Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God.  (Romans 3:1-2)

Oracles are divine utterances, λόγιον logion.  Paul is of course speaking about all Scripture, which was for him the Tanakh, the Law, Prophets and Writings, latterly called The Old Testament.

An oracle is prophesy, as seen in the Hebrew:

The words of Agur, son of Jakeh. The oracle.  (Proverbs 30:1 ESV)

An oracle translates מַשָּׂא massa, which also means logion, as the NIV reflects:

The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh – an inspired utterance. (NIV)

But of course, that inspired utterance, God’s words and declaration are foremost messages, and this is how the NLT translates the proverb.

The sayings of Agur son of Jakeh contain this message. (NLT)

So Agur is not himself an oracle, his words are; and those words form a message which is divinely inspired. For the prophet, shouldering the responsibility for God’s message can be onerous; and indeed massa can also mean ‘burden’ or ‘load’, something carried or borne.

How can the words of God be a burden?  Perhaps in two ways.  First, it is something given to passed on and delivered, that is what makes the given insight a message after all.  And oracles have that narrow sense in the Old Testament:

The oracle (massa) concerning Babylon which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw. (Isaiah 13:1)

These oracles are usually specific warnings, targeted and urgent.  When Jesus delivered seven ‘woes’ to the Jewish ruling authorities and lamented over Jerusalem (Matthew 23) this was a message that was a caution and an outpouring.  It appears that this oracle overthrew the heart with at least one Pharisees, Nicodemus, who John described a ruler of Jews (John 3:1).

Second, divine insight is contrary to world and sets the bearer apart.  The truth that God imparts will cause the bearer to hate his mortal life. This from Jesus –

Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.  (John 12:25)

John expands on this truth in his first letter:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides for ever. (1 John 2:15-17)

Such a mindset sets people apart and they are shunned for it:

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)

Thus, the oracles of the Jews spoke to the world and brought nothing but opposition, not that the Jews understood fully the truth of their oracles was a person.  Returning to Agur, who wearied of his burden:

The man declares, I am weary, O God;
    I am weary, O God, and worn out. 
Surely, I am too stupid to be a man.
    I have not the understanding of a man.
I have not learned wisdom,
    nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.
Who has ascended to heaven and come down?
    Who has gathered the wind in his fists?
Who has wrapped up the waters in a garment?
    Who has established all the ends of the earth?
What is his name, and what is his son’s name? 

Surely you know! (Proverbs 30:1b-4)

God does indeed know but Agur is not told.

See also the oracle of Zechariah:

The burden (massa) of the word of the Lord concerning Israel: Thus, declares the Lord, who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth and formed the spirit of man within him:“Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples…On that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves. And all the nations of the earth will gather against it. (Zechariah 12:1-3)

Jerusalem will confound all the nations of the earth, but what is this cup or stone?’

I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn.  (ibid 12:10)

Jesus is the subject of all prophecy; he is the logion and the logos (John 1:1).  The Jews carry this burden to this day and are not thanked for it, nor do many benefit from the revelation of its truth.  Their Scriptures remain a mystery, as Paul writes:

I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel… (Romans 11:25)

The reality of this world is in fact delusion, for the true reality is spiritual and is revealed in the person of Jesus Immanuel.  All the oracles of the Jews point to Jesus, yet the world, by and large, does not want to know.  

There is a poignancy in the interview of Jesus by Pontius Pilate:

…Pilate said to him, “So you are a king?” 

Jesus answered, “You say that I am a king. For this purpose, I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” 

Pilate said to him, “What is truth?” (John 18:37-38)

Pilate’s rhetorical question: Τί ἐστιν ἀλήθεια, ti estin aletheia, can also mean ‘what is reality?’

Jesus is that Truth, that spiritual reality.  Sadly, Pilate asked the question and pondered perhaps that there was no answer, and yet the very embodiment of it was standing before him.

An oracle is thus reality and all Scripture points to that reality which destroys the delusion of the world.  It does so by pointing at the Word of God made flesh, Jesus.  To hear and convey this truth, by way of the Gospel, is an oracle.  It is a burden, something to be borne, and it sets the bearer apart, just as Israel was set apart.