Proverbs 31:10-31

PR261 "Exploring Women's Preaching Traditions" Princeton Theological Seminary

April 23, 2007

A capable wife who can find?
She is far more precious than jewels.
The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.
She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
She is like the ships of the merchant,
she brings her food from far away.
She rises while it is still night
and provides food for her household
and tasks for her servant-girls.
She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.
She girds herself with strength,
and makes her arms strong.
She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.
She opens her hand to the poor,
and reaches out her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid for her household when it snows,
for all her household are clothed in crimson.
She makes herself coverings;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.
Her husband is known in the city gates,
taking his seat among the elders of the land.
She makes linen garments and sells them;
she supplies the merchant with sashes.
Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.
She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
Her children rise up and call her happy;
her husband too, and he praises her:
‘Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.’
Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
Give her a share in the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the city gates.

A is for acrostic. Proverbs 31:10-31 is an acrostic poem, or a poem in which each line begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. We can’t tell this when we read the poem in English, but this way of organizing Hebrew poetry pops up here and there in our Old Testament. Psalm 119 is one of the better known of these acrostic poems.

B is for boy, and the book of Proverbs, including this passage about the capable wife, was probably written for boys. The book gives an education in wisdom and practical living for young men in ancient Israel. For that reason, this passage about the ideal woman in ancient Israel is not meant as a suggested schedule for a day in the life of an actual woman. I told a friend that I was preaching on this passage, and his response was similar to mine when I read Proverbs 31. He said, “That woman, I don’t think she ever sleeps.” Indeed, if Christian women today were to try to be like this ideal woman in every way, we would probably be driven to do some very unchristian things out of sheer exhaustion.

I do believe we have a great deal to learn from this woman. But when we read this passage today, we want to go deeper than what it says to an ancient Israelite boy and see what it has to say to C, the Christian community today. How does it guide us on our way of D discipleship? The answer to this question comes only through a careful reading of this passage in conversation with the community of believers. We seminarians know this word – E is for exegesis.

So, let’s look at this picture of the ideal woman. What are our F first impressions of her? I’ve already said that she leaves G giant shoes to fill. But what, more specifically, does the book of Proverbs take care to point out about her?

Well, for one she has H: a hot sense of fashion. “She seeks wool and flax…all her household are clothed in crimson. She makes herself coverings; her clothing is fine linen and purple…She makes linen garments and sells them; she supplies the merchant with sashes.” These clothes are not just the clothes of an Israelite housewife; they are the clothes of royalty. This woman looks great.

But for this passage, that’s not the whole story. As wonderful as her literal clothing is, it’s something else that really defines this woman’s hot sense of fashion. After describing all of these fine royal garments, the writer tells us that “Strength and dignity are her clothing…” Far more beautiful than any royal garments are the strength and dignity which surround this woman like clothing.

A second thing we notice about this woman is that she is I industrious. Her hands are mentioned frequently in this passage. Her hands work, they plant, they spin, they are opened to the poor, they reach out to the needy. We see that in addition to taking care of her own wealthy household, the woman also has an interest in J justice. Her hands are capable of great things.

Besides the hot fashion sense and the industriousness, there’s one more important thing about this woman that I want us to K know. L is for Lord, and the ideal woman fears the Lord. In fact, it is for this reason that she is praised! Charm and beauty are not what this woman is all about. Her power and her value are drawn from a deeper well than that.

It’s interesting to notice that this Lord whom she fears is different from an M man. This is the Lord, the God of Israel, the God of this woman’s ancestors, the God who delivered God’s people out of slavery in Egypt. A man, the woman’s husband, is referred to throughout the passage. We read that the husband is proud of his wife. Hopefully she is proud of him as well, but he is not to be worshipped by her. This woman fears the Lord, and the Lord alone.

After talking about the woman’s industriousness and her strength and dignity, it may seem strange for the text to suddenly jump in with this statement about how she fears the Lord. After all, this is the only time that God shows up in the entire passage, isn’t it? Well, we’re talking about an ideal woman. In an ideal world, the work that gives this woman so much joy would be her God-given vocation. In real-life ancient Israel, I assume there were many women who were not thrilled with their work and who were not able to do what God called them to do. As we read this passage and think about the ideal world, this woman would be performing these tasks not out of compulsion, but as a natural result of her fear of the Lord. In this case, the whole passage, including the strength, the dignity, and the industriousness, would really be about the woman’s fear of God.

N is for now. If someone were to write this passage for the ideal modern American woman instead of the ideal biblical woman, what would it say? In 21^st century America, who is the woman of worth?

O is for oh my, what a contrast! Well, I suppose there are some things that are the same. The woman of worth today is P pretty just as the woman from Proverbs was, but I don’t think that fashion magazines often run articles on how well strength goes with denim, or how dignity is the new black this season. The ideal woman of today is clothed in physical beauty, and strength and dignity often take second place to this outer beauty. This physical beauty is not celebrated for all types of women, either, but is celebrated when it is in the form of a woman who is thin, usually white, and wearing expensive clothing.

Q is for quiet, because when a woman or a girl is so focused on this picture of ideal womanhood, her voice cannot be heard. She is literally seen but not heard. Her strength, her dignity, and her industriousness are of no importance, since her body is the most valuable thing that she has to offer.

This is the world in which we are raising our daughters and the daughters of the church. It’s more than sad – it’s frightening.

Friends, the good news in the middle of this bad news is that R is for redeem. God is redeeming our world and is redeeming us as women and men. For the ideal woman in Proverbs, the world saw her as a possession, a prize to be gained by the husband who was wise. But the Lord, whom she feared, redeemed her. The Lord, whom she feared, saw her as a woman of strength and dignity. The Lord, whom she feared, did not see her work as “only woman’s work” but as strong leadership of her household and a valuable contribution to the society.

For women of today, the world sees us and our sisters and daughters as bodies to be analyzed. Is she thin enough? Pretty enough? Rich enough to wear the right clothes? But the Lord, whom we fear, redeems us. The Lord, whom we fear, sees us as women of strength and dignity. The Lord, whom we fear, calls us beyond the culture’s expectations of us and into the diligent work of which we are truly capable. S is for strength and T is for thanksgiving, and it is in strength that we respond with thanksgiving to the God who has redeemed us.

Our thankful response to God includes helping our daughters and the daughters of our church to U understand the source of their strength and dignity. Their strength lies not in matching up to someone else’s ideal of physical beauty, but their strength lies in a God who loves them. Our thankful response also includes an understanding of our V vocation. Whatever women do, in the workplace and in the home, we can do it not because of what the culture tells us we are allowed to do, but because of our thankful response to a God who loves us. If a woman is a full-time mom, let her do it out of a sense of God-given vocation. If a woman is a professional athlete, let her do it out of a sense of God-given vocation. If a woman runs for president or is a teacher or is an orchestra conductor or is a retired volunteer, let her do it for no other reason than that God has called her to do this thing, and her industrious work in this area is her thankful response to the Lord whom she fears. W is for woman, and a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.