Proverbs chapter 31 beginning in verse 10. An excellent wife, who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her. She does him good, 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 flax and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant. She brings her food from afar. She rises well to get night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens.

She considers a field and buys it. And with the fruit of her hands, she plants a vineyard. She dresses 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 hand to the distaff, and she and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches her hands to the needy. She's not afraid of snow for her households, for all her household is clothed in scarlet. She makes 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 land. She makes linen garments and sells them and delivers sashes to the merchant. Strength and dignity are her 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 households and does not eat the bread of idleness.

Her children rise up and call her blessed, her husband also. And he praises her saying, many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all. Charm is deceitful, beauty is main, but a woman who fears Yahweh is to be praised. Give her the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gate. This is the word of God.

What an incredible passage of scripture. Somebody told me after first hour they had read it for the first time this morning. They didn't know it was in the Bible. What a what a fun jewel to discover hidden in there in Proverbs, isn't it? Diedre and I used to be in college ministry back in our back before I had a real job.

And it was very common for college students to come to us with concerns about who to marry. How do they know if they found the one? The mythical doctrine of the one. The idea that, Oh, God has a person for me to marry, and if I choose the wrong person, I've messed up my whole life. That's the mythical doctrine of the one and so they would want guidance on how to make sure the person they want to marry is the one for them.

And you know God does have a person for you to marry and you can identify that person based on this very simple test. When you asked her to marry you did she say yes? You found it. You have cracked the code right there. You recognize how the argument of the one like I missed my chance falls apart because if God did have the one, he would reveal that to you through your own desires and through providence through such hints as things like you marry her.

Those kind of things. And that's really about it. We had one couple that sat with us. They've been dating a while and they were a relatively godly couple in our bible study college seniors and they told us they were gonna break up because they didn't think they were compatible. And so we naively asked why not and well this is what we we found.

She uses Mac and he uses PC. And you know, that is a problem. Texting, you get the green bubbles, like that kills me, the green bubbles. He likes steak at dinner and she likes salad. He likes camping.

She likes nice rooms on vacation. There were other things too. But it was at that point where Dieter was like, you know that just means he's a guy and you're a girl. Right? Like, that's that's about where that is right there.

No. They they did break up, and they ended up getting getting married and having kids with, other people, I believe, later. So they're they're quite happy. They were not the one, as they say. You can cut through all that fog with a chapter like Proverbs 31.

Proverbs 31 presents for you the kind of person to pursue in marriage. Now, I'll tell you, this is a very wonderful chapter. It's a complicated chapter. It is literarily, it's complicated in how it is written and presented. There's a lot of intricacy here, and there's a lot of thematic difficulties.

People, have a hard time with this passage. It's not often preached. Alex Hairgrove famously said that of all of the Proverbs, Proverbs 31 is the last. And he's right when you think about it. He's right.

This is a chapter that I think has been harmed by feminism. Feminism comes along and says that for a woman to have true beauty and true worth, it has to be measured or valued or esteemed only in the sphere of things that men excel at. Like a man. That would be my summary of feminism. And if you have that world view, when you engage with the chapter like Proverbs 31, then you undermine Proverbs 31.

You diminish it, or you ridicule it, or you dismiss it. And yet, it's here at the end of the book of Proverbs. Alex is right. It is at the end, and it is there for a reason. It is bracketing out for you what the life of wisdom looks like.

Proverbs eight shows you wisdom as God himself. That God created the world through lady wisdom was in Proverbs eight, if you remember. And she has all the attributes of God. And so, if you devote your life to wisdom, you are devoting your life to being in a relationship with God. But Proverbs as a book ends with, you know what?

There's going to be real wisdom in real life, really lived out. Proverbs begins with an invitation for a father to his son to pursue wisdom and find wisdom beautiful and marry her. And Proverbs ends with a mother of a queen of of a king, by the way. This guy is a king and his mother is telling him, now that you've dedicated yourself to wisdom, now that you're gonna be the wise man leading your wise life and being a wise king, this is the kind of person you need to marry. Look for her.

This is the ideal. This is what you aspire to. Now Proverbs one through Proverbs 30 one:one-nine sets the stage for this. That is the mother of the King. Remember this is King Lemuel.

