The Wisdom of Small Things Text: Proverbs 30:24-28
Introduction: The World's Folly and God's Wisdom
We live in an age that is infatuated with size. We are impressed by big budgets, big armies, big platforms, and big personalities. Our world equates strength with influence, and power with wisdom. If you want to make a difference, you are told, you must go big or go home. The world chases after the wisdom of the lion, the elephant, and the eagle. It looks for strength, for might, for dominance. And because of this, our world is filled to the brim with impressive, powerful, and monumental folly.
The wisdom of God, as is its custom, turns the world's assumptions completely upside down. The wisdom that built the universe is not found primarily in the spectacular, but often in the mundane. It is not located in the bombastic, but in the humble. The book of Proverbs is a practical book, a book of applied theology for shoe-leather living. And here, in the words of Agur, we are directed to look down, not up. We are told to go to school, not at the university of the powerful, but at the academy of the small. God has embedded His wisdom into the very fabric of the created order, and He has done so in such a way as to rebuke our pride. He puts His wisdom on display in four small things, four creatures that are easily overlooked, easily crushed, and yet, they are called "exceedingly wise."
This is a direct confrontation to our natural way of thinking. God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong (1 Cor. 1:27). Before He ever did this definitively at the cross, He was hard-wiring this principle into the ants, the shephanim, the locusts, and the lizard. This passage is a call to humility. It is a call to observe the world God has made, and to learn from it. It is a call to recognize that true wisdom is not about raw power or impressive size, but about knowing your nature, knowing your limitations, and acting accordingly, in the station where God has placed you. This is creaturely wisdom, and it is the only kind of wisdom that will not end in ruin.
The Text
Four things are small on the earth,
But they are exceedingly wise:
The ants are not a strong people,
But they prepare their food in the summer;
The shephanim are not a mighty people,
Yet they make their houses in the cliff;
The locusts have no king,
Yet all of them go out in rank;
The lizard you may grasp with the hands,
Yet it is in kings’ palaces.
(Proverbs 30:24-28 LSB)
The Wisdom of Foresight (v. 25)
The first of our four tutors is the ant.
"The ants are not a strong people, But they prepare their food in the summer;" (Proverbs 30:25)
The first thing to note is the premise: the ants are "not a strong people." An ant is individually insignificant. You can crush one with your thumb without a second thought. They possess no brute strength. But their wisdom lies in their foresight and diligence. The ant understands seasons. It knows that summer is for working because winter is coming. It does not live for the moment. It is not a grasshopper, fiddling away the sunny days, oblivious to the coming frost.
This is the wisdom of preparing for the future, of understanding cause and effect, of knowing that actions have consequences. The sluggard, a recurring fool in Proverbs, is sent to the ant to learn this very lesson (Prov. 6:6-8). The ant works without a foreman, without a supervisor, because the reality of the coming winter is all the motivation it needs. This is the wisdom of self-government under God.
Our culture is a grasshopper culture. It is defined by consumer debt, immediate gratification, and a willful blindness to future consequences. We want the harvest without the labor, the feast without the foresight. The ant rebukes this entire mindset. The Christian life is to be a life of ant-like wisdom. We are to work diligently, providing for our households, knowing that lean times can come. We are to store up treasures in heaven, knowing that the winter of judgment is coming for the world. We are to use the summer of our lives, the time of health and opportunity, in preparation for the eternity that awaits us. This is not a frantic, anxious scurrying, but a calm, steady diligence, born of the knowledge that God has ordered the seasons of life, and He calls us to be faithful in each one.
The Wisdom of Security (v. 26)
Next, we are introduced to the shephanim, or rock badgers.
"The shephanim are not a mighty people, Yet they make their houses in the cliff;" (Proverbs 30:26 LSB)
Like the ants, the premise is weakness. The rock badgers are "not a mighty people." They are feeble, defenseless creatures. They are not fast, they have no sharp claws, no impressive bite. Left out in the open, they are easy prey. Their wisdom, therefore, is not in developing their own strength, but in recognizing their own weakness and finding their security elsewhere.
They make their homes in the cliff, in the crags of the rock. Their safety is not in themselves, but in their refuge. They are wise enough to know they are not wise enough, and strong enough to know they are not strong enough. This is a profound picture of biblical faith. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the fear of the Lord begins with knowing that you are a rock badger and not a lion.
