Proverbs 31:15-17. 15She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and portions for her maidens. 16She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. 17She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong.
Two days ago we talked about the excellent wife, or the excellence of wisdom. You may recall that the word excellence means noble, honorable, virtuous, and valiant. Like a mighty warrior fighting for what’s right. Today we get to see what this excellence looks like in daily life, and it looks like working hard. What kinds of hard work is the excellent wife doing? Providing food for her family. Buying land and planting a vineyard. Staying physically strong – makes her arms strong.
Notice that our noble woman is not working hard for her own personal gain, but for the sake of others. Her hard work is motivated by love and honor. She gets up early to provide even for her maidens, her servants. Shouldn’t it be the other way around? Shouldn’t the maidens get up early for her? Maybe. But she doesn’t use people for her own advantage. She buys land to plant a vineyard. Why a vineyard? Because it will supply her community with something they need, while also allowing her to provide for her family.
This is wisdom. Not just working hard, but working hard for others. Our hard work should benefit the people that we live with in our household and in our community, not only ourselves. Some people only see hard work as a way to get rich or to get promoted to more powerful positions. But not wise people. The wise work hard because it honors God and benefits the people around us. For the wise, hard work is a form of sacrificial love. For the wise, resources given by God are never a license for personal ease, but a mandate to personal responsibility.
You see, this isn’t just about hard work, it’s about justice too. Laziness is a form of injustice. Everything this wise woman is doing is meant to lift others up. Her children. Her maidens. Her community. But the entitled, the self-important, the opulent, live only for themselves. Their failure to work hard keeps everyone else down. They become what the prophet Amos called the “Cows of Bashan.”
Amos 4:1. Hear this word, you cows of Bashan, who are on the mountain of Samaria, who oppress the poor, who crush the needy, who say to your husbands, ‘Bring, that we may drink!’
The Cows of Bashan weren’t just lazy women demanding more to drink, they were oppressive women crushing the poor and the needy. Could it be that even when we are not actively harming others, we ARE harming others by our failure to produce anything that would help others?
What about you, woman or man, are you a Cow of Bashan, or do you work hard as a form of justice, using your strength to help others – your household, your community, your church family?
Wisdom never lets wealth get in the way of hard work as a form of justice and righteousness. We who are rich in Christ must also never cease to do the good works that flow from the grace of God for us in our union with Christ. Good works don’t save us, but we were saved to do good works. May our wealth in Christ, our possession of every spiritual blessing, never produce in us a spiritual slothfulness, but rather a zeal to serve others with the gifts, the grace, the love that we are so richly blessed with in Jesus.
Romans 12:11. Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.
You: Where do you see yourself struggling with laziness, entitlement, self-importance?
You in Christ: In what ways does our union with Christ make us spiritually rich? How are we called to “spend” those riches in Christ Jesus?
Christ in you: How can you use your resources (material and spiritual) to bless others today?
Pray: Father, let your work in me become my work to lift up others. Amen.
To Live is Christ 