All scripture contains a deeper, spiritual Truth than that which may be comprehended by our natural mind, and so it is with the verses about a ‘virtuous woman’ in Proverb 31:10-31. While they do speak about virtue manifesting in earthly ways through a physical woman, they also speak of the heavenly Divine virtue that is brought to birth within the soul and manifested in the outward life of those individuals who truly repent and believe the gospel. I strongly urge to watch our video teaching series, especially parts 9-14, and read the teaching titled, ‘The Great Mystery’. Both are on the website and provide a comprehensive explanation about the inward union of spirit and soul in man.
Who Is This Woman?
We are spirit, soul, and body. Everything that comes out of us originates from, and is generated by, the spirit that is within us. The nature of that spirit is communicated to the soul and is then worked out through our body in the way we think, all we allow, all we consent to, say, and do. The spirit is likened to the husband, the soul is likened to the wife, and the fruit produced in our life is likened to children.
The ‘virtuous woman’ represents the souls of all who are true believers
Their soul has been freed from its union with the spirit of this world and has been united with the Holy Spirit to be the ‘bride of Christ’. So, when our soul is wholly given up to the will of God, and we are daily exercising faith to draw upon His grace to walk by the Spirit, our soul then falls into the category of the ‘virtuous woman’.
Verses 10-11 — “Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil”.
The text first poses the question — ‘who can find a virtuous woman?’. This relates to the small percentage of mankind who will enter the narrow gate and walk the path that leads to everlasting life (Matthew 7:14-14).
They are hard to find
The value of the virtuous soul is ‘far above rubies’ because the un-virtuous, corrupt soul of man could never have been redeemed and regenerated to be made virtuous without Jesus overcoming, putting to death, and removing the fallen nature from man by the shedding of His blood — the virtuous soul came at a high price.
The Holy Spirit, who is the husband of the virtuous soul, has no fear that she will commit spiritual adultery because she is true to Him and will only bring forth the fruit of His union with her — the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). His ‘spoil’ is the will of God being done in the earth as it is done in heaven (Matthew 6:10).
Verse 12 — “She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life”.
The gospel has provided us with Divine ability (grace) to live above the fallen nature we’re born with. The virtuous woman is a soul who yields and submits her mind, intellect, reasoning, and emotions to no other influence but that of her husband — the Holy Spirit. And through this, she does him ‘good and not evil all the days of her life’.
Verse 13 — “She seeketh wool, and flax and worketh willingly with her hands”.
Back in the day, women sought out wool for spinning and weaving in order to make fabric for clothing. But from the spiritual perspective, this is speaking of a soul who realizes the need others have to be clothed in righteousness, so she willingly gives herself up to making sure they are properly clothed.
(Matthew 22:1-14, Revelation 19:7-8)
Verse 14 — “She is like the merchants’ ships; she bringeth forth her food from afar”.
This is speaking of spiritual as well as physical food. The meat (food for the virtuous soul) is to do the will of the Father. In John 4:34, Jesus says, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work”.
So, the virtuous soul is like the merchants’ ships in that she seeks out and finds the will of the Father and does it. She doesn’t feed her soul on the world around her, she feeds her soul with food from afar (heavenly manna).
Too often, we’re consumed with chasing everything under the sun and listening to opinions and doctrines of men rather than getting still and listening to God. If our soul is going to grow in grace, if our soul is going to be virtuous, we’ve got to seek out the will of the Father and do it. A lot of people think that reading their Bible, church attendance, and participating in other religious activities are food for the soul. While these are all beneficial and needful, they, in themselves, will not cause the soul to grow in grace. A person can easily do all these things without taking up their cross, dying daily, and giving place for Jesus to live through them.
Our soul can only grow in grace when it yields to the Divine nature that has been brought to birth in us, and God’s will is done. When the soul turns from the will of God, it is turning to feed upon the pride, lust, envy, and wrath of the fallen nature. Therefore, the Divine nature is starved out and the fallen nature grows stronger.
Verse 15 — She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens”.
The night represents spiritual darkness. So the virtuous soul is one who is always reflecting the light of God in this darkened world. The most powerful witness, the most powerful testimony that anyone can give to the will of God, is not what we say, but what is reflected in our lives. We can hand out tracts all day long, we can grab people and hold them by the hand and preach to them until they give in because they want us to let them go, but our day-to-day life is reflecting our true testimony — that’s what people see.
I would much rather be a person who can not speak, and yet possesses the grace to reflect God’s light and love, than to be one who has great ability to speak it, with no grace to reflect it.
Verse 16 — “She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.”
Jesus told this parable — “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto treasure hid in a field; the which when a man hath found, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that field.” (Matthew 13:44). He sells all he has to buy the field. The only thing that any man truly possesses is what’s in our heart. We’re born with the pride, lust, envy, and wrath of the fallen nature in our heart, and this parable is talking about parting with all that so that we can possess the Divine nature that God has made available to us through Jesus Christ. Possessing the Divine nature does come at a price. But the price is not some outward thing we can do to earn God’s gift. We must simply be willing to forfeit the life we’re born with to possess the life He has provided for us.
