A Study of Proverbs 30:14-16

This is probably the only message you will ever read about Leeches, because it is a word that is not found in the Bible.

So, why am I teaching on this today?

I was on a jungle safari through northern Borneo and Sumatra, which are two very large islands in Indonesia, and there is where I encountered leeches. Borneo is home to some of the largest insects in the world. One variety of ants in Borneo are as large as cockroaches. There are many animals in Borneo, like wild elephants, and monkeys, and leeches. And I wanted to share with you my thoughts and what the Bible says about these animals of God’s creation.

· Annelida (Proverbs 30:14-16)

Proverbs 30:14
There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

Proverbs 30:15
The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

Proverbs 30:16
The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.

Let us see how these three verses hang together. The central thought in this passage is: “The Horseleach.”

What is a horseleach?

It is a carnivorous bloodsucking worm which clings to the flesh and sucks the blood of any animal or man. It is a disgusting creature, more disgusting than snakes. Proverbs 30:15 is the only place in the Bible which mentions the horseleach, and obviously it refers to a very large species among the leeches.

How large?

I will get there near the end of this study.

Leeches are in the category of “Annelida.”

There are more than 8000 species in the category of Annelida, which includes three classes of creatures: Marine worms, and earthworms, and leeches. Leeches are carnivorous or parasitic. Leeches consist basically as a tube within a tube, and when we see them in the forest they are very small, looking just like a thread of about 3/8th of an inch. They have a sucker at both ends of their body, and in one of them they have a mouth with teeth, and they have primitive eyes, from one to five pairs. Leeches travel like a slinky. You remember the slinky, a metal spiral which can walk down the stairs by itself? This is how leeches travel on your skin, but then they travel upward to your groin or to your neck, and lodge there. Leeches are disgusting bloodsuckers.

1. Calamities (Genesis 3:17-18)

Why does the blood not coagulate when they have sucked it out of you?

The leech bites through your skin and in his mouth the leech mixes the blood with a powerful anticoagulant, and then the leech continues to suck until he has increased 1000 times in size. That is why in Proverbs 30:15 the two daughters of the leech cry, “Give, give.” They want “More, more.” On the other hand, since the opportunity to find a victim is rare, the leech needs to feed only twice a year.

Who created the leeches?

God did!

Who else?

Satan is not able to create any living creatures.

Why did God create the leeches?

Why did God create the serpent in the Garden of Eden?

Why did God create tornados, and earthquakes, and hurricanes, and floods, and fires, and landslides, and all kinds of other calamities?

The answer is found in Genesis.

After Adam sinned, for Adam was the head of his household, and sin had infected the whole human race, God cursed the world that we live in, and God said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake.”

It was not for God’s sake that the world was cursed, but it was for Adam’s sake, and for the whole human race sake. The goal of God’s creation of mankind was to bring those whom He had elected unto salvation into His glorious kingdom.

And why would the curse on Adam and on this whole world contribute to achieve this goal?

Here is the principle by which God operates: The same effects do not produce the same results, because the grace of God is not equally distributed throughout all mankind. When the elect receive the chastisement from God, they will see it as a chastening from the loving hand of God, and they will be drawn closer to the Saviour, and they will be drawn to more repentance and prayer. All this is only by the grace of God.

But when the reprobate receive these calamities from God they will complain, “Why me, O God,” and they will resent what God is doing to them, and it will drive them further away from God. The absence of God’s grace is not giving them good thoughts about God, and God’s actions are causing them to be greater and greater enemies of God, and it is driving them to greater and greater unbelief.

God said in Genesis 3:17-18,

Genesis 3:17
And unto Adam he said, “Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Genesis 3:18
Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;”

Look at this now: “Cursed is the ground for thy sake, …Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee.”

Is this a literal curse from God?

Yes indeed it is.

Are these literal thorns and thistles?

No, they are not, for there are many who never come in contact with thorns and thistles, and yet God’s curse also rests upon them. And so, we must see the spiritual meaning of the plague of thorns and thistles, which means that God will also bring them children that go astray, and earthquakes and tornados and sickness and money-problems, and bad governments, and so on. And an integral part of these problems are leeches, and cockroaches, and animals that bite, and a host of other things that serve to bring us closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, when God said, “Cursed is the ground for thy sake,” it was really for Adam’s sake and for the sake of all the elect of mankind that God took this action. It was the result of sin permeating every aspect of our life on this earth, but it was really to drive us to Christ so that we could receive the forgiveness of sin. But once we have been taken into the New Heaven and the New Earth all these nasty pin-pricks will disappear.

