20230514 Mother's Day Special (Proverbs 31:1-31)

so today's scripture reading comes from Proverbs chapter 31 verse 1 to 31. I'll be reading for the English Standard Version Proverbs chapter 31 verse 1. the words of King Lemuel an oracle that is another toy what are you doing my son what are you doing inside of my womb what are you doing son of my vows do not give your strength to women your ways to those who destroy Kings it is not for Kings owe them well it is not for Kings to drink wine or for rulers to make to take strong pain unless they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted give strong drink to the one who is perishing and wine to those in bit of distress let them drink and forget their poverty and remember themseling them all open your mouth for the mute for the rights of all who are destitute open your mouth judge rightly righteously defend the rights of the poor and leading an excellent wife you can find she is far more precious than jewels the heart of a 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 flags and works with willing hands she is like the ships of the merchant she brings food from afar she Rises while it is yet night and provides food for a household in portions for her maidens she considers a feel and buys it with the fruit of her hands she plans a Vineyard she stresses 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 stuff and her hands hold the spindle she opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the knee she is not afraid of snow for a household for all her household are clothed in Scarlet she makes her bed coverings for herself her clothing is fine linen and purple her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the Elders of the man she makes linen garments and sells them she she delivers sashes to the merchant strength and dignity are the 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 threat of idleness the children rise up and call her blessed her husband also and he Praises her many women have done excellent but used to pass them all charm is deceitful if beauty is vain but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised Giver of the fruit of her hands and let her works praise her in the gates well originally the sermon festival today was Christian's work ethics taken from Ephesians chapter 6 but you might be wondering why we read from Proverbs chapter 31 well I've got a little surprise for you today we will not study Visions today but predictably we will study proverbs 31 because today is Mother's Day so you might call our message A Mother's Day special I've actually um changed her title and the sermon message it's a kind of last minute but um I thought that was that this was actually quite important for us to learn not just because it's Mother's Day and that this message is geared towards women but exactly for all Christians and we'll see that how their connection is made and at the same time our bulletin we appreciate bulletin Ministry that is terms of Faith every week but we decide pretty much all the details very early on now by at least Monday night so rather than I'm hardly changing everything and getting everything reprinted I thought I'll just leave it and give you a little surprise on Sunday morning you know just now so that's why we've read Proverbs chapter 31 and we'll go through this study today and be blessed by God's wonderful words now this is really an amazing text and it is like almost like a poem it is a blessed message especially for mothers but also for all Christians now remember that in the Book of Proverbs we actually saw a little bit of Proverbs right at the beginning of our study on family about five weeks ago when we studied about Godly men and Other Woman and godly husband and wife and godly marriage and godly parenting and godly children Godly family one of the things that we looked at early on was from Proverbs Chapter 5 and chapter 6 and many other Proverbs chapters to stay away from sexual immorality and again and again we see phrases like this listen my son let not give in to the doctors do not fall into the temptation of this woman who tempts you it might appear very tempting and very pleasant or very good on the surface but do not give into that because the end of that way is death so in a sense that throughout the Book of Proverbs women are not really given a positive light in all these chapters and mostly and that's a little sad because you know we know that both men and women are equal in the eyes of class spiritually and it's not just particularly women who sin it is men also sin as well but that's the kind of feeling that you get but of course you know there's not only the gender Dimension but there is more the spiritual Dimension whether you're a man or woman you can actually end up sinning or even attempt people to sin and that's wrong but it's quite refreshing to culminate the whole Book of Proverbs with this last chapter chapter 31 by looking at a Godly excellent woman or excellent wife it is a very stark contrast from all the other pictures women in the early chapters and it actually makes it right it corrects what was wrong before by saying this is what an excellent woman is like this is what God fearing woman looks like and we are given the wonderful description of what Godly excellent woman or wife can be like the very opposite of all the negative examples from before where to focus on verses 10 to 31 because that's the portion about the excellent wife but before that of course if you read from verse 1 to 9 you can see the little context there you can see that this is King lumwell who's riding in fact and he received this lesson from his mother and his mother is giving King numeral this instruction it could be also that Kingdom well we don't know much about him but it could be that he was quite Young when he became king and it was quite common I mean if your father passed away then you could become a king very young you know you just still saw the coronation a few days ago he's old and they say that he the King Charles III he's the oldest king in England's history but in history there were Kings who became Kings when he was eight years old we see that in the Bible as well as Josiah eight years old became a king and he was a faithful King and one of the very few things in the Bible having a young king who is her son as a mother you could imagine the queen mother who would give was of wisdom and counsel to this young son and this is what she says what my son or son of my womb instead of my vows God gave you as as a result of My Vow and her teaching her admission or advice to the son is key do not be strengthened women know your ways to that which destroys Kings that's not for Kings don't give yourself to alcohol or intoxicating drink so essentially she's saying stay away from women stay away from alcohol and don't forget the law of God and then she goes into this detailed instruction and lesson about okay then who would be an excellent wife especially a wife of a king now this is a very rich text before we dive into these texts because there are so many points and so much wisdom in this text rather than approaching this academically I wanted to do something that's a bit more helpful for you um you know you could just go on and think about the meaning of this world