19 She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
Perhaps the greatest difficulty in understanding this verse is in the unfamiliarity of the objects mentioned: the distaff and spindle. Most of us may recall Sleeping Beauty who, in accordance with a curse, pricked her finger on a spindle of a spinning wheel. That might give us some indication that a spindle is a long pointed object used for spinning yarn. But what about a distaff? What is that?
Distaff - It is designed to hold the unspun fibers, keeping them untangled and thus easing the spinning process. It is most commonly used to hold flax, and sometimes wool, but can be used for any type of fiber.
Some hands are seamstress and sew and make things. Some would rather hold a book, run over the keys of a piano, knead bread, or type on a computer.
In fact, hands are mentioned in FIVE verses of the Proverbs 31 lady! Her hands are very important to God, and the “work of her hands” shows the character of her heart. In addition, her hands work skillfully and carefully. Her reputation is built on her hands, and her lack of laziness (”slothfulness” in KJV) is evidenced by the amount of production that comes from her hands.
Ecclesiastes 9:10
The Message (MSG)
Each day is God’s gift. It’s all you get in exchange
For the hard work of staying alive.
Make the most of each one!
Whatever turns up, grab it and do it. And heartily!
This is your last and only chance at it,
For there’s neither work to do nor thoughts to think
In the company of the dead, where you’re most certainly headed.
As a woman, I just don’t have the strength to do what I need to do.
In fact, it would be wrong not to admit it, for we would be saying (in pride) that we don’t need God, that we are sufficient in and of ourselves.
The moment, however, that I admit my need of God and my own insufficiency, God steps in and fills me with His power. Each morning, and all through each day, I need to stretch out my hands toward my heavenly Father. I am as weak as a baby, as a little toddler, and I need to stretch up my hands to my (”Abba, Father”) and say, “Please carry me!” Graciously, lovingly, He will.
Now we learn what she delights in doing, spinning her wool and flax into yarn. Her yarns are used to make various fabrics for her home and family (verses 21 and 22), and to sell (verse 24). While this may not be profoundly spiritual, I think it points to an important principle.
There is an error in modern Christian thinking regarding how we judge one another’s spirituality. There is a human tendency to want to classify our activities according to one of two categories: spiritual or secular. We believe that what is done at and for the church (preaching, teaching, ushering, tithing, visitation, VBS, nursery duty, etc.), is more important than what we do elsewhere. Consequently, we tend to judge others’ spirituality by how much time they spend at church, and we esteem church ministry careers as more important than so called secular careers.
This is this significant because we need to understand that our day to day activities are how we truly live out our faith. Our testimony to the world is in how we live our lives outside the church, not how many time we go to church. The church’s impact on the world is not in how many folks attended last week, but in the influence its membership has on the community in their day to day living.
It is the woman who sets the tone in the home and thus influences her entire household. She creates a stable refuge from the pressures of the world for her husband and children, and she uses her spiritual gifts to train and mature the next generation to impact the world for Christ.
Sadly, we are in a day and age where the home is no longer the center and stability of family life. Instead, it has become merely an investment. Consequently, it is just a place to keep one’s personal possessions, collect one’s mail, and get a few hours of sleep and a quick bite to eat before rushing off to work, church, school, football practice, piano lessons, etc.
Many women joke that they aren’t domestically inclined because they don’t know how to sew on a button, or that they could burn even water. However, the excellent qualities of the Proverbs 31 Woman are learned skills. She started at the same skill level that all women do, but she learned and developed what she learned to a master skill level.
Are we not capable of doing the same?
1 Timothy 6:(6) The true gain of godliness.
Now godliness with contentment is great gain.
Godliness isgreat gain; but only when accompanied by contentment.
"The word here used for contentment is autarkeia … By it they meant a complete self-sufficiency. They meant a frame of mind which was completely independent of all outward things, and which carried the secret of happiness within itself. Contentment never comes from the possession of external things."
Contentment is essential, and difficult for many reasons:
- - We can only find contentment when our hearts are rooted in eternal things; and contentment is essential because it shows we are living with an eternal perspective, not only trying to feather an earthly nest.
- - It is hard to be content, because our consumer culture feeds our lack of contentment, by rewarding us when we are discontent, and with advertising that tries to make us feel discontent without a product.
- - It is hard to be content, because we almost always desire far more than we need.
Real contentment isn't too difficult for those whose real home is heaven.
Women today need to set aside the world’s wild goose chase to find “fulfillment” elsewhere, and seek to see the ministry to their families as the most valuable ministry of all.
