As an avid crafter and one with a basic knowledge of sewing, knitting and embroidering techniques, I had been looking forward to this verse. I was really thinking "yay! Now I will have a better excuse for spending too much time on crafts - because it says so in the Bible." On the surface, this is a job that a woman is supposed to have. However when you break it down a little further, it goes into something much bigger than sewing a pillow or knitting a scarf.
The verse states: "She seeketh wool and flax and worketh willingly with her hands." First, we'll break down the verse to understand it better. In the Hebrew, "seeketh" means "to find or to look for." It can also mean "care for". I feel like we'll go with the first definition because it could be a seek and find mystery mission. aka, shopping. If we go with the second meaning, that'll mean laundry, and I am anti-laundry. Ok. Why would someone go looking for wool and flax? well, for one thing, these fibers were from plants and animals. They were abundant, could be transformed into textiles and then made into clothing. The word "willingly" comes from the word meaning "delight or pleasure." (Look at Isaiah 1:19 for further explanation). Now for the biggie: worketh. Who likes to hear that word other than when you are commanding someone to "get to work!"? The Hebrew word is Asah. In order to be working, something has to be active. In a clock, it needs batteries to keep it ticking. A car needs gas in order to run. Our bodies need food in order to keep us running. Some guy once said that an object at rest stays at rest, unless acted upon by an outside force. In our case, we put off "working" until we can't stand our filth anymore or if there's company coming over. Especially if you also work 40 hours a week.
At this point of the lesson I stopped and went to the closet where we keep our cleaning supplies at church. I got one for each lady present and handed it to them. When everyone had one, I told them that we were finished with our lesson and would now be cleaning the church. Man, you should have seen the looks I got. The Bible says that a woman delights in working with her hands. This includes cleaning, cooking, crafts, gardening, etc. (the looks I received were not quite delightful...) After working all day and then getting supper ready and then driving to church, cleaning was the last thing that anyone wanted to do. Think about the things you do with your hands. Do you have a hobby or skill that you enjoy doing? Where did you learn it? For me, sewing is one of the things I enjoy doing and I learned from my mom. These days when someone wants to pick up sewing its because they want to get on Project Runway. They don't do it because there's no other choice. In those days it was cheaper to make your own clothes. Today we can get a dress from the red dot sale at Belk cheaper than we could buy the material needed to make it. Now it's not only time consuming but expensive. In our world of "instant gratification, time and money are things that can't be spared. The convenience of an instant purchase is more than we can turn down. We can have it in 5 minutes (once you make your 2 hour trip around the store debating) as opposed to hours of time and labor. If you have a yard sale, are you more likely to hold onto an item bought on sale or an item that you received hand made from someone? Most women said that they would give up the sale item way before the handmade. Typically lots of love, time and effort goes into a handmade item. It can be made to fit your specifications and measurements. The same pattern can be used because the sizes are usually grouped from 4-10 and 12-18. The pattern has to be cut to fit YOU. Salvation is the same way. Everyone has the ability to obtain it (the pattern), but there is only one made just for you. What works for you might not work on someone else.
Now onto our Bible lesson. Lydia is the woman we studied. Lydia was a Gentile from Thyatira. She worked in the city of Philippi and ends up moving there. Around her where she lived were mostly Jews. She was a very successful businesswoman. In Acts 16:14 she is called "a dealer of purple". She created, sold and traded linens that ranged from blue to purple to red. In Thyatira the water was well-suited for dying. No other place could create colors so brilliant as the ones dyed in this water due to the higher salt content. The dye process was hard work and time consuming. The colors came from the shell of a murex. It looks like a conch shell with a gooey creature inside. They are considered snails and they had to be killed in order to obtain the ink. They only mated in the summer and were harvested from October to March. It took around 400 shells to dye one 12 oz. skein of yarn. The colors were in high demand from the royalty in the area. This is why Lydia was so successful. She had the good stuff.
Lydia is in the area where Paul and Silas were preaching. She was selling her linens. They caught her attention and she listened intently. In verse 15 of Acts 16 it states that she was saved, baptised, and had come to her house to explain the message to her family. It says they were all saved too. Not long after this Paul and Silas were thrown in Jail. When they were freed from prison, Lydia's house was the first place they went. (Acts 16:40). Although Lydia got saved, she still worked. She opened her house in Philippi to people so they could pray and fellowship. It is mentioned that this could have been the start of the first Christian church. She earned money from her linens and used it to take care of Paul and Silas and the visitors in her home. She worked both spiritually and physically. No matter what you do - housewife, businesswoman, etc., you can always work to glorify God. In the Bible it says that if a person won't work, they won't eat. Many times in Proverbs sluggards are talked about, and not in a good way. A sluggard was someone who was lazy and wouldn't work. In Ecclesiastes 10:18 it says "By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through."
If you leave a building empty or unoccupied for a period of time, it quickly starts to fall apart. When no one returns to take care of it, the whole thing starts to crumble. That's what the verse from Ecclesiastes is saying. Relating to church, if you have a talent given to you by God and you don't use it to benefit Him, you will lose it. He'll take it away. Relating to life, if you become inactive and stop trying, your body will begin to lose function and eventually, you'll die. God gave us hands, feet, brains, hearts, voices, and everything down to the breaths we take to glorify Him. Not just on Sunday morning either...but I won't get into that now. That's for another lesson on commitment and your zeal and love for Christ.
God Bless!
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