The Perfect Woman and Me

The Proverbs 31 woman was the subject of our ladies Bible study recently.  Groan.   I felt bile rise up in my throat at the very mention of her.   How many times do I have to look at this woman with all her accomplishments and abilities against my own imperfections? 

Sure, I’ll “provide portions for my servant girls” as soon as I have a few servant girls.  And how about that workday?  “She gets up while it’s still dark and her lamp does not go out at night".  I know how I feel after rising at 5 am for work and I can assure you that by 9 pm it isn't pretty!  There is no lamplight at my house unless you count the glow of the alarm clock.  And while it’s admirable that “she laughs at the days to come”, who wouldn't with all that giftedness, a husband singing her praises and kids calling her blessed? 

I confess that my attitude has been sour.  But as the group discussion continued that night, an epiphany came to me and the cloud of bitterness receded. 

We are taught that the Law, while impossible to obey perfectly, was nonetheless set up as God’s standard for His people in the Old Testament. But anyone who has read Scripture knows the Israelites were no more successful at living this perfection than we are today.   Gal 3:24 says “…the Law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.”  In seeing the required perfection, we also see our inability to meet it.  But God in His grace presents not just the dilemma but also the solution – Jesus.

Is it not possible that this woman is of the same cloth as all other Old Testament standards?  Could she not be a composite of a woman in a perfect state rather than a guilt provoking role model against which we compare ourselves?

A woman who, rather than wagging a critical finger in our direction, in fact  points our way to Jesus.

I think I may have made a new friend.