Fear 05: The Replay Transcript
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Laura Wifler: Hey friends, Laura Wifler here, and I want to welcome you back to another episode of Risen Motherhood, and we are in the middle of our fear series. This is episode five and we are thrilled to keep going with you guys. Before we get into today's show and I tell you what’s coming ahead—because it's going to be awesome—I wanted to take a moment to remind you all that in some instances and some experiences of fear, they do require professional counseling, pastoral care, or a medical doctor. If you’re finding yourself in a situation that feels a lot larger than the topics that we've covered throughout this series, and that we have yet to cover, I want to encourage you guys, personally, to seek help from professionals who are trained to best care for you in this struggle.
With that out of the way, I want to welcome a guest to our show. It's really interesting, we're actually going to give you guys a replay of a Revive Our Hearts episode from Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth. She was on our show perhaps a year or two ago, and she did an awesome job, we interviewed her during our faithful motherhood series.
Today's episode, I heard air on Revive Our Hearts and I thought, "Man, this is a message that I want all moms to hear. I want all women to hear.” This episode is called “Joy Over Fear,” and it's part of a larger series that she did about a year ago on the Proverbs 31 woman. There are a couple of episodes in this series, but we're plucking one out that we felt would be really helpful for all of you guys. If you want to hear the full series from Revive Our Hearts, please head over to our show notes. We’ll keep a link in there that’ll lead you to all the episodes ROH has in that series, as well as all sorts of other wonderful content. It's a wonderful ministry, we're really grateful for them, and we’re so excited to be able to share Nancy's message with you guys today.
Whatever you're doing, whether you're in the car, you're on your way to work, you're dropping off kids or you're at home doing dishes or the laundry, I hope that this message is a blessing to you today.
Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: It was about six months ago that the Lord put two verses from the Old Testament on my heart to share with a group of women that I had been asked to speak to. I shared those verses with them and it seemed to minister to them. Within the next several weeks, I had several speaking engagements and I shared that message, or a version of it, five or six times within the period of a few weeks.
What I didn't realize at the time was how much I was going to need that message and those two verses, and that the Lord was preparing my heart for what was ahead in the coming weeks. I've been dreading, at points, some of what is unknown to me about the future and I've been dreading some of what’s known to me about the future.
I'm sure that you've had moments of dreading both the known and the unknown, but over and over again, I found myself going back to those two verses that the Lord put on my heart months ago, and counseling my heart with the truth of God's word. I found that these two verses have been a life preserver, a lifeline, a life jacket that had buoyed my heart, my emotions and my thoughts in the midst of some turbulent waters.
I don't know what you may be facing today, or maybe your life is going fine right now, but I am going to give you an advanced notice that around the corner, you're going to be facing some things that are difficult. I don't know if it's tomorrow, next week or next year, but you can count on it. You're either coming out of a storm, you're in a storm, or you're heading into a storm. That's life here in this fallen world.
You may be facing some things that cause you to be anxious or fearful about the future, to dread what lies ahead. I believe that these words the Lord has spoken to my heart from Proverbs 31 are words every Christian woman needs to hear and embrace. Over these next few days, I want to meditate with you on these two verses and unpack for you some of what they’ve been saying in my life.
Proverbs 31, if you're turning there, you can look at these two verses yourself. Now, when I say Proverbs 31, I know that a lot of women kind of groan inside because we think of this woman of excellence as a woman of virtue and we're prone to focus on all the things this woman does. She's a good cook, she keeps her house clean, she sews, she makes things, she never goes to bed at night. She's amazing. This woman's energy and skills, her abilities, her diligence, her productivity.
It's important for us to understand that the things this woman does, her work, her efforts, they all flow out of who she is, her character, her heart attitudes and her relationship with God. We're going to pick up on that heart as we read these two verses in Proverbs 31. I'm looking at verse 21 and at verse 25.
Verse 21 says, "She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet," and then verse 25, "Strength and dignity,"—or, "Strength and honor," some of your translations say— are her clothing. She laughs at the time to come," or as some of your translations say, "She smiles at the future."
I want to look today at verse 21 and focus on that phrase, "She is not afraid." Verse 21, "She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet." Snow represents the cold weather, the frost, the storms that are coming. If you've been to Israel, you know that Israel is basically a warm country. It doesn't snow there very often, but it does occasionally snow. It can get cold, and here's a woman who has taken measures to prepare her family for the snow when it does happen.
