couldn’t think of anyone with whom I interact who qualifies as an enemy. But, when I broadened my search and considered the various people Satan uses in his evil schemes against God, I realized I have several—some whose names I know and others whose names I don’t. When they become Satan’s agents, they become God’s enemies, and, if they are God’s enemies, shouldn’t they be mine? So, who are they?
According to Bible Gateway, the six verses of the 23rd Psalm are the most popular ones on their site, with verses 4 and 6 usually vying for first place. The seventh most popular verse, however, is today’s verse, Jeremiah 29:11. When people are going through hard times, this is the kind of verse that gets pulled out to reassure them that everything will turn out right.
Last Monday, I referenced an article in Christianity Today by theology teacher Jared Dodson whose students wanted to know “when bad people will get what they deserve.” Unfortunately, there is no guarantee that bad people will get what they deserve while on this side of the grass. Nevertheless, if they don’t repent and follow Jesus, those people eventually will get their comeuppance. Scripture makes it clear that those who don’t know God and follow the gospel of Jesus “will be punished with eternal destruction, forever separated from the Lord and from his glorious power.” [2 Thes 1:8-9]
“May the Holy Spirit give us grace to not begrudge the pedagogy of God,” wrote John Piper in the day’s devotion. A somewhat archaic word and not one I regularly use, I thought of a pedagogue as an old, boring, stodgy, and authoritarian teacher who never changed his lesson plan or lectures. Unsure what Piper meant, it seemed wise to consult the dictionary. “Pedagogy” comes from two Greek words: pais, meaning child, and agogos, meaning leader. A paidagogos was a slave who led the boys to and from school, taught them manners, and tutored them after school.
