Our text is taken from Proverbs 31:10-31. The heart of our text stands at both the beginning and the end of this Word of God. First of all, in verse 10, "Who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her so that he shall have no need of spoil. She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life." And then at the end of that same passage which we consider, the spiritual principle of that virtuous woman, " Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain, but the woman that feareth the LORD , she shall be Praised."
The Word of God, beloved, which we read and which constitutes our text, intends to draw for us a picture of a godly wife. It draws a picture first of all of the Israelitish wife as she labors in her place and calling. The Word of God sets before us that labor which was proper to her in the home, and her life as a wife in the midst of Israel. It draws a very beautiful description of that labor. It draws a picture for us beloved, of one who is indeed a daughter of Zion, who is a daughter of Zion in her heart, because she walks in the fear of the LORD. One who is a child of God and a faithful wife in her calling. It sets before us the truth that such a wife is more precious than rubies. Her price is far above the jewels of this world because she is the work of God's grace. She is a gift unto a believing husband so that the Word of God says that, "a prudent wife is from the Lord", that," he that findeth a wife obtaineth a good thing and findeth favor of the Lord." It sets before us that blessing which God has for His believing people, a blessing for the daughters of Zion when their children shall rise up and call them blessed, and their husbands also, and their work shall be praised before the Lord, for the Lord Himself shall praise them.
For it is God Who speaks here. And He sets before us what is indeed in many respects an ideal picture, far beyond the strength of any. He sets before you who are wives that which you are to strive to be. He sets before you young women that which is the highest calling of a woman in the church, the thing which you are to seek at His hand. It sets before you young men the wife you are to seek. It sets before those who are husbands the rich blessing, whom God gives, in godly wives.
And the standard and ideal, which the Scriptures set before us, is very different from the standards of this world. Here is not to be found the glamorous and the beautiful. Here is not to be found that independent woman of this world who is involved in her own career. Here is to be found the meek and the lowly, the woman that feareth the Lord. And we must also see that by way of contrast this afternoon. It is exactly for that purpose also that we read those other passages out of proverbs. They have something to say to us about the meaning of our text, as we shall see.
With that in mind, consider with me the Virtuous Woman. Consider in the first place her inner adornment, which is most fundamental; secondly, her faithful labor, which forms that body of description in our text; finally, her praise, which is of God.
I. Her Inner Adornment
When you read this passage, beloved, it becomes very plain, does it not, that there is one underlying principle here? And that when the Word of God talks about the believing wife, that it is exactly this which sets her apart from all else, that she is a woman who fears Jehovah. If there is any adornment or beauty to be found in a woman, it is this and this alone. The virtuous woman is more precious that rubies. She is so because she has one fundamental characteristic, one adornment that stands out above all else, and that is this, she is a child of God. She trusts in the Lord, and bows in the fear of God before His Word. She is adorned with that work of God's grace in her heart whereby she is made a living daughter of Zion, a child of God by faith. God alone makes the virtuous woman. God alone makes a wife who is indeed a blessing, for faith and godly fear do not proceed from us. It is that work of God's grace and Spirit in us, whereby the Lord takes us as we are, dead in ourselves, sinful and rebellious, and washes away our sin and uncleanness, uniting us unto Jesus Christ our Lord, making us one plant with Him.
The spiritual adornment of the virtuous woman, that woman which is above rubies in her price is this above all else, that she fears Jehovah. That she is a child of God. God alone can take that fountain of sinful pride which is rooted in the flesh of every man and woman, and humble it in the dust. He alone can take that rebellious sinfulness of our flesh and turn it around, writing there the love of God. The virtuous woman is one who knows the Lord, whose heart is set upon the Lord, her God. She is one who confesses her sins, humbling herself before God, seeking her life not in herself, but in Jesus Christ. She is to be praised. She is the subject of our text.
There are many kinds of adornment in the world. God sets before us, beloved,this one adornment-- a believing and obedient heart which fears Jehovah-- as that which is most precious. And without it, no woman is indeed beautiful, and that is manifest in this also, that she walks in meekness and in godly fear as a child of God. That is why those Proverbs, which we read, say that a prudent wife, a wife that fears the Lord, is a gift of God. He makes virtuous women, not man. By the sovereign power of His grace He makes women, who are in themselves foolish and unbelieving, His own daughters, binding them to Himself. That is the wife, which every believing young man ought to seek.
