Proverbs 31, the last chapter of this book, presents to us two models of those who fear the Lord; on one hand, we should be like a king ruling with the Lord, and on the other, we should be a worthy woman as the church, caring and providing for the needs of the saints.
We have seen that the book of Proverbs is not for us to perfect ourselves in our natural man but for us to come to in spirit, contacting the Lord, so that we may build up our inner man, our new man, for us to live a godly life by the divine life in our spirit.
In this book we see principles for man to live a proper human life, to revere the Lord, and to fear the Lord; to fear the Lord is simply to love the Lord, to trust in the Lord, to take the Lord as our source, and to deny ourselves, not doing anything of ourselves but taking the Lord as our everything.
We believers in Christ are the people of God, and we need to fear the Lord; a proper fear of God is in our spirit, for the Spirit mingled with our spirit is the Spirit of the fear of the Lord who filled Christ.
Christ was the man who feared God the most; He feared God to the extent that He didn’t do anything of Himself, He didn’t seek His own glory, and He didn’t speak His own words.
To fear the Lord is to fear offending Him, that is, to do the things that are pleasing to Him and to be afraid of doing things that do not please Him.
To fear the Lord is to do everything in the Lord’s presence, having His smile, and being infused with Him.
Our Christian life is a life in the index of the Lord’s eyes; as we behold the Lord, we are infused with Him, and we have His smile.
We want to have His smile in this age and to receive Him as our great reward in the next age.
Our Christian life is governed by the Lord’s smile; we want to have His smile today, make Him happy in this age, and receive Him as our reward in the next age, to enjoy Him for a thousand years.
Therefore, we do not want to grieve the Holy Spirit but rather, we want to remain in our spirit, contact the Lord in spirit, and live a life in the mingled spirit, so that we may live a life in oneness with the Lord, pleasing God.
Thank the Lord, we do not need to strive and struggle to fear God: we simply need to contact the Lord, be filled with Him, and He as the Spirit of the fear of the Lord will fill and saturate us, with the result that we will spontaneously fear God.
Praise the Lord, according to His new covenant, He will put the fear of God in us, and we are filled with a healthy fear of the Lord so that we may not go away from Him, even as He remains with us and in us!
Being under the Rule of God and Governed by the Word of God to Reign with Christ as Kings
In Proverbs 31 we see two models of those who fear God, models which speak of us, the believers in Christ.
On the one hand, we should be like a king, a royal man like the Lord, having the authority to rule; on the other hand, we should be a worthy woman, knowing how to arrange, manage, take care of, and provide for the needs of the saints in the house of God.
In Prov. 31:3-9 we see how the reigning king should be; he does not drink wine but speaks for the rights of others and minister justice – only this kind of person can reign.
Our Lord Jesus, when He lived on earth, was fully under God’s restriction; hence, He could reign for God.
For example, in Matt. 8 a centurion came to the Lord and asked Him concerning one of his servants, who was ill to death; when the Lord said that He will go to his house, the centurion’s reply was very interesting.
The centurion said that the Lord doesn’t need to go to his house, for He can just say a word and his servant will be healed, because just as the centurion is under authority and has authority over those under him, so the Lord had authority over the sickness. Wow.
The Lord lived under the rule of God to such an extent that even others saw that He had authority and was reigning not because He was better or smarter than others but because He Himself was under God’s authority.
When we believers in Christ are under the authority of God, being under the rule of God and governed by the Word of God, we will reign with Christ as kings.
We can reign over the negative things only to the extent that we are under the rule of God.
If we are to rule over things for God and with Christ, we first need to be instructed, governed, ruled and controlled by the word of God (Deut. 17:14;20).
In the Old Testament, the king first had to be instructed, governed, ruled, and controlled by the word of God; the principle should be the same with the elders in the church.
In order for the elders to administrate and manage the church, they must be reconstituted with the holy word of God; as a result, they will be under God’s government, under God’s rule and control.
Then, spontaneously, God will be in their decisions, and the elders will represent God to manage the affairs of the church; this kind of management is not human management of the church but theocracy, God managing the church through His deputy authority. Amen!
Furthermore, for us, as saints in the church life to be produced as the overcomers who will rule and reign with Christ in the coming kingdom, we need to be under the rule of God in this age.
We need to enthrone the Lord in the center of our being and be controlled and governed by the Word of God, not by our natural thoughts or mind.
We need to learn to contact the Lord and restrict ourselves even as the Lord in us restricts us; if we cannot restrict ourselves by being under God’s restriction, we cannot reign as kings.
Because our Lord Jesus was fully under God’s restriction, He could reign for God.
When we handle our affairs, we need to conduct ourselves like royal princes, restricting ourselves according to the Lord’s inner restriction, and we will be those who can reign with God in Christ.
We can reign as kings only when we are under the rule of God and we are restricted by the word of God which operates in us.
Lord Jesus, make us those who reign and rule with You by being under the divine rule and government. Save us from living in a loose way. Save us from not being restricted according to the divine restriction in our spirit. We want to be the kings who rule with God in Christ by being under the divine rule. May we heed the divine restriction within and may we deal with ourselves so that the word of God which operates in us would restrict us and govern us. Fill us and reconstitute us with Your word until we are ruled and reigned by the divine life within us. Amen, Lord, may God be in our decisions, and may we represent God as we take care of things or deal with situations.
Being like a Worthy Woman Caring, Arranging for, Managing, and Providing for the Saints and the Church
The last part of Proverbs 31, vv. 10-31, describes a worthy woman (Prov. 12:4; 19:14; Ruth 3:11); such a woman is wise, kind, diligent, and capable, and she is able to arrange, manage, and provide for her household.
Her price is far above corals (Prov. 31:10), her glory surpasses all her peers (v. 29), and she brings honour to her husband and is his crown.