He rules in a an area called Masa and it's not written here in the in the ESV, it doesn't say it, but it is in the Hebrew. The words of King Lemuel of Masa, that's in the Hebrew there, I don't know why it's not brought into the ESV, but he is ruling this land, Masa. And while he's there he dedicates himself to wisdom, and now his mom, the Queen Mother, is giving him a challenge. And it starts with a note of disappointment. If you recall from last week, what are you doing my son?

Like, are you out of your mind? Why are you giving your strength to wine? Why are you giving your strength to women? Don't make your life like that. If you're gonna dedicate yourself to the kind of wisdom in Proverbs one through 30, then don't dissipate your strength with wine and women.

Instead, speak up for the needy, advocate for the poor, and find a woman like this. That's how it functions here. The kind of wife who is fit for a king according to the Queen. Not just any king mind you, but a good king, a wise king, a king who eradicates poverty from his land, a king who rules with justice and sobriety. The kind of king we looked at last week.

Who should he marry? Well the answer is the rest of the chapter. Now there are some disclaimers before we get into this chapter. First of all, this is this chapter is written, not as law but as wisdom. And because I've been going through Proverbs on Sunday night, I know many of you haven't heard that or encountered that distinction before, but it's so critical for understanding the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs is wisdom, not law. And here's an easy way to teach you the difference. Law is black and white, and it's something God commands you to do. To fail to do it is sin. To do something that God prohibits is is sin.

That's law. Easy example, from, Ephesians five says, do not be drunk with wine. That's law. If you're drunk with wine, you're sinning. Repent.

That's law. Wisdom is wine is a mocker, beer is a brawler, bad company corrupts good morals. Those are wisdom principles. Wisdom is pay attention to your friends with Now, you can't turn wisdom into law, although people try. People get frustrated at wisdom principles because they say like, why does the Bible say bad company corrupts good morals?

Why can't it say, don't be friends with non Christians, or something like that? If you are friends with an ungodly guy, only spend time with him once every other week. That's not what the Bible says. It just says bad company corrupts you. It doesn't say to drink maximum.

It doesn't say don't drink after 9PM. You think that would those would be helpful laws. The Bible doesn't give you those. It just says, it warns you about the dangers of alcohol and prohibits drunkenness. The second one is the law.

The first one is wisdom. The book of Proverbs is wisdom. If you approach it as law, you end up failing because law is not designed to be kept perfectly. Law is designed to break you. Wisdom is designed to instruct you and send you out into the world mature.

When you confuse the two, all kinds of problems happen. Proverbs 31 is not lost. So don't enter into this chapter with asking yourself oh, I need to buy fine merchandise from merchant ships. K. But there is a wisdom principle there that scales.

This is a queen in the ancient Near East, and that's what she does. How does that apply to you in Northern Virginia who's not a queen? So you have to do some work in this to apply the principles. That's what wisdom is, the ability to take biblical principles and apply them to life. And Proverbs 31 is the end of the road, wisdom wise.

Wisdom is about projecting long term consequences to immediate decisions as you apply principles. Nowhere is that more clearly seen than in marriage. You want to talk about a decision you make right now that will affect the rest of your life? Who are you gonna marry? And so it is fitting the book of Proverbs ends with that We're going to use this outline this morning looking for wisdom's fruitful wife.

Looking for wisdom's fruitful wife. Remember this is about not perfection, this is about direction, the kind of life a woman is on. Some of Proverbs 31 is retrospective. You're thinking about the totality of her own life at the end of her life. So you can't see that in a 20 year old if you're a college student.

You can't see all of Proverbs 31 in a 20 year old because she doesn't have these yet. It's about identifying the woman with this trajectory, this direction in life. Verse 10, an excellent wife. Who can find her? They don't grow on trees.

They are forged in the foundry of godliness. She is far more precious, it says in verse 10, than jewels. She is worth her weight in gold, might be the, English idiom, but the Hebrew idiom is it's more than gold. She gold is the most valuable thing that the author here can imagine. A woman who is godly, the Proverbs 31 woman, is worth more than gold.

She's snatched up so quick. That's the idea. So hard to find. She's she flies off the shelf. She's so precious.

