In his sermon titled 'Dangers to Society', Peter Allison discusses Proverbs 30:21-23, highlighting four societal dangers: a servant when he reigns, a fool when filled with food, a hateful woman when married, and a maidservant who succeeds her mistress. Allison interprets these elements as metaphors for societal instability, emphasizing that the 'earth' refers to society rather than the physical planet. He explains that these dangers stem from internal societal disruptions rather than external threats. A servant reigning suggests an unqualified individual gaining power, leading to disorder. A fool filled with food represents those who, when sated, have the means to indulge their folly, causing chaos. The hateful woman and the maidservant succeeding her mistress refer to individuals whose negative traits disrupt family and social structures. Pride is a common thread among these dangers, leading to societal decay. Allison urges the cultivation of humility and service, drawing on the example of Jesus Christ as a model for leadership and community building.

Please turn to Proverbs chapter 30. I like to read verses 21-23. For three things the earth is perturbed. Yes, for four it cannot bear up. For a servant when he reigns, a fool when he is filled with food, a hateful woman when she is married, and a maidservant who succeeds her mistress." How sweeter Christ's words to our taste, sweeter than honey to our mouths.

Heavenly Father, as we continue to worship, we ask that you would open our eyes that we might behold wonderful things out of your law. May we see its beauty. May we be impressed with its truth. But Lord, most of all, may we know You, whose words these are. May You speak to us through them.

May ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips for this purpose. Lord, bless us now through Jesus Christ. Amen. This chapter is unique in many ways in the book of Proverbs. It's set apart by itself, the words of a Guru.

And many of them are, on the surface, seem rather mundane. But I've been amazed in each of these passages in digging into them just how deep they are and how rich they are. And I think probably I was no more, no way more surprised than to find this than in this passage here before us. It seems rather ordinary. We have this pattern that Agur uses of three or four things.

Three or four things. It's just a Hebrew expression. There are a few things. There are a few things. Three or four things we would say.

It doesn't mean that there aren't others, but this is this collection of three or four things. In this case, this is a collection of, I believe, three or four things that are a danger to society. By a danger I mean they tend to destabilize and to undermine and to overthrow society from the inside out. An army, a foreign army invading is a danger to society. But these are dangers from within that overturn the order that God ordains and has created.

So for three or four things here the earth the King the new King James says perturbed the earth is perturbed. Now that's not talking about an earthquake. I think that what is referred to here by the earth is the inhabitants of the earth, the society of the earth. And you say, well, how do you get that out of earth? Isn't earth the globe, this rock of water and land?

Well, yes, it is often that, but not always. And I think this is one of those cases. For example, in Genesis, it says the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. Well, if the earth is just a mass of land and rock and water, it's not corrupt. Obviously, that was in Genesis 6, speaking of the world in Noah's day.

God is saying that it was the inhabitants of the earth that were corrupt. It was society, it was culture that was corrupt. And when he says the earth was filled with violence, then that could be the earth as a planet or it could also be the society. But clearly in the first case, it's not talking about the planet, it's speaking about the people on the planet and the culture there or David said to Solomon I go the way of all the earth. Meaning I go the way of everybody that's lived on this earth is gonna go.

I'm going to die and go into the grave, she'll be strong, he said, improve yourself a man. Or a little later in the same book of 1 Kings chapter 10, now all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart. Well, Obviously the planet isn't seeking Solomon. It is the people on the planet. It is the kings and like the queen of Sheba.

So these are people that are coming to Solomon. Or let all the earth fear the Lord, Psalm 33 says. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. There you have both aspects brought out. It makes it very clear.

Let all the earth fear the Lord. It's speaking, as it says in the next phrase, of the inhabitants of the earth, of society. Let all of culture, not just an enclave, not just a ghetto, Christian ghetto, but let all of the society, let all of culture fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. So, earth here, when you see that, Agur is talking about The culture, the society.

He's speaking, as we'll see, about civil society, the civil order. He's speaking about the family order, and of course, the church. So, for three or four things, the earth is perturbed. Society is perturbed. Now what does it mean to be perturbed?

What happens to the earth? That word is perturbed, is disturbed, or trembles, or shakes. And so, it's not talking about an earthquake here it's talking necessarily it's talking about those things which cause the society to be undestabilized, to be shaken. When something is shaken, it's upset. It becomes mixed up and destabilized.

