Working Wisely

NOTE:

This is a manuscript, and not a transcript of this message. The actual presentation of the message differed from the manuscript through the leading of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, it is possible, and even likely that there is material in this manuscript that was not included in the live presentation and that there was additional material in the live presentation that is not included in this manuscript.

Engagement

This morning we will complete our current sermon series - Thank God It’s Monday. For the last four weeks we’ve been looking at what the Bible has to teach us about our work.

We began by going all the way back to the beginning of work in Genesis 1 and 2 and there we discovered that our work has value because God is a worker and because He has called us to be His co-workers in the process of bringing His creation to fruitfulness.

Then we looked at 1 Corinthians 7 and learned that the our work matters because it is a divine assignment from God. We also found that the way to find joy in our work is to bloom where God has planted us.

Last week, we studied Colossian 3 and discovered that our work is actually worship when we work with Jesus as our boss.

Tension

This morning, we’re going to wrap up by taking a look at a passage that at first glance doesn’t seem to be much about work at all. It is a passage that many of you, especially the women, are familiar with - the last part of Proverbs 31. For most of you, your exposure to that portion of Scripture has likely come on Mother’s Day, where unfortunately that passage seems to be used to make women feel guilty that they don’t measure up to the checklist of what it means to be a good wife and mother. It is not uncommon for women to aspire to become a “Proverbs 31 woman” and there is even a Proverbs 31 ministry to women.

But what if that is not the main purpose of that passage after all? What I hope to be able to do this morning is to demonstrate that while it is not necessarily wrong to use this familiar passage like that, that really isn’t it’s main purpose. When we look at this passage in its context this morning, we’re going to find it has great relevance to your work whether you are a man or a woman, young or old, or even if you don’t get a paycheck for your work.

Truth

The first nine chapters of the book of Proverbs set the stage for everything else in the book. In that section King Solomon gives instruction to his son about how to be wise. He does that by introducing us to two women that represent the two possible approaches to life:

Lady Wisdom. Solomon urges his son to seek out that way of life.

Lady Folly. Solomon instructs his son to avoid that way of life.

We see this clearly in chapter 9 where the ways of both women are summarized before the next 21 chapters provide more detail on how to live in a way that is consistent with Lady Wisdom:

Proverbs 9:1 ESV

Wisdom has built her house; she has hewn her seven pillars.

Proverbs 9:13 ESV

The woman Folly is loud; she is seductive and knows nothing.

Now let’s skip ahead to chapter 31. Although verses 10-31, the ones we’ll look at in more detail in a moment, are often separated from the first part of the chapter, we need to make sure that we don’t do that if we want to understand our passage in its proper context.

This chapter begins with these words:

Proverbs 31:1 ESV

The words of King Lemuel. An oracle that his mother taught him:

Nobody knows who King Lemuel is. His name doesn’t appear in any historical records. So it’s possible that this refers to Solomon, but the fact is the identify of the king isn’t really important. But what is important here is that this entire chapter is not addressed to women at all. It is an oracle that is taught by a mother to her son. So if verses 10-31 are a checklist at all, they serve more as a guide to men of what they should be looking for in a wife rather than a checklist for women to use to determine if they measure up as a wife and mother.

We also know that verses 10-31 comprise an acrostic poem where each verse begins with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet. Acrostic poems appear in a number of places in the Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms and Lamentations. Although that form was used to aid in memory, its primary purpose was to say “this is all there is to say about this subject” in the same way that we would use the phrase “from A to Z” in our culture today.

So I’m going to suggest that this is a poem that summarizes the entire book of Proverbs. This woman is the personification of what it looks like to live according to the way of lady wisdom in our day-to-day lives. So, it’s not surprising that every single characteristic of this woman is found elsewhere in the book of Proverbs. Obviously we won’t have time to look at all of those other occurrences this morning, but that would be a great Bible study for those of you who would like to dig deeper.

I am not saying that these verses don’t have some value to men as they consider the kind of woman they want to marry or to women who want to consider the kind of mothers and wives they ought to be. But that is not their main purpose and, as we’ll see more fully in a moment, even if that was the purpose of this passage, it was never intended to be used as some kind of checklist, but rather to be looked at in broad terms. With that background in mind, let’s read our passage:

Proverbs 31:10–31 ESV

An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, 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 while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; 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 hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle. She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are 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; she 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 household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates.