And that means too that that fear of the Lord which is written upon the heart comes to conscious and active expression in a godly walk of life. The fear of God bears the fruit of a walk of godly fear. For you that are wives, that walking by faith before the Lord begins by taking up His Word, with meekness before the Lord and with prayer, seeking His grace day by day. As a woman that fears Jehovah you seek to know His will, to know the way of the Lord, and to walk in His precepts. You seek to clothe yourself, not with your own strength and your own wisdom and the philosophy of this world, but with that strength and wisdom which God alone can give. That is why our text says that strength and honor are the clothing of a godly woman.
It is with spiritual sobriety and meekness, as the virtues of a child of God, that the godly woman clothes herself, that the young woman who seeks a husband in the church clothes herself. It is a woman who is thus clothed whom you, young men, are to seek as a wife. It is that which causes the husband of such a wife to rise up and call her blessed. Not broidered hair and gold or pearls are the adornment of the daughters of Zion. The adornment of the believing godly women is wholly other from the adornment of this world. It is, as the Apostle Paul says in I Timothy 2, that adornment which becometh godliness, and he says in verse 9 by way of exhortation, " In like manner also that the women adorn themselves in modest apparel with shamefacedness and sobriety, not with broidered hair or gold or pearls or costly array, but that which becometh women professing godliness, with good works. Put on faith, put on charity, put on meekness." It is for the very same reason that Peter calls us as children of God to add to our "� faith, virtue and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge temperance, and to temperance patience, and to patience, godliness, to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you and abound they make you that ye shall not be barren nor unfruitful in knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Such,beloved, is the adornment of the godly woman, whose price is above rubies. A living faith which walks day by day with the Lord her God, whose joy is in Christ her Savior, and whose confidence is not in herself, but in that cross of Jesus Christ. She is beautiful indeed. It is this that you and I are to seek,that adornment,that Spiritual beauty, that walk of faith with the Lord. To be a woman that feareth Jehovah is to possess all that the women of this world lack. It is a beauty, which God approves, a glory that transcends the glory of this world.
That may be somewhat hard to hear. We live in a world, which makes much of another kind of beauty, another kind of adornment, and that is the outward appearance and adornment of the flesh. The Word of God says of that, that grace is deceitful. And favor, that outward beauty of the women of this world, is a lie. It is vain.Understand that well, you young women.
It is vain in the first place because it fades away and does not endure. It has no abiding value. Oh, but God does not indeed advocate ugliness. Nevertheless, the Scriptures never make very much of feminine beauty. To be modest, to be chaste, becometh godliness. It is one thing to be fittingly and attractively dressed, as is pleasing to your husband. The virtuous woman as she is described in out text is one whose clothing is silk and purple. She is not intentionally unattractive. But nevertheless, her adornment is not found in silk and purple, but in her faith. The children of this world want to draw attention to themselves and to walk in sinful pride. And they make much of the outward appearance of women. They set up an idol before which they bow down and worship, and object to be lusted after by every man that walks by. They come to you with all kinds of propaganda, all kinds of information on how to make yourselves more and more beautiful, more attractive and seductive. And they pour out again and again in all that they do that one great image of the beautiful woman, whose body is oh so attractive, whose hair is beautifully arranged. They have magazines devoted to every part of you from your feet to your head, from your hair to your make-up. And they tell you, "Be glamorous, dress this way, walk that way, look this way. This is what makes a woman attractive. This is what makes her truly beautiful. This is the woman you should be."
The Word of God says of all those things, and you young women, understand that! That it is deceitful, it is a lie. It is nothing but emptiness. A fair woman without spiritual discretion of faith, says the writer of Proverbs, is worthless. She is an abomination. Those beautiful women who are portrayed in all the advertising know not the Lord. They have not His fear. They are not women who fear Jehovah. They are women of this world, daughters of the Canaanite and the Philistine. The Word of God says of them, that they have no spiritual discretion at all. They are utterly to be rejected. Understand that, you young men, and you husbands. The beauty of your wife is not to be found in her outward appearance, but in that adornment of faith and its fruit in godly obedience. And you women also, it is not how your hair looks today, but where your heart is in church that is of importance, that you are women that fear the Lord.
