An Excellent Savior
How Proverbs 31 uniquely points to the excellencies of Christ
Last week I wrote about my experience inverting Proverbs 31 into its opposite, and how it highlighted the actual Scripture for me. But I have used one other meditation tool with Proverbs 31, one that encouraged me even more to pursue the valorous womanhood this chapter portrays.
It requires some lead-up…
Imitate Proverbs 31 as She Imitates Christ
All Christians “are being transformed into” the image of Christ (2 Cor. 3:18), “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:29). Though God uses our circumstances to help us grow in Christlikeness, we are also called to actively imitate Christ, as well as to imitate those who imitate Christ (1 Cor. 11:1). Men and women are called to imitate him in different ways, uniquely equipped to reflect specific aspects of His glory (for example, a woman can sacrificially bring forth life and nourish it from her own body). Thus we have differing instructions for men and women in the New Testament. But ultimately, it is all about reflecting Christ.
In the book of Proverbs, real women can also nobly imitate Lady Wisdom. Scott Hubbard notes how Proverbs builds to its climax of the excellent wife, layering the personification of wisdom (a female) with wise flesh-and-blood women. “Wisdom has built her house” (Proverbs 9:1), but also “The wisest of women builds her house” (Proverbs 14:1). Wisdom is to be sought more than jewels (Proverbs 8:11), and the Proverbs 31 wife is also more precious than jewels (31:10). There are more parallels, but let that suffice: the portrait of a godly wife as the grand finale of Proverbs is no mistake. The Proverbs 31 woman is showing how human women can be like little Lady Wisdoms, fleshing out the Lady Wisdom of earlier in the book.
Christ our Wisdom
It just so happens that Wisdom in Proverbs is also a lot like Christ. In Proverbs 8, Lady Wisdom speaks. Her presence during creation echoes Christ’s presence at creation in John 1. In the New Testament Christ is called “the wisdom of God” (1 Cor. 1:24). Christ is the true and better Lady Wisdom.1
Wisdom’s words parallel both the call of Christ—“whoever finds me finds life”—and the blessing of a godly wife—“and obtains favor from the Lord” (Proverbs 8:35, cf. John 6:40 and Prov. 18:22). This verse anticipates Lady Wisdom being like Christ—and flesh-and-blood women’s ability to embody, or incarnate, Lady Wisdom. When those mortal women imitate Lady Wisdom’s work and words, they imitate Christ too.
Seeing these parallels made me curious about whether what Proverbs 31 commends is simply many specific ways that a woman can imitate Christ. As I pursued this line of thought, what started as idle curiosity ended up in awe. Proverbs 31 is far from a demeaning demand that women be barefoot in the kitchen; it is calling us to emulate the best and noblest human ever to live, who even now is with us in our work.
So, I went through Proverbs 31:10-31 again, this time not inverting it, but converting it, writing about all the ways that Christ is calling us to reflect His own character. The initial numbers below reflect the verses in Proverbs 31 I was drawing on. I also included Scriptures that specifically mention Him doing these things.
Look at Him!
10. An excellent Savior is ready and willing to be found. He is worth more than anything this world can offer. (Isaiah 55:6-7, Matthew 7:7-8, Matthew 13:44)
11. Our hearts can fully trust in Him, and they will have no lack of gain. (Psalm 34:10, Mark 10:29-30)
12. He does good for His people, not harm, all the days of his everlasting life. He never tires of it. (Ephesians 2:7)
13. He seeks ways to bless. He rolled up His sleeves and got dirty to serve us, and He is working still. (Isaiah 52:9-10, John 13:3-4)
14. He controls all, orchestrating provision for His people. (Psalm 104:27-28, Philippians 4:19)
15. He neither slumbers nor sleeps, always providing and upholding. (Psalm 121:3-4)
16. He chooses carefully for us, always with an eye to our ultimate good. (Romans 8:28-29)
17. He is the arm of the LORD, strong, but bending His strength to our help. (Psalm 118, Isaiah 51:5, 53:1)
18. He sees and is satisfied with the fruit of His labors, but that doesn’t mean He’s stopped His work. (Hebrews 10:12, Romans 8:34)
19. He is still active, intentional, intimately involved. As the woman oversees every thread that clothes her family, so Christ oversees every thread of our lives: in Him all things hold together. (Psalm 139:5, Colossians 1:17)
20. He opens His arms to the most wretched, and extends His hands to the needy. (Matthew 8:2-3, Psalm 34:18, Psalm 113:7)
21. He has clothed us in scarlet; His blood and His righteousness keep us through every possible emergency. (Isaiah 61:10)
22. He so identifies with His household that He takes care of them like He takes care of Himself. (Acts 9:4, Hebrews 4:15)
23. He honors the Father in all that He does; they exalt each other. (John 17:1, 4)
24. He makes good things, and what He makes not only benefits His household but also has a long reach. (Psalm 145, Matthew 28:18-20)
25. Strength and dignity are intrinsic to His very being, and He laughs at the time to come. (Psalm 2:4, Revelation 5:9-10)
26. He opens His mouth with the fullness of wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on His tongue. (Isaiah 11:2, John 13:34)
27. He looks well to the ways of His household, preparing a place even now for each of His children. (John 14:1-4)
28. His offspring arise and call Him blessed, and God the Father calls Him His beloved Son, with whom He is well pleased. (Revelation 4:11, Matthew 3:17)
29. Many of mankind have done excellently, but this man sits on the throne of heaven. (Philippians 2:6-11, Hebrews 1:13)
30. Worldly charms are like a breath that vanishes, but His praise will endure forever. (Isaiah 40:6-8)
31. Give Him of the fruit of His hands, and let His works praise Him in the gates. (Psalm 22:25-27, Isaiah 53:10-11)
What a Savior! What an ever-present help! I am in awe of His excellence, and in awe that in pursuing the excellencies of womanhood, I get to imitate Him: His help, His persistence, His life-giving, His provision, His clothing, His valor, His love.
In imitating Him, strength and dignity are my clothing indeed.
At this point I feel I must say what likely goes without saying: Christ is not, in fact, a lady. In Ray Ortlund’s wonderful commentary on Proverbs, he suggests that since the original audience for Proverbs was young men, wisdom was personified as a woman in order to show them their need for a love affair with wisdom, encouraging the same kind of steadfast pursuit they would give to a romantic interest. Each believer’s loving relationship with Christ can reflect this ardent pursuit.