Majestic and Stately

Prov. 30:25-28 The ants are a people not strong, yet they prepare their meat in the summer; The conies are but a feeble folk, yet make they their houses in the rocks; The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces.
Ants are called a people, because they associate together in great numbers; though small in bulk and weak as to power and strength. Yet their prepare their meat in the summer; build granaries with great art and wisdom, carry in grains of corn with great labor and industry, in the summer season, when only to be got, and lay them up against winter, which is a proof of their wisdom. The ant has not only sense, but mind, reason, and memory, the success of these insignificant animals being due to their instinctive sagacity and activity, rather than strength. It is a pattern of industry and diligence both as to temporal and spiritual things, Ecc. 9:10; Matt. 6:19, 20.
Locusts are small creatures also, yet very devouring ones; and consume the fruits of the earth, wherever they come and light; Ex. 10:13-15. They are very numerous, and move in large bodies, and yet with great regularity and order; which shows the wisdom there is in them by natural instinct, though they have no king to command, guide, and direct them. In this the mystical locusts differ from them, who have a king, whose name is Abaddon, (Rev. 9:11); yet they go forth all of them by bands.
They get together in one place; they associate and join themselves in bands, and keep together, though they have no ruler over them. An emblem of unity, concord, and harmony, let the form of government be what it will, as the best security to a people. These creatures, when they move from place to place, they move in a body, everyone in his proper place, all in rank and file; and though they have no general to marshal them, yet are in, and march in as good order as the most regular army does. Indeed they are G-d's army, as they are called, (Joel 2:25); and it is He that gives them their wisdom, instructions, directions, and commission.
Spiders on the thread she spins, or on the flies and bees she catches in her web. This is a small creature, yet very wise; what a curious thread does she spin! What a fine web does she weave! With what exactness and proportion is it framed! As if she understood the rules of mathematics and architecture; and though her webs are oftentimes destroyed, yet such is her constancy and assiduity, and her unwearied application to business, that, as fast as they are destroyed, she attempts to restore them. This creature is an emblem of diligence in things temporal and spiritual; which those that use in the former sense shall stand before kings, and not before mean men; and in the latter sense shall have the presence of the King of kings, and dwell in his palace here and hereafter. Also of worldly minded men, who labor to be rich; spend their time, and take a great deal of pains for mere trifles; weave curious webs, and, after all, only catch flies; and those they cannot hold, uncertain riches, which make themselves wings and fly away. Likewise this creature may resemble hypocrites, whose hope and trust are as the spider's web, built upon their own righteousness, spun out of their own hearts; a fine, thin, slender thread, which cannot bear one stroke of the besom of Divine justice. Such as these are in the palaces of Y’Shua the King, are in His churches, hypocrites in Zion; (Job 8:13,14) .
What have we learned from G-d’s creation?
1. The ants, minute animals and very weak, and yet they are very industrious in gathering proper food, and have a strange sagacity to do it in the summer, the proper time. This is so great a piece of wisdom that we may learn of them to be wise for futurity, Prov. 6:6. When the ravening lions lack, and suffer hunger, the laborious ants have plenty, and know no want.
2. The conies, or, as some rather understand it, the Arabian mice, field mice, weak creatures, and very timorous, yet they have so much wisdom as to make their houses in the rocks, where they are well guarded, and their feebleness makes them take shelter in those natural fastnesses and fortifications. Sense of our own indigence and weakness should drive us to Him that is a rock higher than we for shelter and support; there let us make our habitation.
3. The locusts; they are little also, and have no king, as the bees have, but they go forth all of them by bands, like an army in battle-array; and, observing such good order among themselves, it is not any inconvenience to them that they have no king. They are called G-d's great army Joel 2:25; for, when He pleases, He musters, He marshals them, and wages war by them, as He did upon Egypt. They go forth all of them gathered together; sense of weakness should engage us to keep together, that we may strengthen the hands of one another.
4. The spider, an insect, but as great an instance of industry in our houses as the ants are in the field. Spiders are very ingenious in weaving their webs with a fineness and exactness such as no art can pretend to come near. They take hold with their hands, and spin a fine thread out of their own bowels, with a great deal of art; and they are not only in poor men's cottages, but in kings' palaces, notwithstanding all the care that is there taken to destroy them. Providence wonderfully keeps up those kinds of creatures, not only which men provide not for, but also which every man's hand is against and seeks the destruction of. Those that will mind their business, and take hold of it with their hands, shall be in kings' palaces; sooner or later, they will get preferment, and may go on with it, notwithstanding the difficulties and discouragements they meet with. If one well-spun web be swept away, it is but making another.
Conclusion is:
Verse 32: If thou hast done foolishly in lifting up thyself, or if thou hast thought evil, lay thine hand upon thy mouth.
A caution to us to keep our temper at all times and under all provocations, and to take heed of carrying our resentments too far upon any occasion, especially when there is a King in the case, against whom there is no rising up, when it is a ruler, or one much our superior, that is offended; nay, the rule is always the same.
1. We must bridle and suppress our own passion, and take shame to ourselves, whenever we are justly charged with a fault, and not insist upon our own innocence. If we have lifted up ourselves, either in a proud conceit of ourselves or a peevish opposition to those that are over us, if we have transgressed the laws of our place and station, we have therein done foolishly. Those that magnify themselves over others or against others, that are haughty and insolent, do but shame themselves and betray their own weakness. We must humble ourselves for what we have done amiss, and even lie in the dust before G-d, in sorrow for it. We must keep the evil thought we have conceived in our minds from breaking out in any evil speeches. It is bad to think ill, but it is much worse to speak it, for that implies consent to the evil thought and a willingness to infect others with it.
2. We must not irritate the passions of others. Some are so very provoking in their words and conduct that they even force wrath, they make those about them angry whether they will or no, and put those into a passion who are not only not inclined to it, but also resolved against it. Now this forcing of wrath brings forth strife, and where that is there is confusion and every evil work. Let nothing therefore be said or done with violence, but every thing with softness and calmness.
Have we learned from the creatures or have we become foolish and evil?