King Lemuel’s Mother sermon teaches that if we grow in godly love, kindness, character, wisdom, and diligence, we will be examples for others to follow.

Key Verses:
Proverbs 31:1-31

I’m going to ask you to take your Bible now and turn with me to Proverbs 31, Proverbs 31, and talk to you about King Lemuel’s mother. To begin with, let’s look at verse 10, Proverbs 31:10. We’re going to go back and look at the entire chapter, and I promise you we won’t spend a long time, but go to Proverbs 31:10 where it says:

Proverbs 31:10: “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”

In this chapter, we see some godly advice from a godly mother, and we see the adoration of that mother from a grateful son. There are two divisions of the chapter. The first one is verses 1-9, and that’s the godly advice from a godly mother. Look, if you will, at verse one. It says:

Proverbs 31:1: “The words of king Lemuel, the prophecy that his mother taught him. “

So, King Lemuel’s words. And this is a prophecy that taught him. Now, people debate about who is King Lemuel. The name Lemuel means for God, in favor of God, or in service to God. That’s what the name means. Lemu El, El is Hebrew for God. So, Lemuel, for God, in favor of God, or in service to God. Some believe that this was Solomon, and that perhaps this is what his mother called him, and that could be, I wouldn’t debate about that.

Advice From a Godly Mother

But I want to just share with you a couple of things that are said here about this prophecy. Verse two, obviously the mother speaking:

Proverbs 31:2: “What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?”

Proverbs 31:3: “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.”

Now, that’s an interesting thing, “thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.” Lemuel, it says in verse one, is a king. And again, if that is indeed Solomon, that would fit, but what destroys kings? Well, look at it. “If you will give not thy strength unto women” – does that mean just you put down women and you don’t respect women and that women don’t matter? No. It doesn’t mean anything like that, nothing like that at all. As a matter of fact, you won’t find that in the Bible.

What it’s referring to is that there’s a law concerning kings. Deuteronomy chapter 17 has is part of the law that God gave. In chapter 17 verse 17 of Deuteronomy, we find these words this speaking about a king

Deuteronomy 17:17: “Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.”

“Neither shall he multiply wives to himself” – so according to the law of God, the king was not supposed to have multiple wives. Now, if you know your Bible you know most of the kings had multiple wives. It doesn’t say they all did, but the majority of them did. And let me share something with you. Just because that happened and the Bible records truth, it records what happened, it doesn’t mean God was okay with that. It doesn’t mean God was in favor of that. Well, how do you know? Because God said, the king shall not multiply wives to himself. What He’s saying there is the king should be faithful to his wife.

So, the first thing we see in this advice from a godly mother is that a husband should be faithful to his wife. If you’re the king, you’re the leader of the country. You’re the one who is standing up in front of everybody else and saying follow me and hear what I say. Then, you need to set an example. So, the king should be faithful.

And what will destroy a king? Being unfaithful in his vows, not only his marital vows but all his vows. When you find out that the king is a liar when you find out that he says he going to do something and makes a pledge and makes a promise, he doesn’t just say it, but he makes a pledge and a promise or takes a vow that he’s going to do this and then he doesn’t, in many cases, does something completely opposite, what you have then is a leader, what you have then is, in our present-day terms, is a politician, but what you don’t have is a real godly king.

So, the king is to be faithful in all of his vows. Now, a lot of people would agree with that. There are some, certainly, who would not agree with that, but that’s what it says here, and that’s what the Word of God says. But look at verse three. It says:

Proverbs 31:3: “Give not thy strength unto women, nor thy ways to that which destroyeth kings.”

Again, we’ve talked about that which destroys kings, so breaking the vows. Verse four:

Proverbs 31:4: “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:”

Again, talking to kings. Kings are at a level of responsibility. I read this years ago, I don’t know how true it is. I think it’s true, but if you read and say, “No, I read about that. It’s not true.” I read that, in Japan, when a young child in the royal family is going to be, obviously, the leader of the country, the emperor of the country – they still have an emperor, they don’t have much power, but it’s a figurehead position, so to speak – but when the child is born who looks like he’s going to be the emperor of the country, they live a very regimented life. Their diet is regimented, and their behaviors are regimented and everything because they are going to be the emperor of the country. They’re trained from childhood to do that.