It's not something that happens every day, it's not something that happens often, but she's taken steps to prepare her family for when the snow does come. She knows the snow is coming and yet, “she's not afraid.” That's a phrase that God needs to speak to the heart of many of the women listening. She’s not afraid.
Now, that doesn't mean that problems aren’t coming for this woman or for you, they are, the snow is coming. She doesn't have her head in the sand. She's not oblivious to the issues. She's a woman who is knowledgeable, she's alert, she's aware of what's going on. She's not a woman who sticks her head in the sand and says, "Oh, there are no problems to come in the news, in the world, or in my family. She knows they are going to come, but the thought of cold weather, the thought of crisis, the thought of difficult or trying circumstances doesn’t cause this woman to panic. She's not caught off guard.
That's because she’s thought ahead. She’s anticipated the issues. She’s planned. She’s made necessary preparations for her family's needs to be met, and she's done it before the snow comes, before the storm comes. Here's a woman who’s proactive, not just what some of us are, and that's reactive. The storm comes and then we say, "Oh my, what am I going to do?" She has thought ahead. She's proactive in preparing her heart, her life, and her family for the storms coming.
She makes the kinds of choices today that’ll enable her to face the future days without fear. When the storm comes, she can use the deposits that she's made, they’re in the bank. She's made the preparations in advance. Now she's not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household are clothed in scarlet.
That word “scarlet” is an interesting word, and there are different translators over the years that have translated it in two different ways. The ESV, the English Standard Version, that I'm teaching from has a marginal note that says the word “scarlet” could be translated as “double thickness.” In fact, some of the old translations, the Septuagint, the Latin Vulgate translations, translate this as “double garments.” Her household is clothed in double garments. They are doubly clothed. It makes sense if you're thinking about snow coming, that this would be the meaning—her family is warmly clothed. They're adequately clothed. They have warm enough clothes to get them through the cold winter snow and storms.
Some commentators believe this translation makes better sense than the word “scarlet,” because after all, how can a color, scarlet, keep you warm in cold weather? Most modern translations do translate the word scarlet. If that is the correct translation, it is referring to a color, but the color scarlet—scarlet clothing in that era would have represented high-quality clothing. It was more expensive, it was harder to come by, and we'll see why in just a few moments.
Her family’s clothed in the quality of clothing that they need to take them through stormy weather. Her household is all clothed in scarlet. Here's a woman who cares for her household. I would say, by way of application and expansion of this concept, it's not just her literal family (though if you have a husband and children, that should be your first concern of those that you care for.)
Some of us listening don’t have a husband or don’t have children. I believe households could apply to any of those that we care for, those that we serve, those that we minister to, those that we’re responsible for in some way. Here's a woman who’s concerned about the needs of her household. Not concerned first about her own needs, but concerned first about the needs of others.
Here's a woman, and you see it all the way through Proverbs 31, who lives first for God, then for others, and then trusts God to care for her own needs. As we think about our own lives, I think the call is for us to make sure that we’re caring adequately for the needs of those that God has entrusted to our care. Rather than worrying first about our own needs, if we will serve the Lord, then serve others, God will make sure that our needs are met.
The Proverbs 31 woman is a woman who plans ahead. She's diligent, she works hard, she's intentional, and she makes sure that her family’s prepared for what lies ahead. Now, the scripture says that she's preparing her family for snow. I think in the immediate context here, it's speaking literally of storms, cold weather, inclement weather, and she's preparing them, making sure their physical needs are met when the storm comes.
As I've been meditating on this passage, I think we can make a spiritual application here about the word snow. Snow can refer—of course, and it does in this passage—to physical, literal storms. There's also other kinds of snow that comes into our lives, there are other kinds of storms. The storms of life, economic pressures, physical pressures, relational issues, marriage issues, health issues that we face, conflicts in relationships.
There are storms of life, things that catch you off guard, things you weren't expecting, things that you didn't know were around the corner.
Some of you, as I've said, are in some of those storms, perhaps right now. Here's a woman who has looked ahead and taken the time to prepare her family, those under her care, for the storms that lie ahead. She's taken time to train them, to fill their minds with the word of God, to teach them how to think biblically about those circumstances of life. For example, and we won't look there now, but the first nine verses of Proverbs 31 are a good illustration of this.
King Lemuel, we don't know who he was, but his mother speaks to him in those first nine verses, and undoubtedly before he was the king. As he was being prepared to become the king, perhaps as he was a young man or even a boy, she taught him things that would prepare him for his future as the king.