· Gamblers (John 19:23-24)

Here is another word that you do not find in the Bible: Gamblers. The Biblical term for people who gamble is, “They cast lots.” When people cast lots in Biblical times they asked God to determine what the outcome should be. Even when the soldiers cast lots for the clothes of the Lord Jesus when they crucified Him, they were in essence asking God who should inherit His robe that was without seam.

We read in the Gospel According to John, John 19:23-24,

John 19:23
Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout.

John 19:24
They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did.

Let me make a long story short. The prevailing thought among the soldiers was: ‘Let God make the decision who shall inherit eternal life, for only God has the wisdom to make that decision.’ The soldier who inherited the robe of Christ most likely inherited the robe of Christ’s righteousness. And so, this was one of the four who eventually became saved, and this was not derived from seeing a Hollywood movie, but it was derived from combining the Scriptures pertaining to this event.

But today, gamblers are of a different nature than those who cast lots in Biblical times. First of all, God is the farthest from their mind. Secondly, they do not give God an ounce of credit for the fortune or the misfortune that they inherit by their gambling. Some even gamble away their wife and their children and gamble themselves into slavery. Some even gamble without any collateral, and when they lose, they lose their hand; it will be cut off so that they cannot gamble any more. People have invoked a greater curse on themselves than God did when He cursed the ground for man’s sake.

But let us now compare gamblers with leeches. Leeches are out to suck the blood that another person has made. It is blood that the leech has not made, but the leech wants it anyway. The victim has made this blood through hard work, and through carefully choosing the food that he should eat. For example, the blood from a human being is valuable because it is the equivalent of much hard work and buying the food that is needed to create that blood supply. That blood is equivalent to a certain amount of money. The gambler does much of the same thing. The gambler is out to suck your money that he has not made. That money is equivalent to a certain amount of blood. It is the goal of the gambler to obtain money that does not belong to him, but it is money for which another person has worked hard and long to earn it. And thus the gambler does not produce any real value to society but he desires to take what others have, but which does not belong to him. And thus, the gambler is like a leech: He sucks the money (equivalent to the blood) of other people, and if he is good at his gambling skills he will be able to continue his game at the expense of other people’s hard earned money.

But does God look favourably on the work of this gambler?

No, because he is essentially a leech; he does not work; he only takes what does not belong to him.

He is a thief!

But since the words “gambler”, or “gambling”, do not occur in the Bible, How can we describe the activities of the gambler through the eyes of God?

God calls it “Covetousness.”

2. Covetousness (Luke 12:13-21, 1st Corinthians 6:7, Ephesians 5:5, Colossians 3:5, Isaiah 56:11-12)

We are now going to look at a few examples of covetousness in the Bible. In the first one someone has been defrauded by his brother. Through the apostle Paul God said in 1st Corinthians 6:7,

1st Corinthians 6:7
Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?

This was also the prevailing thought of the Lord Jesus, and this is how He answered the man.

Luke 12:13
And one of the company said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me.

Luke 12:14
And he said unto him, Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?

Luke 12:15
And he said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth

Luke 12:16
And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:

Luke 12:17
And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits?

Luke 12:18
And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods.

Luke 12:19
And I will say to my soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.

Luke 12:20
But God said unto him, Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?

Luke 12:21
So is he that layeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

At first glance there does not seem to be anything wrong with the man who asked Jesus to intervene for him, and with the man who want to build bigger barns to care for his retirement. We have been so accustomed in our culture to take the actions that these two men have taken. But the Lord Jesus put the finger on the sour spot: The underlying sin in both these men is covetousness, and covetousness is great in our culture. We must recognize covetousness in all its early stages. Covetousness will only grow more and more. The man who had been defrauded by his brother should forget the inheritance, for the money was not his in the first place. The man who had an abundant harvest should have thanked God for this and should have given part of his proceeds for the worship of Christ and for the furtherance of the Gospel. But in both men the thought of thanking God was the farthest from their mind. Let us now look at Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5, and there we read,

Ephesians 5:5
For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Colossians 3:5
Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry:

Both Ephesians 5:5 and Colossians 3:5 tell us that covetousness is idolatry, for it is having a love for money that is greater than our love for Christ, and it is sure that no idolater shall inherit the kingdom of God.

