Proverbs 30:16 Commentary and Bible Study

We have here set before us four things which have this in common: they can never be satisfied, but endlessly hunger for more. All of the proverbs are to relate to the spiritual realm and provide lessons for man – ‘Doth God care for oxen?’ (1 Corinthians 9:9). These four images are not applied by Solomon, but he nevertheless expects us to search out the spiritual lesson in each of them. They are all images of destructive or undesirable things and so it is obvious that they depict a negative aspect of human nature. It is not hard to find what it is in man that has an insatiable appetite, especially in the context of so many other fallen features of man’s character which are warned against in this chapter. These insatiables picture fallen man’s sinful desires.The grave swallows up generation after generation. The sorrow that surrounds death is one of the most striking realities of life in this world. Every life must be cut short and come to an end. Man vainly tries to convince himself that this is part of the natural cycle of things, but the pang of fear that comes when he stares death in the face exposes his lying to himself. We are forced to let go of those we love and no answer comes back from beyond the grave to reassure us. Death is relentless and consumes the next generation with no less vigour than it did the last. Death is a terrible insatiable. Human lusts are terrible in the awful state into which they will bring a soul, which becomes liable to eternal judgment.The barren womb longs to be with child. The woman who cannot conceive may try to turn her mind aside to other things, but the fact of her childlessness comes relentlessly back again and again. It seems to be the only thing that makes life worth living. Especially in the past when children were needed to carry on the family business, and support the family with their loyalty. She sees other families and the happiness of being surrounded by children. She sees them growing up and becoming useful workers in the home. She sees them getting married and starting their own families. She sees aged parents being cared for by their children. All this she is denied. Barrenness is a happiness-denying insatiable. Human lusts care nothing for the pain they bring with them, for they do not know how to bring us into a state of happiness.The earth that drinks up water could be a desert. The rain occasionally falls on it, but even as you watch, it sinks down and soon the sun has dried away all evidence that water ever lay on the ground. The desert has not been turned into an oasis, but is just as inhospitable as it was before. No amount of gentle rain makes any difference. This is an undiminishing insatiable. Do sinful lusts start to ease off once we feed them a little? No, it is almost as if they have been given nothing. Feeding them with sin leaves the soul just as hungry as it was before.Fire consumes everything in its path. It has only one way of responding to everything it meets – to devour it and leave behind nothing of value. Fire does not make exceptions of beautiful things – object of art preserved for generations, valued and treasured things – the products of skilled human craftsmen, or needed things – homes vital for life. It consumes them all making no difference between them. Fire is a destructive and indiscriminating insatiable. Lust is destructive. It does not hesitate to destroy all the finer features of human nature that God has allowed to remain in us after the fall. It tramples on kindness, meekness, gentleness, and all other sensitivities.