I think this is in a sense what we might think of as protests, an inflamed culture, you know, riots like they had in Ephesus because of Paul. It's an example of this, of the society being perturbed, or like we have had in our day here recently. A society that's being upset, it's being shaken. And the Guru gives us a parallel. There are three or four things, for three or four things the earth is perturbed.

Yes, for it cannot bear up. Cannot bear up. It means it's unable to support. Cain said that his punishment was greater than he could bear. Couldn't support it.

Genesis 13, Abraham and Lot had to go their separate ways because the land was not able to support them that they might dwell together for their possessions were so great, they couldn't well together the land could not bear up under that many cattle and sheep and camels and whatever they had on that, on that small space. And they were continually fighting about water and so they had to go their separate ways and Agur is saying that's the same thing here. There's three or four things that overturn a society and the earth, the inhabitants of the earth. They're not able to handle it. They're not able to support it It destroys the society So I've labeled this titled this message dangers to society Now what are these things that Agur identifies as dangers to society?

There's an old joke about a smoothly operating society and a society that can't bear up. And I'm sure you've all heard it, but in a smoothly operating society is where the policemen are English. The English bobbies have a reputation for being very gracious. They don't even carry guns. The cooks are French.

French cooking is well known for it. And if you've ever traveled to England and France, you know the difference. The engineers and mechanics are German, right? We all think of German engineering. The lovers are Italian and the Swiss organize everything.

Well functioning society. Now, an earth that can't bear up is where the policemen are Germans and the cooks are English. If you've ever been to England, you know what I'm talking about. The engineers and mechanics are French. The lovers are Swiss and the Italians organize everything.

Now no disrespect meant to all those nationalities, but there's always, like Paul has told Titus, there are an element of truth in stereotypes. And I think if you've traveled to any of these countries and know some of these, there's an element of truth in here that makes it funny. But this is an earth that can't bear up a Society that is isn't functioning well. And so the first thing that Guru this is a servant when he reigns. It's a, this is a, this is a, could be a servant you think of as somebody that you hire to do something, a slave even.

And I think that is there, that element is there, but I think this is especially speaking of a of an official. We think of somebody who serves the king, somebody who is in the king's counselors. He's a high office, but he's underneath the king. He serves the king. Just like our president, the cabinet secretaries are the ministers for the president.

They serve him. They serve at his pleasure. And he can fire them. And So in that sense they are servants. And I think this one reason for seeing this here, well there's a couple reasons that we'll get to, but one is the connection with reigning and a king.

It's put in parallel with a king, a servant when he reigns. So I think this is referring to a minister or high official. And so in this case, what I think is is in view here or one aspect that's in view is it's referring to a coup, a subordinate official's seizing power and like Hesial did with King Ben-Hadad. He was sent by Ben-Hadad, remember, to go ask if he was going to live. And Elisha said that, well, he was actually just silent for a while, and he said that actually you're going to kill kill the king which Haziel did and he ruled in his place but but this is also referring to an unqualified ruler there There is a place for calling and station.

Some communities and homes are more stable than others due to better decisions over the years. Some people are gifted to be able to rule and other people are not gifted to be able to rule. And when people that aren't gifted are in positions of ruling, Society is not as, or whatever organization, whether it's a home, or whether it's a church, or whether it's a community, doesn't run as orderly and smoothly as somebody that is more gifted and qualified to rule. Some researchers have demonstrated what a Guru describes here, interestingly. People who scored in the lowest percentile on tests of grammar, they write, humor, grammar, humor, and logic, also tended to dramatically overestimate how well they performed.

So their actual test scores placed them in the 12th percentile in this particular research, but they estimated that their performance was in the 62nd percentile, vastly better than what they actually were. What they concluded from all their research is that low performers are unable to recognize the skill and competence level of other people, which is part of the reason why they consistently view themselves as better, more capable, and more knowledgeable than others. And so these researchers were surprised to see that, in many cases, incompetence does not leave people disoriented or perplexed or cautious. Instead, the incompetent are often blessed with an inappropriate confidence and buoyed by something that fills to them like knowledge. So these incompetent people they concluded overestimate their own skill levels.

They fail to recognize genuine skill and expertise in other people and they fail to recognize their own mistakes and lack of skill. And so these see an unqualified leader somebody that that is like that who thinks they're qualified to rule You know they were the servant and they maybe did well in that or okay in that position But they may not be qualified to lead, but they think they are They overestimate their ability And And these kind of unqualified people can destroy an organization, whether it's a home, whether it's a business, whether it's in civil government, or even in the church. People who are not properly qualified will destroy that organization. Now every one of us is affected to one degree or another by this. We may be competent, very competent in many things, but not competent in other things.

