Proverbs 30:4b
What Is His Son’s Name?
1. This is a fascinating section in Proverbs. Agur introduces his writings by acknowledging how little he really knows about God. He recognizes apart from God’s revelation he is like a beast with no wisdom and no knowledge of the Holy One.
2. In verse four, Agur asks six questions. We looked at the first four rhetorical questions last week. They all pertained to the knowledge of who God is. They all imply God’s greatness.
3. The last two questions also deal with the knowledge of who God is. What is his name, and what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell?
1. Here Agur asks “What is God’s name?”
a. Ex. 3:13-15 – It’s a good question. Abraham asked the same thing.
b. By asking what God’s name is, Agur was in effect asking for information concerning God’s character.
c. In the Old Testament, one’s name spoke of one’s reputation, character, status, his nature.
d. For example, Christ has a name that is above every name.
e. Agur wanted to know more about who God is… about His nature, His Person, His attributes, and His character.
2. God’s names reveal who He is and what He is like.
a. Thou God seest me (Gen. 16:13) Hagar understood God as the One who sees her, her needs, and her situation.
b. The Eternal God (Deut. 33:27)
c. Rock (Psalm 18:2)
d. Abba Father (Rom. 8:15)
e. A Consuming Fire (Heb. 12:29)
f. El Shaddai (Gen. 17:1) He is the Almighty God
g. Jehovah (Gen. 2:4) The Self-Existent One
h. Jehovah Jireh (Gen. 22:14) The Lord provides
i. Jehovah Shalom (Judges 6:24) The Lord is Peace
j. Jehovah Tsidkenu (Jer. 23:6) The Lord our Righteousness
k. Jehovah Raah (Ps. 23) The Lord My Shepherd
l. El Elyon (Gen. 14:18) The Most High God
3. There are many other names of God in the Scriptures as well. Each one reveals a little more about His Person and about His attributes.
a. It is no wonder that the Lord Jesus taught the disciples to pray, “Hallowed be thy Name.”
b. His name(s) was how man came to know God.
c. Agur’s question, “What is His Name?” implies much more than we might think.
d. Remember that he began this chapter by acknowledging that on his own (apart from supernatural revelation) he has no “knowledge of the Holy” One, namely, God.
e. He acknowledges what we all ought to acknowledge – unless God reveals Himself to mankind, we could NEVER know Him.
f. He asked the first four rhetorical questions to cause his readers to consider the greatness of this God.
g. Now he asks, “What is His name?” meaning, what more can we know of Him? Has He given us any more names that reveal His attributes?
h. Agur seemed a little embarrassed and perhaps a bit frustrated that he knew so little about God; yet he had a healthy hunger and a thirst to know much more.
i. Obviously, Agur was a believer. He knew the Lord in a saving way. But he (like Paul) had an inner desire to know more. (That I may know Him!)
j. Agur also knew God’s name, Jehovah. That was revealed many years before him through Moses. He knew many other names of God as well.
k. But there was another name that He did not know: the Lord Jesus Christ who was given a name above all names.
l. His question implies that there is more to know about God and His name… and he was right on target. The progress of revelation was not over. God had much more to reveal about Himself and would reveal it in His time.
1. In the Old Testament, the term “son” was often used as a Hebrew idiom meaning, “having the same character or nature as.”
a. “Sons of valor” was an idiom for “valiant men.”
b. “Sons of thunder” was an idiom meaning men with a thunderous nature.
c. “Sons of the prophets” were men who were trained as prophets.
d. This usage of the term “son” was well known to every Jew reading this passage.
e. This Hebrew idiom would be the first thing to pop into their minds as they read this proverb.
f. But remember, that proverbs were designed to cause a man to stop and think.
g. Proverbs were designed to cause a man to ponder something that might seem simple and obvious at first, but upon deeper contemplation its meaning seems to become richer and more profound.
h. We know God’s name, but what is the name of His Son? Has God given any of His attributes to another?
i. The first questions implied that there is NONE like God. No one hath ascended into heaven on his own. No one would gather the winds in his fists. Only God established the ends of the earth. There is no one like Him.
j. What is His Son’s name? Does God have a son? Is there another who has the same nature and attributes as God?
k. This question raises more questions.
l. Every Jew knew that there was only one God and there was NONE like Him.
