So....to all my siblings (especially sisters, likely, but some of this will apply to the brothers as well) ...who's seen those journals with 'Charm is deceptive & beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised'? (usually written in curly font with flowers encircling the words-- see picture)
I sure have. I've gotten a few in gift exchanges & now they live in a dumpster or a landfill somewhere. Ironically, I've never received a journal that had Ecclesiastes 7:26 (one of my life verses) inscribed on it, 'And I find more bitter than death a woman who is a trap, her heart a net, & her hands chains. The one who pleases God will escape her, but the sinner will be captured by her.'
If there was a journal with that written on it, I'd buy it. And give it to my friends. But maybe that's just me.
Anyhow, the point I'm trying to communicate is-- does Proverbs 31 intimidate you even slightly? Asking both sisters & brothers this one, 'cause the first part of P31 is about men, by the ways. King Lemuel's Mama is tellin' him not to spend his strength on women, not to be enslaved to wine, & to fight for the rights of the oppressed. Perhaps it's not accidental that before a passage about how women ought to conduct themselves there's a shout out to the men as well.
Then there's also the cultural difference-- I've heard lots of girls joke around about how when they're wives they're totally gonna be making wool & flax textiles & selling in the marketplace -- very sarcastically & in an offhand way. Part of that perhaps (er, decidedly) comes from the fact that the girls I've heard make those comments (mmkay, confession: I'm one of those girls myself) are single.
I can only wonder if when a single girl who made those comments gets married if all of the sudden she's searching through P31 frantically because she realizes that marriage is actually a job.
(speculating partially, also going off my Mum's counsel & also my sisters)
In any case, I'm fleeing my unholy cynicism towards a chapter that is part of the living & active Word of God, which the Holy Spirit of God wrote (1 Peter 1:20). He wrote it very purposefully, and when viewed in combination with the rest of God's revelation to us, it's a very exquisite passage.
Many many times in the Word God's people are compared to whores, a faithless bride who has wandered away from her husband & sought many lovers. Likewise, each of us, before God called us out of sin, were in darkness, defiling ourselves with our lustful passions (Romans 7:5)
But-- oh, 1 Corinthians 6:11--
"Some of you were like this; but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
Called & chosen by the Father (Ephesians 1:3-5) and justified by Jesus, indwelled by the Spirit, enabled to be righteous.
The Proverbs 31 woman & also the Proverbs 31 man-- people with whom God, their spouses, their children, & the Christians & often even non-believers who interact with them are pleased with-- Word-minded & Word-loving people, are not to be scoffed at, but exemplify the kind of holiness we should desire-- the holiness of those who have been saved by Christ. We can only pursue this holiness by His grace. Always & only by His grace which He grants rich & free to those who humble themselves before Him.
So the next time your Bible study leader gives you a Proverbs 31:30 engraved journal, resist the sarcastic thoughts welling up inside of you-- instead, let it serve as a reminder that the Spirit can make you into a woman whose "works deserve praise at the city gates" (er, or on her Facebook page. Or whatever the modern equivalent of a city gate happens to be.)