And when you've probably all had that experience where you don't know something, when you don't know about something it can seem very simple and not very complicated. But once you dig into it, many times you find out that it's a lot more complex and nuanced than we assumed at the beginning. And so we, there has to be a humility, a humility here about ourselves. A humility that Peter describes in 1 Peter 5 after he instructs the elders in how they ought to rule, not as not being overbearing. And then he says likewise, speaking to everybody else, you younger people be submissive to your elders.

Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility for God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble." So there's a there this is not to say that that there is not stations and office, but even where there's stations, lesser and greater, superiors and inferiors, there also needs to be a respect, one to another. Are there are two extremes historically that I think fall go astray in two different directions. In the caste society people are locked into their station by birth and there is no ability to change. The Hindi Indian culture is one example. If you're born into the slave caste, you can't escape that no matter how well qualified you might be there would be in that kind of society no opportunity for a David a shepherd who watched sheep to rise to become a king.

And the other, the other, and that's not a good culture that locks people in like that so rigidly. But the other extreme that's just as problematic is where there is no social order, there is no structure, and everyone is assumed to be just as capable as the next person, and that's just as bad. Where there's no recognition of the gifting that God has given people, and the qualifications that he's given to people for the callings that he calls them to. The idea that you can do anything you want is a relatively new idea in our culture. For the most of history, even in this nation, your skills are often the result of the opportunities that you have and the families that you come from.

Not saying like there are no exceptions to that. Certainly many examples in Scripture of David or Joshua where God took people that that were low in life and raised them up. Joseph is an example of somebody who was a leader coming from a leading family who was enslaved and then rose to power, but he did come originally from a ruling family. But both extremes are wrong. Both extremes are problems.

There is such a thing as a calling and a function and a gifting and we need to recognize that. But we also need to recognize, avoid the rigidity of a caste system. And so a servant when he reigns, I think speaking both of a servant who stages a coup and seizes control, that's very destabilizing, as well as an unqualified person who is unqualified to bear rule. The Next thing that Agur mentions, the next person, is a fool when he is filled with food. Now there are several words for fool in Proverbs.

This is one of the least used, Nival, and you recognize that as the name of Abigail's first husband, Nabal, we call him in English. He was a fool. Abigail, his own wife, said he was a fool. His servants said he was a scoundrel that wouldn't listen to anybody. This word for fool is, or a scoundrel, is one of the strongest possible words that you could use to denote a godless person.

Just like Nabal. He was harsh and evil in his doings. Harsh and evil. And no one, his servant said, could even speak to him. As a fool, he was blind to his own foolishness.

To his own foolishness. A fool when he is filled with food. See, when such a person is filled with food, when they have no immediate pressing needs upon them, then they are free to do whatever they want. And that's when their folly comes to full expression. They have the opportunity then to wreak great havoc.

See if people are hungry and have to work to feed themselves, that has a restraining effect on sin. There's a lot of sin that doesn't happen by people who would love to engage in it simply because They are busy working and they're too tired to engage in all the things that they would like to do if they have more time and money and strength. It's not that their heart is turned away from such folly, it's that they're just worn out. They don't have the time to undo it. So, Proverbs says, the person who labors labors for himself for his hungry mouth drives him on.

That's one reason why it's so important to have a godly work and to labor diligently at it. It will keep you out of much evil. It's when people have plenty of time on their hands. When they don't have to work for their food, when they are at ease, that is when we are most likely to fall into sin, to be tempted. Because we are a fool that's filled with food.

Remember, this is where David fell into sin. He was taking a nap, resting at ease, leisure, in the middle of the day. When the armies, Baba says, were out fighting, he was at home taking his, spending his leisure time. He was satisfied. He didn't have to go to war.

He was king. He had all the money he needed. He didn't have to work to put his next meal on the table. And because he wasn't busy, engaged in fruitful and productive labor, he fell into sin. And That's what this is speaking of.

This fool who is satisfied. He doesn't have any pressing needs and so he has all the time for his foolishness and his folly and his sinfulness to ripen. Yes we need to be very careful when we have lots of spare time because that's when we are most prone to falling, stumbling. The third thing, And there is a little structure to this, to these two verses, 22 and 23. You notice the first two are masculine.