So hard to come by. It will be hard to find the kind of woman described in this chapter. Now, I have heard people say that is this rings of misogyny, that it's so hard to find a godly woman, and that is condescending towards women, but I want you to know that Proverbs says the same thing about a godly man. Proverbs 20 verse six, Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love. There's all kinds of guys out there running their mouth about how faithful and loyal and wise and intelligent and rich and powerful they are.

Guys just love to talk about how strong they are, how they were right in this situation, or or how much they have to offer. Guys run their mouths about who they are. And then Solomon says, but a faithful man? Like a guy who's actually godly? Oh, man.

Who can and that's the same expression that's used here is the identical expression in Proverbs 31. An excellent wife, who can find? A faithful man, who can find? Godliness and scarcity are connected. There's not an abundance of godly men.

There's not an abundance of godly women. That's the reality. Taken together, you recognize that the picture in Proverbs 31 and Proverbs one through 30 is not holding out to you perfection, but the kind of direction you want in somebody's life. This is in the context of marriage wisdom is, it's talking about finding the person to marry. This chapter is not to condemn people, but to celebrate true godliness.

And I'm harping on this and then I'll move on from it, because I I just know that there is an undercurrent of antagonism towards the Proverbs 31 woman. I have heard from multiple people over the years who told me, you know, ladies who told me, if I ever meet the Proverbs 31 woman, I'm gonna slap her. You know, I'm angry at her. She's elevated the bar too high. Look at what she's done to us.

And I just wanna turn that around. I I wouldn't say it's out loud to a person who says that because that would be rude, but I wanna turn that around and say, what if I said that about the elder qualifications? And the Bible says what a godly man should look like for the elder qualifications. And what if I said if I ever get my hands on Timothy, I'm going to punch him right in the nose. How dare he raise the bar for godliness so high.

And then I remember, oh, actually one of the qualifications is not punching people in first Timothy. Not given the fisticuffs, so I can't do that. But the point is, the picture of the godly woman and the picture of the godly man are motivating you to aspire to wise and holy living. That's their function. It is about direction.

Not perfection. Verse 11, the heart of her husband trusts in her and he'll have no lack of gain. This is one of the most basic components in marriage counseling. To me this is just about the most helpful verse in marriage counseling. So much marriage conflict comes because the husband and wife don't trust each other.

They think their spouse is out to harm them, they think their spouse is their enemy, which produces a cycle in marriage of just like not liking life, almost liking conflict. And of course, nobody would say, I like the conflict, but they conduct themselves in such a way as if they do actually have settled into a routine of conflict in their life and it is helpful to take a step back and just say, You know what? Your spouse is not your enemy. The sooner you guys realize that each of you are trying to help the other one to have happy life, the happier kind of life you'll have. I had this epiphany in the first year of my marriage, I would say, in year one of our marriage, Deidre and I, most of our conflict was over Deidre trying to help me with things.

For example, on our honeymoon, she threw away my shoes that I went on her honeymoon with. They were just not appropriate for me to have. They were ugly and whatever, and they went into a trash can. And so they're not coming back. And and I took that.

I was like, I recognize I need help with shoes. Thank you, my love. But then we got back and settled in the routine of life. She was helping me with things like, oh, you know, at work you really should have a meeting with the people that lead this Bible study over here, Or, did you ever send a thank you card to that person for what they gave you last week? And, you know, this in our college ministry, we should have these leaders over to her house.

And she had a list of things and I took it personally. I was like, do you think I not know how to write a thank you card? Well, did you? Tomorrow I was totally going to do that. And that framed all of our conversation intention as if she was trying to hinder me.

And it was and I'm not exaggerating. It seems so silly and childish to say now, but in our first year of marriage that was the majority of our conflict was over that stuff. And then it was like the switch flipped in my mind. Oh, you know what? She's actually trying to help.

She's trying to she's seen a weakness in me and she's trying to help me do better at life. And once that switch slips in my mind, now I receive that. I'm like, oh, this is for my good and for God's glory. Now that's my own marriage, one little snippet from that, but I'm sure that applies in your own marriages in a hundred ways. Like your spouse is not actually your enemy.

She's working for your good. It was common in ancient Near East for when husbands went away that they locked everything up in their house, thinking their wife couldn't defend it. It would be stolen when he got back from wherever he went from his business trip. But not this guy. This guy leaves everything unlocked because he trusts his wife, and he's going to actually get back and there's gonna be new things.

