CRITICAL NOTES.—
Proverbs 11:16. Last clause “as strong men retain,” or “grasp at riches.”
MAIN HOMILETICS OF Proverbs 11:16
A GRACIOUS WOMAN
I. What is a gracious woman?
1. She is one who stands in right relations to God. Everything depends upon right relationship. Upon the right relationship of the earth to the great centre of the solar system depends all that makes the earth of worth to us—all its glorious fruitfulness and beauty. If there was not this adjustment of relationship between the earth and the sun, our planet would not only be an unfit abode for man, but would be a positive blot upon God’s universe. This is true also of men’s relations to each other, and is specially so in respect to our relationship to God. Nothing but a right relationship to Him can develope those moral beauties which alone make a true woman. She is accepted or “justified” by God’s most gracious favour on God’s own conditions. She lives in the eternal sunlight of His gracious influence, and is held to the most Blessed Being in the universe, by the sweet persuasiveness which flows from His blessed character. The thoughts of the Eternal God are the food of her spirit, and from this relationship to Him comes all the grace of her character. Is there any other relationship which can make such a woman? There is none, not only so, the absence of it may end in making even a woman a blot, a positive evil, in the moral universe. There can be no true graciousness where there is no union with Him whose most attractive attribute is His graciousness, who makes Himself known, as “the Lord God, merciful and gracious.” (Exodus 34:6). A gracious woman must be in right relationship with a gracious God.
2. In consequence of this, a gracious woman is right in her human relationships. Being right in the greater matter, she must be in that which is less. The earth, because she preserves her right relation to the sun, is right in her relationship to the other planets, that is, her path in the heavens is just that which is best for the whole planetary system—that which enables them also to keep their orbits, and prevents one of them from exercising a baleful influence over another. A woman whose spirit is under the influence of a gracious God will be a gracious daughter, a gracious wife, a gracious mother, a gracious friend and neighbour—that is, all her doings and sayings will be irradiated and warmed by that holiness and love which is the essence of the character of God Himself. In the summing up of the Divine law, Christ makes the right human relation depend upon a right Divine relation. “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.” (Luke 10:27), and He repeats this foundation principle in His last discourse with His disciples before His death, “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35).
II. A woman with such a character wins honour. The strong men to whom she is compared (see critical notes) are warriors who take the spoil by strength of hand, such men as Othniel, the son of Kenaz, who took Kirjath-sepher by reason of his strength and military skill. For the strong men must gain their spoil before they can retain it. So with a gracious woman. She must win honour before she can retain it, and this she most certainly will do. She will be honoured by God because she is fulfilling His purpose in sending her into the world—because she is bringing glory to Him by showing to the world what He meant a woman to be. And as a necessity she will be honoured. Those in nearest relation to her will honour her. “Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also and he praiseth her.” But she is honoured in a wider sphere by a larger circle—“her own works praise her in the gates.” (chap. Proverbs 31:28; Proverbs 31:31).
III. What she has won she will retain. Strong men, when they have won their prize, hold it fast. It is more difficult to obtain wealth than to retain it. Having done the first by reason of their strength, it is comparatively easy to do the second by the same means. So with a gracious woman. Honour is the guerdon of her gracious character, this she has won without any striving. Her character is that for which she has striven, and this it is which is the strength by which she retains her riches, viz., her honour.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
Albeit the woman is the weaker vessel, yet when she is gracious, that is to say, graced, not so much with beauty, as with wisdom and virtue, she keepeth honour, that is, maintaineth her credit and preserveth her chastity. It were a hard thing to rob or spoil a strong man of his goods; but to take away the chastity of an honest matron, be she never so weak, it is impossible, who will rather die a thousand deaths than to be stained with the least speck of dishonesty.—Muffet.
A woman is powerful by her grace as the mighty are by their strength. In grace there lies as great force as in the imposing nature of the mighty; nay, the power of the strength of the latter gains only more property, while the woman gains honour and esteem, which are of more worth.—Rueetschi, from Lange’s Commentary.
Thus Deborah “retained honour” as a mother in Israel, the counsellor and stay of a sinking people. (Judges 4:4; Judges 5:7.) Esther “retained” her influence over her heathen husband for the good of her nation (Esther 9:12-13; Esther 9:25). And still the gracious woman retaineth honour long after she has mingled with the dust. Sarah, the obedient wife (1 Peter 3:5-6); Hannah, the consecrating mother (1 Samuel 1:28); Lois, Eunice, and “the elect lady” (2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 3:15; 2 John 1:1-4), in the family sphere; Phœbe and her companions in the annals of the Church (Romans 16:2-6; Philippians 4:3); the rich contributor to the temple (Mark 12:42-44); the self-denying lover of her Lord (Mark 14:3-9); Mary in contemplative retirement (Luke 10:39); Dorcas in active usefulness (Acts 9:36):—Are not these “good names” still had in honourable remembrance? (Psalms 112:6).—Bridges.
It is true of both sexes, which Solomon here affirms of women only, that gracious persons, they who are in the grace and favour of God, and are strengthened by His gracious assistance, shall from the generality of men gain an inward esteem and, for the most part, an outward respect. There are many instances in which virtue has been rather contemned and ridiculed,—and I will mention none other than the most signal of all, God Incarnate—but goodness has an inseparable splendour which can never suffer a total eclipse, and when it is most reviled and persecuted, it then shines brightest out of the cloud. So that all who are not wilfully blind, who will but make use of their eyes to see, must acknowledge the force of its rays. But why does Solomon here instance the woman rather than the man? Either this, that as vice is more odious and more detested, so on the other hand, virtue is more attractive, and looks more lovely in women than it usually does in men. Or it is, because men have more advantages of aspiring to honour in all public stations than women have, and the only way for a woman to gain honour, is an exemplary holiness. Or it is, because women are made of a temper more soft and frail, are more endangered by snares and temptations, and more inclinable to extremes of good and bad than men, and generally speaking, goodness is a tender thing, more hazardous and brittle in the former than in the latter, and consequently a firm and steady virtue is more to be valued in the weaker sex than in the stronger; so that a gracious woman is most worthy to receive and to retain honour. Or it is, because women in all ages, have given so many heroic examples of sanctity, that there is that peculiar to the sex which naturally renders them more pliable to the Divine grace than men.—Bp. Ken.