A servant and a fool, those are in the masculine. And the next two here in verse 23 are feminine. Also, The first and the last deal with ruling. A servant reigning and a maidservant succeeding or mistress. There's nothing said specifically about the character of those people.

It's simply office. The servant and the maidservant. A male and a female. One is probably in the civil realm, a servant when he reigns and a maid servant when She succeeds her mistress. But the sense there, one reigning in the civil, one reigning in the home.

The two in the middle are a fool and a hateful woman. Those speak of character qualifications. And so part of my reason for seeing the servant reigning being a civil ruler, maybe even a high official, who is taking over, taking a coup, is because of this parallelism here with the maid servant who succeeds her mistress and that those two things fit together and So this third thing here is a hateful woman The New King James says hateful woman, but the word there is actually a passive verb, a passive verb for being unloved. And it usually refers in the scriptures to an unloved wife such as Leah or in Deuteronomy 21 where directions are given about to a man, to a husband who has multiple wives or two wives, one whom is loved and the other who is unloved. But this is a slightly different situation.

This is a woman who is unloved before marriage. Leo was unloved in her marriage. A godly woman, unloved in her marriage. This is a woman who is unloved before marriage. She is somebody who is an outcast by society.

Who is she unloved by? Well, she didn't have a husband because she's not married yet. It's an unloved woman when she is married. She's not loved by the society. She is a outcast.

Isaiah 60 uses this same construction, this passive feminine verb for being unloved. See, it wasn't that she doesn't love, it's that she is unloved. It's a passive verb. Isaiah 60 uses this to describe Jerusalem as an outcast city. Also the sons of those who Afflicted you shall come bowing to you and all those who despised you speaking of Jerusalem Shall fall prostrate at the soles of your feet and they shall call you the city of the Lord Zion, the Holy One of Israel, whereas you have been forsaken and hated, so that no one went through you, I will make you an eternal excellence, a joy of many generations." See, it's the same word there, whereas you were a city that was forsaken and hated.

And I think that's the sense here. This is a woman who is an outcast because she repels others. She's odious, she's spiteful, she's bitter, she's maybe overbearing. Right, when she's not married, all that is isolated. But when she becomes married, now she has a platform, a foundation with which to do far more damage.

A spirit of discontentment governs her soul. And when she is married, now she has a family and all the organization that comes with the family. And so her effect on society is much greater. Her effect on the home is to make a very difficult home. You know, this is the kind of woman who her husband may provide for her and care for her, but you know, but thinks to himself and maybe one or two others how difficult this situation is.

It ruins the family. There's an expression, and we'll look a lot more at this in the next chapter in Proverbs 31, but there's an expression that behind every good man is a great woman. There's a lot of biblical truth to that, as we'll see in Proverbs 31. I think that's also in view here. Is that this woman, who is an outcast, who repels people, A home cannot bear up under that.

It doesn't prosper. As the Proverbs says earlier, this is the kind of woman who destroys her own home with her own hands. And she can take a good man and make him mediocre and a mediocre man and make him terrible and bring out the worst in people, especially her husband. The last item that a Guru, last person that a Guru mentions for which the earth cannot bear up is a maidservant who succeeds her mistress. And I pointed out the parallel between this verse and the first verse.

A maidservant who succeeds her mistress is like a high official taking a ruler's place. Now the dictionary definition of this word that's translated succeed in the New King James is to take possession of, to inherit, or to dispossess. And it's very, very frequently used. In fact, I think it's, I didn't do an exact count, but it seemed to me many times it was used to talk about dispossessing. This was the word that's used of the Israelites when they went into Canaan repeatedly, they dispossessed all the nations that were there, ahead of them.

So dispossessing land. And I think that's the sense of this here. This is a maidservant who dispossesses her mistress, who is able to elbow her way into the home and to replace her mistress. Genesis 16 gives us an example of this with Hagar. And I'd like to turn there a minute just to because it is such I think in a close parallel to what is going on or what Agur is referring to.

I'd like to just take a moment and read it or go through it. So Sarah, Genesis 16, Sarah, Sarah, Abraham's wife hadn't born him any children. And she had an Egyptian maid servant whose name was Hagar. So Sarah's the mistress here in our Proverbs 30 construction, and Hagar is the maid servant who's an Egyptian. And so Sarai says to Abraham, the Lord has restrained me from bearing children, please go into my maid.

Perhaps I shall obtain children from her. It wasn't an act of faith. It was an act of doubt and distrust. God had said that He would give her a son. She was long past childbearing years and in her despair and doubt, she made this decision to give her maidservant to her husband as a wife.