and of that word and come up with the meaning of each verse and there are 22 verses all together and I'm sure that you will not be able to retain all of it in your memory you might take some notes but you know it's all in sort of mixed um some jumble foam in your head you might just remember that it is good but nothing more specific than that so instead of doing or structured academic study I actually want to just go over each verse and point out one maybe a tours from each bus and as we go through these texts I want you to look at these verses and pick three pick three that you like it may be something that is unique to you but to pick three that you like so you can remember those and all you really have to do is remember those words not even the whole verse you know you don't have to memorize them now you can do it later if you like but you can just remember those keywords keywords for each verse and it'll really go take to share that during the table talk time and you know which three points or three verses you have chosen so that you can actually capture those three verses and make them your own so let's just make that little easier to approach um enjoy all the details of it obviously enjoy all the lessons that you can get and wisdom they can clean but choose pick and choose three verses and three keywords that you want to remember for your own situation and by the way not just for women for men as well or if you like maybe those three could be your wishlist or your future wife but this is for all Christians anyway so just pick three that you like the most and see what you come out with um just one more thing before we get into let me just tell you a few things about this text really an amazing text from verse 10 to verse 31 how many verses are there 22 verses and that's important why because it follows specific pattern guess how many Hebrew alphabets there are 20 true and how many verses do we have here 22 so guess how the Hebrew Proverbs chapter 31 was written it is basically an acrostic structure it's like Psalm 119. you know anything about Psalm 19 7 19 719 is the longest Psalm in the longest chapter in fact in the Bible verses but it comes in 22 stanzas and you might recall that each of the 22 stanzas starts with a Hebrew alphabet in order it's almost like if you take English alphabet A B C D E is the first letter starts with a the second sentence starts with b and third starts with c and 4 starts with t and so on here we have that the crosstalk for each and every verse 22 verses each verse starts with a Hebrew alphabet in order can you see the wisdom in that and it would have taken the writer to actually think deeply on this and actually write it and quite um possibly even crafted edited and changes so that it actually falls in that beautiful pattern of going from Hebrew alphabet our left and all the way to the last of the 22nd of events just keep that in mind and if you ever get to learn Hebrew then you can use Hebrew alphabet to remember what each verse is about reading from verse 10 to 31 22 verses all together of course why did he do that why did the right to do that to help us memorize if you knew the Hebrew alphabet then that'll age you to memorize the whole section whole passage here the second point is note also we will note also that it has also widening sphere of influence I started by saying an excellent wife wife to husband and then wife to household and family and the wife this woman how she actually engages with the neighbors and others outside the family and eventually It Ends by saying this woman is the one who fears the Lord it ends up with a relationship with God so how she relates to her husband and home and family and to the neighbors outside and eventually to God and we'll see that widening sphere of influence and one last thing is notice also that embedded in these texts are at least it was seven blessings as a result of this as a result of being a faithful and excellent wife you have all these rewards and benefits so he can say that God's rewards for this woman and her family well let's just sum that up later as we go through the texts so just remember that this is Hebrew and it is becoming so you know wider and wider in terms of spirit influencing relationship and also there are blessings that you can benefit from Shall We Begin let's look at verse 10 verse 10. begins with the first alphabet evil are left an excellent wife or who can find an excellent or virtuous wife for her worthy Spa above rubies the key word I would say in this verse is excellent so you can make a note of that so that you can have just keywords list of keywords 22 or 20 you know some keywords for each of those 22 verses because this excellent this is excellent Vibe or virtuous wife the reason why the translations differ is because the word excellent in Hebrew actually means strength in other words this is a strong woman not strong woman as in physical strength or just broad power but strength more in character in personality so strong in mind and spiritually it talks about things like power and it is being hard which means it is uncompromising the character and the character has integrity and also it is faithfulness in other words to describe is solid not solid in terms of just physical statue about solid in terms of character this is a woman who is solid and with substance and therefore a worth is far above pearls in the original text it says pose which is basically a a word for it's just a pronoun for jewels or in New King James he says rubies because rubies were the gem of the days when this was written rubies Jewels or pearls it is far far above that word so this actual moment is so precious that her worth is far above anything of this world and of course a few questions questions that we can ask is um you know do you want to be this excellent woman or do you want this excellent woman as your wife or as Christians do we want to pursue this kind of character a character that is strong in God hard and uncompromising with integrity and faithfulness a character that is solid based on the word of God a person of substance not someone who just down lives by women but living everyday life according to the Integrity of this character so the first word is Excellence or excellence so who can find this woman because this is a question saying that you know this this is a rhetorical question that you want to find a woman like this as your wife to the kingdom well of course if you're a woman then this is the kind of woman that you you should aspire to be look at verse 11. it begins by describing her relationship with her husband the heart of her husband safely trusts her so she will have no lack of gain what would you choose as a key word here I'd say that the key word there would be Trust Trust it is such that the wife here is trusted by the husband you also get a feeling that this describes a couple husband and wife who have been in a relationship or marriage for some time I mean it's hard to trust someone you know very quickly without spending that enough time but if you've spent years together then you built up that knowledge of each other that you can trust one another and husband here trusts the wife it says safely trust her so he will have no lack of gain now you can imagine being a king king and will he