But our citizenship is in heaven. As we eagerly await the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20
One of the dynamics within scripture is duality. The apostle Paul, who wrote extensively in the New Testament about our identity in Christ, who we are, our mission and our objectives, is also uniquely equipped to do so because he is the one writer in the New Testament who is identified as having dual citizenship: one as an Israelite and one as a Roman. The duality of citizenship gave him access to two kingdoms: one kingdom was through his genealogy with the descendants of Abraham; but the other citizenship gave him access to Caesar. As we noticed, a citizen of Rome could demand access to the emperor in the event of a legal dispute. We also have dual citizenship here on earth and in heaven. Paul writes we are seated in heavenly places. And so if we look at Proverbs 30, we can see the writer is perturbed and disheartened because he realizes he’s battling two mindsets; one mindset is that of a man without any spiritual underpinnings. “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and I have not understanding of a man. I need to learn wisdom and have the knowledge of the holy.” And then in his desperation he says in verse 4 “Who has ascended up into the heavens, or descended? Who has gathered the wind in his fists? Who has bound the waters in a garment? And who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou can tell? Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. And thou shalt not unto his words add, lest he reprove you and you be found to be a liar.”
He goes from talking about his mental incapacity, that being brutish, to say he has no wisdom, and yet he’s written the prior 29 chapters of wisdom and knowledge and discernment and insight, and then he goes on to say, “Who’s the one who made this whole place it didn’t come from nowhere?†And then the writer says, “Every word of God is pure. That didn’t come out of the realm of the flesh, or the realm of an educational institution, but out of the realm of the heavens. It came to him because this writer received the glints of what it was like to have dual citizenship. To have access to the throne of the emperor of the universe. And the very next phrase states a sidebar that seems to come out of nowhere, but it is somewhere for sure. He goes from saying every word of God is pure and then that he is a shield to those that put their trust in him. God’s word doesn’t stand in a vacuum; God’s word stands within and upon and throughout what He has created as an access point to have access to the emperor so that they can put their trust in the One Who made it all. Protection and access. Protection and access.
A final aside: Proverbs 30 is a prophetic chapter because it comes at the very end of all the wisdom literature of the book, and yet the wisdom does not lead to an outcome that is redemptive but rather disconcerting. He declares in the first few verses, yeah, he’s more brutish than any man and he does not have understanding, the very thing that he has been writing about for 29 chapters. And yet he realizes and has a vision of a person who has ascended to heaven and who has to descend to earth. What a prophetic statement. He also declares some of the miracles that Jesus performed, especially with calming the wind and the ocean. He also points to the importance of the name of God and the Son of God. How did this writer have a glimpse of this hightower of insight? He then goes on to discuss the importance of contentment; it is not accumulation but rather the contentment that one has and writes about the dangers of success and materialism. The problems of poverty and abundance and how they threaten a man’s heart condition. And all this to consider the fact that this is a prophetic book and I present for your consideration that Proverbs 30:11-14 is an articulation of the society that will exist at the return of Christ. It talks about a generation that curses their father and their mother; a generation that is pure in their own eyes; a generation that is consumed with itself; and finally this generation whose words are become weapons. So, what do you do: the solution is found in verses 24-28, where the writer uses the examples of four creatures: the ant, the coney, the locust and the spider. Little animals give us the strategies for the last days.