Proverbs 31:10-31 ~ Rubies

 

The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him.

Proverbs 31:10-31

10 An excellent wife who can find?

She is far more precious than 
Rubies.

11 The heart of her husband trusts in her,
and he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good, and not harm,
all the days of her life.

13 She seeks wool and flax,
and works with willing hands.
14 She is like the ships of the merchant;
she brings her food from afar.

15 She rises while it is yet night
and provides food for her household
and portions for her maidens.

16 She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.

17 She dresses herself with strength
and makes her arms strong.

18 She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.
Her lamp does not go out at night.
19 She puts her hands to the distaff,
and her hands hold the spindle.

20 She opens her hand to the poor
and reaches out her hands to the needy.

21She is not afraid of snow for her household,
for all her household are clothed in 
scarlet.
22 She makes bed coverings for herself;
her clothing is fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is known in the gates
when he sits among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them;
she delivers sashes to the merchant.
25 Strength and dignity are her clothing,
and she laughs at the time to come.

26 She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

27 She looks well to the ways of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:
29“Many women have done excellently,
but you surpass them all.”

30 Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain,
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the gates.

Who wrote the passage?

The Babylonian Talmud (Tractate Aboth, Chapter 5) says six names were given to Solomon:
Solomon, Jedidiah, Qoheleth, Ben Iokoh, Agur,
and Lemuel.

King Lemuel - David's son is "Towards God."

This is similar to Prince Charles was born Charles Philip Arthur George.

According to A. Cohen, Proverbs (Hindhead, Surrey: The Soncino Press, 1945), p. 209, Lemuel is another name for Solomon that when translated means “towards (lemo) God (el).”

The Septuagint translated Proverbs 31:1 as follows: “My words have been spoken by God.”

Which is profoundly accurate - Words Spoken by God.

Solomon records this as from his mother - Bathsheba. Family was important to Solomon.

Family was important to David. Psalm 86 records what David felt about his mother (his father was content to skip David when Samuel came with blessings - Samuel replied they would stand to wait for David to come in from tending to the family flocks.)

Psalm 86
Turn to me and have mercy on me;
show your strength in behalf of your servant;
save me, because I serve you
just as my mother did!


When Solomon built the Temple for the Lord - he named the "Pillar" by the front door - Boaz.

Boaz is the 3 Greats Grandfather. The man who gave a home to a widow and married a foreigner, making a family. Announcing King Solomon has Moabite blood as he builds the Temple of God.

Bathsheba was pretty flashy. And this book is her efforts to raise Solomon Towards God.

1 Kings 2:19
And the king rose to meet her and bowed down to her. Then he sat on his throne and had a seat brought for the king's mother, and she sat on his right.


Remember with me - Solomon received Wisdom and promptly used all of that Wisdom to pursue worldly goals.

Bathsheba was not so warm with David

1 Kings 1:15
15 So Bathsheba went to the king in his chamber (now the king was very old, and Abishag the Shunammite was attending to the king). 16 Bathsheba bowed and paid homage to the king, and the king said, “What do you desire?” 17 She said to him, “My lord, you swore to your servant by the Lord your God, saying, ‘Solomon your son shall reign after me."

Bathsheba is very formal for that private, death bed chamber.

Why did people who spent their lives pursuing goals for themselves have a say so in Scripture?

There is a Profound Reason.
When you think upon all the Kings and Chronicles in the Scripture - not very many wanted to write Scripture themselves. Yet David did. He took all those years he tended the flocks - by himself - which Scripture records  - and David learned all about the History of Israel and God to be depended and trusted upon. David's relationship with God - created harmony in a very disharmonious family.

Solomon missed hearing from God and went up to the high places to demand God answer him and Solomon tried that for years. Until Solomon realized God is God and Solomon is man. God ran to Solomon when Solomon decided God might be right.
And found God is right.

Bathsheba learned how to exist in a household that was not for her primarily.
She was part of many wives, others were honorably acquired, in a dysfunctional family life revolving around David.
David is the poster child for - don't have too many wives and children.


Solomon is now a child and a  little lost in the herd of children, wives and concubines.
But All see that David has something going for David beyond the civil wars, the gossip, the sin and the power that goes up and down.

David is evangelical.
If David can exist living in ditches and put his goals on God first -
If David can exist as a mercenary and God wants Him to be King after all that -
If David can ride in on his favorite donkey to be Crowned and God Loves David -
If David can survive family civil war and still believe in Love - crying out for mercy for his dear enemies.
If David can hope for redemption for a child everyone talks about -
If David can flub up Fatherhood this badly and God sees the Victory -

David's Family is led to discover Father God.

Proverbs 31 is a road map on this - 
How to Endure. How to Live Life and to have Hope, Faith and Love - God has a Plan. 
Believing God is going to help us within the Framework of Life - He has willingly Given. 

Worth saying again:

This isn't so much a list of virtues - this is a list about learning to survive and endure - and living with Hope.
God has a Plan.
We can trust God.
We can learn to endure. Believing God will lead us to Thrive.

This is not about putting self first.
This is about learning to be a team and working for others.

Solomon fails Bathsheba's list and at one point says women are not that great. Bold words from a man with 700 wives.

Ecclesiastes 7
27 “Look,” says the Teacher, “this is what I have discovered:
“Adding one thing to another to discover the scheme of things—
28 while I was still searching
but not finding—
I found one upright man among a thousand,
but not one upright woman among them all.
29 This only have I found:
God created mankind upright,
but they have gone in search of many schemes.”


“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man’s all. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it be good or evil”
Ecclesiastes 12:13,14

Solomon discovered something we know today.
We are not capable of Salvation for ourselves.


Paul wrote the exact same thing as Solomon.
Scripture repeats. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. Father God is still building people to relate to each other across the millenniums.

Romans 7
14 For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15 For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16 Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17 So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22 For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23 but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am!

Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

We are not capable, ever,
for being sorry enough to pay for our Salvation.

We are not capable, ever, to be so like Christ - we earn our Salvation.

We are not capable ever, to give enough - to earn our Salvation.

No one is perfect enough to write Scripture unless the Holy Spirit speaks within.

Gandhi, gave a rupee and said,  he likes our Jesus Christ, but Christians don't look a lot like Jesus.

Paul did agree and said, All Fall Short and Are Sinners.

Romans 8
1 There is therefore now
no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

34 Who is to condemn?
Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us.

35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? 
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
For I am sure that neither death nor life, 
nor angels nor rulers,
nor things present nor things to come, 
nor powers, 
nor height nor depth, 
nor anything else in all creation, 
will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. 



Father God, with the Works You have Accomplished in these many millenniums - know my heart, my soul, my mind, take all of me and bless every single cell to eternity - flood me with the Love and Light of Jesus Christ - Savior - Who freely gives Salvation to those who would call out in wisdom - Jesus is Lord! Take Your Love, flood my being and those I love - Sweep this Nation with Your Love. Amen.

♔ Lord Jesus Saves †