probably um will spend a lot of time without the wife even though they may leave it under the same roof in the same Palace it's up there always together the king might be involved in the National Affair and the king would only summon the wife to come and present herself before the king and you might spend a few hours a day maybe you might get to see the king once every few days or several days maybe not for a long time and this wife basically is seen as someone who looks after households households wealth and treasure without the trust it's difficult to actually trust entrust her with all the belongings of the husband but the husband's safety trust which actually indicates to us that is so this is a woman who is trustworthy this is a woman who has as you said Integrity this is a woman who is able to manage as faithful stewards all the household possessions of the husbands of the whole of family the second were these trusts the excellent wife excellent woman is someone who is trusted by the husband and verse 12 Hebrew alphabet you start with gimmel the second was Beth by the way our left Beth and gimmel third she does not she does him good and does not to evil all the days of her life she does him good and now he go all the days of her life I have chosen a keyword in this verse as good good good to the husband and it's all life this is consistent and enduring goodness never evil never doing anything evil and you can see that verse 11 and 12 focus on her relationship with the husbands it begins there as a grown-up woman who is married to the husbands then as the Bible teaches us that you are to leave your father and mother and be joined to your wife or to your husband so now you have left the sphere of influence of your parents and you have now become one with your husband and that's the basis and beginning of a woman's character if you're married and that's why it might be successful in all the things sort of outside in the world you might be accomplished and respected by all the others but if you do not have trust the respect of your husband or wife for that matter then you're not really respectful or you're not really trustworthy this is what it is getting to really drills us down to that foundational relationship that we have where we really cannot hide anything the wife or the husband who knows about you can tell whether you are a trustee trustworthy person or not so the woman excellent woman in verse 10 Excellence verse 11 trust and verse 12 good well these are the characteristics of an excellent life excellent woman and then it moves on to the family and moving on from wife and husband relationship to the family from verse 13. verse 13 is number four fourth verse here with fourth alphabet Hebrew alphabet he says she seeks wool and flex and willingly walks with her hands now what's War you know what movies and what black Plexi is actually vegetable or plant matter that you use to make thread to make cloth if wool is an animal of fiber then flaxseed is plant fiber that you can use to make cloth so like linen and and wool jacket or tunics and outer clothings and so on so she's she's six wool and flex obviously to make clothing to make clothes and she's willingly working with her hands She's Not Afraid of working from the scratch and that was the case in the ancient days if you want it close you have to go and make yourself clothes unless you go and you know exchange it with something or you know butter with something that you have until we had all this money based um economy and all the market economy it's a long long time ago engaging days you actually have to provide for your own things whether it's food or clothing or even house it's also interesting that throughout this text there's no not so much mention of providing the shelter because in a sense providing the shelter is the responsibility of the husband but she is actually managing what is given to her and she doesn't have to worry about where to live with the shelter but she also um she still goes out and buys food and buys wool and flags and provides for the family there so within that realm within that sort of bounds that she's doing that work and you'll see that she's also a very busiest-minded woman as well making some profit later on well at first she actually seeks wool and flex so that she can work with her hands to provide the clothing for the family so it starts now to provide for the family indicating and implying that there are children and also it's a large household with maid servants as well some servants that she is also a managing providing for as well it's the key word in verse 13 what did you say I'd say that work or works with your good keyword that you can choose from there or work or level if you want to use a simple synonym for that so she's a working woman working in the home providing first of all providing for the needs of the family and then verse 14 we're continuing on that influence in the family she is like the merchant ships she brings her food from afar Merchant ships the number five here in verse 14 Hebrew alphabet hair she's like Merchant ships she brings a food from afar in the ancient days they didn't have planes so they did not have airmail or Aeropostale so if you wanted to get anything from overseas it had to be literally from overseas you have to be carried on ships so people would go on ships usually weeks and sometimes months into a foreign nation and sells what they take and buys what they can buy from the local place and then brings them bring them back to their own country and sell make profits so the merchant ships always come to a port and they always sell some interesting things and the things that aren't necessary and things that are possibly not available locally so you can imagine ports are the marketplaces that often people go to to get things like food and clothing and some other things exotic things as well and she goes to Merchant ships she's like Merchant ships and she possibly goes even distance like Merchant ships far away to actually get the food she brings the food from a farm She's Not Just content with what's locally available now this can go to supermarket and buy all kinds of things from all sorts of places but in the ancient days that wasn't the case so she wants to provide for the needs of the family in terms of providing some I guess in diverse food and the food that you you need to eat which may not be available in your local place and she's diligent to do that so I would say um the keyword inverse was in there he talks about food as well so let's save food for the the second part 15 verse 14 I would say that verse 14's keyword would be actually let's say that food is key was 4414 the first gift to come up with something else but um food would be a keyword for school in verse 14. so food probably put for the family and that's important important nutrition of the family the health of the family it is actually one really big responsibility that sometimes you can Overlook very easily it is the White and the mother's primary responsibility to be caring for this not that she's doing all the work but she is in charge basically the verse 15 verse 15 would be number six sixth Hebrew alphabet or w-a-w in English um writing now verse 15 says this she Also Rises while it is at night so very early