Soooo, what better place to start than the beginning!
Who can find a Virtuous Woman? For her price is far above rubies. Prov 31:10
I'm sure all of us have read this and the next 21 verses many times, but lets spend some time on just this one!
Virtuous- ( Hebrew- chayil) an army, great forces, goods, strength, wealth, ability; efficiency
If you search the Old Testament for chayil (strongs # 02428) you will find that it is used MANY MANY times. It is often used to describe ones valuables or possessions or "worth." I don't find this to be in contrast of it's use in Prov 31:10. If The Lord gave us 21 verses (and actually more, but we will get to those) to instruct us in our attitude and actions then should we not expect our response to reflect what our worth or value is!? Don't get me wrong, we are ALL of value to our Lord, but the more we resemble the woman described in Proverbs 31 the more we can be used for his Glory!!!
Chayil is also used to describe numerous men and armies! Yes, sisters, there are virtuous men, or "men of valour." Although this phrase is used many times, two stuck out to me; Boaz (Ruth 2:1) and David (1 Samuel 16:18-19) Now I don't want to dig too deep into these men, but I do want to challenge you to think on what you do know and look up what you don't about these two men, they both have some pretty "virtuous" traits that we can get some pointers from!
And back to virtuous, although we all know of a couple different women in the bible who possessed virtuous traits, only ONE was ever described using the word virtuous, or chayil; miss Ruth!
Now, for anyone who thinks they could never be called a virtuous woman because they were not born into a Christian family or didn't come from a long line of Godly, virtuous women... Ruth was a Moabitess, that's right, she wasn't even a Jew! (Ruth 1:4)
Now there is a lot we can get out of the book of Ruth, and I'm sure we will return here, but for now I want to point out that the account of Ruth also proves to us that we do not have to be identified as a wife to be virtuous! After all, Ruth was a widow, and while yes, she remarried, it was before she was married that she was described as virtuous(Ruth 3:11.)
With this in mind lets return to Prov 31:10, while many of the verses 11-31 refer to the "woman" as a wife, verse 31:10 uses the word woman, not wife; "woman" merely includes "wife" but is not limited to, it also is used as female! It is the same word (ishshah) used when God first created woman, BEFORE, she was made Adam's wife! (This may not relate to you, but I added it merely for myself- thanks for baring with me!) so stick around single sisters, we can do this together!!!
Here is perhaps the most critical point that I want you to understand before we take on Prov 31 over the next few weeks:
It is God that girders me with strength (chayil) and maketh my way perfect. Psalm 18:32
Through God we shall do valiantly (chayil) Psalm 60:12, Psalm 108:13
---We can only come to be Virtuous through God and his power!---
See 2 Peter 1:3
Faith MUST come first, 2 Peter 1:5
God himself is Virtuous, see Psalm 118:14-16
The Lord is my strength (chayil) Habakkuk 3:19
Virtue comes from Jesus, see Mark 5:30, Luke 6:19, Luke 8:46
So, NOW we know what virtuous woman means and we understand there is only one way for us to achieve virtue! There is still one more part of verse 10 that I want to look at quickly, then ill leave you to do a little more of your own research (I highly recommend it, it's quite interesting!)
Her price is far above rubies...all I'm going to point out is; Rubies (especially back then) were much more valuable and rare than diamonds or gold! Today when we think of fine jewels we think of Diamonds, and lately even Gold is getting quite a bit of attention; so how much MORE must rubies be worth!? I challenge you to dig into this a little bit! If we women ourselves can recognize just what value we have with God then 2 things may happen; we will discover that we should measure our value by God's perception alone, AND the world may also begin to see that as women, God created us to be more valuable then then dust we come from!
AND before I loose all of you who just said, "Proverbs 31 is Old Testament law and therefore does not apply to women of today," let me point out, Titus 2 is an excellent parallel and you can be sure to see it mentioned as we dig deep into each verse!!!
I hope that as I study the instructions The Lord has laid out for me as a woman I can also challenge and encourage each of you to do the same!
See you soon, we will meet at Proverbs 31:11
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