God describes here a different side of covetousness. It is a situation where God is totally out of their mind. This was the condition of the people I met in Borneo and in Sumatra among the natives as well as among the tourists. God was totally out of their mind. The Moslems prayed every day, and thus when the end of Friday was upon them they were convinced that they had done their duty, and now it was time to party. The professing Christians were convinced that they had gone to ‘church’ on Saturday, they had done their duty, and now it was time to party. The Chinese had brought their fruit offerings to the temple, they had done their duty and now it was time for them to party. These were the main three groups of people in Borneo and in Sumatra who live at peace with one another. There is no debate about the true Gospel. Everyone may do as they please, as long as they keep the status-quo of peace with one another. That is a very sad situation, but it reflects that the Gospel is not received in those areas of the world. God described a similar situation in the nation of Israel in the days of Isaiah. We read in Isaiah 56:

Isaiah 56:11
Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.

Isaiah 56:12
Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

What do we see here?

We see that the people live for one weekend after another, but in between weekends God is far from their minds. They are greedy dogs which can never have enough. It is in this sense that covetousness rules their life. And let us admit it frankly: This is also how many people live; from one day to the next, or from one weekend to the next, and it does not enter into their mind that all this must come to an end, or that God is righteous and to fulfill His righteousness it is required that He must punish every sin.

But it is certain that Judgment day is coming, and that it is almost here. But Isaiah 56:11 also speaks of the “shepherds that cannot understand.” A similar statement is given by the apostle Peter in 2nd Peter 2:3.

· Make Merchandise of You (2nd Peter 2:1, 2nd Peter 2:3, 2nd Peter 2:15)

The apostle Peter speaks of covetousness in this way.

2nd Peter 2:3
And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

Consider this now:

How shall the false teachers from 2nd Peter 2:1 make merchandise of us?

Verse 3 says, “through covetousness” and “with feigned words.”

It means that they stand to gain financially, and they will be lying to us.

What will they be lying about?

They will be lying about the truth of the Gospel. The result of their lies will be that they will have a very popular gospel which brings them much income, and which makes their congregations grow in number. This is a successful plan for business, but it is a very poor plan to gain true converts in the faith. Today we see throughout all the country the rise of mega-churches. People flock to those congregations to get a spiritual lift. However, the Bible is not preached, and people are not changed from the inside. Those false teachers are again described in:

2nd Peter 2:15
Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness.

You remember the false prophet Balaam who would do anything for a sum of money, or for a great gift of gold and jewels. He would get paid by the king of Moab when he would have cursed the nation of Israel. But God would not allow him to curse Israel. But afterward, when he was no longer hindered by God, he gave advice to the king of Moab how through fornication he could destroy the nation of Israel. And for this he was undoubtedly rewarded by the king of Moab with many gifts.

These were the wages of unrighteousness that 2nd Peter 2:15 speaks about. The false teachers of 2nd Peter 2:1 are following the way of Balaam. Their covetousness leads them to twist the Gospel and to speak feigned words so that the offense of the Gospel is removed.

What is the offense of the Gospel?

The offense of the Gospel is the declaration from God that He will save only a people who have been elected unto salvation. No one of the non-elect shall be saved, for God shall not give them the wisdom to hear and understand the Gospel. It will remain to them an assembly of unconnected parables. And when we join the mega-churches we will be made merchandise of the preachers who preach there, or worse; we will be joining what the Heidelberg Catechism calls an accursed idolatry.

3. Greed (Jude 4, Jude 11, 2nd Timothy 3:1-5, Psalm 140:1-5)

Jude was a half-brother of the Lord Jesus. They had the same mother, but a different father, for God was the Father of the Lord Jesus. Jude desired to bring the Gospel in his Epistle to the churches. But he saw an urgent need to warn the churches for the apostasy that was already creeping into the churches in his time. We read in Jude 4,

Jude 4
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Deceivers have already crept into the church unawares. They are spreading a false gospel for which they will be condemned. But God allowed this to occur for the edification of the church. And notice these words, “who were before of old ordained to this condemnation.” God knew what they were going to do, but God did not stop them. They were before of old ordained to this condemnation.

Now drop down to verse 11, for here we see that the driving force of these men was covetousness.

Jude 11
Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Core refers to the rebellion of Korah, Dathan and Abiram against Moses, in Numbers 16. It was greed and covetousness for power that drove Korah, Dathan and Abiram to rebel against Moses. Let us now turn our attention to 2nd Timothy 3:1, for here we can see that false teachings not only bring people a false gospel, but it affects their entire lifestyle.