maybe before the sun comes up and provides food for her household so she's not providing food for a household but she's doing that from very early on in the morning he might have had breakfast this morning I don't know how early but if you start work very early at the Sunrise you have to have breakfast before the sunrise and that means the breakfast that we prepared before even that sunrise and you can imagine in the ancient aggregorian culture if you are going out to work in the farm you'll be probably out there for whole day and you need to have some good breakfast you know cold cereal with cold milk won't do the job so you can imagine mothers early you know Rising really early in the morning and cooking up a storm for the breakfast almost each day for the working family or working husband it might be that you have to get up at 4am which actually was the case uh say you know my grandmother's generation they used to get up at 4 4 30 a.m and prepare from the scratch all the foods and food stuff to prepare for the breakfast the modern you know comfort and all the kitchen facilities and the supermarkets you know made it so much easier to do that but still you know if you have early work like some people don't work at six o'clock five o'clock if you have to have breakfast then you have to get up really early in the morning to prepare that breakfast and she does this here yet in his night she provides food for her household and Portion for her May service even to the maid servants and even to the servants because May servant the servants also to the work and mail servants especially go out to Work Main Service might do the work inside the house and then to eat as well and she's also caring for them so you can see that she's really her care and concern extends beyond the family immediate family but to all those in the households they could say that this is all about Family household which includes all the slaves as well so let's say that the key word for verse 15 is diligence I just chosen a synonym or a word that describes here she Rises early in the morning with diligence and provides food for the family number 16. let's look at this one this Pro 67th Hebrew of her birth our alphabet words Zain and 16 she considers a field and buys it from her prophets she plants a Vineyard it sounds like she's in some kind of um real estate business she considers not just you know she just doesn't despite food she buys a field a land and a prophet with a profit ship plans of India so she has some profit which means that she's running some sort of business or she's managing money and whatever Prophet she has she uses that money to plant a Vineyards this also tells us that she is very you know carefully planning for the future in the vineyard in the farming um to a large extent and she's planning for the future for the future and provision of the family as well if you like you can choose a keyword from verse 16 and that is field or Vineyard sounds good so let's say that the key the keyword for this is Vineyard which indicates gardening or farming you know even you're going to buy lands so it's a quite a large scale farming business it could be so she does that it's verse 17. she calls herself with strength and strengthens her arms and this is the eighth Hebrew alphabet health and she also displays strength she goes herself with strength and strengthens her arms both literally and metaphorically she's working with her hands so her arms are strong but also metaphorically she's strong in character and she's strong in her approach to her role as a woman and wife and mother so of course the the keyword would be strength verse 17. strength woman of strength let's move on to verse 18 19th it says she perceives that her merchandise is good so she's running some business and she's buying and selling things making profit and her merchandise is good she's not content with some legal quality but she's actually producing good quality merchandise whether it's clothes or even fresh produce from the vineyard and her lamp does not go out by that if you take a literally the symptoms that she's working until late at night because the light is still on at night so what would you say the key word would be for verse 18. verse 18. there's a word merchandise merchandise I feel a good synonym or a good word to describe what she's like would be um entrepreneurial like an entrepreneur a business person business woman she's running actually good business merchandise she has merchandise which is good she is very planning entrepreneurial and then she's making me money running some business working till late and verse 19 stretches she stretches out her hands to this stuff her hand holds the spindle the fist often spindle are the instruments that you use for those big big machines to make cloth if you've seen those um or what do you call that the um the spindle like spinning spinning machine that to make cloth when I one thing that they were still using that hand manual machine and you could hear the sound click click click click and then basically a woman is sitting there and then you actually pass the spindle back and forth back and forth through all these sort of threads going vertically and they actually make the cloth and you can actually make with some patterns and so on so she's stretch up her hands to the distance and the spindle she's working until late and she's working with her own hands let's say that's for the lack of anything else from this verse the keywords are the spindle and this stuff for this stuff and spindle this stuff and spindle the water stuff is also quite interesting this stuff is based on stick that has all kinds of wool or Flex thread around it but this stuff which is basically a role of thread if you imagine is a metaphor for mother's line of descent it actually refers to like if you are you know born from your father and your mother then you can go through your father's line and genealogy it can also go to your mother's genealogy and we see that quite regularly in the Bible that this person came from the father's line and from Mother's line in Jesus line obviously from both the father's line which was Royal David's side and also another sign was also from David Royal Line as well and um there are a few women mentions in that genealogy of Jesus Christ so mother's life is quite important especially in Jewish culture another's line is more valid than the father's line in a sense because mother has more influence on children and therefore in terms of education and philosophy and what really is drilled into the little child from young age is what mother teaches the child so this stuff has this sort of um sort of implied sort of metaphorical meaning as well so it may be something to do that to do with that here as well but literally here she's working with spindle and his staff and working until late so you can say that the key words here in verse 19 do you stop and spindle and so far we've seen her relationship with husband and also her relationship with the family and the household now the spirit is widening her influence is now widening to people who are now outside look at verse 20 verse 20 which is the 11th Hebrew of the calf it begins with cough he says she extends a hand to the poor yes she reaches out her hands to the needy so