And that the Word of God might underscore this beloved, we read in Proverbs 11:22, that " � as a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without discretion." All those beautiful women, however fair they may be, have no spiritual discretion. Do you know what they are? They are nothing but a jewel of gold in a pig's nose. That's what they are. That's what God says about them. Are you seeking to be a jewel of gold in a pig's nose? Is that the kind of woman you want to marry? " As a jewel of gold in a swine's snout, so is a fair woman without discretion." That is, without the perception and discernment that comes from the Spirit of God. Grace is deceitful. Beauty is vain. Walk in your faith. That is your first adornment. Without it you are nothing. Such a wife seek. Such a wife is to be praised because she is truly beautiful in the sight of God. She is His workmanship.And that ,beloved, that spiritual adornment of piety and godliness, comes to expression in a godly walk too. Our text emphasizes that as well. It says of that woman that she is adorned with wisdom. "She openeth her mouth with wisdom and in her tongue is the law of kindness." She walks in meekness and humility before the Lord in the love of the neighbor so that when she opens her mouth there comes forth from her that living reality of faith in Christ, and she speaks out of the kindness of her own heart, because the kindness and the mercy of her God dwell there. A virtuous woman is not a busybody. She is not an idle slanderer, a talebearer whose tongue is sharp and pointed to wound and cut the neighbor. She is not one who delights in gathering together with the other women to gossip about all the things going on in the neighborhood and the family and to tear and to cut down. In her mouth is the law of kindness.
She is a woman who fears Jehovah and she walks that way with her husband and her children. She walks in kindness with them in all wisdom. Her husband is not that object of scorn and ridicule that is called hen-pecked. He is not one who has a wife who is continually contentious and who uses her tongue as a weapon against him. She is not a brawling woman who is always angry and bitter and striving with her husband, because the meekness and humility which belong to a godly woman are in her heart. She humbles herself before God and she does so therefore also in kindness before her husband. That is why the Word of God says unto you as godly women, "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as unto the Lord," and that in all things lawful according to the Word of God. Obey them, reverence them, says the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:33."reverence her husband." The women of this world, who walk in brazen boldness over against their husbands, are not the children of God. The woman, who walks with a sharp, contentious tongue, is not a wife who fears Jehovah. And you as children of God have also that weakness of the flesh that cleaves to you. " It is better", says the Word of God, " to dwell in the corner of a housetop, than with a brawling woman in a wide house". "Yea, it is better to dwell in a wilderness than with a contentious and angry woman". Such a woman will always have her own way and in her mouth there is very little kindness at all. She does not understand the meekness, which ought to characterize her as one who fears the Lord. That meekness and humility which we have before God shows itself in how we walk. Such is to be the walk of a godly wife.
And that means too, that she seeks the kingdom. She adorns herself with the hope of salvation. She is a woman who is seeking first the things, which are above. The focus of her life is not upon the things of this world. She is not continually nagging her husband for the treasures of Egypt and the things of this life, because she wants this and she wants that. She is not greedy and covetous. Rather, the godly woman seeks the things that are above. And she walks in that principle too when it comes to her whole life and walk, so that in her walk in the home she is prudent, careful and diligent. She is not one from whom you have to take the credit cards because you cannot trust her. She is not one who is always nagging her husband for this or that new thing in the home, so that her voice becomes, as it were, like the continual dropping of the rain on a very rainy day, always pursuing her husband. Her husband may safely leave in her care, and that with confidence, that which is her proper sphere and charge, the home.
The heart of the husband of that virtuous woman doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil. He will not have to go out and by unjust gain accumulate wealth to keep the continual dropping silent. Nor, because his wife is so caught up with the things and treasures of this world, will he be always on the edge of bankruptcy. She walks by faith, seeking the things, which are above.
That's very different from the children of this world who find their meaning in the things of this life here below. That's very different from the women of this world who are always anxious about what they shall eat and what they shall drink and wherewithal they shall be clothed. The daughters of Zion fear Jehovah, walk in His ways by faith, seeking the city that has foundations. When Abraham went out of the Ur of the Chaldees, not knowing where he was going, Sarah went with him, walking by faith.
Do you see yourselves there? You young women? Wives and Mothers? That is the virtuous woman that our text would set before you. Such women you are to seek to be from the hand of the Lord. The husband who possesses such a wife shall indeed have no need of spoil. He may safely trust in her. For she is a wife who will do him good and not evil all the days of his life.
II. Her Faithful Labor
Our text sets before us a very powerful and vivid description of the life of a woman in Israel who cares for the needs of her home with servants in the house. She labors in her calling in the home. She considers diligently the needs of the household. "She looketh well to the ways of her house." That is where her labor is. She rises up early in the morning before it is light. She is up even before the servants in the home. She is busily involved in those domestic chores proper to the godly woman of the Old Testament. She is involved in those things pertaining to the making of clothing and caring for her household. Busy with spindle and distaff, she does not shirk labor, which was drudgery, even the hard labor, which was to be found in the house. She rises up, girding her loins with strength, to go about the business of the home. And because she did not have supermarkets and grocery stores she also bought a field outside the walled city where she tended the vegetable garden and planted a vineyard, so that there might be food and drink on the table by her hand. And because during certain seasons of the year the cold would come, she was busy with the wool, preparing garments of scarlet, that is garments of brown, reddish wool for her family, which would keep them warm when the cold weather came. She clothes her home, making it a place of rest and beauty, so that it was covered with tapestry, and she herself was clothed with silk and purple.
