Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

The sayings of King Lemuel—an inspired utterance his mother taught him.
Listen, my son! Listen, son of my womb!
    Listen, my son, the answer to my prayers!
Do not spend your strength on women,
    your vigor on those who ruin kings.
It is not for kings, Lemuel—
    it is not for kings to drink wine,
    not for rulers to crave beer,
lest they drink and forget what has been decreed,
    and deprive all the oppressed of their rights.
Let beer be for those who are perishing,
    wine for those who are in anguish!
Let them drink and forget their poverty
    and remember their misery no more.
Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,
    for the rights of all who are destitute.
Speak up and judge fairly;
    defend the rights of the poor and needy.

• Proverbs 31:1-9

Proverbs 31:8-9  ‘Open your mouth’ ”Plead for those who cannot plead their own case, namely those who are otherwise ruined by their condition of weakness. The king’s duty was to righteously uphold the case of the helpless in both physical (v. 6) and material (v. 9) crises. The monarch thus mediates the compassion of God. See … 14:31.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

The Message

First, who is Lemuel?  The authorship of this chapter is unknown.  According to Rev. MacArthur, Jewish tradition claims that it is Solomon who records the wisdom of his mother Bathsheba.  Others claim Hezekiah, but some claim that it might not be a king at all.  Lemuel means “Devoted to God” or “God is Bright.”  Using this suggestive name, it could be any author so that any righteous and good king could claim the wisdom as his own.  Some sources do not even give the description of a wife of noble character (verses 10-31) to Lemuel, leaving these proverbs unattributed.

I like the idea of Bathsheba passing this down to Solomon, but the heartstrings related to two people who each had their problems might be the reason Jewish tradition “wants it to be Solomon.”

But Lemuel’s mother warns Lemuel against women and strong drink.  Lemuel’s mother encourages standing up for those who cannot stand up for themselves.

Solomon’s downfall was too many women.  If he were the author, was it he who late in life reminded himself of what his mother had warned him about?  Bathsheba definitely knew the trouble that David went through as a result of his adultery with Bathsheba and more so the coverup.  David had rebellion within his own family and David faced the sword for most of his life after that point.

But Solomon’s problem was in placating his many wives by worshipping their false gods.  Solomon had only one military campaign, taking one small area early in his reign.  He had no problem with the sword.  Jeroboam’s rebellion had no teeth in it during the reign of Solomon.  But Solomon suffered for his disloyalty to God.  Even if this was a different person authoring this chapter, the Solomon troubles should have been a deterrent from false god worship.  Sadly, it was not a strong one.

The strong drink admonishment is rather strange.  It is good for a king to not get drunk.  Xerxes getting drunk in Esther 1 led to Vashti being removed as queen and Esther taking her place.  This was God’s providence in saving the Jews from annihilation, but Xerxes made some rash decisions that he later regretted once he was sober.

It may seem a good thing for a poor man who may have an incurable disease to drink himself into a stupor.  There were not the advances in medicine in those days that we have now.  Getting drunk might be the best anesthesia for the pain, but a needy person who drinks to forget their financial sorrow has just spent the grocery money on beer and wine.  As I said, this proverb is a bit strange.

And opening your mouth as a ruler is important.  When I was in the Army, I went to bat for my soldiers.  In some cases, my platoon sergeant pulled me aside and explained that was his job.  On some occasions, I had no idea who should be stepping in.  Oddly, the one area in which I did not support my soldiers was when I picked them up at the drunk tank.  When the soldier was trying to do the right thing and things got out of control, he deserved a fair hearing, but with so many problems with alcohol in the platoon, they should know the consequences.  And to their credit, all but a couple became model soldiers after I had a one-on-one talk with them from the drunk tank to the barracks – of course, just minutes before morning formation.  They got my calm voice counseling, and then they had to have two of their buddies hold the drunk in place during morning formation.  They did not have the ability to stand, yet two hours later, they were at work.

And now let us sing.

The following song is The Struggle.  This is sung by Zach Williams.  This is a strange “lyric” video, in that they are writing the lyrics while the singer is singing the lyrics.  And sometimes, they don’t keep up.  But it feels real.

Closing Prayer

Dear Lord,
We need Your wisdom.  Help us to value wisdom.  Lord, we should know that romantic activity carries with it unwanted complications.  It takes great wisdom to listen to that inner alarm and back away.  The same thing is true about getting drunk.  A teacher once told the class that the most effective way to avoid the second drink is to never have the first drink.  But that is easy to say when you live in a dry county where serving anything alcoholic was against the law.  Sometimes, we still mess up.  And when we are needy, we ask for that understanding judge or magistrate that can understand what our plight is.  But if we are that judge, we need to remember when we were in that other person’s shoes.  We all need to be sober minded, without distractions, so that we can step forward to help someone less fortunate.  In thy Name we pray.
Amen

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.