she's a compassionate lady she not only cares for the people in the household but also who are needy and who are poor and the implication is those people who are outside so this is uh influence to others beyond the household the keyword there if you choose just the one keyword that's uh so encapsulating the idea that would be generous generous one generous in verse 20. she is generous in verse 21 fourth keeper alphabet and verse 21 she is not afraid of snow for her household for all her household is clothed in The Scarlet so she's prepared she's prepared for the whole household for the winter you know in winter in the ancient days you could imagine how cold it would be without all the modern day heating so you need some good clothing and she's prepared all the household with this warm Nice Clothing for the winter she's been working with wooden Flex all this time especially if wool would be a good material or winter clothing and she's working with just stop and spindle and she's prepared for the whole family so that there's no lack of gain as we read before and she has prepared for the winter and the whole household including even the maid servant is clothed with Scarlet clothing but clothing with Scarlet what's Scarlet Scarlet is the purples of color and as you know in the ancient days purple cloth or Scarlet was very expensive because the dye material was very expensive to die with Scarlet you have to go through um also process but not only that to get the raw material from the sea who that we which could be used to actually dye the material with scarlet color it's expensive you know that Lydia in the New Testament was the seller of purple or seller of scarlet she was in that business selling the Scarlet cloth which was expensive and treasured now here all household is clothed in The Scarlet so she's not um you know in need or in want you can imagine she is quite well off she's wealthy she's not flaunting her Riches of wealth wealth well she's using that wealth to care for the family and the whole family is prepared they're not afraid of any cold then nice and warm and they are provided fully as fully as possible and she's in a sense using her wealth lavishly on the Family and that's verse 21. if you want to remember a word from that verse you can just pick the last three there clothe it with Scarlet or clothing with Scarlet Scarlet clothes uh you know whatever order you want and um that is actually our native person verse 21 Scarlet Scarlet clothing Scarlet now verse 22 let's move on to verse 22 verse 22 13th Hebrew word meme she makes tapestry for herself for bad covering for herself the clothing is fine and purple they continue in that sort of theme with Scarlet purple there as well but tapestry or bed covering or tapestry obviously means not just a simple single color bed covering but he's a bad problem it's all kinds of patterns woven in it is not only for itself of course if it is for herself it's for her husband and for the family as well the clothing is fine and then and purple we can also imagine that it is not only for the family but she provides for herself as well her clothing is fine Lennon and purpose imagine that this one this excellent wife is wearing this fine linen sort of very flowing kind of garment and it is purple and this is for her she provides for the husbands and the family even the maid servants and even to the poor and the needy but she does not forget to provide for herself and she does not forget to Adorn herself with beauty so verse 22 tapestry bed covering the questions and all sorts of things to do with cloth on at home but also she looks out herself and her own self like Beauty so that the husband can appreciate that beauty of course if you compare this to the earlier chapters of Proverbs all these seductress and all these immoral women would also Adorn and and make themselves Beautiful by similar clothes but for the purpose of tempting another man for the purpose of bringing a man into deep sexual immoral sin that was for the purpose of immorality not here is for the purpose of pleasing the husband and providing the needs of the family so um this this is a different kind of beauty this is the beauty that we read from the New Testament that the woman Adorn herself with not expensive clothing or Jewels or some sort of gemstones in the hair but with the character and the beauty but also it does not forget um we should not forget that it is referring to the outward beauty that is based on the inner beauty as well so um the accent woman here and she's also caring for her own Beauty or the husbands let's say that the keyword for this verse is tapestry if you want that word from your King James version tapestry I think that's a good word that captures the idea of the beautiful bed covering and finding the clothes verse 23 verse 23 let's see what he says verse 23 the 14th Hebrew word none her husband is known in the gates when she when he sits among the Elders of the land what does that mean now in the ancient days in villages there were City walls and City Gates and the gates was not just um you know Gates or doorway now these Gates were actually substantial structure where the village Elders could sit and what they do they sit at the gate and they monitor the traffic people go in and compound they can control their entry or exit not only that they get to know the people there and they can actually judge matters of the village in fact The Villages when they're having problems with like some some legal matters or possessions and some disputes they would bring that to the Village elves at the cape so the Yankees a place like um we could say that that's almost like a community center or a little village or you know for big places like Council chamber it could even be like a Parliament House or Courthouse is that version of The Little Village here and the husband is sitting at the gates with the Elders of the land which means if the husband is possibly one of the elders or at least the husband is known at the gates indicates as an elder or as someone who is influential and leading role in the village people acknowledge that and they will bring matters to the husband and to the elders there where husband is one of them in other words the husband of the sexual quietly is honored honored let's say that verse 23 keyword is honored husband honoring husband because if you want to be honored um as a man then you you need a good wife Max with life and we see that all the time even in this world right wherever there are influential Noble respectful leaders there are they are married and they they almost always have very supportive and very virtuous wife behind them you've got the king and the queen you've got the president and the first lady you've got the leader and the leader's wife who wants all these crucial and in fact you can say that the husband and the wife are in that role together so you have an honor husband and that would be your keyword in verse 23. and verse 24 he goes back to making garments she makes living garments and sells them and supplies sashes for the merchants but what we see here is that she's actually not just providing for the family but she's doing more in whatever's leftover she sells so verse 24 th Hebrew word samek she is doing business so she sells them she