The Wisdom Woman Proverbs 31

These last eight weeks have been a whirlwind. Eight weeks ago I decided I wanted to learn to fly...it has been the most challenging and most difficult experience of my life...nothing compares. I am amazed at what the human mind can really do when it is forced into action. There is simply no way under heaven that I ever could have thought that I could have learned this stuff and gained this skill (a skill I will always be learning, and so far just enough to land on the runway! And not in someone's yard or house...) in this amount of time...when we want to learn something and we have the will to do it, we can...but it takes extreme commitment and sacrifice. More about this later, but I would like to share that I passed my aviation written (two and half hours) exam with an 88! I have never studied so much in my life...but a few hours after the test, I boarded a Cessna 172 and flew cross country alone to Dansville NY and enjoyed the evening having a Bible study with a new Christian and his dear wife...we had a wonderful evening! While enjoying the Word, tea, and banana bread, my friend's wife was knitting while we were enjoying the Scriptures. What a picture...not one you see much today...and I am not saying the women need to start knitting again. But it reminded me of the last chapter in Proverbs where God closes this great work with a description of a virtuous woman..."her hands are not idle...she strengthens her arms....she lays her hand to the spindle...she rises while it is yet night...she stretches out her hand to the poor...she makes her own coverings for her household, and when it snows, she is not afraid because she knows everyone she loves will be warm...she looks well to ways of her household...she buys and sells real-estate, she does her husband good and not evil all the days of her life...and the list can make any woman feel like she will never measure up...and I have good news...this list is really not a list for women! If you studied this section closely, you would find that the woman in Proverbs 31 is really WISDOM personified. The whole book of Proverbs is about Wisdom...and it ends with using a woman as a picture of wisdom at work...her price is far above rubies..., “rubies” and earlier reference to wisdom!  This doesn't mean that these qualities are not for women to pursue (and men)...they are, but just remember that these qualities are wisdom in its perfect state...we will never arrive completely or attain to such a level of perfection but certainly this is a list of qualities that should inspire and motivate us.

            Earlier in this chapter, what I call the Wisdom Woman, you have instructions of a mother to a son who is a king. Again, this is Wisdom (mother) speaking to her son of what is important in life and what he needs to do to be a worthy king. She teaches him simply to stay away from alcohol and sexual temptations. Stay focused as a king...do what kings do...if you look at Proverbs 31 as a whole you will see that Wisdom stays focused on what we have been called to do with our lives. In a day when the family is disintegrating at alarming rates, we need to get back to our focus...God, family, career, church, community, government...lots to balance, but if we would remove the multitude of distractions from our lives, I think we will be amazed at what we can accomplish. Oh, notice how this chapter ends: "Favor is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised."  Do you see the connection to wisdom?  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom!"  And what makes this even more interesting, since the whole Bible is about the Lord Jesus, it only makes sense that Jesus Himself if considered, "The Wisdom of God."