Well, that’s the kind of thing that’s talking about here. It’s not for kings. Others may do this, others may not. Not saying others should, but others may but:

Proverbs 31:4: “It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; nor for princes strong drink:”

And why is that? It’s about to tell us, verse 5:

Proverbs 31:5: “Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.”

Do you think drinking much wine or drinking much strong drink could cause you to forget the law? Yeah. It seems to be with a lot of people:

Proverbs 31:5: “Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.”

The afflicted people who are in trouble, people who have been oppressed, people who are struggling with things, and the king sits in judgment for them and should judge righteous judgment, should judge the right thing for that individual or those individuals and don’t want strong drink to pervert their judgment. They’re not sober, they may not be thinking straight, fairly, clear, here. But then it says:

Proverbs 31:6: “Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.”

“Give strong drink,” –  who? “Gives strong drink unto him that is ready to perish.” Why? It may help him revive, “and wine unto those that be of heavy hearts.”

Proverbs 31:7: “Let him drink, and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.”

Is that possible? Yes. I could say more about that. We’ll move on. Then, it talks about the king.  It gives an exhortation to the king to speak up for those who cannot speak up for themselves. The king should do that.

Proverbs 31:8: “Open thy mouth for the dumb in the cause of all such as are appointed to destruction.”

Proverbs 31:8: “Open thy mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.”

Now, in those two verses, saying the king should speak up for those who can’t speak for themselves, either they can’t speak as it says in verse eight, or they don’t have the opportunity to speak up publicly or nobody’s giving them an ear. Well, the king can speak for them.

When Theodore Roosevelt was the president of the United States, he said that being president was a bully pulpit. What does he mean by that? He means a lot of people listening to what I have to say. He was right about that.

Finding A True Treasure

That brings us back to verse 10, where we started:

Proverbs 31:10: “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.”

“Who can find a virtuous woman?” This is an interesting verse. The first thing I want to point out to you is, “Who can find a virtuous woman?” In other words, this is somebody, not that there aren’t any, not that they don’t exist, but when you find such a person, you’ve found a true treasure. Who can find a virtuous woman? The word “virtuous” there, is a very interesting word, in Hebrew is “chayil.” One of my favorite verses, I wouldn’t say my very favorite verse, but one of my favorite verses is found in Joshua chapter one, where it says:

Joshua 1:14: “Your wives, your little ones, and your cattle, shall remain in the land which Moses gave you on this side Jordan; but ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them;”

“But ye shall pass before your brethren armed, all the mighty men of valour, and help them;” What does it mean? Certain men are supposed to step out in front, take the lead, go out armed, and lead the way for others. The beginning of that verse says, ‘“Your wives, your little ones,” – to lead the way for others in times of danger, in times of conflict, through the wilderness, through trouble. It’s supposed to be the leaders. And you shall go before your brethren, before the others, lead the way armed, ready to stand and fight if you have to, all the mighty men of valour.

Well, the word “valour” there is the same word translated as virtuous. Here, it’s chayil, and it means strength with honor and courage, with goodness or virtue. So, this man who is supposed to be a leader, when it’s used in the masculine sense, this man is supposed to be a leader needs to be strong and he needs to be brave, but that’s not enough by itself.

He needs to be a good man and he needs to be a man of honor. That’s why you have the first verses here, which talk about keeping vows and the king not being drunk, which perverts his decisions. But the truth of the matter is a man of honor, a man that others can look up to and trust. Trust is such a very important word. Trust is a very fragile thing. When it’s lost, it’s very difficult to ever get it back again.

But now, we’re not talking in the masculine sense, we’re talking in the feminine sense, same word in the Hebrew, but in context, using the feminine sense. “Who can find a virtuous woman?” So, a woman of strength and a woman of courage and a woman of honor and a woman of goodness or virtue, the same qualities that are required in a leader of men are required in a virtuous woman.

“Her price is far above rubies.” That is such a wonderful way of saying it. A ruby is a precious stone, it’s perhaps not the most valuable precious stone, but it certainly has great value. It doesn’t say her price is above the price of a ruby, it says above the price of rubies, multiple. So, if you had many rubies together, and not many people, I suppose, have that, but if you did, she’s far more valuable than that.