supplies sashes into the belts for the merchants she sell to the merchants so the merchants can pay money and buy them from the wife so verse 24 we have this woman engaging in some business money making business that is based on home business where she's involved in making producing merchants and selling them as well if you want um you can just um choose a keyword for verse 24 as business woman or business business woman making business and making money and you can see that uh before that with the prophet she buys filled and she finds Vineyard and she does the farming there's no lack of anything for the husband providing food and buying food from afar and all they are you know they're all connected and she's doing this you know verse 25 we kind of um broadened the influence again a little bit uh verse 25 and 26 it talks about the wife as a teaching woman teaching or leading others but verse 25 goes back to the character of strength strength and honor are her clothing strength and dignity honor or dignity it talks about a class a virtue she is strong and she's honorable and inside her clothing which means that's what people seal the outside she's clothed with strength and dignity this is 16th Hebrew of the 16th verse in the texts are in strengthen honor dignity class virtue it says she shall rejoice in time to come in time to come surely in due time she shall rejoice it could take some time but it's so with integrity and you reap in time with joy so let's say that verse 25 the key word there strength and honor we've actually used those strength a lot so let's say that dignity dignity or honor is a key word let's say dignity is closer to the original text of dignity in verse 25 16th verse here the 17th verse 26 verse 26 a Hebrew of a pet he says she opens her mouth with wisdom so it goes into teaching role and are on her tongue is the role of kindness or loving kindness so she's a teacher here so the key word would be you can say teacher or let me actually suggest one really good word it's the loving kindness in New King James his symphysis kindness but it is loving kindness and the original words you have to remember this because this is a really important word for God's attribute this describes God's attributes and that is Hebrew word that pronounces like cassette and it's a word that means loving kindness kindness it is also a word that implies loyalty and faithfulness it is a word that describes your loving kindness that does not depend on the other person and that's important because God's mercy his kindness does not depend on us or people recipients but it depends on God's character and that's what she's like she speaks of this cassette loving kindness of Gods she speaks wisdom from her mouth so you can see that she's teaching she has lots of wisdom whenever you have any whenever you have any questions or lives questions you know to do with anything that your your life may throw at you you can always go to your mother you can always go to your husband or wife the husband can go to the wife and seek some wisdom and kindness I mean just because the Bible says that you know women shouldn't teach and men are teaching people in the church doesn't mean that the husbands you know can disregard or even sort of look down on the wife the wife often is as wise as the husband even wiser on some areas and they are more perceived perceptive and perceived things that that we miss and that's why we you know men and men come together and they complement one another and they actually make up one more complete person so you go to her for wisdom especially if you're talking about an older woman or a mother then children can and should be able to go to the mother and see wisdom and counsel if you I mean we've seen this before we've studied this from before A few weeks ago when we looked at um family as children you have to obey your parents and obeying means honor your parents so that if it is staying your parents if you think that your mom and your dad doesn't you know cannot give you any words of wisdom and look down on them that's proud that Pride and that that is not right now here an excellent woman is able to give words of wisdom and even talk about the law of God's kindness love and kindness so let's say that the key word for verse 2016 is loving kindness if you want to use the Hebrew word it's cassette you can remember that as well if you like but that's who she is in verse 27 you can actually say that it is now focusing on this excellent wife as a mother so look at this some sort of progression a young woman marries gets married so she's the wife so her relationship is focused on her relationship and responsibility towards the husband so she's the wife and as the household grows with children and maybe even made Seven you know people working for you your employees and so on then she is now growing and growing in the spirit of influence of the household and even Beyond in doing some business and making even money and all that time you can see that the children are growing up and she's been a mother for all these years and by some stage she's old enough to give was a wisdom and talk about God's word and God's law of kindness so she's maturing over the years and with children and maybe even grandchildren she has wisdom and she is now mature Godly mother and that's what we see in verse 27 to 29. so let's move on to verse 27 18th verse in the texts Hebrew alphabets Sade or t-s-a-d-e it says she watches over the ways over household she's like household manager or overseer in fact in the great translation it actually says house Lord literally he says house lordes it simply means the one who is controlling and ruling the household so you can imagine a woman who is managing the whole household and this is a quite a sizeable household here as well she does not eat the bread of idleness as a mother she's in charge of the home let's say that the key word in verse 27 is household household she manages and oversees a household and she's not idle we've seen it already she's so diligent she gets up in the morning before the sun comes up at night and she works late until uh late until until late at night and the light doesn't go out she does not eat the bread of idleness she's making money and selling and buying things providing the knees and also providing the needs of herself as well it was 28 is 19th verse in the text it's um Hebrew of the cuff cuff verse 28 her children rise up and call her blessed you can see that she now has children they rise up they get up and they call her blessed I think um it would be easy to do this if your mother is already up from the Dawn and prepares breakfast for you the first thing that you smell is the smell of mum cooked breakfast and you come down that's the dining table or The Breakfast Table and you bless your mom always be a thank mom her children rise up and call her blessed her husband also and he Praises us this is a beautiful picture of the family together in the morning rising up early in the morning and sitting around the table and praising the mother and blessing the mother praising the wife verse 28 a key word would be to bless or blessing and praise children plus husband Praises her blessing and praise blessing praise now this by the way also um is the reward you will touch on that as