Restoring society after COVID-19
Most folks might not know who Agur is because he is relatively obscure, a man self-described as brutish and lacking in common understanding. However, I have had several encounters with him, all of which were enlightening.
You see, Agur is the author of the thirtieth chapter of Proverbs. His name in Hebrew means “gathered” -possibly a pseudonym describing his writings as bits of wisdom he had gathered throughout his life. If one starts reading the next-to-Iast chapter of Proverbs, the name Agur in the first verse might elicit the comment, “Solomon I know, but who in the world is Agur?”
I introduce this obscure author from three thousand years ago because he brings a glimmer of truth to our present time of pandemic and sequester. News casters constantly reference doctors and scientists as our source of hope for victory over the coronavirus that plagues the world. “Talk to the big-name, smart people if you want to escape with your life,” they say. By contrast, Agur tells us that he did not learn wisdom and knowledge in the same way as the holy men of his day. He did not sit at the feet of great teachers-the most august elders or Rabbis.
Instead of grand theological speculation, Agur’s thirtieth chapter of Proverbs greets our perusal with observations from ants, locusts, spiders and homespun reflections, all of which may be summarized by his certainty that blessings come to the one who learns to be honest, modest, and in touch with God’s creation. Evidently, Agur was not as “brutish” and insignificant as he describes himself to be, for his thirty-three little verses have stood time’s test for millenniums. They contain in one tiny capsule much of what we need to know about true success. Given his wisdom, I wonder what Agur would recommend if he were resurrected and added to President Trump’s coronavirus team.
Agur begins his observations by noting that man cannot control the wind and the oceans. If not man, then who? The answer goes unwritten for a verse or two, but as we read on, we soon understand that he has God in mind. The words of such an all-powerful Creator are man’s shield, he says, and any word that contradicts God is false.
In the book of Proverbs, the application of Agur’s call for God’s truth-shield is simple: a man’s proverb is hardly worth repeating down through the ages unless it agrees with the absolute truths of God. Applied to the current Covid-19 pandemic, Agur’s truism about God’s truth-shield suggests that man should realize that he might be farther from the top of the food chain than he imagines. A tiny invisible enemy has us all cowering in our closets, thankful only that the virus is not more potent than it is. (What if this virus had been the deadly Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever?) For the moment, at least, it appears that the only effective defense against this hungry, lurking, microscopic enemy is the natural antibody defense that God gave man in the first place.
Many questions remain unanswered about where this virus originated and why it has spread so quickly throughout the world, but one thing is clear: this pandemic presents mankind with a rare opportunity to adopt Agur’s sense of humility and his clear-sightedness about who actually controls man’s destiny. If something so tiny as to be invisible to the naked eye has us all cowering in our respective cubbyholes, perhaps we ought to swallow our pride and give due consideration to the great unseen who needs no masks, gloves, goggles or gowns to protect Himself (or us) from even the worst of viruses. He is the True Protector; however, the society
He has sworn to protect is, in large part, egotistical and ungrateful. We spurn God’s gift of life, we call falsehood truth, we ignore the rule of law and rail against those we elect to lead. We are greedy, and we are immoral to the point of rottenness. If Agur were here today, he would posit that today’s society might not be worth protecting. For sure, he would say that our broken morality needs as much restoration as our presently unconscious economy.
DeWitt Clinton is a resident of Dunbar.