One of my favorite women in the Bible is not really named at all. I affectionately call her “The Proverbs 31 Woman.” She is, to me, a personification of wisdom in the home. Her husband is the provider, and she is the subdivider. She couldn’t do what she does without him; and likewise, he could not have the home he has without her. They glorify one another by their deeds done in love. It is primarily a picture of the homemaker at the height of her glory. And the one basking in it is her husband. He is basking in verse 23, “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land.” There he is. Right in the middle of all her work. I just love it! This is such a beautiful picture of marriage in all its “rightness” glorifying the LORD who provides everything for us, His church (His Glory), that we might honor Him (our glory) with everything He so richly provides. Love motivates and shines in this passage.

What I love about this woman is she’s a doer. She’s willing to learn and keeps growing in her homemaking. Let’s take a closer look at her. I have studied her ways for over three years now and still keep learning from her. ( I think you could study the Word of God for all eternity and never stop learning! It is “The Riches” you can hold and grasp on this planet. There is nothing else to compare. Nothing.)

First off, we learn about the Proverbs 31 woman from another woman: King Lemuel’s mother. Let’s start at the beginning of the chapter. This mother taught her son this entire chapter. He was a king, so his mother took very seriously what she taught him, as it would affect a nation. We learn this in verse one. “The words of King Lemuel, the utterance his mother taught him.” In verse two and three we learn that he was a son that she had made vows for. “What, my son? And what, son of my womb? And what, son of my vows?” One thinks of Hannah and Samuel and the vows Hannah made before God concerning Samuel.

God often sets apart a son in honor of the mother’s vows. This King was set apart. When she tells him in verse three, “Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings,” she is warning him to keep himself for one women, one wife. Sexual strength is lost when a man has sex with many women. Disease can invade, as well as a loss in sexual appetite. Children are affected from a man that cannot control his desires and keep them only for his wife. This verse teaches the king this truth in a time when many kings were acting immoral (or having many, many wives) and doing things against God’s Law. God always meant for a man to have one wife and to be solely hers and she solely his. This is God’s perfect picture of Christ and His Bride, the Church.

“It is not for kings, O Lemuel, It is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink; Lest they drink and forget the law, And pervert the justice of all the afflicted. Give strong drink to him who is perishing, And wine to the bitter of heart. Let him drink and forget his poverty, And remember his misery no more.” (Proverbs 31:4-7)

This passage sets the King up to realize his high position and the responsibility that goes with it. He must be alert and aware of what is going on around him at all times. He must not give himself nor the princes under him (as a son follows his dad’s leading) to intoxication. He must guard himself against such a thing. Those that are dying can benefit from it, but he is living for the strength of others and must be sober-minded. This is wise instruction for our sons today. They will be leaders in the church and in families some day.

“Open your mouth for the speechless, In the cause of all who are appointed to die. Open your mouth, judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and needy.” (Proverbs 31:8,9)

The King is the only one to whom the poor can flee. He is their defender and righteous judge. They have no hope if he deals unfairly with them. And the King’s mother teaches her son mercy and justice without favoritism nor bribery. He holds a very serious office. God loves the poor and requires His leaders to take care of them and to defend them. He always has. His Law in the Old Testament provided for the poor. It was up to the King to see that those laws were carried out. When I read “open your mouth for the speechless, in the cause of all who are appointed to die,” I so often think of those children being aborted. And the laws that uphold their killing when they have no mouth to cry against it.

How I pray for strong Christian men to lead this nation who will cry out to defend these babies and poor uninstructed people. God will raise them up! I know He will! He is forming His warriors in obscure places on earth: the home set apart for Him. In the church. In Promise Keepers. In the stadiums at Billy Graham crusades. In Harvest Crusades stadiums. At the pole in schools. He is raising warriors.

And so often, He does His best warrior work quietly in an obscure place. Think of John the Baptist who was raised in the desert all of his life. Joshua who was also raised in a desert for forty years. Samuel who was raised apart from his mother in the temple run by Eli and his evil sons. Moses who was raised apart from his mother (most of his life) in a pagan’s home. And Jesus, Himself, Who spent thirty years in His earthly home. God raised warriors in some very insignificant places on earth.

The most insignificant place of all was Nazareth. Who would have believed who God was raising in that remote place on earth in the home of a carpenter and his loyal wife?! And God used a woman in her home living a normal life of serving her husband and children to raise Him! That is so awesome to me. It shows me how very much God values the home to put His Son in one for thirty years under the care and leadership of a hard working man and his homemaking wife. God picked “choice hearts” when he picked these two. Let’s look at her role. A role that Jesus probably saw exemplified in His earthly mother.

Now comes twenty one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible concerning the worth of a woman in the home. Many women think it is impossible to be like this woman. I don’t think so. For we are looking at the completed “homemaking quilt” while we are in the middle of the quilt God is designing in our own lives.

We must realize that a beautiful quilt takes time, it takes restitching errors, learning new patterns, and again, more time! So we must look at her quilt with a “teachable heart” asking the LORD to show us His ways by His power to be the woman of God that He wants us to be. Nowhere in Scripture is a woman’s job so detailed and so magnified. We will benefit from studying this beautiful “quilt” in Scripture with an open and teachable heart. Time and time again. So let’s get a magnifying glass, bend down closely, and study her “stitches” so beautifully woven for us in Scripture by King Lemuel’s mother and memorized by her dear son.

Love,
Laine

PART TWO

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