well but this is the result in verse 29 many daughters have done well that is in quotes can you see that this is what the husband says to the wife many daughters have done well but you exhale them all or many dollars have been excellent but you surpassed them all so even you know it's more like um it goes from relative to superlative it Compares but also it culminates in the the most excellent thing and she and he says to her but you Excel or surpass them all this is what husband says to the wife I guess um in a sense as a wife um this would be your goal really you know if your husband can say this to you then that would be wonderful that would be a really cause for thanks to God but at the same time the husband can can praise the woman the wife for her all her work and faithfulness especially these years and With All My Children let's say that the keyword here is Excel or subpass for inverse 29. more and better than others not merely content with normal or mediocre but um now the there's a really important verse 31 and 32 let's say that of course 31 and 32 is encapsulating everything so far and putting it into this into these two verses about the excellent wife as a believer saint so this applies really to all people now verse 30 this is the 21st alphabet Hebrew alphabet Shin Shin in fact let me suggest to you the memory verse for today we read from the bulletin was Ephesians 6 6. now that will be your memory verse from next week because we will study that scripture text term next week about Christians for ethics but today's memory verse which is I would suggest verse 30 would be with memory verse so just make a note of that proverbs 31 30 is this week's memory verse and it'll be on the bulletin next week as last week's memory card so that memory verse for the next exploration will be proverbs 31 30 and if an Ephesians 6 6 and this is what it says listen to this charm is deceitful as we have seen in the earlier chapters of Proverbs and beauty is passing of course even though you have you know good Beauty it is still passing or in vain in some translations it says in vain but a woman who fears the Lord she shall be praised do you like that the beauty outward Beauty and charm is passing it is in vain it is deceitful not everything you see is true beauty is on his skin deep as they say well where is the true beauty it is inside and a woman who fears the Lord she shall be praised praised of course what this person is saying as you can see in Proverbs there are a lot of verses that I could say positive and negative and negative and positive it is good to do this but this is evil no this is what evil people do but this is what good people do and Faith people do you see that all the time now here it is using that contrast in verse 30 as well so charm to sit for beauty is passing but the real Beauty this is saying the real beauty is in a woman who fears the Lord and she shall be praised see it's not only that you shall be praised but this is a true beauty of any woman who fears the Lord let's say that the key words or key words or key phrase in this verse is the fear of the Lord the fear of the Lord the woman who fears the Lord if anything if you want to look at just one thing when you look at a woman you want to see whether the woman is this a God-fearing woman by the way um let me also say that this applies to all people or both men and women right God-fearing man God-fearing woman that's what we need to be in fact um remember in verse 10 says who can find The Virtuous wife who can find an excellent wife that's how it started the equivalent version of that is found in Provost Proverbs Chapter 19 and 20. if you look at that there's exactly the same phrase for men who can find a faithful man an excellence woman faithful man it is the one who fears the Lord she shall be praised the fear of the Lord now the last verse verse 31 which is a 22nd Hebrew of the last alphabet Tau give her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works that's her own words praise her in the gates now this is reaping the the benefits this is a reward give her the fruits of her hands to work with your hands so diligently and she'll get the fruit of that let her own works praise her indicates as we have sinned in the gates meaning that this is about the people in the village if the elders praise the whole village praise her and you can imagine that everybody is speaking well of this woman it is all because of our own works not just about you know producing clothes and buying food and providing the needs of the family and managing the household well but essentially her life the whole life the husbands and her character and all of the results of that would praise her in the gates by the whole people in the village so this is a blessing that God promises so going back to that blessings let's look at at least for seven of them there just go back to verse 11 verse 11 says the first blessing would be this that her heart he says her husband's the heart of her husband say if he trusts her an excellent woman has a blessing of the husband's trust and respect you want your husband's respect and your husband's trust then you be the excellent wife as described here and this is what you will get and verse 11 also he says No Lack of gain so he will have no lack of gain which basically means the whole household and the the picture as well so the Second Blessing is that she'll not lack anything not lacking in anything look at verse 23 the third blessing that we can find here in verse 23 the husband is honored remember that honored husband known in the gates so your husband will be honored and you'll be honored together as a wife who is essential to the husbands success is supporting role that you play will it's so crucial and critical to the honor of both of you your husband and wife the fourth blessing that we see here in verse 28 is that you also um build up your home your family that your children bless you and your husband Praises you so this is a picture of really well built up Godly family so one blessing Another Blessing of excellent wife is that you have well cared for family and that can that is consistently what we've learned to build up Godly family and number five fifth blessing was actually go back to verse 23 there's another one in verse 23 you can say that he says the husband sits among the Elders of the land so your husband's down will be honored or respected but your husband will be given an important position influential position most likely in leading position so if you want your husband to be in leading role or position of influence then you know this is what it is this this describes a woman who actually would bring that so that will be number five and number six sixth blessing we see from verse 28 to 29 is you get blessing and praise from your children and husbands your children your family speak well of you praise and blessing from your family and number seven seventh blessing from verse 31. you have praise from the people not just your family but people outside of your family so there you have it all 22 verses there and we've given each verse some key words or key phrases so you can remember let me just go over them and perhaps put them all together and weave them all together as one you know one one piece of tapestry to borrow