She was busy too with those domestic industries and barter, which went on with the merchants, making things to sell to gain the practical necessities of life for the home, in her proper sphere, so that she was caught up completely in her domestic labor. She is a complement to her husband, a help, meet for him. While her husband went about his labor and calling to provide the day to day needs of the home, she takes of the fruits of those labors and multiplies them. She makes cloth of the wool of her husband's flocks. This is no small description here. It is a description beloved, of a woman who labors in the sphere of the home exclusively.We need to emphasize that in our day and age. It is the calling of the women of the church and of godly wives, to be keepers at home. You are not called to labor in the world in the sweat of your face.
There is indeed that calling which is an extension of the wifely duty found in the Christian day school in the care of children, and also in those things which belong to the works of mercy. The godly woman is not one who withholds her hand from the poor. She is one who may also labor in the care of the sick. But beyond that proper sphere she has no business to go.
Her calling is to care for the needs of her home and family, her husband and children. To labor faithfully in that place of domestic labor which God has ordained for her, for you. That is the Word of God. The Word of God says to Timothy, for example, in I Timothy 5:14-15 concerning the young widows of the church, that they are to seek the normal life of a young woman in the church which is, " I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some are already turned aside after Satan." He equates the turning away from that calling to faithful labor in the home with going after Satan. Busybodying and idleness. Likewise the Word of God in Titus 3:4-5 speaks unto believing women, and particularly to you who are older women in the church, that it is your calling to "teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands",Wherefore? "That the Word of God be not blasphemed."
The wife is the weaker vessel. She was first to fall in the temptation of Adam and Eve. Her proper sphere is the home, in the care of her husband and children, and it is God's purpose that she be saved in the way of childbearing, not by laboring in the world.
That may not fit very well with the image that the world wants to hold before you young women today. Realize that. The world paints a very beautiful picture of a glamorous career woman out there. She's equal with her husband. She stands on a par with him. She has her own career, her own bank account, her own calling, her own car, friends and life. It says, that's the woman you want to be. That's the whole spirit of feminism today. We have to have daycare centers so that the women can abandon their children. We have to have special places for the children to be instructed because their mothers are working out of the home and because it's nice to have two incomes, it's nice to labor at a career. Why should not the wife after all, have a career as well as her husband? The Word of God says beloved, that that leads to this result, that the Word of God is blasphemed thereby. Because it is sin, and leads to further sin and temptation. The women of this world are engaged in a striving for mastery with their husbands in rebellion against God. "An odious woman when she is married disquiets the earth." And such a women is odious. She bringeth shame upon her whole household. Such a wife is rottenness in the bones of her husband. And there is a good sound reason for it, beloved, which is not difficult to understand. It's very simple. When God set the woman in the creation, when He Created her, He made her for the man, to be a help, meet for him to fill up that which was lacking in the man, to fill up that which was lacking in her husband. She is to be the body and he is to be the head. As Christ is the head of the church, so also is the man the head of the woman. And they two shall be one flesh, says the Scriptures. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one. Now beloved, that idea that the husband has his career and the wife has her career, that she has her goals, and he has his, what is that? It is nothing more than a fundamental denial of the very foundation of marriage, that they are one and not two. That's what it is. And that's all it is. How can the head and the body live apart? How can they have two different lives, two different goals, two independent callings, tow different careers? The ungodly women of this world destroy their own homes. They are foolish women who pluck down the house, not building it like a wise woman. Because they have not faith.
But we are not our own. We belong to our faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, and in Him we stand in a certain place, a certain calling, and that for the godly wife is the home.
Have women of the Christian church today forgotten these things too. Do we follow the world in sin? We are to be one flesh as husbands and wives. We don't have two lives. We have one. And God places the woman, because she is the weaker vessel in the sphere of the home. He says to the husband, and not to the wife, you go out and earn your daily bread in the sweat of your face.