She talked to him about very practical things. She warned him against immorality, against the use of alcohol, against indifference to the needs of others. She tries to build into his life the character qualities of purity, and sobriety, and compassion. She's preparing him for the snow, for the storms that are coming. She's getting him ready for the future.
The wise woman, the true woman, the woman of God, prepares her family, and those within her care, for the future. She prepares them also for the storms that relate to God's judgment and God's wrath. Those are storms that are coming someday to every part of this planet. She prepares those she loves for those storms. How does she do it? By pointing them to Christ. By pointing them to the Gospel.
That word scarlet refers to a dye. The scarlet dye in these clothes comes from an insect called the tola, T-O-L-A, worm. In fact, usually when this word in Hebrew is used in scripture, it's translated “scarlet.” Sometimes it's actually translated to “worm.” That worm, that insect, when it's crushed to death, releases a fluid that’s used to make this scarlet dye that’s put into those clothes.
Jesus Christ, the Son of God became a worm, so to speak, on our behalf. It pleased God to crush him— Isaiah 53 says—“to put him to death.” He was crushed. He shed his blood for our sins. I believe that scarlet in Proverbs 31, with which her household is clothed, could be seen as a symbol, an emblem for the blood of Christ, by which we’re justified, and by which we’re able to be clothed in his righteousness.
As you think about your children, your family, those within your care, it's a call not just to be concerned about getting their physical needs met, that's important, and a wise woman does that, but also to be concerned that their spiritual needs are met, that they are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
Now, you can't do that for them. You can't save your children, but you can create a climate and an environment where they're surrounded with the reality of the gospel, where you're proclaiming Christ to them, where you're living out what it means to have a relationship, an authentic relationship, with Jesus Christ, where you're pointing them to the cross, where you're letting them know what really matters. In so doing, you’re clothing them in scarlet, you're preparing them for the storms down the road.
Harold Ironside, in his commentary on this passage, says, “Jesus was bruised and slain so that all his redeemed might be clothed in splendor for eternity.” Isn't that what you want for your family? Are you taking concerned care for their spiritual future? Are you just getting caught up in the demands and the responsibilities of everyday life? Getting them clothed, fed, to school on time, to ballet lessons, to soccer practice? Is your life filled with just those things? Have you been neglecting their spiritual care?
The wise woman isn’t afraid of snow for her household, of the future, of the wrath of God, the judgment of God, or future trials that her family may experience, because she's taken care, concern, and precautions to make sure they are clothed with scarlet, clothed with Christ. Here's the woman who isn’t afraid. She's not afraid.
When you think about the future, there's a lot you could be afraid of. Any one of us, we could come up with quite the list of things we could be afraid of. Some of you have kids getting ready to get a driver's license, that's something to be afraid of. Your kids growing up, leaving home, parents getting Alzheimer's, your husband losing his job. A child killed in an automobile accident, as happened last week to some very dear friends of mine—a family on our staff. Your husband decided he doesn't love you anymore, leaving the marriage, or being unfaithful.
A lot of things could happen, and those things are happening in some of your lives. We need to remember that the righteous people aren’t going to be exempt from bad weather. As godly women, true women, we can face the prospect of the future in a way that’s qualitatively different than the rest of the world.
The natural woman is insecure. She hoards what she has because she's afraid of running out—not having enough—but the woman of strength and dignity is generous. She shares what she has with others, trusting that when she has a need, God will meet it. In fact, that's what you see about this woman in verse 20 of Proverbs 31. It says, "She opens her hands to the poor, and reaches out her hands to the needy." She's generous, even though she knows storms are coming, she doesn't hoard the little bit she has. She's generous and she trusts that God will meet her needs.
The natural woman has a tendency to give into depression and despair when she thinks about the storms that are coming. The woman of strength and dignity has help, she exhibits joy regardless of how grim or dark the future may look. Ladies, people should be able to look at Christian women and see a response to troubling times that is different, unexplainable.
Let me tell you this: the world is not impressed when you are happy, peaceful and joyful in the good times, but when you go through the tough times, and you don't crack up, fall apart, or get into depression and despair, they take notice. That's when the gospel that we preach becomes believable to those that we live with. Thinking about a woman who came up to me recently, she said, "My husband has lost his job, and I've lost my job." Then she said with a big smile, "But we still have Jesus." That's a woman who is a woman of strength and dignity.