My Momma Said...

Background

It’s difficult to dedicate a message to just mothers when preaching to an entire church

Some of us are men…we are disqualified from the start, why bother listening in?

Some women never have been mothers, and it may be painful

Some have suffered through the trauma of abortion

But all of us have had mothers---even in this there may be problems

Some have been great; some horrid; everything in between

Some have left us with joy; some with great pain

Some of us may have lost them tragically, some may still have them

We may have known them; not known them; wish we’d known them better—or maybe not...

But we all had a mother

Some of us had surrogates…women who picked up the slack in some way/ways

We’re looking at one mother to see what all of us—women and men—can learn

The Book

Proverbs is a book of wisdom

Lessons and observations from life, learned and written for the benefit of following generations

Not promises: do this, see this result…that’s not happening here

A compilation of sayings, most by Solomon, some by others, Agur and Lemuel

Lemuel

We don’t know who Lemuel was

…where he was

Something of a contemporary of Solomon

He is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture…not within the Jewish history

But…placed into the book, so it’s Spirit inspired

We know only what is given…he was a king

Our Choice of Text

Lemuel recorded the words of a wise mother

Unusual to preach on vv. 1-9; generally focus on the rest of it: 10-end

It, too, may be an extension of the wisdom of Lemuel’s mother

But this is a mother’s advice to a beloved son…

It’s an oracle, a wise saying, a declaration from God

Hopefully, he took the advice before he’d learned the lessons first-hand

It doesn’t look like a “see, I told you so” sort of statement

Interesting that it comes from Proverbs

Much of book is a father’s wisdom to his son…this balances the scale

Does it very well

But…does it show Christ???

Don’t worry, we’ll get there from here; not a problem at all!

A Mother’s Love

WHAT ARE YOU DOING? I can hear my mother’s voice

Sounds like she’s getting his attention before he commits some act or series of acts

Mom knows best

Son of my vows…intriguing statement

Could be simple: product of a lawful marriage

Could be more complex, example of Hanna

1 Samuel 1:11 ESV

And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”

Could be that her vow was to bring him up in a certain pattern and he was potentially walking away from it

Any way we read it, it created a special bond/relationship between the mother and the son

A Mother’s Wisdom

She has a bunch of it

Be Wary of Wayward Women

Knowing this to be of concern makes it more than likely the rest of the book is the “rest of the story” Mom’s advice on finding a good wife

With all the similar advice given in the rest of the book, (from fathers) it’s consistent with it being godly wisdom

With the example of Solomon’s reign being destroyed by his many women, these were wise words

The wisest of kings brought down by a weakness for women

Giving implies surrendering

Destroy really means it…wipe out, obliterate

Solomon’s indulgence with foreign women took his eyes off God, took him to other gods, essentially ruined the legacy of the wisest man ever to live

Maybe Mom had seen/heard about these things and was giving her son a heads-up

Her vow may have included to keep her son on the straight and narrow path of righteousness

Avoid Alcohol

This is a verse showing the clear wisdom of avoiding alcohol—totally

Wine of the day was of lower alcohol content than today’s

Probably was the normal table beverage; but may have been diluted

Strong drink—any fermented drink other than wine (beer, mead…)

Unfitting for a king or other ruler

Best understanding is that using alcohol in celebratory fashion—revelry—was the intent??

A king needs to be at his full mental capacity at all times

Intoxication—even slight impairment—could cause the miscarriage of justice;

It is or may be of benefit for those dying/in pain , distress

At the very least, the advice was that it was NOT to be a way of escape for the king

That’s probably a stretch

A Mother’s Desire

She wants him to be a voice for the mute; an advocate for the oppressed

Seems to desire that he be vocal about justice for all

…and was in a position, as king, to do something about it

A Man’s Response

…or a woman’s...

We are not kings—or are we?

We are children of the King of Kings

If we are saved, we are adopted into the family of God

So, there is a level of universal application

Relational Issues

That in mind, how do we maintain our relationships with the apposite sex?

If we understand the the design of God, from the beginning was one man/one woman in a monogamous marriage—as we have defined that term before (a matter of law/culture)

If we see the destruction that follows the reckless relational history of both men and women don’t we wish for Mom standing there yelling “WHAT ARE YOUR DOING?”

The serial philander (broadly defined—in or out of/before/during/after marriage gets so wrapped into relationships for pleasure he/she can easily be destroyed

Obsession saps the strength

The Temperance Issue

With so much legalization of “recreational” marihuana, that falls in here too

“It’s not good for kings to toke a joint....”

Maybe we can make a case for responsible use of alcohol—but it’s not in this passage

This is one that leans well away from that

…and never had anyone say that God delivered him from the evils of sobriety!

The Justice Issue

We have the Micah Mandate in Micah 6:8; a requirement of God

…do justice…love kindness…and walk humbly with your God

Remember we’re talking about being children of the King

Doing justice comes first in this 3-part command

Note that there is just justice, it’s not parsed out into social, economic, racial…it just justice

Loving kindness supports the justice, humility before God supports both

So...

Momma Said!