Each of the four creatures mentioned in Proverbs 30:24-28 presents the believer in a different light, shadowing another view of his earthly path–the path of faith, conflict, and conquest. We get some very practical lessons here for everyday Christian living.
Notice in the opening verse that stress is laid on the feebleness of these creatures. They are all “little” on the earth. And nothing, of course, is more important to a saint of God than to realize one’s littleness, and to walk in the consciousness of this. God can only use those who understand their dependence on Him.
Therefore we read that those four things, while little, are exceeding wise. Littleness of self and divine wisdom imparted by God are a happy combination. The first step to being “exceeding wise” is to acknowledge one’s littleness before Him: “Except ye repent and become as little children, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.”
THE ANT
“The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer.”
The ants are not strong. The word “strong” means fierce. In Proverbs 18:23, it is translated “roughly,” where we read that “the poor useth entreaties, but the rich answereth roughly.” The thought seems to be the fierceness or rudeness that a sense of superior strength imparts. But these ants are not fierce, and they picture the people of God who are little, but wise. The Christians do not depend on their own strength, but on God. Fierceness and arrogance often characterize men of the world.
In contrast, the believer is not fierce, for he is a follower of the lowly Jesus–considerate of others, esteeming others better than himself, seeking not his own.
The ants are gathering; so are the people of God. But believers, unlike the ants, are not gathering food only to feed themselves, but that they might have something to give to others, and some trophies to lay at His feet in that day.
Only here and in Proverbs 6:6-8 do we have reference to the ants in Scripture. In Proverbs 6, we are told that the ants have no guide, overseer or ruler, yet they provide their food in the summer and gather it in harvest.
An ant is not a sluggard, but is always busy. This is one of the important lessons we are to glean when considering the ant. We are exhorted in the Word times without number to be engaged in service for Him, to occupy till He come, to redeem the time because the days are evil. All of us have been impressed by the incessant toil of our Lord. “I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day: the night cometh when no man can work.” We, too, should be up and doing.
Notice in Proverbs 6 that the ant has no guide, overseer, or ruler. No one around to watch him–or rather I should say “her”–for Proverbs 6 bids us to consider “her” ways and be wise. It seems that among the ants the females do most of the work, and so often among Christians also the sisters are much more ready to serve than brothers are. Shame on the men–go, thou sluggard, consider the ways of the ant and become wise.
No, there is no overseer to see to it that the ants keep going. They have within them an invisible but powerful urge which keeps them busy, without having to be driven or prodded. The ant does not need any exhortation to be faithful.
When I was about seventeen, I was apprenticed as a clerk in a busy office. I did not like office work, and went daily to the job against my will. Time and again the boss would find me, as he came unexpectedly into the office, looking wistfully out of the window at the bright outdoors.
One day, catching me day-dreaming, he said angrily: “Why is it that I catch you so often doing nothing?” Trying to be smart, I answered: “I guess it’s because you wear those rubber-soled shoes.” That was it. I only worked when the overseer was around.
Are we serving Him faithfully, or fitfully? We are not to serve as men pleasers, but as the servants of Christ, doing His will from the heart.
Instinct urges ants forward. Have we any propelling force that drives us onward in this path of faith? The Lord could command us to serve, and it would be only right, for He bought us with His blood, but He beseeches us. He delights in willing, loving service.
We have the indwelling Holy Spirit as our guide, and the unseen Christ in glory as our Lord and Master. What more do we need?
The ants prepare their food in the summer. Yes, another reason the ants keep busy is because it has been implanted in them to know instinctively that now is the time for work. Soon winter with its death will be on them, and then the time for ingathering will be over.
Brethren, the time is short. This is the only time I can in service show my gratitude to the Lord Jesus; it is now that I can be used by Him for the blessing of precious souls. Let us not waste the precious moments in mere selfish living, heaping up earthly treasures for the rubbish heap. “Labor not for the meat which perishes, but for that which endures unto everlasting life.” All else is just so much vanity.
When it says the ants “prepare,” it does not mean, of course, that they make it grow–merely that they gather it. It is so with us; we do not make things grow. God gives the increase; we only gather the blessings.
It is interesting that the Hebrew word for summer and summer fruit is the same. It suggests that fruit cannot be divorced from summer. And is it not so? Labor for the Lord down here cannot be divorced from fruit: “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord” (1 Cor. 15:58). “And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal. 6:9).
THE CONEY
“The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks.”
In the ants we saw that the believer is not fierce or aggressive. He is not in this world to force his way, or to attack the weaker. He is not here, as believers often erroneously think, to fight the world and its wickedness, or to seek to make the world a better place to live in. He is here to live for Christ and to bring souls to a saving knowledge of his Lord. He is here to gather fruit for eternity.
The coney shows that while a Christian is not to attack others, yet he will be attacked. The conies are a feeble folk. The word feeble means “not mighty or strong.” They are not in a position to meet the attack of the enemy. Yet they will be attacked, as Christians always are, by foes within and without. The apostle Peter speaks of “fleshly lusts which war against the soul.” What is the believer to do in case of assault? Ah, like the coney, he is to flee to his house in the rock. God has provided a place of refuge for His people in their weakness.
