Proverbs 31 - Week 1 - The Proverbs 31 Man

Proverbs 31:1-9  The sayings of King Lemuel contain this message, which his mother taught him.

 O my son, O son of my womb,
    O son of my vows,
 do not waste your strength on women,
    on those who ruin kings.

 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, to guzzle wine.
    Rulers should not crave alcohol.
 For if they drink, they may forget the law
    and not give justice to the oppressed.
 Alcohol is for the dying,
    and wine for those in bitter distress.
 Let them drink to forget their poverty
    and remember their troubles no more.

 Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves;
    ensure justice for those being crushed.
 Yes, speak up for the poor and helpless,
    and see that they get justice.

For the next few weeks I will be looking at Proverbs 31. This Chapter of Proverbs seems to be directed only at married women and all the things they need to live up to, do and be. But I would like to dig deeper and bring out the secret, hidden message of Proverbs 31.

This week we will look at Proverbs 31:1-9. These are the verses before the Virtuous Women verses.
It starts with King Lemuel and it says that it is him retelling the advice his mother gave him.

His mother doesn't go straight into telling him what the right kind of woman he should be looking for is. Instead she says son of mine don't throw your masculinity and strength onto just any woman. Don't crave drink and become drunk. Speak up for those without a voice and speak up for those who are poor and helpless. Be just.

These verses speak of a mother advising her son as to how he should behave and what builds good character in a leader and as a King.

We see more and more young men today who do not value their own virginity and drinking and seeing who gets the most drunk is what makes you a man. They do not care about the little person and instead bully and harm others.

What type of man do you want to be? Moms and dads what kind of man do you want your son to be? Women what type of man are you going to let into your life?
What this world needs the most is men who will be strong in justice for the oppressed and poor. We need men that will rise up, stand and be counted as leaders of integrity, who do not allow drink to be their master. Men who respect themselves and respect women and do not throw their bodies to any women they can find to fulfill their fleshly desires. We need men who are pillars of strength who keep the roof from crashing down on us.
We need godly men who will open their mouths and speak up. Speak up for the one being bullied. Speak up for the unborn child. Speak up for the poor.
We need men who are not filled with wine or beer but filled with the Holy Spirit and not just filled with the Spirit but walking in the Spirit. Galatians 5:16-25

Likewise women if you are to find a man to marry find a man who is filled with the Spirit and walking in the Spirit. A man who will stand up for you. But you too must be walking in and filled with the Spirit. You need to keep yourself from getting drunk and giving up your body to just anyone who fancies you.
Young women today are getting drunk and fall into bed with a new guy every week. These girls then end up in fights and brawls and if their great-grandmother saw them she would me totally mortified.
What happened to the ladies and gentlemen of old. You could say that we need to get with the times and that chivalry is so old school. We preach equality of genders but haven't we just traded one set of chains for another?

Feminism brought in some good things such as women being allowed to vote and equal pay and employment. But women have gotten so uptight over men opening the door for us and letting us go first and treating us with dignity and respect that now we are treated as common and just the same as men and thus not deserving of the red carpet we were once on.

I think we have confused equality with value. As humans we are equal but as men and women we are different. We need to realise our roles as different, unique but complimentary. Until we realise that a husband and wife are a team doing different things for the same cause we will never be ready for a Proverbs 31 Man or a Proverbs 31 Woman.

Married men and women what are the things you can change that will help your marriage? Are you the man or women that your marriage needs?
Single men and women are you becoming the kind of person someone would like to meet and spend the rest of their lives with. Have drinking and sleeping around become normal to you?
We are to love our neighbour as ourselves. If we do not love ourselves enough to stay pure how can we be sure we will be able to love others purely?

In the next few weeks we will look at what it means to be a Virtuous Woman and a Valiant Man. It might seem like Proverbs 31:10-31 is for women only but this women's husband is mentioned a few times and her children too.