Verses 11 and 12 talk about her relationship with her husband. It’s going to talk about that again towards the end of the chapter but notice what it says in verse 11:

Proverbs 31:11: “The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.”

The heart of her husband does safely trust in her. We said a while ago that trust is such an important quality, and here, the heart of her husband trusts in her. It’s wonderful when somebody gives you their trust. But again, it’s fragile you have to be careful with it. It’s easy to lose trust if we don’t conduct ourselves as we should. If we’re not honorable, if we’re not virtuous, we can lose trust.

But in this case, this virtuous woman, that’s what it’s talking about here, and this is the king talking about his mother. This virtuous woman, her part of her husband safely trusts in her. Why? Because he knows:

Proverbs 31:12: “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.”

He trusts her because he knows that she has his best interest at heart. You know, Ephesians five talks about wives being submissive to husbands. Boy, people don’t like that today. They don’t like the idea, and I understand why. They get the idea of an abusive husband or someone who belittles his wife, and that’s not what’s meant there at all because it says that the wife should submit to her husband as the church submits to Christ because He loved her and gave himself for her.

So, why is the church submissive to Christ? Well, there are many reasons, really, but focus on this one: He loves us, He loves us, and He gave himself for us. Why should a wife submit to her husband? She can and she will when she knows that he truly loves her and that he puts her interest ahead of his own. He wants what’s best for her. That means, like the husband in this chapter, she can trust him and when she knows she can trust him, because he loves her and he would give himself for her, no price is too high, he would die for her if he needed to. She doesn’t mind following his leadership. Now, is that always how it is in a marriage? Well, we all know that isn’t always how it is, but that’s God’s standard. That’s the way it should be.

A Woman of Character

In verses 13 to 19, we see a character trait in this woman, and it’s a beautiful character trait. Look at it:

Proverbs 31:13: “She seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.”

Proverbs 31:14: “She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth her food from afar.”

Proverbs 31:15: “She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.”

Proverbs 31:16: “She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.”

Proverbs 31:17: “She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.”

Proverbs 31:18: “She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.”

Proverbs 31:19: “She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.”

In other words, she is working hard, but the character trait that I want you to see here is she places her family before herself. It is wise dealings that she exercises. She’s good at business. It’s going to say that again in a little bit. And she’s giving to others she cares about others.

In verse 20, again, we learn about her heart:

Proverbs 31:20: “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.”

Caring about people who can’t really take care of themselves, just like the king is supposed to. Speak up for those who can’t speak up for themselves. Cares about those who can’t help themselves. And then, she takes care of her family’s needs in verses 21 and 22:

Proverbs 31:21: “She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.”

Proverbs 31:22: “She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.”

Nicely dressed, but who makes these clothes? She does. She makes sure her family has warm clothes in the winter and that they have what they need. Verse 23 says:

Proverbs 31:23: “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.”

“Her husband is known in the gates now the gates,” – in those days, were where the leaders of the city would meet. So, her husband goes. Well, if he’s the king, it doesn’t say the husband’s the king, in this case, the son is the king. But it’d be reasonable to assume that the son is the king, the husband would have been a king.

So, he would be known in the gates, but not just because of that. “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.” When he is with the leaders of the land, he’s known and recognized, and the implication here is he’s not only known and recognized and respected because of what he has done but because of who she is, because of who this wife is – her care and her wisdom and her working. Verse 24:

Proverbs 31:24: “She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.”

Proverbs 31:25: “Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.”

I want you to think about this statement here in verse 24, she makes fine linen, sells it, delivers girdles, think of belts, unto the merchant. What is it talking about there? She’s good at business. She knows what she’s doing and she’s diligent at business.

And then verse 25, again, “Strength and honour are her clothing.” Let’s go back, if you will, to verse 10. You’re thinking, who can find a virtuous woman? What did we tell you about this woman? She’s a woman of strength and courage and goodness or virtue and honor. What does it tell you here? The same thing. Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come.

Proverbs 31:26: “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.”

Kindly spoken, one who gives forth wisdom, one who people want to listen to. Think of the advice she gave her son in the first eight verses. She gives this kind of advice or wisdom to others. They listen to her. She’s respected. And we come to verse 27:

Proverbs 31:27: “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.”