• Deut. 6:4 – “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.”
• Isa. 45:5 – “I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me.”
• The concept of a Triune God was totally foreign to every Old Testament saint.
2. What is His Son’s name?
a. Nevertheless, Agur raises the question.
b. This is not to say that Agur understood the concept of the Trinity. He did not.
c. However, he had a curious mind. He sought to know all he could about God and His character.
d. Agur knew the Scriptures. And like you and me, he found some things in Scripture “hard to be understood”… as Peter found some of Paul’s writings to be difficult to understand. This is common among God’s people.
e. Psalm 2:7 – “I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.”
f. Evidently this passage was perplexing to Agur. What did David mean by the expression, God’s Son? How could God have a Son? And if He has a Son, what is His name?
g. Psalm 2:12 – “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.” What could this possibly mean?
h. The Old Testament does have several “hints” concerning God’s Son, but there was simply not enough information given for a Jew to be able to put it all together and conclude that God exists in three Persons.
i. But the few “hints” that were given in the Old Testament were enigmatic for those godly Jews studying Scripture.
j. They raised questions that seemed impossible to answer.
3. “What is His name, and His Son’s name if thou canst tell?”
a. This question almost seems a bit taunting. It was as if he ended his questions by challenging his readers to come up with a suitable answer, though not really expecting that anyone would be able to do so.
b. Agur did not pretend to know the answer to this question.
c. It is as if he is setting forth a riddle before his readers that he had often thought about but was unable to unravel.
d. He probably wracked his brain thinking about what David meant by God’s “son” but could not come up with a suitable answer.
4. Many years later (after Agur was long gone), the Lord did begin to reveal a little more about what He meant by His “Son.”
a. Isa. 7:14 – “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”
b. Here Isaiah revealed (in the form of another riddle) that there would be a “Son” born of a virgin. And what is His Son’s name? Immanuel, meaning GOD with us.
c. God’s Son would be a man (born of a virgin) but He would also be divine (Immanuel).
d. What is His name? The Son would have many other names as well: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Isa. 9:6)
e. Judges 13:17-18 – “And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honour? And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is secret?”
• This is the account of a pre-incarnate appearance of the Son of God… the Second Person of the Godhead.
• When He appeared, Manoah’s natural question was, “What is thy name?”
• But the Lord (the Son) replied, why ask? My name is “Secret.”
• This word is the same Hebrew word as is translated “Wonderful” in Isaiah 9:6.
• Agur DID have the book of Judges. However, he would not have been able to see what we see in Judges 13. And he did not have Isa. 9:6 which would have identified the name “Secret” with God’s Son.
• But both he and Manoah were curious and thirsted to know more about the greatness of who God is.
• And as a side note for us all, to use the words of the songwriter, we should NEVER lose the wonder of it all!
f. Agur did not have this revelation concerning the name of God’s Son; but he longed to know these things.
g. Today, we have MANY more names for the One we now know as the “Son of God.” We have in our hands (the Bible) what Old Testament saints longed for – a fuller revelation of who God is.
h. What we don’t always have is the hunger and thirst to know Him that many Old Testament saints often had.
i. God gave to His Son a name that is above every name.
5. We could learn a lesson from Agur.
a. Agur had a humble concept of himself and his own understanding. He acknowledged that he knew very little about our magnificent God. God is immense beyond our ability to comprehend Him fully. Wisdom recognizes that.
b. We would do well to humble ourselves before Him—to be still and KNOW that He is God. That is enough.
c. Paul put it this way: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!” (Romans 11:33)
d. Strive to know Him more and more—but ultimately, we all have to acknowledge that His ways are far above ours.
e. Just as we are to pray that we might “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (Eph. 3:19), we should also keep on searching to know more of the unsearchable ways and attributes of God.