There are two things that really stand out to me in this passage:

The first thing that strikes me about this passage is how comprehensive it is. It seems to cover almost every aspect of life: family, business, trade, real estate, manufacturing, agriculture, social outreach, and education. In the culture of that day all those areas of life overlapped and it just wasn’t possible to compartmentalize life the way we tend to do in our culture today. While we often consider our work to be separate from the rest our lives, we see here that it clearly has an impact on my home life and, as we saw last week, even my worship. And it also impacts my workplace and my community. That means this passage is relevant for all of us even if we don’t have a job where we get a paycheck.

The second thing that strikes me is that God intends for His wisdom to be very practical. Wisdom is not to be merely theoretical, but rather is to be an integral part of the ordinary human experience. So this passage is not merely the portrayal of a perfect wife and mother, it is a portrait of God’s perfect wisdom in action.

This poem praises a woman who is a wise manager of diverse enterprises that range from real estate to wine making to weaving. The ESV calls her an “excellent wife”, but other translations use the words “virtuous”, “capable” or “of noble character”, but all those terms fail to capture the meaning of the underlying Hebrew word. It is usually rendered “strength”, like we see in verses 3 and 17 of this chapter. Elsewhere in the Old Testament that same word frequently refers to fighting men. And it is also used by Boaz to describe Ruth. But the strength of this woman is not primarily physical. It is the strength of character that results from incorporating practical wisdom into every area of her life.

Even if this was simply a description of the ideal woman, it is clear that no human could ever do all these things in one single season of life. While the verb tenses in our English translations are present tense, in the underlying Hebrew they are past tense verbs, which indicates that this is a summary of what this woman accomplished over a lifetime, not just what she did while she was a new mother with young children in the home. So we need to be careful not to use this passage to argue either for or against the idea of a mother working outside the home. It just wasn’t intended to address that idea.

Application

Given all that we have learned so far, it seems the best approach here is to look at this poem as a whole rather than get bogged down in the details. And when we do that here is the main idea we’re going to take away today:

I work wisely when I do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason

Let’s break that down and look at each aspect in a little more detail:

The right thing

Earlier this year Mary and I needed to replace our air conditioner. So I obtained a number of bids. We ended up going with a company that wasn’t the lowest bidder because the research I had done on various companies revealed that this particular company consistently did things right. And I’m really glad we chose them to do the work because they have consistently done that in every phase of their work at our house.

We talked about this idea last week when we talked about integrity, which we defined as doing the right thing even when no one is looking. You certainly get the feeling that this woman was someone who exhibited that kind of integrity in everything she did. And I think the evidence of that is found in verse 11:

The heart of her husband trusts in her. (v.11)

Because of the way she carried out her work, her husband trusted her. He could do that because he knew without a doubt that she had his best interests at heart:

She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. (v. 12)

But we see evidence here that it was not just her husband that trusted her. Because she consistently did the right thing, her extended family, her suppliers, her customers and the community as a whole came to trust her and one of the results was that her husband was also well-respected in the community.

Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land. (v. 23)

One of the evidences that I am working in the right way will be that those around me will exhibit their trust in me. And when a company is full of people that do things in the right way, that company will gain a good reputation in the community.

The right time

We’ve all heard the expression “timing is everything” and that is so often true when it comes to our work. In the 15th century, Leonardo da Vinci had a great idea, but the timing wasn’t right, so it didn’t actually come to fruition until over 400 years later.

[Da Vinci ‘helicopter”]

One of the things the we note about this woman is that she had a good sense of timing. She worked to meet immediate needs, but she also took a long term view of things.

Probably the best evidence of that is when she considers a field and plants it to create a vineyard. When new grape vines are planted, they don’t produce fruit for several years, and it would have taken several more years after that before there would have been enough fruit to make enough wine to be profitable.

She also doesn’t wait until winter arrives to begin making winter garments for her family. So when the snow arrives, she doesn’t have to rush around trying to make appropriate clothes at the last minute.

As we are reminded in Ecclesiastes:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 ESV

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

And one important aspect of being wise in our work is to understand those seasons.

The right way

Again, we saw this last week, when we talked about working diligently. You can’t read this passage without knowing that this is a hard working woman. Even if this is, as I suggested earlier, only a composite of what this woman accomplished over a lifetime rather than a snapshot of one moment in her life, you can’t help but see that this woman is a hard worker.