that metaphor now I'll just um give you the keywords an excellent wife first came receives trust from the husband does good to the husband or online an excellent wife works works hard provides food and diligence an excellent wife even thus farming by Vineyards Vineyard in garden she's strong she's business minded just any merchandise she also provides clothing using this stuff and spindle she's also generous to the poor and to the needy but herself she's also clauded with Scarlet she's also adoring herself with true beauty or even outward Beauty she provides tapestry bed covering and her husband is honored she's selling merchandise and running business to make profit she is a woman of strength and dignity she has walls of wisdom loving kindness of God she also cares for the household as a mother she receives blessing and praise from the family she surpasses all the other women but more than anything she fears the Lord and she's praised by all people so that's a kind of summary note also lastly this is not just for women of course on the surface it is definitely for excellent life but this cannot obviously um see that there's a connection from this to the relationship of the church and Christ an excellent wife to a faithful husband excellent bride the church to a faithful bridegroom Jesus Christ yes this is a picture of an excellent wife but also it is consistent with how Christians can be excellent to Jesus Christ so which three have you picked maybe you can share that and hear from one another I'm doing our table time but let these words be blessed blessed Wars and gift to you you know on Mother's Day um you receive sometimes gifts present to go out for dinner and all of that I thought perhaps I could give this message this text as a gift to you mothers especially but after hearing all that as a mother or maybe as a prospect in a future wife or mother in the future he might just think that you've been given a whole lot of instructions it can be like that okay this is what excellent woman is like does that mean that I have to do this I I have to not do this but with this this it may sound like a series of instructions that could be burdensome especially towards information anyway I think what kind of gift is that what kind of present is that I mean you want to receive something that will make you feel good if you receive a presence and that's what presents do it makes us glad I mean can this be a present if these or if it sounds like a series of instructions and lessons and even admonition or correction now let me say this to you the word of God is not about feel good message right we don't read the Bible to make us feel good in fact quite often we read the Bible to make us feel bad for our shortcomings and our sinful nature our sins but eventually we are glad we are guiding our souls because we are forgiven we can repent and we can be restored and we can be reconciled to God So eventually there is this spiritual level of gladness not just temporal passing pleasures of some material gifts so the best gift that anyone can get is the word of God it may not be all pleasing to our flesh it may be even offensive towards into the flesh but this is what we need this is what all mothers need this is what all Christians need and we're not dealing with what we want but we're actually talking about what we need what we need from God and God has given us that and this has to be the best gift this has to be the gift that is not valuable you know not valued do not able to be valued by money this is eternal last words of God so May these words be the best gifts that you have received or you could give to anyone else especially on this day to your mothers or pray my father got me thank you for these so not so so nourishing words the words that really speak to our hearts especially to mothers and to wives to women but also it speaks to our souls for every Christian and we are so thankful for giving us these instructions feel somewhat pressured and burdened it may be that we're still controlled by our sinful flesh of course we can see that unbelievers have no ability and capacity to appreciate and to listen to these words because spiritual things are discerned by the spirit and the flesh cannot discern or appreciate the spiritual messages of God well we Christians can see the true worth and value in this text it is it's far above rubies it's far above any jewels of this world this is so precious and this is so worthy and this is Everlasting it is unchanging we thank you for that so that we can always trust in these words because you are faithful and your words are faithful Maybe by your grace Lord may we have the ability to apply these lessons in our lives but on this particular Mother's Day we pray that that you will bless all the mothers all the women and even future mothers especially in our church so that we will be filled with Godly women in the church who will carry on the ministry that you have committed upon them for the church so Faithfully so that they will be rewarded as you have said in verse 31. that they are praised by not just family but they are praised by all people as they are praised and blessed by the people in the church but more than anything that they will be praised by you when we all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ we ask all these things in our Lord and savior Jesus name [Music] thank you Pastor for that wonderful sermon let's conclude with I lost him and asked everyone to rise I'll ask him I will be here 324. God our Father we adore you foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all right we are Glory [Applause] [Music] area [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] erase [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] for God's blessing remember as we talk about this Mother's Day the blessing that Elizabeth given to Mary the very mother of Jesus she said blessed are you among all women and blessed is the fruit of the of your womb but why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me and even we know that from inside the mother's womb inside Elizabeth's womb from the Baptist to the faith were left for joy as they met with Mary and Jesus in the very School but we pray that this blessing would be a blessing to all our mothers and to all the women especially in our church and pray that on this particular day that we will remember that all the blessings come from you and we turn our eyes to you for the source of all the blessing and all the good things all good gifts come from you know so acknowledge that I'm giving thanks and we pray for a bless you on all love others now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present your office before the presence of his glory with exceeding Joy this is how the church is represented at as The Perfect Bride without spot wrinkle or any such thing as a perfect and excellent wife to the groom of Jesus Christ and to our God and our savior who alone is wise the glory and majesty and dominion and power both now and forever okay please be seated and let us have a version of reflection

Channel: Sydney Grace Community Church

Views: 370

Keywords: Sydney Grace Community Church, Pastor Dennis Park

Id: 2Yf4iwLSIBk

Length: 81min 0sec (4860 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 11 2023