He gets back from his trip and there's, you know, a new vineyard. There's new clothes. There's a new cabinet. She's been doing things. The first twelve, she does him good and not harm all the days of her life.

She's actually trying to help. She's actually trying to help. Now, third our first point we'll go through here is the fruit of her hands. Before we get into the fruit of her hands here, the rest of Proverbs 31, it's complex. So this whole passage, verse 10 to 31 is an acrostic.

An acrostic is something that moves A to Z through the order of the alphabet. Why would somebody write in an acrostic? And we don't do that today. The only time I've seen acrostic today have been like in children's games or at, like baby showers. A wife might give a devotional with an acrostic, you know, like the the word wife or the word mom or something like that means these kind of things.

But that's not a true acrostic. A true acrostic goes a to z. And, that's not a true acrostic. A true acrostic goes a to z. And the reason you write an acrostic is it helps you memorize and it helps you gather a massive amount of information and systematize it.

For example, if I were to say, name 20 animals, you might start rattling animals, but it's amazing how fast your brain freezes and you run out of animals. But if I were to say, name an animal A to Z, you would just start going for it, and you would probably have more success and ultimately be able to name more animals going A to Z. It's structures and infinite enough of animals in an order for you. X-ray beta fish, by the way, if you're wondering. It's an X-ray beta fish.

I looked it up. You can go A to Z, And it brings all of the content together. That's what's happening here. All what could you say about a godly woman? There's so much you could say.

So to get your arms around it, we're gonna go a to z. I see some of you looking at it. It doesn't look at it. That's because it's in Hebrew and translation doesn't work that way. The second thing about this is the rest of this chapter moves through a chiasm.

Two chiasms, actually. A chiasm is a form of poetry where you start here and you end here, and the main point is in the middle. And we don't speak like that in English. In English poetry, in stories, in movies, you have the beginning and the conclusion, and those are the main points, and the middle is just filler. And maybe you've watched somebody, movies with somebody that does that, watches the opening scene and the closing scene, everything else they just skip through.

We won't use names, but there are people that do that. Hebrew poetry, the main point is in the middle. And so the main point of this first section here is the fruit of her hands. And I don't normally do this, in fact I've never done this before, but I'm gonna put my notes up on the board so you can see what I mean by the acrostic and you can kinda follow through. I hope you can can read that here.

And you'll see how this is an actual acrostic and that helps you understand what Lemuel's mother is teaching him. The main point in this first section is in the middle there. The fruit of her hands. She plants a vineyard. But let's unpack this going passage by passage, verse by verse.

Verse 13 pairs with verse 19. Verse 13, she seeks woolen flax, and she works with willing hands. Verse 19, she puts her hands, so the pairing there is hands, to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. So verse 13 is how she gets the wool and the flax, and verse 19 is what she doing with it. And wool and flax are not easy to work with.

For wool, you have to, I don't know, shear the sheep. You comb out the wool. You sort it out. You wash it. You spin it.

You comb it again. You weave it together. You dye it and then you finish it by sewing it and actually making what you're making. It is a lot of work. Flax, I mean for us, flax is something like hippies put in smoothies or something.

But flax is tall grass that you harvest. You have to pull it up by the roots. You can't just mow it down. You have to pull it up by the roots. You soak it.

You then dry it on your roof, and yet it has to be wet enough it doesn't blow away. And as it dries, you have to find some way to fasten it down there. You then beat it. You then separate the husk. You comb it through nails.

They have these wooden things with nails up, and you run it through the nails hair type of thing, you're pulling out what's like hair out of a brush. That's what you're doing to get flax. And that turns into linen for clothes and bed sheets. That is a lot of work. And that's what she's doing.

And keep in mind, this is this is talking about the queen. She's making her own sheets here with wool and flax. Verse 19, she's got her hands on the tools. She's doing this herself. She didn't farm this out.

She's doing it herself. In verses fourteen and eighteen, the word merchant pairs them. She is like the ships of the merchant. She brings her food from afar. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable.

Her lamp does not go out at night. So verse 14, she's watching ships come in from all over the place and she knows what they have. And again, this is ancient Near East culture but we have a similar concept. Let me Americanize this for you. This is the woman who says, you know what?