And Abraham listened to her voice. Again, not a decision of faith. Not living out of faith or by faith. And Sarai, Abraham's wife, took Hagar, her maid, and gave her to her husband, Abram, to be his wife. And after Abraham dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan.

So he went into Hagar and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. So Abraham would have been roughly 85, give or take a year or two. Sarah is 10 years younger, so she's about 75. And she's thinking I'll never be able to bear children in my life.

And so she gives her maidservant to Abraham as a wife. And when Hagar saw that she had conceived, her mistress became despised in her eyes. She saw herself now in the place of Sarah. And Sarah said, Abraham, my wrong be upon you. I gave my maid into your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, I became despised in her eyes, the Lord judge between you and me." And Abraham gave Sarah permission to do what she pleased, and so Sarah dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her presence.

And the chapter goes on to show the angel of the Lord appearing to her and giving her a promise that he would multiply her descendants exceedingly so that they should not be counted for multitude. And the angel told her that she had a child, a son, and she was to call his name Ishmael, because the Lord had heard her affliction. But unlike Isaac, the son of promise, this would be a wild man, and his hand would be against every man, and every man's hand against him. And he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren." And then she called on the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are the God who sees. For she said, Have I also seen him who sees me?

That was a danger. That action there was a danger to that household. And when Hagar took Sarah's place, it resulted in great contention and confusion in Abraham's home. And Sarah became despised, and she realized she was being replaced. And her response was to treat her harshly, so harshly that she fled.

She didn't want to be displaced by Hagar. So I think here is, it's not just a sense of somebody who succeeds a mistress, but it's somebody who dispossesses their mistress. They wormed their way in. We might call such a person a home breaker. They break up homes.

So these are, these are three or four things, four people here, four characteristics of people that are a danger to society. I think if we look at each of them, they each have an element of pride in them. The trusted servant who seizes power. Who wants to elevate. He's not content with his position and his station, even if it's an exalted one.

But he wants the top station. He wants that top position. That's an element of pride. The fool who's satisfied, who doesn't recognize his own incompetence, who's blind to it. There's an element of pride in that.

She began to look down. That's what it is to despise. She began to look down on Sarah. Proverbs 14 says, In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride, but the lips of the wise will preserve them. In the mouth of a fool is a rod of pride.

There is in all of these people a pride. And we know that the Bible says that pride goes before destruction. And so these people are a danger to society because their pride, when they get lifted up, and when they gain rule, their pride becomes the downfall, the destruction of the society over which they are ruling, whatever that society is. See God is a God of order. All things should be done decently in an order.

And these are people who disrupt that godly order. These are people who destabilize homes and churches and communities. And that's why we need to have great wisdom in electing leaders, whether it be in the civil government, that we're not electing people who fit these categories. And in taking a wife or a husband, we need to have wisdom. And in the church as well.

Paul said not to quickly lay hands, told Timothy not to quickly lay hands on anyone. But rather there was to be a testing. Why? Because unqualified people, People in whom there is this element, this rod of pride, will destroy the organization. Tear it apart and bring it to destruction.

Our example in all of this is Jesus Christ. This is talking about servants who reign, maidservants who dispossessed their mistress. Jesus Christ was the sovereign King, the Lord of Lords, very God of very God. He humbled himself and became a servant. Exactly the opposite of everything that's described here.

And Paul says this is the mind that we ought to have in us. This is the mind that we ought to have in us. That we instead of desiring to bear rule and seeking after it, dispossessing mistresses, overthrowing rulers that we want to become servants. If you're looking for a wife or a husband, look for somebody who's willing to serve, A servant. If you're looking for a civil office, look for somebody who is willing to serve.

If you're looking for an elder, look for somebody who is willing to serve. Who's not seeking rule but seeking to serve. May the Lord give us the mind of Christ in all of these matters. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank You that Your Scriptures are sufficient for everything that we need to know.

That we need to know. Lord, Your Word is a very deep mind, a treasure of truth that we can never exhaust. For it is, Lord, your words and your wisdom is unsearchable, past finding out. But we ask Lord that you would Teach us. You've said that those who know your statutes are wiser than their teachers.

Lord, may you give to us a measure of this wisdom. And may you give to us, and may we be clothed with humility for you give grace to the humble but you are opposed to the prime. We ask all these things through Jesus Christ. Amen.