Strength and honour are her clothing...

Proverbs 31:23-25

Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them,

And supplies sashes for the merchants.

25 Strength and honor are her clothing;

She shall rejoice in time to come.

The gates in ancient cities were built with an inner wall and an outer wall as a double layer of protection.  Between these walls was a space big enough for meetings to take place.  It is here where the leadership,  even the King and his advisors,  gathered to make important governmental decisions. Business transactions were negotiated and sealed in front of individual witnesses as well as in front of a public gathering of the people.  It is here where the husband of the Proverbs 31 woman is well known. He must have been an honourable man and well known in leadership and in business circles of the day.

Somehow we have the idea that in the Bible, women were only allowed to be at home, raise children and run the household.  I do not get that idea from Proverbs 31 at all.  This husband does not seem  threatened by any of her accomplishments, business transactions with the merchants or the work she does in general at all.  The writer of Proverbs 31 acknowledges his accomplishments as a leader as much as it acknowledges her accomplishments.  In fact, she is encouraged and supported by him in all her roles as a leader, a businesswoman, a mother, a provider and a person who lends a hand to the poor.  If he was not respected for the wife he had, perhaps he would not have been as known in the gates as he was. 

This woman is clothed with strength and honour and she rejoices in the time to come.  She looks forward to the future - some translations say she laughs at the future.  She knows who she is, who her husband is and she rejoices in her relationship with him because he respects her and she respects him.  She has an honourable identity and she knows who she is, and she wears it as a garment of strength and honour.

The points to ponder this week:

Our heavenly Bridegroom has given us talents with which we are to live out the calling He has for us.  Are we using them for the benefit of His Kingdom?  

Am I secure in my God-given identity and do I wear it with confidence as a garment of strength and honour?

Am I rejoicing in the future because I know my heavenly husband is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and I can trust Him with my future?  

Wedding day - Casting Crowns