I'm gonna get my produce at giant, and my meat at Costco, and my cereal at Trader Joe's, and my granola bars at Target. They got their own list going on. They know what to get where. They've got their system that works for their family and they've got their mind this is that woman. She's this ship coming in from Greece and she's like olive oil.

Boom. Ship from Persia. That's the spices. The Egyptian ship. Ship, I'm getting sheets from that one.

Like she's got this worked out. Ship in the harbor, and she knows what to get from it. That's this woman doing this herself. Verse 18, she knows that her own merchandise is profitable. She's staying up at night, working on things that she's selling, that she's making a profit on.

One day she goes to the market to buy, the next day she goes to sell. She's got her own Facebook Marketplace account. Again, this scales. You're not all queens. But this scale, she's using what she has to make more.

Versus fifteen and seventeen pair together. She rises and she dresses. She rises while it's still night to provide food for her household and portions for her maidens. Family. Her kids go off to school and they're bringing lunch that she made them.

She put it in the boxes. She sent them out the door. When did she have time to do that? Well, she got up while the kids were still sleeping. That's when she did that.

She got up and it's still nighttime outside to get the food ready for the day. And she has servants, she has slaves, she has maidens. She how easy would it be for the Queen to say, you're gonna bring me breakfast in bed tomorrow. She makes food for her kids. No servant's gonna make her kids lunch.

She makes her kids lunch. And then she also makes the servants lunch. That's the crazy thing about this. She makes enough breakfast for them too. And doesn't see herself over them.

They're her servants. They're ancient Near East world. Here we're dealing with slaves. They're her slaves, but she is providing for them. You would have to work so hard to do that.

Well, verse 17, She dresses herself with strength. She makes her arms strong. Yeah. She's working hard doing this. She's getting she's getting ripped from this.

That's how hard she's working. It's very interesting. The only mark of her physical appearance in this chapter is her arms. That's the only thing it says about her physical appearance. She works so hard.

The main point of this first Chiasm here verse 16, she considers a field and buys it. Considers it means she's watching it and thinking about it. This is not impulse buying. She sees a field that she thinks would be good for her family and by by the way, for her family, she's gonna flip the field. She's gonna buy it, hold it, improve it in some way and sell it for profit.

That's what the second part of the verse means. So she's got her eye on this field. Now it looks too high now. It's got potential that's still up there. And then one day the price drops and she snatches it.

She had her eye on that field for so long and the price dropped and she she grabbed it. She did whatever improvements and now she sells it and with the fruit of her hands that's a phrase for it's an idiom for profit. She her work here has turned a profit for the family. And what does she do with her profit? She reinvests it back in the family.

She plants a vineyard for food that she can get up early and make. That's what she does. Proverbs 10 through 29 has all kinds of verses about this. You know, the wise person the wise person buys low and sells high. The fool flips that around.

You know, the fool sees the market drop and is like, oh my goodness, I'm gonna get out. And they see it climb up, and you're like, oh it's going so high. Now's a good time to buy. That's the way the fool thinks. The wise person gets the reverse of that.

And it's hard to explain until you until it settles in your mind, and then you get it. That's this woman. She has seen the price drop, and she snags it, and ends up turning a profit for her family. That's what's described here. She's getting the fruit of her hands.

And, again, this scales. This is not don't take this as law, like, oh, I'm not a private 30 one woman, and I'm not buying random fields in Fairfax County. No. Not a good application. What is a good application is you thinking, what are resources that I can acquire that end up being beneficial and profitable for my family?

How can I engage with the time, talents, and resources I have to increase the value of my family, to to increase our food, to provide and it's all it's the whole stanza? Right? The clothes and the food and the shopping, all of that. Where can I make money? Where can I save money?

How can I help my family? Deidre and I were at a party at our pool and there are Christians at our pool but they were not at this party and a bunch of the couples were talking about how the wives all have running money. They called it running money. And what is running money? And one of the guys says, Oh, Jesse.

Is there a couple thousand bucks in the basement I don't know about? This woman has the money, but reinvested in the house. Secondly, secondly, the rep of her man, the fruit of her hand and the rep of her man. I had to do a little work there, but I'm happy with it. The second little pericope here is about the reputation of her husband.