Such a worthy woman typifies the church and the saints who love the Lord. We can apply this both in the human realm and in the spiritual realm.
Such a worthy woman is hard to find, but when a brother has such a wife, he is very blessed.
The main characteristic of a worthy woman is that she fears the Lord; a woman who fears Jehovah will be praised (v. 30).
To fear the Lord is to reverently worship Him, obey Him, serve Him, and trust the Lord with awe-filled respect.
Beauty is vain, grace (in the human sense) is deceitful, but a woman who fears the Lord will be praised.
The heart of the husband of a worthy woman trusts in her, for she does him good not evil all the days of her life (v. 12); her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land (v. 23).
Such a word is a great inspiration and encouragement for the sisters in the church life, for they can be a worthy human to be a blessing and glory to her husband.
It is good for the married sisters also to have such a holy aspiration not to be as beautiful as possible or to achieve the highest peak in her career, but to be a worthy woman according to Prov. 31; this chapter is a very good portion to pray and read, read and consider prayerfully.
A worthy and prudent woman is from the Lord as the crown of her husband (12:4); her children and husband rise up and call her blessed (31:28).
Her husband also praises her by saying that she surpasses all others (v. 29).
A husband should be able to see with his own eyes his wife’s pure manner of life in fear; her adorning should not be the outward plaiting of hair and putting on of gold or clothing with garments but the hidden man of the heart in the incorruptible adornment of a meek and quiet spirit, which is very costly in the sight of God (1 Pet. 3:1-4).
In the proper church life, the sisters should adorn themselves in proper clothing with modesty and sobriety, having self-restraint, not with braided hair and gold or pearls or costly clothing but, what befits women professing godly reverence, by good works (1 Tim. 2:9-10).
Godly reverence is a godly fear toward God, a revering and honouring of God, as is fitting for one who worships God.
As those who are married and in the church life, we can testify that the Lord uses our spouse for our dealing to tear down our natural man.
However, it is very precious in the young sisters to aspire to adorn themselves in this way and be filled with a godly fear toward God.
It is good to bring this to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to dispense into us this holy aspiration, to fill us with the Spirit of the fear of Jehovah so that He may work Himself into us and flow out of us in this way.
Similarly, older women should be reverent in their behaviour, their deportment, so that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be of a sober mind, pure, workers at home, good, subject to their own husbands, that the word of God would not be blasphemed (Titus 2:3-5).
It is so fitting for older sisters in church life to train the younger sisters to be proper sisters, proper wives, and proper mothers in the Lord.
It is good for the older sisters with more experience and growth in the Lord to pray for this and even train the younger sisters to do this, to be of a sober mind and be pure, and to be workers at home.
Especially in this world today when everyone cares for a career or even when they serve God, they may forget the things at home and not care for their family in a proper way, it is good for the wives and mothers in the church life to be a reminder in the Lord by the older sisters to be workers a home, taking good care of their household first, and then of the Lord’s work so that they would have a proper testimony.
A worthy woman, a worthy wife in the church life, is one who is pure, of a sober mind, subject to her own husband, good workers, at home, while at the same time being adorned with a meek and quiet spirit, fearing the Lord, and properly managing her household before the Lord.
The requirements seem very high, but the divine life within can meet all these requirements, and all these can be prayed over before the Lord and aspired to in spirit, for the Lord in us can do it.
In the spiritual application of the type of a worthy woman, we as believers in Christ need to love the Lord, love the saints, fear the Lord, and care for the saints before the Lord and in the Lord, providing the people in the household of God with food at the proper time.
May we be those who love the Lord as members of the church, the Body of Christ, those who care for the saints, provide for them in love, and are diligent and kind as we minister Christ to the new ones, the young ones, and all the saints. Amen!
In the aspect of overcoming, we should be like a king; in the aspect of loving the Lord, we should be like a worthy woman.
When we are like this, we will have value and glory before the Lord – we will have a dispensational value and glory before the Lord.
May we be such ones, reigning kings and worthy women, that is, Christ and the church!
The reigning king referred to Prov. 31 is Christ as the Victor, the overcomer, the One who is reproducing Himself into us to make us His overcomers and co-kings.
The worthy woman in Prov. 31 is a type of the church, whom Christ considers worthy and lovable, His prize joy and possession.
May we be reigning kings and worthy women so that we may have a dispensational value and glory before the Lord!
Dear Lord Jesus, we love You. We aspire to be like the worthy woman in Prov. 31 by loving You and loving the church! Amen, Lord, fill us with Yourself as the real worthy One, the One who can make us wise, kind, diligent, and capable to care for others according to God. Only You in us is the diligent and capable One who can arrange, manage, and provide for the saints in the household of God. We open to You, Lord, to be infused with You and become Your reproduction, Your duplication, the church as the worthy woman who satisfies You in every way and who is Your joy and Your crown. Amen, Lord, may we be the reigning kings by allowing You to reign in us, and may we be the worthy woman by becoming Your reproduction as the worthy One. May we be those who have a dispensational value and glory before You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1956, vol. 1, pp. 529-536, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 11, The Intrinsic Significance of Fearing the Lord in the Economy of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– The Lord enthroned within our hearts / His Kingdom doth establish there, / Assuring His full right to reign / And for God’s purpose to prepare. (Hymns #942)
– Jesus, Thou alone art worthy / Ceaseless praises to receive; / For Thy love and grace and goodness / Rise o’er all our thoughts conceive. (Hymns #182)
– Whene’er my heart is lifted up, / How very near I am to fall; / I dare not do, I dare not think, / I need Thyself in great or small. / Thou art my Savior, strength and stay, / O Lord, I come to seek Thy face; / Though I’m the weakest of the weak, / My strength is nothing but Thy grace. (Hymns #578)
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