A King Shares His Mother’s Advice
Immediately after the proverbs of Agur, we have the proverbs of Lemuel. The Bible refers to him as King Lemuel. Yet his name doesn’t appear elsewhere in Scripture, so we don’t know what he’s the king of.
Nor do we know anything else about him, aside from his wise sayings. Yet even this label misleads us. What follows this grand introduction are not the sayings of Lemuel, but instead the words of his mother.
In this brief passage of only nine verses, he merely preserves her words for us to read today, but we should be glad he did.
There are two primary thoughts in these proverbs from King Lemuel’s mom.
First is a warning to stay away from wine and beer, lest they impair our memory. Beer is for the perishing, while wine is for those in anguish.
Second is the reminder to speak for those who cannot speak for themselves, to stand up for the destitute and judge fairly.
King Lemuel has a wise mother, and he is wise for recording her wisdom for us to read.
What have our parents taught us that we need to share with others?
What can we pass on to the next generation?
[Read about Lemuel in Proverbs 31:1–9. Discover more in Proverbs 1:8–9.]
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More Old Testament Sinners and Saints is part of the Bible Character Sketches series.
Peter DeHaan writes about biblical Christianity to confront a status quo faith and live a life that matters. He seeks a fresh approach to following Jesus through the lens of Scripture, without the baggage of made-up traditions and meaningless practices.
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