The first is the fruit of her hands, which she is providing for her family. The second is the reputation of her family. That's what she is working for next. And the reputation of her family, another chiasm. I've got on the screen for you.

Again, I hope you can can see that because it you see how it all fits together when you do that. Verse 20 pairs with verse 26. She opens and she opens. Verse 20, she opens her hand to the poor. Verse 26, she opens her mouth with wisdom.

He opens her hand to the poor. That is what the wise king was doing. You remember his mom said, was like, don't drink wine because it's for those it's for those loser kings who have all kinds of poverty in their kingdom. Of course they wanna drink and forget, but not you son. You're speaking up for the rights of the poor.

You're defending the poor and the needy, so you don't need to wreck your life with alcohol. And now the Queen is is embodying that same conduct. She opens her mouth and it is and it's wisdom. She opens her hand and it is to help the poor. Now, she's not liquidating everything.

She's not giving everything in the family away to the poor. And I have heard people say that especially in Act chapter two. The church sold all they have to give to the poor. That's what it means. The church should sell all they have and give it to the poor.

I mean, that's that's not what that means. That would be very unwise to do. That's something you can only do one time. You understand that? You sell all you have to give to the poor, then tomorrow, guess what?

You're poor. Only there's no Christians to help. They sold everything yesterday. She's not diluting the household wealth by giving the poor. How does she have, resources for the poor?

Because she stayed up all night working. That's how she had stuff to give away. She is compassionate in her heart, and the overflow of her hard work is not building bigger barns for herself. It's serving others, her family, even the needy. Verse 26, she opens her mouth with wisdom.

She's not nagging. Proverbs has a lot to say about the nagging wife. Better to live on the corner of a roof than with a nagging wife. She's not that. When she opens her mouth, out comes wisdom and kindness.

She speaks kindly. When she corrects there's a tone of kindness to it, not nagging to it. This is a very unusual phrase teaching of kindness. It's not the normal way you see it in the Old Testament. Although in the Old Testament God is the God of kindness.

Remember, He is kind and compassion. It says that, compassionate. It says that several times. But this particular phrase is used in Ruth's chapter two, where Naomi tells Ruth, do not forget Yahweh who has shown his kindness to both the living and to the dead. And so it's a pretty author of Proverbs 31 here, Lemuel's mom, is familiar enough with Ruth.

Ruth is about how redemption comes through the woman. It's the line of David. Right? So Ruth is about how the promise of the gospel and of Jesus Christ goes through the line of David, but through a word. And here for that same phrase to appear in Proverbs 31, wisdom is seen personified in a godly woman.

I just think that's a neat pairing, and I wanted to share it with you. She has so much kindness in her lips. Verse 21, She's not afraid of snow for her household because her household is clothed in scarlet. Verse 21 pairs with verse 25, Strength and dignity are her clothing. She's not afraid of snow.

We know what this is like in Northern Virginia. It snows, what, every other year or so, and people lose their ever living minds when it snows here. They cancel things for like three months because it snows. Abandon their cars on Braddock And Backlick. Just walk.

They give up, you know, snowflake on the window. They abandon their car. Give up. Walk at home. Forget about it.

I'll make sure the rest of my life. I'm not doing that again. You know, it snows and families in Israel, it doesn't snow that often. So when it does, it does bring fear, like you're afraid of cold, you're afraid of crops dying, you're afraid of you huddle up by the fireplace and you don't come out. I know some of you do that with hot chocolate and you know, a Hallmark movie or whatever.

That's not what's happening here. Everybody else is hunkered down and she's like, Snow! I have a bin for those kind of clothes. Her kids are out there throwing snowballs and mittens, it says. They got mittens.

Her household is clothed and they're scarlet mittens. And she's not wasting her money on it. She's making this stuff herself. And my favorite verse in the whole chapter, verse 25, strength and dignity are her clothing. What winter jacket does she put on?

She has a new winter jacket. Her winter jacket is dignity. That's what keeps her warm. And she laughs and the ESV says, at the time to come that that bothers me. She laughs at the future.

We have a word in English for, at the time to come. It's called the future. She laughs at the future. So many people are so nervous about tomorrow. What's gonna happen in our country?

