This is from yesterday--last proverb and the last day of March. Happy April! I might continue my emails for two more days though to get in Proverbs 1 and 2 since I didn't begin until the 3rd of March.
Proverbs 31 is all about the "proverbs woman"---great chapter to ponder with regard to the qualities of a wise woman. I've always favored this verse:
"Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised." Proverbs 31:30
Our world places undue emphasis on beauty and charm, particularly with regard to women. Note how the writer negates the value of those qualities and instead praises the woman who "fears the Lord."
What does it mean to fear the Lord? I've been listening to a biblical scholar's lectures on Proverbs the last week, and he says that it's a compound concept that combines fear and love, united by trust. We are fearful in the sense that we respect His authority and trust God will do what He says He will. This is from his notes:
"In the classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis, children enter through the wardrobe a fantasy world where the events and characters in Narnia represent biblical narrative. Christ is represented by Aslan, the great lion. When the beaver, the guide, briefs the children about Narnia he mentions the lion. The children ask, “Is he safe?” The beaver answer: “Of course not, but he’s good.” As people in general are motivated to obey their consciences out of fear of God, so saints’ respond to the moral imperative of Scripture apart from either legal or ecclesiastical sanctions. For them the fear of the LORD is just as real as their love for him (see 14:27; 21). Both psyches are rooted in their faith: they believe his promises and love him; they believe his threats and fear him. In sum, C. Bridges says: “[The fear of the Lord is] that affectionate reverence, by which the child of God bends himself humbly and carefully to his Father’s law.” -Dr. Bruce Waltke
xoxo
Mom
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