Proverbs 31:28: “Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.”

Her family praises her. They sing her praises, they tell everybody, the children tell everybody about their mother. The husband tells everybody about his wife because of the character of this woman, because of the fine woman that she is. Now, that’s important that we understand all of that, but that’s not the end of it. Verse 29 says:

Proverbs 31:29: “Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.”

The same idea, the same word here, “Many daughters have done virtuously,” – not that nobody else is a virtuous woman. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.” In what way? In love, in kindness, in character, in wisdom, and diligence, “thou excellest them all.”

Now, isn’t that interesting? Do you realize that up to this point, no word has been said about what this woman looks like other than that she dresses well? Not a word was said about what she looked like. Why? Because that’s not the point. “You don’t think she was an attractive woman?” I don’t know. I would suppose she would be if Lemuel were Solomon, then she would be Bathsheba. We’re told by Samuel that she is a beautiful woman. But that’s not the point. That’s not the point of the story. The point of the story is her nature and her character, who she is on the inside. So, it says in verse 30:

Proverbs 31:30: “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.”

She shall be praised. Finally, it says:

Proverbs 31:31: “Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.”

Let her own works praise her, let her be praised, let her be respected, let her be held up, because of who she is, because of the work that she does. Now, I know some have read this and said, “Well, that is an impossible standard for any woman to hold to.” Well, I’m not sure that’s true. I think this is King Lemuel writing about his mother, and I think he saw his mother in this light.

But let’s talk about something, about standards. Do you know Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which in heaven is perfect”? And somebody recently said, “Well, the word translated there “perfect” doesn’t mean perfect. It means complete. Let’s think about that for a moment, stay with me.

First of all, if it doesn’t mean perfect, then the translators got it wrong. I’m willing to say the translators probably knew better than I do how to translate that word. But let’s go a step further. If it means complete, let’s say it that way, be therefore complete even as your Father in Heaven is complete. What would that mean? That means you’d have to be complete, or you’d have to have the integrity that God has because that’s what integrity is. It’s being complete. You’d have to be. So, the translators didn’t get it wrong. You need to be perfect, as God in Heaven is perfect.

Now, I’m not going to ask anybody to raise their hand, and I don’t think you would anyway, but could I raise my hand and say, “I’m as perfect as God.” Certainly not, nor even close, no comparison. And the best person you know, whoever that is, now, I don’t know who comes to your mind when I say the best person you know, but whoever that is may be a wonderful person, but they’re not perfect as God in Heaven is perfect.

So, why did Jesus tell people to be perfect as God in Heaven is perfect? That’s setting the standard high, isn’t it? No, it’s setting the standard extremely high. So, what are we going to do with that? What we’re going to do to get as close as we can, and by getting as close as we can, we’ll be a better person.

There’s more to it, and I’m coming to that, but look at this here. Who can find this virtuous woman? Who could measure up to the standard of this chapter? Well, maybe you can’t be everything that this woman is, then again, maybe you can be. it’s not the same as trying to measure up to God. They’re attainable goals, but what if you don’t measure up to them? What if you just got as close as you could would you not be improving? Would you not be better?

I teach classes. I teach a number of different classes, but one of them I teach, and I tell students often in the class, here we don’t expect perfection, but we always expect progress. Don’t expect the student to be perfect, but I expect them to progress, to get better, to learn and to do better at what they’re learning.

Pursuing Godly Perfection

To bring this to a conclusion, how can we be as perfect as God? Well, the answer is we can’t. We know that the Bible says we have all sinned, and what? Come short of the glory of God. It means we haven’t measured up to his perfection.

Do you know what else it says? God commendeth, or sent forth, his love toward us. We’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God, but God sends His love toward us, in that while we are sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus Christ died on the cross to pay for our sins. Why? Because we can’t.

The Apostle Paul writes that Christ died for our sins, He was buried, and he rose again on the third day, according to the scriptures. According to what the scriptures said would happen, it did happen. He rose again and He offers forgiveness and salvation to everyone and anyone who will believe in Him who will trust Him. There’s that word “trust” again. When we trust Him, He forgives us for our sins. In Romans 10, it says this:

Romans 10:9: “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”

Romans 10:10: “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

What does that mean? We don’t have any righteousness. But when we trust Him, who loved us and gave himself for us, as we said in Ephesians five talks about what the husband should do to love his wife and give himself for her, He who loved us and gave himself for us, gives us His righteousness, and that makes us acceptable to God. What we cannot do on our own, He does for us.

