Wrapped in Strength (Like a Pair of Blue Jeans)

“She girds herself with strength,
And strengthens her arms.” (Proverbs 31:17).

I never dreamed I could learn so much about clothing from Proverbs 31. However, as I was studying for this verse, I noticed something very interesting. To “gird” your loins means to wrap something tightly around you, usually so that you can move your legs and get moving.

An Indian woman who has “girt her loins” for work

As you can see from the woman in this photo, she’s got an awful lot to carry. She’s got no hands left to hold all her skirts, so she just tucks her skirts up into her belt and takes off on her way. Here in America, we’d just trade in the skirts for a soft pair of blue jeans, so we could get our work done with nothing in the way.

In the Bible, the phrase, to gird up the loins, is used for people who want to get serious about something.

• In 2 Kings 4:29 and 2 Kings 9:1, a man girded up his middle eastern robes around his belt so he could walk quickly. In Jeremiah 1:17, a man girded up his loins so he could stand up.
• In fact, it seems that men were generally more likely to gird up their loins. In Job 38:3 and 40:7, God tells Job to gird up his loins like a man, meaning, “Job, be responsible! Be a man!”

So this is a very masculine phrase, yet here it is, in the epitome of feminine qualities of the woman of Proverbs 31.

YHVH Is the Source of Our Strength

Like the woman in our photo, there are many days when we wives and moms just have too much to carry, too much to do, and too many stresses. Our Proverbs 31 woman wrapped strength around her so that she could get her jobs done.

What was the source of her strength?

• God Himself is wrapped in strength.

“YHVH reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
YHVH is clothed,
He has girded Himself with strength.
Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved” (Psalm 93:1).

• God makes our arms strong.

“But his bow remained in strength,
And the arms of his hands were made strong
By the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob
(From there is the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel)” (Genesis 49:24). (See also Hosea 7:15.)

• Strength comes through faith in His name.

“And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all” (Acts 3:16).

However, I must come to a point of weakness, where I see myself as I really am, before I can receive His strength.

“For when we were still without strength, in due time Messiah died for the ungodly” (Romans 5:6).

“And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Messiah may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Messiah’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10).

“[Abraham] did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20).

What happens is that we stagger along in unbelief, collapsing under the load of living, burdened down with too many cares, when Yeshua comes and offers to be our strength for us. We must admit our weakness, confessing our sin to Him, and ask Him to reside within us, giving us His strength.

“You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Messiah Yeshua” (2 Timothy 2:1).

“Finally, my brethren, be strong in YHVH and in the power of His might” (Ephesians 6:10).

Praise Is Our Garment of Strength

How do we put on His strength rather than our own? Through praise!

“[Abraham] did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God” (Romans 4:20).

“But You are holy,
Enthroned in the praises of Israel” (Psalm 22:3, an excellent Psalm to study!).

“Be exalted, YHVH, in Your own strength!
We will sing and praise Your power” (Psalm 21:13).

When we praise God for what He has done for us in the past, He wraps His strength around us.

Through our praise (which is often a difficult choice in difficult circumstances), we have the ability to

• Have strength beyond our capabilities.

“Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong” (1 Corinthians 16:13).

• Have a strong mind.

“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah” (1 Peter 1:13).

• Overcome the evil one with the Word of God.

“…I have written to you, young men,
Because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you,
And you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14).

• Lift up weak ones around us.

“We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves” (Romans 15:1).

In closing, let me remind you of the time that Nehemiah brought God’s Word to the people and it literally changed their lives. God’s Word always does this, if we’ll let it! We hear His Word and it washes away our sin, filling our hearts with praise and joy. This is the strength with which we need to “gird up our loins” and “strengthen our arms.”

So they read distinctly from the book, in the Torah of God; and they gave the sense, and helped them to understand the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to YHVH your God; do not mourn nor weep.” For all the people wept, when they heard the words of the Torah.

Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to Adonai. Do not sorrow, for the joy of YHVH is your strength.”

So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, “Be still, for the day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink, to send portions and rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that were declared to them. (Nehemiah 8:8-12)

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture in this blog post taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.