And, you know, what's this? This judge did that? And, if the wrong person wins this election, my grandkids want a country to grow up in, and or if my husband loses his job tomorrow or next week. There's so much concern, and you can say some of it is valid, but she rolls into it. And so many people are worried and sweating about the future, and she rolls in, and she laughs it.

Like life is an adventure for her because she trusts the Lord. She's not sweating tomorrow because it sounds hackneyed, but she's not sweating tomorrow because she knows who holds tomorrow. Would be to be married to a person like this who's just excited about whatever tomorrow's adventure might be. I know somebody in in the FBI and they've lived in they were counting, with me recently. They've lived in like 22 different places since they've been married, twenty two different locations.

And the wife has just got this joy about her, like, let's see what's next. And you know you know it gets old after a while. This isn't naivete. It's not a person who's like, I'm just gonna grin and bear it. That's not her.

This is a solid, unshakable confidence in the goodness of God so that she treats life like an adventure. Next chapter? Let's find out. It's not going to be boring, I'll tell you that. That's this lady.

She'd rather laugh at Tuesday than have a boring Wednesday, in other words. Like, she's just she's in it for the adventure of life. Verse 22, She makes bed coverings for herself and she makes, in verse 24, linen garments. She's doing work making clothes, making bed coverings, and she's selling them. Her house is, apportioned appropriately and wonderfully, verse 22.

It makes it sound almost extravagant. It's nice. It's refined. That's the word I'm looking for. It's refined.

Things in her house are nice. Not excessively so. It's not that she's wasting her money on buying ridiculous things in the house. No. She's making things herself for her house that make it look purple is the color of luxury.

Fine linen. Where did she get fine linen? Well, she made it in the last chapter. Again, this is culturally distinct from where we are. I'm not saying go home and make your own sheets.

I'm saying this is her mindset. She's making her house look nice with what she has, and she is selling things. Verse 24, she's selling things she makes. She's got her own Etsy account, and she delivers sashes to the merchant. Her family's dressed well, so she's making scarves for her family.

One for the kids, one for the store. One for the dad, one for the store. That's her approach. In verse 23, what's the result of all this? Her husband is known in the gates.

He sits among the elders of the land. People know who her husband is. They think, That guy is wise. Well, who's wise? I mean, he is because he married her, but he also is because of her wisdom.

Martyn Lloyd Jones tells an incredible story about a Welsh pastor who is had a reputation for being erudite and sophisticated and wonderfully winsome and funny and all this. And he went and preached at his church and spent the night at his house. And evening together, I thought this is one of the most boring people I've ever tried to talk to. But then his wife came in from the store and Lloyd Jones says the whole house lit up. Even the candles burn brighter.

Realized she knew all kinds of stuff. She started talking about things that were happening in the news, theology she had been learning, things going on in the church. And it was he realized it's her perception of things that her when her husband shares those, he seems wise. And he even pointed out she entered the conversation through her husband. She didn't dominate it, she entered by reminding him, hey do you remember what we read last week?

Or do you remember what we said this morning? And that drew it out of him, so her wisdom was now funneled into him, so that he had a reputation, literally had a reputation in town for being so thoughtful and intelligent. You look behind the curtains, and it's, it's not him, it's her. That's the Proverbs 31 woman, the reputation of her. And you might say, oh, her husband's known in the gates because he's the king.

That's not hard. No. He's known in the gates because of his wife. People might not be able to put their finger on it. They might not say, oh, did your wife dress you?

You know, in our culture, they say that they mean it negatively. No. It's a compliment for him. Third, the fruit of her hand, the rep of her man, and the praise of her fam. Verse 27 to 31 is retrospective.

It's looking back at her whole life. Please hear me say this. This is not the day in a life of a godly woman. She didn't get up early and make lunches and stay up till midnight making bed sheets. That's not that's not Tuesday.

This is her life. K? This is her whole life. And so now the end of the chapter is looking back on her life. What are you gonna say about it?

Well, she looked after her house. She did not eat the bread of idleness. Again, that looks different than the 20 year old wife, and the 30 year old wife, and the 60 year old wife, and the 70 year old wife. That's going to look different in all of their lives, of course. But the principle is she does not eat the bread of idleness.

