The horseleach has two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yes, four things say not, It is enough;
the grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that says not, It is enough.
Now Agur produces an honest assessment of life on planet earth. It is an unhappy affair. We live in a fallen world, and all of us suffer the cursed consequences of sin at one level or another. We suffer with innumerable irritations, difficulties, and maladies throughout the years of our lives. Yet there are some curses that are unrelenting and chronic. The wounds are deep and they do not heal quickly. They beat on us without mercy. When a loved one dies, for example, the emptiness in the hearts of those who are left in the home is irresolvable. Day after day, the weight of the loss remains like a heavy pall over the family. Barrenness produces a similar effect for the poor women afflicted by it. Hardwired into the heart of most women is a desire to have children and to nurture those children in families. Whether the barrenness is genetic, or unexplainable, or self-inflicted by birth control use, there is no denying the gnawing emptiness dominating that woman’s life. What more significant contribution can a woman make in her lifetime than bringing a child into the world? Finally, Agur includes both droughts and wildfires that burn out of control in this list of chronic, destructive forces. How many firefighters witness the all-consuming forest fire and wonder if the fire will ever stop? How many farmers wonder if the drought will ever cease after sixty long days of dry weather?
How many deaths, barren wombs, droughts, and natural disasters must we suffer through in any given lifetime? Where is the joy in the midst of this life of chronic pain, agony, and loss? If life consisted merely of this suffering and a generous dose of the opiates to dull the pain, would it be worth living? The materialist worldview insists that we are nothing but cosmic dust in a universe of chance. We live a life of suffering and then we die. In another billion years or so, life will be eliminated from the earth by a passing comet or the implosion of the sun. The eastern religions try to solve the problem by the doctrine of reincarnation. After one life of suffering and death, you may be reincarnated as somebody’s cow, only to suffer and die again and again. What can possibly resolve the problem of death and the grave? Must we forever and ever experience the gnawing pain of death and loss? Obviously, there is only one solution to the problem, and that is the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the firstfruits of those who rise from the dead. We must believe that the last enemy to be destroyed is death (1 Cor. 15:26), and the cry of the horseleach’s daughters will end forever.
1. What are the four curses that seem insatiable in their destructive and miserable effects?
2. Where is our hope in the midst of this sin-cursed world?