She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands. Proverbs 31:13 NIV
Today we see that our lady of Proverbs is a worker bee!
Throughout history, the lady of the house was actively involved in the gathering and spinning of textiles to be made into clothing.
The lady of Proverbs 31 is no different!
If she’d chosen NOT to participate in this activity she would definitely have been seen as a lazy wife.
While studying this verse my attention was especially captivated by one particular commentator who pointed out that
She did not buy ready woven cloth: she procured the raw material, if wool, most probably from her own flocks; if flax, most probably from her own fields.
www.studylight.org, Adam Clarke Commentary
The phrase, from her own fields, captivated me. Probably because it reminded me of something said by Jesus in Luke
He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest fields.
Luke 10:2, NIV
Isn’t it fascinating that a characteristic of the Proverbs 31, the woman that the church should model itself after, is her willingness to work with products in the field and that Jesus later states that He needs workers in the field?
It could be coincidental but I doubt it!
How incredibly important it must be that we, as the church, put out hands to work for Jesus!
And, may I be so bold as to say that we need to work our OWN field! What do I mean by that? I mean that it’s sometimes easy to say, “Well, the preacher/teacher/missionaries will handle that” and sit happily in our homes with idle hands!
The woman of Proverbs 31 probably had people who could do the work of gathering products to spin into textiles for her.
But, she didn’t. She knew it was her job
Jesus shard with us in Luke that he needs hands in the field and each one of us has a field, right in our own family, community, and workplace, that needs worked in!
It was expected of the Proverbs 31 woman and, I believe, it’s expected of us at Christians.
It’s time to stop being satisfied with letting others do the work of the Lord! Let’s get dirty and tend to what needs tending!
There will be nothing greater than to see the smile on Jesus’ face one day when He says something like this: “You worked my fields. You took raw materials and worked with them until they became useful. Well done”.
Recent Comments