Happy Mother’s Day! This Sunday, we will take a break from Hebrews as we praise God for His gift of Mothers. We will also have baby dedication in the second service. Because of the occasion, we will examine several verses from Proverbs 31, the quintessential passage extolling the virtuous woman (or the excellent wife). This is a very well-known section that is often preached and taught on Mother’s Day. Unfortunately, I was often taught that Proverbs 31 is a checklist of virtuous actions the woman does to be excellent or worthy. If I were a woman or a mother (don’t laugh), Proverbs 31 wouldn’t encourage me or show me the virtue in my worth or calling. It would make me feel unworthy! The woman of Proverbs 31 is the epitome of honor, virtue, wisdom, and strength. Yet, when we look at ourselves, we are confronted with sin, mistakes, and inability. Sunday, we will look at Proverbs 31 a bit differently (“correctly” in my opinion). We will, of course, read Proverbs 31:10-31, but rather than run down the checklist of attributes and measure our worth and value by them, we will focus our attention on v. 28-31, finding that this “excellent wife” or “virtuous woman” is excellent and virtuous not because of all the things she does, but because she fears the Lord. Because she fears the Lord (which makes her “excellent”), she does all the wonderful things in this list. Her actions are not the source of her excellency but the fruit of her fear of the Lord. Proverbs is a book about wisdom, and this woman is presented as the model of wisdom. All her actions reflect previous teachings in Proverbs regarding what the wise do. The book begins by saying, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,” and Proverbs ends by showing us this woman’s fear of the Lord expressed in a life of wisdom. She is excellent and virtuous because she fears the Lord, and because of that, we all must take heed. “a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.” (Prov. 31:30).
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