2nd Timothy 3:1
This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2nd Timothy 3:2
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

2nd Timothy 3:3
Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

2nd Timothy 3:4
Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

2nd Timothy 3:5
Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

God focusses us here on the last of the last days. Especially in these last days we see that the lifestyle of many people has changed. We cannot address everything that is mentioned here, but let me just lift out a few.

Men shall be lovers of their own selves, rather than lovers of God. They will think it strange that God commands man to love Him.

They will be blasphemers, which will not be the kind of taking the name of the Lord in vain that turns most people off, but they will claim, “Thus says the Lord” when the Lord has not said that at all. In other words, they will bear the name of the Lord in vain rather than take the name of the Lord in vain, and this is the true meaning of blasphemy.

“Without natural affection.” Almost any animal in nature will protect her young at any cost. That is natural affection. But in the United States two million unborn babies are killed just for convenience.

Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof. People will deny the power of God in saving whom He elected unto salvation, for God is not saving whom they will. Let us now talk about:

· Disgusting Leeches (Genesis 30:1-2, Psalm 58:1-3, Ecclesiastes 7:20, Mark 7:20-23, Jeremiah 17:9, Ephesians 1:3-14)

Perhaps you remember that we started with Proverbs 30:15, “The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give.”

That is how we began with ‘Leeches’, and from leeches we arrived at “Covetousness.”

But why did God place Proverbs 30:15 in the Bible?

Has God any love for leeches?

What has this verse about leeches to do with the Gospel of salvation?

This is the only verse that speaks of “a leech who has two daughters.”

When we search the Bible for other occasions where we see “two daughters” we arrive at Lot who also had two daughters, but these were not two daughters to be proud of.

Next we arrive at king Saul who had two daughters, but these were also not two daughters to be proud of. One of the two had five sons who were delivered to the Gibeonites, and hanged before the Lord. The other remained childless because her hatred of spontaneous religion was stronger than her love of her husband and her love for God.

Next we arrive at uncle Laban who had two daughters, Leah and Rachel. Is it possible that God wanted us to compare Laban and his two daughters with the big horseleech and his two daughters? But that is a disgusting idea you may think. But there are more disgusting pictures in the Bible. This is not the only one. Let us see if this is one picture that God has in mind.

We read here in Genesis 30:1-2,

Genesis 30:1
And when Rachel saw that she bare Jacob no children, Rachel envied her sister; and said unto Jacob, Give me children, or else I die.

Genesis 30:2
And Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel: and he said, Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?

What do we see in this passage?

Rachel envied her sister. Rachel was totally uninformed what God does in the process of conception. Rachel did not submit to the will of God, but she rather chose to roll off the shame of being barren, without thinking if this is perhaps the will of God.

And so, “Jacob’s anger was kindled against Rachel.”

What else do we see in this story of Leah and Rachel?

We see that they are crying: Give, give, or crying more, more!

It reminds us of the two daughters of the leech.

Can Laban be compared to the big horseleech and his two daughters are represented by the smaller leeches?

Is unsaved man so despicable in the eyes of God that he is compared to a leech?

It is true that unsaved man is as covetous as a leech; he desires to take what does not belong to him. It is also true that in the Bible unsaved man is compared to a worm, which is related to a leech, because a worm also belongs to the category of the Annelida.

Let us take a look at Psalm 58. We have here a Psalm which is addressed to a congregation. This Psalm is addressed to a church of very pious people. But do not trust in your own righteousness.

God says in Psalm 58:1-3,

Psalm 58:1
Do ye indeed speak righteousness, O congregation? do ye judge uprightly, O ye sons of men?

Psalm 58:2
Yea, in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth.

Psalm 58:3
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

In verse 1 God questions the congregation if they are indeed saved.

Why does everyone in the congregation believe that they are saved?

They base this on their good works; they base this on the fact that they are living righteously.

But is there such a thing?

We read in Ecclesiastes 7:20, “There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not.”

And so, all these good works that the people trust in are of no value whatsoever, for good works are only good when God calls them good.

Why do good people go to hell?

They go to hell because of pride; in their pride they believe that God is going to reward them for their good works. And God says, ‘It is all rubbish.’ You have nothing that is good.

In verse 2 God calls to mind that the evil man designs begins in his heart. The Lord Jesus said in:

Mark 7:20
And he said, That which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man.

Mark 7:21
For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,

Mark 7:22
Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:

Mark 7:23
All these evil things come from within, and defile the man.

