Scripture & Creation
Proverbs 30:24-28
Insights from Insects and Animals
This chapter begins with the words of Agur, the son of Jakeh. The Peshitta text – an ancient Aramaic version of the Bible – notes that Agur was a prophet who received the power of God. Beyond what appears in the words of this chapter of Proverbs, biblical scholarship knows nothing further about Agur. From his own words we discern that he is a man who seeks a deeper knowledge of God, but who confesses ignorance regarding the deeper truths of His nature and being.
Agur develops this chapter of Proverbs by listing the questions that he has about the shape and nature of creation, especially the mysteries of its origin, its limits and purposes. After his admissions regarding the frailty of human insight, he recites the sources of human understanding and also its folly. It is in this context that he cites four examples of what are “little upon the earth,” but also “exceedingly wise.”
Agur first lists ants as a source of wisdom, and he shows some insight in placing them first on his list. Casual observation of ants demonstrates their sophisticated methods of communication, architecture, food storage, military strategy, discipline and social organization. Their “system of education” involves a transference of knowledge and duty through osmosis so that young ants are able to function within the colony from an early age. Most ant species communicate through a complex of scents, or pheromones, that alert colony members to special circumstances and that provide instructions for action. Their hierarchical colony structure is supported by a keen level of social discipline to which all members adhere. They provide for their future through a food collection and distribution system that collects in the summer and lives off the reserve through the winter. Some ants even “domesticate” and herd aphids or plant lice and use these like dairy cows for the sweet fluid which can be “milked” from them. Others develop agricultural societies and raise unique species of fungus on decaying plant matter.
By volume ants along with termites are by far the largest source of the world’s animal biomass, surpassing by far even the great whales and elephants. By numbers, the Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson estimates that there are in excess of twenty thousand different ant species and these involve over one million billion ants (imagine a number followed by fifteen zeros). By weight the planet's ants weigh four times as much as all of the birds, reptiles and mammals combined. Despite all that biological science knows about ants, more is continually being learned as there remains great unprobed depth to the intricacy and mysteries of the ant world.
For human society, if we could imitate the architectural designs of ants, we would have planned communities of far greater order and in some cases even complexity than the present grid system which mingles the intent of developers and commercial ventures alongside city planning and individual whim.
Psychically and perhaps even spiritually ants, as with each animal species, have their own unique energy or vital essence. Reflection on this presence within them can be a fascinating source of learning about the processes of creation and the ways that God nurtures and sustains creation. The thirteenth century German mystic Meister Eckhart declares that one who can penetrate and understand the nature of animals can be “excused from sermons” because of the spiritual wisdom that can be obtained from contemplation of their natures.
Agur next cites the rock badgers which live in rocky, mountaintop retreats. These marmot-like creatures are known for an excellent sense of vigilance and security, and while “feeble,” as the passage says, they maintain an effective alert system through elaborate calls, cries and barely audible sounds.
Locusts are a further source of wisdom, according to Agur, because of the way that swarms of these insects progress in orderly ranks across great distances. Biological science still is not sure how the internal organization of these great cyclical swarms maintains coherence and internal order.
The final source of “little wisdom” is not known. The Hebrew word originally used has been translated variously as spider, lizard and even as gecko or chameleon. The Peshitta text records the last verse in this passage as “the chameleon which takes hold with her hands, but is found in king’s palaces.” Whichever is the correct translation, the meaning is that this small creature which can hang by a single limb can make its way even into king’s palaces.
The larger meaning of these animals is that the creatures are worthy of respect because one never knows when some pertinent, perhaps potent insight can come to us through the animal kingdom. Certainly the prophet Agur considers these animals as among the little sources of wisdom in the world.
