October 23, 2018: Day 73 – Proverbs 31

In this last chapter of Proverbs we find quite a transition from the words of King Lemuel to an inspiring passage to a description of a “capable” wife.  The first few verses give us words of wisdom and advice from the mother of King Lemuel.  So from vs.1-9 we see words of wisdom to a king from his mom.  She focuses on pretty much don’t go with girls who drink or chew or anything else for that matter.  The king’s mom is  looking out for her son.

But then we get these verses that are used so often for mother’s day.  We find a whole slew of attributes of a good wife, all of them are keeping the household and a hard worker.  But not actually all of them, which is a bit shocking.  We also read in vs.  14-20 some really strong attributes which in that time period would have been relegated to the men of that society.  Here are some examples:  considers a field and buys it, makes her arms strong, she perceives that her merchandise is profitable.  While all of these characteristics don’t necessarily have to be matched with the men of the society, back then they were.

The kicker is seen in vs.30 which reminds us that for all people, men or women, what really ought to set up apart is that we fear the Lord.  No matter what else we do or what else we have, if we lack the fear of the Lord then we are fools.