We’ve got to be willing to give up the pride, lust, envy, and wrath to have the life of self-less love, humility, long-suffering, and resignation to God. It’s not that we’re earning it, but we can’t have both. It’s impossible to operate in pride, lust, envy, and wrath, and operate in self-less love, humility, long-suffering, and resignation to God at the same time.
Verse 17 — “She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.”
This refers to putting on the armor of God — “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;” (Ephesians 6:13-14). The purpose of the Gospel is to justify our soul from its distorted state and bring it back into proper order — that’s what makes it justified. When God is given place to do this, the soul is restored to its original right state of being and is thereby righteous because it is under the continual, immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit, rather than being under the continual, immediate inspiration of the spirit of this world. See Ephesians 2:1-10.
When I say continual, immediate inspiration, what I’m talking about is continual and right now. The same way our body must have the continual, immediate inspiration of air to live in this physical world, our soul must have the continual, immediate inspiration of the Holy Spirit to have everlasting life.
Let me remind you of 1 John 3:7, “Little children, let no man deceive you: he that does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.” So how are we going to do righteousness? By wholly giving ourselves up to God. The virtuous soul lives in the power of God, and is covered with the armour of God, by doing the will of God.
Verse 18 — “She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.”
What merchandise? God’s grace. Biblical grace is defined as — Divine influence upon the heart.
His influence, His Divine ability, is good, and because the virtuous soul realizes its value, she is continually given up to the influence of the Holy Spirit in the midst of this darkened world and, therefore, the light of God is continually illuminating her ways.
In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus says, “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” By yielding to the Holy Spirit and allowing Jesus to illuminate our mindset, what we allow, consent to, say, and do, our outward life continually radiates the light of God into this darkened world.
Verse 19 — “She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.”
I know very little about hand spinning yarn, but I do know that both hands are involved, and they are constantly moving in the process. The spiritual implication is that a virtuous soul remains diligent to follow the Spirit and give place for the will of God to be done both in her and through her without ceasing.
Verse 20 — “She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.”
When reading this verse, we think about feeding and meeting the physical needs of those with little or no income. And, of course, it is talking about that here. But in addition to that, we’re all born into this world in a state of spiritual poverty because our soul is not united with the Spirit of God, the way it was created to be. So when Jesus says in Matthew 5, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” He is talking about people who realize their desperate state of spiritual poverty and, as a result, surrender their heart up to God so that He’ll have place to do the work of restoration in their soul. On the other hand, if a person thinks everything is fine, they are okay, and all is well within them, they’re not realizing their state of spiritual poverty and, therefore, go on in their ignorance and blindness to the Truth.
You’ve probably heard the saying, ‘God will help those who help themselves’. That isn’t true, and it isn’t in the Bible. Spiritually speaking, there is not a single person on the face of the planet, nor ever has been, who could help themselves to bring about a birth of the Light and Spirit of God within their soul. All we can do is give ourselves up to the working of God. Many people are so deceived and so numb to their own spiritual reality because of all the distractions this world offers which work to keep them desensitized to their own internal wrath. This keeps them of the mindset that they are okay and that’s why Jesus said, ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’. These are the people who realize their need, and go to God to get that need met.
The virtuous soul is always reaching out to those in the dark. If we wait until people are going to like us and respond favorably to us before we begin extending the love of God to them, we’ll never do it. His love is the kind that works for the greatest good regardless of the circumstances.
Verse 21 — “She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.”
Our soul needs deliverance and protection from the spiritual elements of hell, just as our body needs deliverance and protection from the physical elements of this fallen world. The spiritual elements of hell are —– pride, lust, envy, and wrath. These elements are alive in the soul of fallen man and are the destruction of the soul. They must be overcome and destroyed within a person in order for their soul to be restored. The scarlet color in this verse is symbolic of blood. The sole purpose for Jesus’ coming, living the life He lived, suffering, and dying was to overcome and put to death everything in man that had gotten its birth and life in man through the choice that was made by Adam in the Garden of Eden. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, “For He hath made Him to be sin for us, Who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. Jesus literally took our sin nature upon Himself, as a man, so it could be overcome and put to death in a man because this is the only way mankind could be freed from it.
Leviticus 17:11 tells us that “The life of the flesh is in the blood”. So, when the blood of Jesus was poured out through the process of the crucifixion, the beastly life, the sin nature, was being removed from man. The blood of Jesus is so significant because it provides the removal of the fallen life we inherited from Adam. And so, those who are ‘clothed in scarlet’ are they who have truly repented and are believing that the gospel is the power of God to literally free them from the sin nature and regenerate them with the Divine nature. The death of Jesus was death to sin in man, and His shed blood was the removal of the sin nature from man. Since it was accomplished in Him, as a man, it can now be accomplished in all of mankind. Those of us who have truly repented and believed the gospel are relying upon the blood of Jesus to have freed our soul from the elements of hell, and to be the power that prevents them from regaining any place within us.