The Lord is our rock and our fortress (Psalm 18:2). He is the cliff in whom we hide. The wisdom of the Christian is not to pretend we are strong, to puff out our chests and try to face down the lions of this world in our own might. That is the folly of pride. The wisdom of the Christian is to know we are weak, and to run to the Rock that is higher than I. Our security is not in our own abilities, our own righteousness, or our own resources. Our security is in Christ alone. The rock badger is wise because it knows where to live. And we are wise only when we know where to live, and that is hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3).
The Wisdom of Unity (v. 27)
The third example is the locust.
"The locusts have no king, Yet all of them go out in rank;" (Proverbs 30:27 LSB)
The locusts present a different kind of weakness. They are small, and individually they are of no account. But their noted deficiency here is that they "have no king." There is no central command, no general giving orders. Yet, despite this lack of a visible, hierarchical ruler, they advance in perfect formation. They move as one, a devastating, disciplined army.
Their wisdom is the wisdom of unity, of intrinsic order. They understand their part in the whole. They are not rugged individualists, each flying off in its own direction. They instinctively know that their power, their very identity, is found in their cohesion. This is a picture of the church. The church has one king, and that is Christ in heaven. But on earth, we are to operate with the wisdom of the locusts. We are to move together, in rank, each member knowing his place and function within the body.
The world promotes a chaotic individualism, where every man does what is right in his own eyes. The result is not liberty, but fragmentation and weakness. The locusts teach us that true strength is found in disciplined, voluntary unity under a common purpose. When the people of God move together, in rank, with one mind and purpose, they are an unstoppable force in the world, an army advancing under the banner of King Jesus.
The Wisdom of Access (v. 28)
Finally, we have the lizard, or spider in some translations.
"The lizard you may grasp with the hands, Yet it is in kings’ palaces." (Proverbs 30:28 LSB)
The lizard is perhaps the most audacious of the four. Its weakness is its vulnerability. You can catch it with your bare hands. It is fragile, easily captured. And yet, where is this small, vulnerable creature found? "In kings' palaces." It has access to the highest places, the seats of power. It is there, not by strength or by right, but by a kind of tenacious, unassuming boldness.
The lizard does not announce its arrival. It does not batter down the gates. It slips in, it climbs the walls, and it takes its place. This is the wisdom of bold access. It is a picture of the Christian's position in Christ. In ourselves, we are weak, easily grasped by sin and death. We have no right to enter the throne room of the King of the universe. But through the blood of Jesus, we have been given a bold and confident access (Heb. 4:16).
Like the lizard, we are in the King's palace. We are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph. 2:6). This is not a position we achieved by our own might, but one we occupy by grace. The lizard's wisdom is to act like it belongs there. And so should we. We are children of the King, and we have access to the throne of grace. We should not grovel at the gates like strangers, but enter with the confidence of sons and daughters.
Conclusion: The Foolishness of the Cross
These four creatures, in their exceeding wisdom, all point us to the central truth of our faith. The world says be strong, but the ant teaches us that the wise prepare. The world says be mighty, but the rock badger teaches us that the wise find a refuge. The world says be a charismatic leader, but the locusts teach us that the wise move in unity. The world says stay in your place, but the lizard teaches us that the wise have bold access to the king.
All of this creaturely wisdom is a faint echo of the ultimate wisdom of God displayed in the gospel. For what could be smaller, weaker, or more foolish in the eyes of the world than the cross of Jesus Christ? God's answer to the pride and power of man was not a bigger army or a more powerful emperor. It was a crucified Nazarene.
In Christ, we see this fourfold wisdom perfectly embodied. He is the ultimate ant, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, preparing a place for us for all eternity. He is our Rock, the cliff of ages in whom we hide from the wrath to come. He is our King, who leads His people not by coercion but by His Spirit, creating a unified body out of scattered individuals. And He is our lizard, the one who was grasped by the hands of sinful men, and yet who now sits in the ultimate King's palace, at the right hand of the Father, having gained for us an access we could never have achieved.
The world will always chase after its own brand of wisdom, the wisdom of the big and the strong. But we are called to a different path. We are called to the wisdom of the small, the humble, the creaturely. We are called to be ants, rock badgers, locusts, and lizards for King Jesus. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.