We also see here that this woman is a shrewd businesswoman. And I’m using the word “shrewd” here is a very positive sense. She carefully selects the raw materials she works with. She studies the markets so she can understand which products are in demand. She anticipates potential problems and finds solutions in advance.

But she is not satisfied to just keep working in the same way she has always worked. She constantly takes steps to improve her skills:

She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. (v. 17)

Apparently, she went to the gym on a regular basis.

This is a principle that I have found particularly helpful as a sports official. When I first started officiating a very wise official told me that there are two kinds of officials - those who continue to work to get better, and poor officials. In other words, if I don’t continue to improve my skill as an official, it won’t be long before I am no longer effective.

The same is true in the workplace. If I want to be of value to my employer, I need to constantly work on improving my skill. So I certainly hope that today I’m a better pastor and preacher than I was a year ago or five years ago or sixteen years ago when I first came to TFC because I’ve taken time to work on those skills.

The right reason

I see two important motivations for work in this passage:

The first thing we see is that this woman works to provide goods and services that not only benefit her and her family, but are important to the entire community. As we saw back in Genesis, God does provide for my needs through my work. But if I become too self-centered in my work that can lead to all kinds of problems.

Many of you have probably heard this statement before:

Do what you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life.

No doubt that is a true statement. However, if we all just did whatever we wanted without any thought to whether it provided benefits to others, I’m not sure we’d want to live in that community. This woman goes about her business in a way that it meets the needs of her community. And I believe because she works for the right reason, God blesses that work and makes it profitable:

She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. (v. 18)

I should work in a way that contributes to the profitability of my employer because that is not only good for my boss, it also benefits me, my family, and my co-workers through the pay we receive. But beyond that, it also contributes to the good of my community because it allows my employer to continue to provide goods and/or services that benefit our community.

The second right reason for working is so that she could be generous with others:

We see this in verse 20:

She opens her hand to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. (v. 20)

Her hard work produced a surplus. But instead of just hoarding that profit for her own benefit, or even just for her family, she was generous to share with those in need.

From cover to cover, the Bible reveals that when God provides a surplus, He does that so that we can share it with others. In the Old Testament, we saw Joseph act wisely to store up food in the years of abundance so that there would be food during the years when there was no harvest, not just hoarding it for his own benefit. And in the New Testament we see Paul instructing the church in Ephesus to work so that they would have something to share with those who had needs:

Ephesians 4:28 ESV

Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

I’m not saying that we can’t enjoy the fruit of our labor. As we’ve talked about before there is nothing inherently wrong with having a nice house or going on a nice vacation or otherwise enjoying what God has provided. But, like the woman in this poem, we need to be generous with others, especially those in need and not just work to buy a bunch of stuff we don’t really need.

We’ve seen this morning that...

I work wisely when I do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason

Now certainly there are some practical steps I can take to develop the attributes that we’ve talked about today, and I should do that. But ultimately, if I try to do that in my own power and strength, I’m not going to be able to sustain that effort in the long run. The book of Proverbs seems to sense that, so it is “bookended” with the key to being able to work with that kind of wisdom. Here is how the book begins:

Proverbs 1:7 ESV

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction.

And here is how it ends:

Proverbs 31:30 ESV

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Action

From cover to cover the book of Proverbs teaches that the way of Lady wisdom is only possible if we fear the Lord. I can’t give you a prescription that will automatically develop the fear of the Lord in your life. I can’t provide you with “five easy steps to fearing the Lord”. What I will say is that the more you get to know God and develop a deep sense of awe for who He is and what He has done, the more you will move in that direction. Every single trait that we looked at this morning is consistent with the character of God. He always does the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason. And as we come to know God more intimately, our character will become more and more like His character.

Inspiration

By now I hope that you understand that the Biblical concept of work is very broad. It includes everything from going to school if you’re a student to being a stay at home mom, to working for an employer, to being self employed and even to volunteering at a non-profit or building into the lives of your kids and grandkids. So we all work in some sense.

So today’s main idea is actually a very fitting conclusion and summary for this entire sermon series because it is a principle that we can apply to our work, no matter what it looks like.

I work wisely when I do the right thing at the right time in the right way for the right reason