In Proverbs 31, Solomon is not telling women how to be women of God. He is advising his own sons to look for certain character qualities in an excellent wife. He is passing on advice from his own mother, Bathsheba, and even using her as the example of an excellent wife. Solomon, I’m sure, has also learned some lessons the hard way—being married to so many women. In verses 19 and 20, we learn about the excellent wife’s generosity.
She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hands grasp the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor, And she stretches out her hands to the needy (Proverbs 31:19-20).
First, we continue to see that the excellent wife has a good work ethic. She bought property and invested for her own profit already. Now, we see that she is also making clothes. Before, she was working for her own profit and the profit of her family. She did not have to rely on others or be a drain on society by relying on some welfare system. Here, she extends the same hand to make thread for clothes to serve the poor and needy. So, the text leads us to talk about compassion. It leads us to talk about the importance of taking care of those in need. It leads us to think about the importance of compassion in our relationships.
If I find a woman who is unconditionally compassionate to those in need, I know that her compassion is true. If her compassion for strangers is unconditional, so will be her compassion and devotion to her husband. She is a faithful woman—an excellent wife.
More than this, though, I consider the importance of compassion in all of our lives. What place does caring for the poor and needy have in the Christian’s life? Not one Christian I meet ever says that we ought not take care of the poor and needy. People disagree about what it means for someone to be poor and needy. People try to be discerning when they feel someone might be taking advantage of their compassion. Different Christians have different feelings about taxes and government welfare systems, but I have not met a single one who claims that we are to ignore the poor and needy. People who know Jesus and have the Holy Spirit are compassionate people. They may be stern or not wear their compassion on their sleeves, but they are compassionate. The people of God care about the world like the excellent woman cares about the world.
We know we ought to care for the poor and needy. We want to care for the poor and needy. My question, then, is how? How does the excellent wife care for the poor and needy? How does this apply to our own lives as both men and women of God in the world today—where there is still poverty and neediness?
Solomon is an artist. He is a poet. He uses poetic elements to show that the excellent woman stretches her hand to the spindle and also to the poor and needy. It is the same hand. She is not working the spindle, here, for her own gain or to earn a profit for her family. Her work at the spindle is for the needy. She is intentional about how she helps those in need. She is stretching out her hand, not just waiting for opportunities to fall in her lap. She is also not handing out money. She is doing something in service to those in need—providing something that will actually help them. So, I notice two principles when helping those in need:
- Intentionality
First, the excellent woman is intentional. She stretches out her hands to the poor and needy. She does not wait for them to come to her. She has seen a need, and she humbly serves the people who are in need. There are two ways we can apply this principle. 1) When we see a sincere need, we should be the types of people who desire to fill that need to the best of our abilities. 2) We recognize that filling sincere needs is not the same as supplying the beggar.
Compassion drives us to be intentional when it comes to helping those in need.
- Service
In most cases, I think it is actually counterproductive to supply the beggar with the things he begs for. That is a sure way to facilitate his vicious cycle and ensure he remains enslaved to the welfare system and its rulers. There is a better way to help those in need–a way that empowers them and frees them from their Hell. The excellent woman is not explicitly giving to beggars. Instead, she has found a real, meaningful way to help that both keeps her invested and works to motivate those in need to start doing something other than beg. The best way to serve the poor and needy is by our service, not our money. After all, we want them to be raised up, not perpetuate their dependency. We want them to be empowered to begin earning their own sustainable profit–not be a drain on the rest of society such that they never escape the fires of their own Hell. I fear that most modern welfare systems are the perfect oppression machines, kicking the poor while they are down instead of raising them up.
The Bible teaches us good work ethic and compassion. It’s welfare for those in need does not bind the poor to their worldly masters like many systems of the world do. Other religions teach us to give alms to the poor. The Bible teaches us to actually help lift people up. The Bible’s way is better.
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