Proverbs 31 is the national anthem for Christian women. It is the standard by which all godly women strive. It is the ultimate in female spirituality. It is the holy grail of womanhood.
And it was written long before Oprah came along.
My wife is a Proverbs 31 woman. It’s one of the many reasons that I fell in love with her. I, on the other hand, am a Proverbs 30:2 man - “I am the most ignorant of men.”
I’ve always thought that Proverbs 31 put a lot of pressure on women. It truly is a high standard. When I read it, I’m glad it doesn’t apply to me. Whew! I say to myself when I read all of the qualities of the perfect woman, I’m glad I’m just a stupid guy. (Which, by the way, is how the New American Standard Bible translates Proverbs 30:2 -“Surely I am more stupid than any man.”)
My wife is definitely smarter than me. Like most guys, I married up. She deserves far better than me. I’m lucky she took my hand on our wedding day. 25 years later, she still lets me sleep with her and she still tolerates my stupidity.
When I wanted to get involved in get-rich quick businesses, she tolerated my ignorance. When I had the boys over at our house for backgammon games almost every night during our newlywed months, she allowed it. When I’ve wanted to move to seek passions and dreams, she packed our bags. When I neglect the yard for the sake of college football, she lets the weeds grow higher. When I wanted to buy a motorcycle, she said, “As long as you keep your life insurance policy up.” When I take vacation days to write instead of saving them all for her, she encourages me to write. When I refuse to put on suntan lotion, she tells me so later. When I popped a lung trying to make a diving catch in a church softball game, she sat by me in the hospital all four days.
Bless her heart. No wonder she’s such a great mother. She’s been practicing with me all these years.
I never thought it was fair that God wrote a whole chapter of the Bible about godly women but he didn’t devote an entire chapter to godly men. Why isn’t there a Proverbs 32? Clearly there are many specific verses in the Bible that describe what a godly man looks like. He gave us strong men to emulate like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, and David. He even sent Jesus to earth to model godly living for us. Paul the apostle gave us specific statements about holy and righteous living. But we never got a whole chapter.
Knowing that men are ignorant, maybe God figured it would be a waste of time to write an entire chapter for godly men. He knew we wouldn’t read it or do what it says. Why waste the papyrus on ignorant guys? Do you realize how much effort it took to write a chapter of the Bible in those days? The Old Testament writers’ word processors were papyrus, quill, and ink. Heck, they probably had to concoct their own ink before they could record something on paper. Can you imagine having to go out in the woods to gather plants to make your college-ruled writing paper?
Papyrus is made from the stem of the papyrus plant. The outer rind is stripped off, and the sticky fibrous inner pith is cut lengthwise into thin strips. The strips are then placed side by side on a hard surface with their edges slightly overlapping, and then another layer of strips is laid on top at a right angle. The strips were soaked in water, then two layers were hammered together, mashing the layers into a single sheet. After drying, the sheet of papyrus is polished with a stone, seashell, or round hard wood.
God saw all of the trouble that people, probably women, had to go to in order to record something on papyrus and thought, “I should probably add a chapter for men at the end of Proverbs. Hmmm?” He pondered for a moment. “Nah, it’s a waste of time. Besides, the women will keep them straight anyway.”
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