Gtcotr/ws091422
Luke 6:45 A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart.
There is one chapter in the Bible dedicated to the virtuous woman. Bible studies have been written and even whole conferences assembled to teach and encourage the attributes of the Virtuous Woman, or as some call her, the Proverbs 31 Woman.
My best understanding, according to the Rabbis and Rabbinical teachings, is that the writer is identified as Solomon and the words contained in the first 10 verses were taught him by his mother, Bathsheba, while the remaining 21 verses, each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet, comprise Solomon’s reflections concerning his mother, who was the perfect woman in his eyes.
If Solomon wrote this, and I believe he did, he had three names. We know him as King Solomon. God called him Jedidiah (2 Samuel 12:25) by the mouth of Nathan the prophet, while his mother called him Lemuel which means created or given by God.
At any rate, there is no one who ever lived, accepting Jesus, who knew more about women, the good, the bad, and the ugly, than Solomon. The picture he paints by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, gives such insight into the hidden virtues of a woman of God who goes about her life, doing her part from her heart without complaint.
If this is the way wise King Solomon saw his mother, Bathsheba, it might be one of the greatest testimonies to womanhood ever recorded. However, there are many other testimonies of women with hidden virtues that would have left undiscovered if it had not been for God, Who inspired writers to include them in the stories of the Bible. Two such women in the Bible were Queen Esther, and Mary the mother of Jesus. First the hidden virtues of a young orphan girl named Esther.
There
are 4 main players in the account of Esther.
1.
King
Xerxes I
a. Born in 519BC
b. Reigned over the
Persian Empire from 486 to 465BC.
c. Also known as King
Ahasuerus Xerxes I
2.
Haman
a. Chief Minister to King
Xerxes I
b. Connected in lineage
to the Amalekites
c. He hated the Jews and
wanted to destroy them, as did his ancestors.
3.
Mordecai
a. Esther’s older cousin
who took her in when she was orphaned.
b. He was a wise man, a
man of prayer, and loyal to the king without compromising his commitment to worship
God alone.
4.
Esther
a. An orphaned girl
raised and cared for by her older cousin.
b. She was chosen by God
to save her family but she didn’t know it, she didn’t feel it, and she didn’t
think she could do it.
c. She perfectly fit the
description of a young and beautiful virgin girl who would spend a year being
made ready to be received into the King’s bed in hopes she would please him.
d. The fact she was a Jew was kept secret by her in strict obedience to the instructions of her cousin Mordecai.
The story in brief …
Esther is an amazing young woman with so many virtues which were hidden, even from her, until life made its demands. So was the young woman named Mary, who was chosen by God to be the mother of His only begotten Son, Jesus.
When
we are first introduced to Mary, there are a few main characters important to
the story of the birth of Jesus.
1.
Herod
the King
a. He was a very insecure
king of Judah who was threatened by the news that a child was born in Bethlehem
who would be known as the King of the Jews.
b. Herod tried to kill
Jesus.
2.
Gabriel,
the angel of God.
a. He was sent to inform
Mary that she had been chosen by God, and encourage her to confirm his message
by visiting her cousin.
b. He was also sent to
tell Mary’s betrothed husband to not cancel his plans to marry Mary.
3.
Joseph,
the fiancé.
a. He was a good man who
did not want to publicly accuse Mary of adultery … but he did not want to marry
her after it was known she was pregnant.
b. He followed Gabriel’s
instructions to the letter and risked his life to take great care of Mary and
the baby Jesus.
4.
Mary
a. The young virgin
chosen by God to bear His only begotten Son.
b. She was a good wife, mother, friend, supporter, and follower of the plan and purposes of God for her life and well beyond.
You know the story of Mary. She is an example every woman can follow. She, like Esther, possessed virtues even she did not recognize until life made its demands.
Women, good women, are incredible. Many of you, like Esther and Mary, have hidden virtues which you may not yet know are resident within you. However, when life makes its demands, those hidden virtues will surface, and you will find yourself able to do what beforehand you imagined was impossible. Because a good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart.
What
are some of the virtues shared by these women:
·
Chastity
o The Bible goes to
great lengths to mention they were virgins.
o Not because they could
not but because they did not compromise the moral standards of modesty and chastity.
·
Courage
o Both of these women
exhibited great courage in accepting their assignments even though neither of
them believed they could do what had been asked of them.
·
Humility
o Both of these women
realized they could not do what they had been called to do without God, and
without others.
o They did their part
and appreciated the fact that they could not do it all.
·
Submissiveness
o Both Esther and Mary
accomplished their tasks from the confines of life.
§ Esther was not the
King, she was only the queen consort.
·
Haman
had more authority than she did.
·
Nonetheless,
Esther submitted to Mordecai and she was submitted to her husband the king and
to the laws of the Persian Empire.
§ Mary was a married
woman, subject to her husband and his decisions.
· When it became necessary to take Jesus to Egypt for protection, the angel appeared to Joseph.
Neither of these women believed they could do what they had been asked and tasked to do. They both needed encouragement, and God sent someone to encourage them.
I have a favorite boiled down quote for each one of my Bible heroes. When it comes to Esther I hear her saying:
“If I perish I perish, but I’m going to see the king!”
The actual verse reads:
Esther 4:16 “Go, gather all the Jews who are present in Shushan, and fast for me; neither eat nor drink for three days, night or day. My maids and I will fast likewise. And so I will go to the king, which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish!”
When I think of Mary, the mother of Jesus, you probably know what I say:
Luke 1: 38 And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her.
We may not know what is in us until it has occasion to come out. Hopefully, in the preponderance of life, the good treasure in your good heart will reveal the hidden virtues of your life.
What’s
in your heart? Given time, it will come out. I only hope you will reflect the
virtues of Christ.
