In my last post I said that I find it interesting that Job shows up in the time of Abraham, apparently outside of Israel, with such Jesus-like social conscience.
Find a similar description of an ideal woman that comes from a time when men were expected to rule their homes, and when daughters and wives were often regarded as property.
In a week when the winner and runner-up of the Miss USA 2009 have been in the news for comments that came out of pageant interviews, I’m especially impressed with an OT passage that recognizes women for their strength and goes so far as to say, “Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised” (Prov 31:30).
In the past I tended to avoid this description of a model woman because I’d heard at least one mother of a toddler age child express frustration about anything in Scripture that would put more pressure on a woman than she already has.
Yet what I’ve come to see is that in spite of all of the ways in which the Bible describes men and women as burdened by the consequences of the curse (Gen 3:16-19), and even though the Apostle Peter encourages husbands to give honor to wives as “the weaker vessel” (1Peter 3:7), the Bible does not simplisticallyencourage us to value men for their strength and women for their beauty. If we look at the whole picture, the Bible does not even encourage us to only value men for their strength of character and women for their beauty of spirit (as if strength of character is masculine and graciousness of spirit is feminine).
It’s with that background that I am struck that the Proverbs of Solomon end with a description of:
A Woman of Strength–Those who know the story of Solomon’s many wives might not expect a collection of his Proverbs to end with a tribute to a woman who is a striking counterpart to Job.
The description begins with the question, “Who can find a virtuous woman” (31:10).
Whoops… need to add that,
According to Strongs Lexicon, the word translated “virtuous” by the King James is translated in other places as follows:
2428 chayil {khah’-yil}
Meaning: 1) strength, might, efficiency, wealth, army 1a) strength 1b) ability, efficiency 1c) wealth 1d) force, army
Origin: from 02342; TWOT – 624a; n m
Usage: AV – army 56, man of valour 37, host 29, forces 14, valiant 13, strength 12, riches 11, wealth 10, power 9, substance 8, might 6, strong 5, misc 33; 243″
With those interruptive details :-), look at how Solomon’s collection of wisdom describes the honorable woman:
“Her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain….She is like the merchant ships, She brings her food from afar…She considers a field and buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength, And strengthens her arms…She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy…She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies sashes for the merchants. Strength and honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness…Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her: (Prov 31:10-29).
This woman shows that, even if women were not given the social authority of men in ancient Israeli society, they could possess an enormous amount of freedom and personal influence.
In so many ways, the woman praised by this section of Proverbs is a woman who rose above the predicted pattern of the curse.
More importantly, both Job and this woman of strength foreshadowed the kind of concern for others that would someday be personified so completely and perfectly in the coming of the Messiah of Israel and hope of the world.
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