And that married life beloved, is beautiful, and also for the woman. The world likes to describe that life pictured in our text as a life of constant drudgery and toil. Well, yes, it is a life of constant hard work, and there's not much glamour to it as far as the world is concerned. But the Word of God says that a gracious woman, one who is filled with grace and walks therein, retaineth honor. That a wife who labors faithfully and diligently in the home, in that place to which God has called her, just as much as He calls a minister to be a minister, and a teacher to be a teacher, and you men to your labors, retains honor. That wife is not the slave of her husband. She is the crown and glory of the husband. Yes! "A Virtuous woman is a crown to her husband. She that maketh ashamed is as rottenness in his bones." Your wife is not simply some menial servant in the home. She is your crown of glory as a believing husband, given you of God, His blessing. And He nowhere shows Himself more gracious than in this, that He gives unto the believing husband a wife, who in her faithful and loving service in the home, and in the care of children shows herself to be a woman that feareth the Lord.
Then in the second place our text sets not only the sphere of that labor before us, but also her faithfulness in it also. The virtuous woman is one who is industrious. She is diligent in her calling. She works hard at it because she is a child of God who loves the Lord. She does not eat the bread of idleness, says our text. She is diligent. She's up early, and when the sun goes down she is still at work. She's not busy travelling around, coffee-kletzing all the time. She's not busy spending her hours and days in front of the TV set. She is not sleeping all the time. She does not eat the bread of idleness. She is a virtuous woman that feareth Jehovah. She labors as unto the Lord. She labors while it is day in the service of her God, with prudence, with wisdom, attentive to the needs of her home, to the needs of her children, not pleasing her own flesh, but walking in love. Such a wife receives indeed, from an outward point of view, not the praises of men. She does not have the glamour and fame that go with the women of this world. She is meek, quiet, busy with her labor, industrious. She is the crown and glory of her husband. If you have such a wife, rejoice in her. Seek such a wife, young men. Prepare yourselves to be such a wife, young women. It is the most glorious calling of all. It is the norm. God indeed gives to some young women special grace to dwell without a husband and to some young men, the grace also to dwell without a wife. But that's the exception. That's not set before us as the norm. God wills that His people marry, that you young women guide the house and give no occasion to the enemy to blaspheme. He wills that you build the house as wise prudent women, faithful in your domestic labor and in the care of your children.
III. Her Praise
That faithful godly labor, beloved, has praise. Not praise from the world,but praise of God. The world will praise all those brazen women who have done so much for this or that cause, or who have achieved so much in this or that field of business or science, in every other field but this one, of domestic labor, that for which God has ordained the women, that sphere of labor most suited to you. God Himself says of her, " She shall be praised." God will Himself honor a godly woman, for she is His workmanship. He delights to honor her as a reward of His grace. He causes His commendation of that work of grace which He has wrought in her to rise up in the very hearts of her children and her husband, so that they rise up and say unto her, "Blessed." Her husband also praises her. That is not simply the praise of men. That is the praise of God. Godly women don't seek the praises of men. But God in His wisdom delights not to have that light which is set on a candlestick hidden. Nor to have that city which is set on a hill go unnoticed. And where the powerful working of His grace is, it is also His purpose to praise His own Name in the godly women of the church, to have them and the fruit of their labor redound to His praise and honor and glory. He wills therefore that that godly woman be praised, for His own Name's sake. He says, "Give unto her the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates." At the going in and the coming out of the city of Israel, the church, this ideal is to be exalted, not the ideal of the world. That faithful labor, manifested in the daughters of Zion, is worthy of honor and praise.
When your wife labors faithfully in the home from day unto day, do not take it for granted. It is God's work in her and is a blessing to you. She is to be commended. She is to be set forth as an example of a woman that feareth the Lord.
God says also of that faithful industrious wife that her husband is known because of her, when he sitteth in the gates among the elders of the land. Her husband also, because his wife is a glory to him, and a gift of God, is known and respected as a man that fears the Lord, whose house is an example to God's people.
Finally, beloved, that faithful and godly wife, who may be oh so unsung according to the standards of this world, who has labored and walked by faith in a toil which the world considers abominable, shall also receive praise from One Who is greater than all. One day that work shall be fully formed in you, God's work of grace shall be complete in you, and you shall stand before Christ your Savior. Then He will say unto you, as He says also unto all His faithful servants who love Him, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Thou hast been faithful over a few things. I will make thee ruler over many things. Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord." She shall receive the reward of grace.You young women, hear these words, seek them.. You wives, labor in the light of them in your home and calling. You husbands, thank God that He has given you such a wife. Pray for her. You young men,seek such a wife. For, "�whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing and obtaineth favor of the Lord." A prudent wife is a gift of God. "Grace is deceitful and favor is vain, but the woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised." Amen.
(Rev. Thomas Miersma is the Home Missionary for the Protestant Reformed Churches in North America.)
