Proverbs 31:15

Proverbs 31:(15) She ariseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, her maidens.

In all fairness , I will have to say ...this is my one of my weakest areas.  

Rises – Strong’s 6965 – קוּם – quwm = to arise, to stand, to be set, to fulfill, to establish, to endure, to stir up, to carry out.  Often used with a sense of rising in preparation or rising in power.

Quwm does not refer to getting out of bed, which is an entirely different word in Hebrew (shakam). It refers to rising up with a plan and a purpose.  This is what we see the Excellent Woman doing.

The virtuous woman loves her God given role better than her ease or her "pleasure". She is to be found in the way of her duty every hour of the day, and has more true satisfaction in having given meat to her household early in the morning than those who have wasted their money in foolishness and live in the pursuit of "wordly pleasures".

So the verse above could well mean that she was anxious to get her work done (and if there’s a lot to be done in a day then I guess we all feel that way and are keen to get an early start to achieve as much as possible), or perhaps she was pleased with her plans for her family for the day and could not wait to get it completed as she had a great desire to share it with the family. There are a number of ways you could read this. But the end result is, I’m sure, that she had much to do and she was responsible for the end result of what needed to be done.

Verse 15 shows that she didn’t work alone – she had help, in this case, her servant girls. But an important point here is that she also cared for those who helped her. Whilst it is not common today for the majority of us to have servants, it would be an expectation that family members pitch in and help with family matters and errands. The mention of the servant girls shows that she didn’t do it all alone, although she had responsibility for what needed to be done. T

he Excellent Woman has a plan before the day begins.  She is aware of the needs of the household, and is organized in addressing them. 

She is organized and disciplined.

The point King Lemuel's mother was making when she wrote Proverbs 31 verse 15, was that of a woman's first and greatest passion in which she rises and not necessarily what time of day she rises. We know this by looking at how God caused the earth to rotate around the sun and as well as how the moon rotates around the earth. Due to these rotations, the sun rises at different times, and for different lengths of time all around the world.

One example of this, is Alaska. Although it is a common misunderstanding that it is night for 6 months and day for 6 months in Alaska, it does have some extreme daylight hours as well as nighttime hours. One of it's city's, Barrow, which is located at the very top of the state, has a two-month winter period in which the sun doesn't rise. For a Biblically submissive woman who lives in Barrow, to approach verse 15 only by the time of day, rather than the attitude of her heart in which she rises...well, to say the least, this would be a horrific and impossible task to achieve. In order for a Biblically submissive woman living in Barrow, to be obedient to "rise while it is yet night" would require her to stay awake for TWO MONTHS straight!

Now that we are clear that Proverb 31:15 is not concentrated on the actual time in which a woman rises, but more on the attitude in which she rises, we may move on to what this attitude of a godly woman looks like.

1. Fully demonstrates that Jesus Christ is her first love and her foremost desire as she loves Him with all her heart, soul, mind and strength by rising in His Word and seeking His face first every day.
2. Acknowledges and confesses her passion for Christ Jesus our Lord in all that she does and says.
3. Allows her abandoned devotion to Christ to spur her on toward love and good deeds through serving and loving others above and before herself.
4. Does not entertain idle chatter, nor will she condone gossip either by speaking in a manner that is not beneficial to others or by even listening to gossip from others.
5. Does not fear what man can do to her, but thoroughly trusts God's goodness and sovereignty over her life.
6. Loves the unlovable and is generous and kind to those who hate her and have done evil to her.
7. Forgives personal offenses as well as sins committed against her to prevent the seed of bitterness from taking root and creating dams in her heart, so the flow of God's Living Water, the Holy Spirit can flow effortlessly throughout her life.

Basically, a Biblically submissive woman should rise with the attitude and mindset of that of our Lord Jesus Christ.....