Many believers have the mistaken idea that they should fight sin in themselves and in others, but Scripture does not speak thus. No, the Christian is told to flee in the hour of attack. “But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, etc” (1 Tim. 6:11). “Flee also youthful lusts” (2 Tim. 2:22). In 1 Timothy 6, we are exhorted to flee the world; the things mentioned are those which mark the world–strife, discontent, and love of money. In 2 Timothy 2, we flee the flesh. The one is without, the other within. Flee where? To the Rock!
The Hebrew word for “rock” into which the conies were to flee is the same word for the “rock” which Moses smote. It signifies an elevated rock, a lofty rock, and speaks unquestionably of Christ our exalted Lord in the heavens. He is the believer’s refuge (Heb. 6:18) to which we are to flee.
The risen Christ in glory is our refuge and strength; a very present help in time of trouble. “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4:16). No foe can touch the coney when safely sheltered in the rock. I am not able to resist the subtle temptations of the world about me or the flesh within me, but He lives to save me to the uttermost.
Yet there is a battle to be waged by the believer. He is not always to flee. I believe we have it suggested in the third creature mentioned.
THE LOCUST
“The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.”
The locusts are not a fleeing people, like the conies, but a marching host, pressing on in close formation, doing their work. They have, to all outward appearances, no king, yet there is an evident method in their advance. Even so the people of God have no visible leader. Our great Leader is invisible to human eye, yet nonetheless real.
It is a matter that calls for deepest thankfulness that our Lord has provided fully for the spiritual needs of His Church. He has given gifts to His Church–evangelists, pastors, and teachers–and those who seek to guide the saints as well as to feed them. But all such leaders, if true to God, make the Word of God their sole authority for service. They do not assume authority which God does not confer upon them. Christ alone is the Head of His Church, and no human being has any right or authority whatsoever to assume a place of domination over God’s people.
Even among Christians who ought to know better, we find often a good deal of this looking to man rather than to Christ. There is always danger of getting a mere man, no matter how godly or capable he might be, between one’s soul and God. These locusts imply that the people of the Lord are moving forward in the Christian life in direct response to orders from the Lord Jesus, and under the virile leadership of the Holy Spirit. And for successful living, there is required a conscious, daily subjection to the Lord.
These locusts are on the warpath, and so are the saints of God. No fleeing here, as with the conies. We should flee from the world and the flesh, but never from the devil. No, we are to fight the good fight of faith. And victory is assured. “The gates of hell shall not prevail” against the Church.
Ephesians 6 is a commentary on these locusts. There is no visible leader, but the church marches on, in conflict with Satan, under the invincible generalship of the Lord. Clothed in the whole armor of God, the believer presses forward, attacking Satan and all his hosts. We are never told to flee from the devil, but to resist him, and he will flee from us. There is no turning back, no defeat.
They go forth, all of them by bands. Little companies of Christians all over the earth, united to Christ and to each other by bonds of love and ties of blood, press on in the fight, gradually driving back the evil hosts of darkness. The infidel loves to sneer at the Bible and to ridicule Christians for their failures and follies. Some cause indeed there is for these taunts, but in spite of all, Satan has had to retreat–always retreat–before the mighty hosts of God advancing under the command of Christ.
Millions have been snatched from Satan’s grasp, out of the realms of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of God’s love. That’s our real business down here. Fleeing from the flesh and the attractions of the world, we are to wage this deadly warfare in seeking to turn men from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. We are to do so, not as lone rangers, but warring together with all God’s saints, as a mighty army. We are to go forth, like the locusts, by bands. We are always more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
THE SPIDER
“The spider…taketh hold with her hands and is in kings’ palaces.”
Even here on earth, the believer may thus be at home in the palace of the King. We shall be in His glorious presence forever, praise His holy Name. But even now, while only little things on the earth, we may make ourselves at home where He dwells.
The word for spider is said to indicate a “poisonous lizard.” That crawling, contemptible creature, whose home is in the dust of the earth, is now in the king’s palace. It is truly a strong contrast. When we think of ourselves, once creatures of the dust, with the poison of asps under our lips (Rom. 3:13; Jas. 3:8), we wonder as we find ourselves brought into the very presence of the Lord of glory.
What business has a lizard, a poisonous lizard, in a king’s palace? None at all. No more than I have in the presence of God my Saviour. But divine grace has given me a place there! Divine grace gave Christ to die for me, and has made me accepted in the Beloved; has made His home my home, too.
And, like the lizard, I have taken hold with my hands. The hands of faith have taken hold on the tremendous revelation of His love to me–a poor sinner–and thus I have been lifted, like the lizard, out of the dust into the very palace of the King. That place which grace has provided is now my very own. I am not waiting till He comes to be brought into the ivory palaces, but by faith I dwell there already. With both hands I grasp by faith now that wondrous place of blessing as mine.
The same Hebrew word for “palace” is also employed for “temple.” I worship even now in His temple. In fact, I am part of His temple, that spiritual building erected in this dispensation of grace; erected for His eternal abode, to ring eternally with the praises of the Lamb that was slain.
And so the spider suggests the believer as he even now appropriates his portion in Christ; as he even today finds himself enjoying the glories of His eternal home; as he right now lives in the presence of the Lord. In His presence is fullness of joy; at His right hand there are pleasures forevermore.
Dear fellow believer, it will be only a little while, and He shall come. Then we shall be forever with the Lord, then to know to the full the wonderful, matchless depth of His love and to see Him, to praise, wonder and adore, as endless ages roll on their course. In view of this, let us heed the lessons presented in this chapter. Let us follow Him, who left us an example that we might be, even now, a little like Him.