When God was in the process of delivering the Israelites from Egypt, and the first Passover occurred, He had Moses tell the people to slay a lamb and put its blood over the doors. He said the Destroyer is coming, but as long as you and your household stay in the house, under the blood, it won’t affect you. And He warned them saying that if they go out into the street, their firstborn would die, just as the firstborn of the Egyptians (Exodus 12). Again, the shed blood of the lamb represented the death and pouring out of the beastly, sin nature. By staying in the house, the Israelites were exercising their faith in the power of God to free them from both the power of sin and the death it produces. This was a type and shadow of the freedom that’s been made available to us through the gospel.
Today, the ones who stay ‘in the house’ and ’under the blood’ are the ones who stay in selfless love, humility, long-suffering, and resignation to God through their faith in the power of the gospel to have freed them from the sin nature and to have regenerated them with the Divine nature.
On the other hand, although a person may profess to be a Christian, and presume to have their dependence upon the blood of Jesus, they are ‘out in the street’ and in the path of destruction if they’re abiding in pride, lust, envy, and wrath. So the virtuous soul is the one that remains in the house, or under the blood, or clothed in the life of Jesus, as opposed to being clothed in the fallen life we inherited from Adam.
Verse 22 — “She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.”
This verse is covered below with the explanation of verse 25.
Verse 23 — “Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.”
The elders of the land represent the spiritually mature. Those who truly know Jesus and have grown to spiritual maturity can recognize when Jesus has become the husband to a person’s soul, and this makes them aware that He is among them whenever a virtuous soul is in their presence.
Verse 24 — “She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.”
Look at Matthew 28:18-20, “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
The merchants are the people who go, whether it be pastors, evangelists, apostles, prophets, teachers, or whatever. It is those people who are delivering the message of everlasting Life. The virtuous soul helps to provide the physical means to accomplish their work. To help you see that the merchants represent messengers, you can look in 2 Peter 2 and see where the apostle refers to false prophets as those who ‘make merchandise of you’. Also in Revelation 18, where it speaks about the destruction of Babylon, you will find that false prophets of the harlot church are referred to as ‘merchants’. In verse 13 it says, among other things, that they make merchandise of ‘the souls of men’. In both these cases, the merchants are the false teachers.
The merchants of the true church are those who go and proclaim unadulterated, uncompromised truth. So, the virtuous soul supplies and upholds those who are going with the true message of salvation.
Verse 25 — “Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.”
The silk and purple clothing from verse 22 is directly related to the strength and honor in this verse. Purple is the color of royalty, and silk is a very strong fiber. This symbolizes the strength and honor that is characteristic of the virtuous soul. But it’s not referring to our own strength or our own honor. The strength comes to us by grace and the honor is to God for His goodness. The virtuous soul does not only rejoice now, but will do so throughout eternity.
Verse 26 — “She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.”
This means that wisdom comes forth from her in love and kindness because it is the life of Jesus, in union with the soul, that generates what comes out of the heart to manifest in word and deed — it’s His wisdom, His love, His kindness! “…for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.” (Matthew 12:3)
Verse 27 — “She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.”
The virtuous soul is not half-hearted in its pursuit of God and in surrendering itself so that His will can be done in the earth as it is in heaven.
Verse 28 — “Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.”
The spiritual children of the virtuous soul are those who have been brought to the Light through her testimony. Both they, and her husband, the Holy Spirit, are blessed by her.
Verse 29 — “Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.”
The world has an idea of what is ‘good’, but there is only One who is truly good, and that is God (Matthew 19:17). Therefore, anything that is truly virtuous must be generated BY God. Subsequently, the virtue that comes forth from a true child of God far exceeds any supposed goodness of this world.
Verse 30 — “Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that fears the LORD, she shall be praised.”
No explanation should be needed here. The soul who has wholly surrendered to the will of God will be praised by other virtuous souls because the will of God is being accomplished through her.
Verse 31 — “Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates.”
Heaven and hell are not off in some far-distant place. One or the other is alive in us, and we can only experience the life we possess. So, the virtuous soul receives the fruit of righteousness, and the Heavenly Life that dwells within her generates the goodness that manifests through her. She gains the benefit of having righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).
We have another teaching on the website titled, ‘Exposing the Harlot’, which gives insight into the ‘strange woman’ that is mentioned in Proverbs 2, 5, & 7. This teaching provides another example of the ‘woman’ representing the soul of man, but in this case, she is not virtuous, but is united with the powers of darkness. I hope you’ll read it to see that it bears witness to the analogy made in this teaching, and to enhance your understanding.