The result in verse 28, her children will rise up and call her blessed. They're gonna praise her. That phrase rise up was used earlier, verse 15, that she rose in the middle of the night to make lunches for the kids. Now her kids get up later on in life. This is the end of life kind of story here.

When all is said and done, her kids wake up in the morning and go, man, our mom was amazing. Praise God for her. Her husband Her husband gets to end up the Hebrew word here is hallelujah, not hallelujah, which is praise Yahweh, hallelujah, which is praise her. Her husband gets up and says praise her. Many women have done excellently, but you surpassed them all.

There's lots of good women in the world. We know a godly woman is hard to find, but now at the end of his life, he's like, you know what? I there's all kinds of godly women in the world. We know them. It's not saying this one woman is categorically, ontologically the best woman ever.

He's saying, she is the best woman ever for my family. Yeah, there's great women out there, but this one is mine. She's so wonderful. Charm is deceitful, Beauty is vain. That word deceitful is the word for lying.

Charm is such a lie. Charm lies to you, and beauty is havel. It just goes away like that. Beauty that's the word from Ecclesiastes. Beauty vanishes.

Vanity, vanity. Everything is vanity. Beauty is so vain. You can think of the kid who's like, oh, I think I'm gonna marry this ungodly girl, but I just get along with her so well. Our personalities just really they really complement each other, and she's fun and exciting.

And then you see her, and you're like, okay. You're attracted to her personality? You're compromising because you think she's hot. That's what you're doing. And how's that going to work out in ten years?

Like, how does that story go? Yeah, she might be more attractive than most in their thirties, more attractive than many in their forties. Is that what you're going to build your life on? That goes so fast. Charm is so deceitful.

But verse 30, A woman who fears Yahweh, man, she will be praised your whole life. So how did Proverbs begin? A dad telling his teenage son, Choose wisdom. Chapter two, Wisdom is beautiful. Chapter three, You should marry her.

Chapter four, The wedding speech. Chapter five through seven, Don't commit adultery on her. Chapter eight, When you marry Wisdom, you're you're in a relationship, a covenant relationship with God. Chapter nine, some people don't and go to hell. Chapters 10 through 30, this is what wisdom looks like.

Chapter 31, now marry a woman who looks like this. The wise life puts on clothes, and this is what it looks like. A woman whose wisdom is built on the fear of Yahweh and the book ends with a woman who fears Yahweh, she's worthy of that kind of praise. Now, this woman doesn't want to be praised, does she? She wouldn't say, How come nobody's saying praise mommy?

No. This woman, what does she want? Her greatest joy, John says, is to see her children walking in the truth. That's all she wants. So verse 31, Give her what she wants.

Give her the fruit of her hands. Let her works praise her in her gates. Let her kids rise up and say, This woman is wonderful. Give her what she wants. Her fear will echo through, her fear of Yahweh will echo through the family for generations.

Now, a brief word on this. I know we're out of time, but a brief word. I know a passage like this can be discouraging to some people because you look and you think, I'm not like this woman or, you know, I'm not married to this kind of person or wives look at their husband like He's not praising the gates. Like, what do I do with a chapter like this if it's not that in our life? And that's where you have to be reminded at the end of our study of Proverbs what Proverbs is.

It's not law, but it's also not gospel. Gospel is you bring your sins to the Lord, you confess your sins to the Lord, and the Lord forgives you of your sins. Wisdom is how now you live in light of that. So if you're frustrated this chapter because your life deviates from it, confess your sins to the Lord, be forgiven, and then seek to lead a wise life. God, we're so thankful for Your Word.

We're thankful for a church that has so many wise women. Lemuel can say they're so hard to find. We we can question it because it seems like there's so many of them you've blessed our church with. We do pray, Lord, that your wisdom would be evident in our church and families. The kids of this church would rise up and esteem their mom.

The moms in this church would walk in the way of the Proverbs 31 woman, and the husbands would be thankful for the kind of wife you've given them. We're so thankful for you and the gospel of Jesus Christ, wisdom incarnate. We give you thanks for it in Jesus' name. Amen. And now, for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson.

If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you wanna learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, ibc.church. If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to tms.edu. Now if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, DC area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel. I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service. But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.

Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.