She buys imported foods brought by ships from distant ports and the King James says it like this: She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
What kind of lady is this, out in the marketplace, bringing home good things for her family? She is not sitting at home waiting to be served, as learned from the previous verse, this girl was a busy one, finding the flax and wool and doing something useful with her hands, today she's off to the market.
In my research I found that the earliest known recipes for cooking or baking date from Mesopotamia about the time these verses were penned. It seems the women in that area recorded the recipes to pass onto one another. It was something unique from that time and culture. The items that the merchant ships would be bringing in during that time were amazing spices that we still use today in cooking. If you are a fan of Indian Cuisine you may have experienced some of those flavors. Seems Rachel Ray has nothing on the Proverbs 31 woman!
I like the way the King James puts it tho, she is LIKE the merchant's ships. Being a virtuous woman meant you were bringing something of value to the home, a uniqueness and flavor, you were a valuble asset to the partnership of marriage, you were the one to spice things up, bring the color to the household.
It is interesting to me that the sexual revolution in the 60s was to free women of the drudgery of homemaking and get her into the world, to experience what the men of the day experienced, open up opportunities to them. I wonder if the women in the 60's got complacent in the duties of virtue and stopped being the spicy one in the home - perhaps they stopped serving and were waiting to be served. Why did they feel the need to get out from under the oppression of the man of the house? I am not sure, I was a teen in the late 60's and felt burning my bra in the 70's was liberation, so what that whole bra burning generation really accomplished is still a mystery to me! The truth of the matter is that God had given freedom to us girls way back in the very beginning and Jesus set us free from the oppression of sin that keeps us held captive at Calvary. We are free indeed!
Our role as women is clearly defined by the Creator of the universe who says we are fearfully and wonderfully made. God made us women unique and our role is amazing, we are the ones who should import the exotic and colorful into the relationships of our households. Look at the life of the guy you married before you said "I do", what did you bring to his life? My man used to eat soup right out of the can! Salt and pepper WERE the spices at his place, the only thing that was lit up in the frig were the two lonely Budweiser bottles and the cigarettes he kept chilled! Okay, you younger gals may have the benefit of the "metro-sexual" male model but, I am just saying, there may have been some of the finer things of life lacking in his world. I hope you are the one who is continuing to bring home the spices and not buying the 60's idea that bringing home the bacon is a better concept of "freedom" than the one that God had planned for us ladies!
I have some thoughts on what it means to be a woman and the freedom that God gives us, but think about freedom and what our modern society has done with it - "we've come a long way baby" what happened in the 60s maybe was not what God intended for us gals, I think the video clip I have for us today will make you ponder, no judgement here on the people, it just has had me thinking, since a certain show has given a lot of press to it.
Recite the verse Proverbs 31:14 "She buys imported foods brought by ships from distant ports" Today find something lacking in your relationship with our spouse and add some "spice" , ask God to give you a great idea on this and see Him be faithful! Pray for God to open your mind to His insights for you as you meditate on these verses. Recite Proverbs 31:10-14 once today.
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