Proverbs 30:9 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Proverbs 30:9

Comments

Not every prayer for deliverance asks that we should be exposed to the worst of temptation and delivered under it. Why not? Can’t God uphold us under the full force of the enemy? Yes, he can, but just as the Lord Jesus Christ teaches us to pray, ‘Lead us not into temptation’, so we may ask to avoid situations which test us to the limit. We do not reach full maturity in a day. We make progress and advance in sanctification over a lifetime. No one should want an encounter with the devil, and to desire this might well indicate over-confidence which would soon be our downfall. It is much better to be aware of our weaknesses and ask to be protected from them by being spared the heat of the battle. It may not be good to have sins to which we are vulnerable, but it is good to know what these are and not to want to be tested above what we are able to bear. Our defence is not in any ability of ours to resist, but, as always, in the Lord. Christ who is the captain of our salvation. He defeats the devil single handed by his strength and righteousness. We trust to him to judge when we are ready for the battle since he knows us better than we know ourselves. It is part of his training to expose us to the fight, but he will not send us into the fiercest fighting before we are ready for it. If we have zeal, that zeal should not be for encounters with the devil and with temptation, but for service towards our God. Solomon explains why he wishes to be kept from these two situations and what he fears will follow. He knows his tendency not to rely on the Lord when he is provided with ample in this life. This deception has caught him before, and it is a danger for all believers, therefore he sets himself as an example of repentance to all. The outburst, ‘Who is the Lord’, would come at the end of a process of spiritual decline, when he had found it so easy to satisfy all earthly desires that it became too hard to see himself as dependent on the Lord. On the other hand, to continue to trust the Lord in circumstances of extreme deprivation is also hard, he knows. He would ask, ‘Why doesn’t God come to his aid? Why does he let him suffer want?’ For him the greatest concern now is his relationship with the Lord and all else is to be set aside if it gets in the way. Therefore, if it will deliver him, let God not give him the riches which ensnared him previously but which are so appealing to the flesh. He knows the Lord has absolute power to answer this prayer and to assign his future. He is ready to lose all if his heart can only be strengthened to love the Lord and serve and obey him.

Application

At the time of seeking the Lord, when the Spirit is at work within us and we desire to return to him on his terms and with integrity in our hearts, God gives us a realism in our minds that can evaluate all things properly and in proportion. We know what has value and what does not have value, and we know what to set aside and what to cling on to. At the same time, we come trembling because we sense our own instability. We do not trust what we will do tomorrow and so we cry out to God in the present moment to preserve us against our own future foolishness. That sense of vulnerability and need for God to make our paths straight is very good sign. We pray that the wisdom we have been given to see things this way may not pass away but remain with us. If we come to God in this way, he will hear us and pardon us no matter how much trouble past sin has got us into.

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Proverbs 30:9 Commentary and Bible Study