That is why God said in Psalm 58:2, “in heart ye work wickedness; ye weigh the violence of your hands in the earth” and this applies especially to all those who are still walking in darkness.

That is why God said in Jeremiah 17:9, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”

This applies both to saved and unsaved people. Even after we have become saved we can still not trust our heart, but we can only trust the Bible.

Now, knowing how wicked we all were before our experience of salvation, how we were in the sight of God as disgusting leeches, and covetous without limits, is it any wonder that God described the whole human race as ‘totally depraved’?

What does that mean?

It does not mean that we were as wicked as the devil himself, but it means that when we came into the world we were incapable of doing anything good in the sight of God. All we could do in our unsaved condition was to live like leeches in the sin of covetousness for the blood of other human beings. And even now, after our salvation, everything we do is at least contaminated with sin. After our salvation we are no longer totally depraved, for by the grace of God we have become converted from sinners into saints. But only a small fraction of mankind has been converted to saints. The majority of mankind remains in their pride, and remains unconverted. God calls them “wicked.”

God says in Ephesians 1:3-14 that He has chosen a small fraction of the leeches and has determined their destiny as the Bride of Christ. But the majority of the leeches He has left in their state of covetousness and wickedness. And thus God divided the human race into the wicked and the righteous. And now we enter into the content of verse 3. We read in Psalm 58:3,

Psalm 58:3
The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.

Who are these wicked babies?

They are all those who remain unsaved for the rest of their lives. And today, since we are living near the end of time, the majority of babies are these wicked babies. Let me speak a few minutes about this condition of the end of time.

· The End of Time (2nd Thessalonians 2:3-12, Revelation 13:7-8, Luke 17:26-30, Proverbs 30:14-16, Matthew 23:14)

According to 2nd Thessalonians 2:3-12, near the end of time Satan takes his seat in the temple, which is the ‘church’, as the Antichrist. This event is symbolized in Revelation 13 as two fearful beasts who make their appearance. The first is the beast with seven heads and ten horns who comes up out of the sea of mankind, and the second is the beast with two horns who comes up out of the earth, who looks like a lamb but who speaks like the dragon, Satan. These two beasts together represent Antichrist, who is the incarnation of Satan in the bodies of many preachers in pulpits throughout the world. Then we read in Revelation 13:7-8,

Revelation 13:7
And it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.

Revelation 13:8
And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

In other words, except for a very small fraction of mankind, everyone else in the world shall be in awe of their preachers in the pulpits, and shall follow a gospel that is o-so-close to the true Gospel that even the elect might be deceived if that were possible. But by the grace of God the elect cannot be deceived.

How small a fraction of mankind will not fall for the lies of Antichrist?

The Lord Jesus gave us some indication in the Gospel According to Luke, Luke 17:26-30,

Luke 17:26
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

Luke 17:27
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

Luke 17:28
Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;

Luke 17:29
But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.

Luke 17:30
Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.

Look at these last words:
“Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”

How small was the group of people who was saved?

In the days of Noah it was only 8 people.

In the days of Lot it was only 3 people.

Everyone else was declared wicked and was condemned to hell.

What does that tell us about large ‘churches’?

It tells us that we will not find the true Gospel in ‘mega-churches’, and that we should avoid them like the plague. This condition will be all over the world.

We will finish this study where we began and turn again to the Proverbs 30. We are going to read verses 14-16, and I promised in the beginning of this sermon to show how these three verses hang together.

Proverbs 30:14
There is a generation, whose teeth are as swords, and their jaw teeth as knives, to devour the poor from off the earth, and the needy from among men.

Proverbs 30:15
The horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough:

Proverbs 30:16
The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.

The generation whose teeth are as swords are those of mankind who in their covetousness rob the poor of what they have through lies and through violence. For example, the Pharisees were known to rob poor widows of their houses (Matthew 23:14). This is the context of the covetousness of the horseleech and his two daughters, and here the context is, ”They never say, It is enough.”

What are four other things that never say, It is enough?

The grave (Sheol) the abode of the departed spirits, ever craving for fresh comers from this world; the barren womb like that of Rachel who was never satisfied, the earth that is not filled with water and that is always ready to drink in more rain, and the fire that saith not, It is enough, for the fire is always ready to consume anything that you pile on it.

If people, in their depravity are in the eyes of God as despicable as leeches, how can anyone be saved except through election?

Amen.

By Alfred Chompff