So, who can find a virtuous woman? Well, her price is far above rubies. Should I, if I am a wife, a mother, a woman, should I try to attain that? Yes, you should try. Understanding you may not make the standard just like none of us come up to God’s standard, but you’ll be the better person for it.

I’ll give you an illustration of that, and we’ll close. When I was a young boy, I grew up, and most of you have been around here a while, not only know what I’m about to say, you’re probably tired of hearing it, but I loved old western movies. Two of the great heroes in the movies, one was a fella named William Boyd, an actor who played Hopalong Cassidy. Now, what a funny name, but that was the character’s name, and he was a man of character in the movies. There was another one who came and played the character of The Lone Ranger, and his name was Clayton Moore.

I read where each of these men separately said this: they were not perfect men, but the characters they played on screen were men of high character. Each of these men said this separately, and they said they realized that the children of America looked up to those characters that they portrayed on the screen as role models. And because they were men of high character, the children wanted to be men of high character. Each one of these actors, who was not a perfect man by any means, said, “Realizing that children look up to me and the character I play makes me desire to be a better man.”

You know what, folks? That makes sense. Other people are looking at you. Other people looking at your life, and if they see that you are living a Christlike life, and I’m not saying these men were Christians, that there’s no evidence I know of that’s true, but the fact that they realized children looked up to them, and they wanted to be better men because of it, that ought to make us want to be better people, particularly those of us who are Christians.

How do you be a Christian? Well, we’ve already said that, haven’t we? You trust Jesus as you’re Savior. Once you’ve trusted Him as your Savior, as we said this morning, you’ve been born again, not born of the flesh, but born of the spirit. You have a new life to live in Christ. We should grow to be like Him, and as we grow to be like Him, we’ll become more like Him. We’re not going to grow into perfection, but you’re going to grow to be like Him. The closer you get, the better person you’re going to be.

And then a wonderful thing will happen. You’ll come to the end of life, you’ll step out of this body, you’ll step out of this world, you’ll step into eternity. You’ll see Him, you’ll see Him. And the Bible says when we see Him, we shall know Him because we shall see Him as He is. It says we shall know even as we are known, and then we will finally be like Him. I’m not saying that we’ll be gods. I don’t want you to get that idea. That’s not the point. But I’m saying we will finally be home and no longer the weak sinners that we’ve been. That’s the goal. We won’t reach it in this life, but we can get closer, and as we do, we’ll be the better and those around us will be the better.

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Let’s pray. Father, thank you. Thank you so much for blessing us. Thank you for each and every soul gathered here tonight. I pray, Lord, that you would help us to see ourselves as you see us. Lord, there may be somebody listening tonight, there may be somebody listening online right now, or somebody who will see the videos later, who doesn’t know you as Savior.

They may believe in God. They may believe there is a God, but they don’t know God. And yet, for that person or those people, we know that you love them. You’ve said so. We know that when you paid for our sins on the cross, you paid for their sins. We know that if they just trust you, you’ll forgive their sins based on the fact that they were paid for at the cross. You’ll forgive their sins, and you’ll give them a new life, everlasting life. And one day, they’ll be at home with you forever.

It’s my prayer, Lord, that if there’s anyone like that listening or someone who will be listening later that they would open their heart right now and pray and say, “Lord Jesus, I believe. I believe that you love me. I believe that you died on the cross for my sins and right here, right now, right where I am, I trust you to forgive me to save my soul and give me everlasting life. Thank you, Lord Jesus.”

Now, maybe you prayed that prayer, maybe you didn’t. Maybe you said you went too fast for me. Well, there’s no magic in those words. God knows your heart. You call on Him as best you know how, and you trust him to forgive you, and to save you. He’ll do it.

What about the rest of us? Well, the rest of us who have already trusted Him as Savior, we need to go on and we need to grow on. Father, bless now as we give an invitation hymn. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

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