Young man, how would you live if you were next in line to rule a kingdom? If you knew a day were coming when your decisions would bless or doom your people, how might you spend your time now? Would you speak differently, live differently, choose different friends? Would you be more serious, more watchful, more prayerful? Where more is given, more is always required.
For the man of God, this is no thought experiment. He is a prophet, king, and priest in his own household. And beyond that, what do we mean when we call ourselves Christian men? What is a Caesar or a Pharaoh compared with the near future of even the least of the sons of God? Will Pharaoh judge angels? Will Caesar sit upon Christ’s throne?
Ask yourself: Does this noble future alter my life’s preparation now? Am I proving faithful with little here so that I may be entrusted with more there?
The book of Proverbs, first written to a prince, is handed down to all sons of God to equip them to rule well. In the final chapter, King Lemuel recollects the pleadings of his mother in preparing him for power. Before the Proverbs 31 wife is introduced, we are first given the Proverbs 31 queen instructing a future king. She challenges him. Before he would be fit to rule a kingdom, he first must rule himself: his body, his mind, and his tongue.
Rule Your Body
What are you doing, my son? What are you doing, son of my womb?
What are you doing, son of my vows?
Do not give your strength to women,
your ways to those who destroy kings. (Proverbs 31:2–3)
Lemuel’s mother here is affectionate yet almost indignant. Seriously? Have I not made vows concerning you to the Lord? Are you really going to spend your strength and hollow your purpose by chasing mistresses? Rabbits, stallions, and mice might mate uncontrollably, but you, my son, are no beast. “Are those fit to govern others that are themselves slaves to their own lusts?” Matthew Henry asks.
Young man, do you want to lead a family, a community, a church, a nation? Do not give your strength to women, your ways to that which destroys kings. Do you imagine sleeping around has no consequences? Do you think the slops of pornography will prove harmless? With impurity you hand over your vitality, your resources, your life. Delilahs still shave men’s strength.
Earlier in Proverbs, a father exhorts his royal son to gaze upon such an adulterer’s end and flee from it:
Keep your way far from her,
and do not go near the door of her house,
lest you give your honor to others
and your years to the merciless,
lest strangers take their fill of your strength,
and your labors go to the house of a foreigner,
and at the end of your life you groan,
when your flesh and body are consumed,
and you say, “How I hated discipline,
and my heart despised reproof!” (Proverbs 5:8–12)
Brothers, find a wife who fears the Lord. Don’t even go near the door of any other beauty, lest your honor be shattered, your time wasted, your power spent, and your labor shipped away. How much masculine force has been forfeited to forbidden women, none can guess.
Rule Your Mind
It is not for kings, O Lemuel,
it is not for kings to drink wine,
or for rulers to take strong drink,
lest they drink and forget what has been decreed
and pervert the rights of all the afflicted.
Give strong drink to the one who is perishing,
and wine to those in bitter distress;
let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more. (Proverbs 31:4–7)
Christian man, it is not for you to be drunk with anything except the Spirit of God and the love of your wife (Proverbs 5:19). Frat boys can gather around the keg and become the slurring fool; you cannot.
Give strong drink to the one who is dying, perhaps, and wine to those who suffer. But the slosh of the tavern uncrowns a future king. Drunkenness forgets justice and its King above. Leaders of men must be temperate men. Would you follow a drunk commander into battle? Would you let a tipsy man perform your surgery or pilot your plane? Leaders cannot sacrifice sharpness of mind even for a moment, lest they forget God’s law and ruin those under their care.
You do not love alcohol, you say. A man can get drunk in other ways. Maybe your phone is your wine and YouTube your strong drink. Maybe you get glazed over with video games or lose the Lord’s Day bingeing on football. Some men have minds drunk on making money. What steals your sobriety and leaves you hungover with regret?
The King’s men are sober-minded men. Higher office requires greater discipline.
Rule Your Tongue
Finally,
Open your mouth for the mute,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8–9)
I don’t know what it looks like when a cat got your tongue, but I do know what it looks like for cowardice to have it. Equivocation. Flattery. Lies. Silence.
Speak out for children murdered by Planned Parenthood; speak out to defend the marginalized and the needy who cannot repay you. It is the mouse-hearted man who calculates within: You have much to lose and nothing to gain by speaking the truth. But woe to him who stifles conscience and leaves the weak to bitter injustice. He is no king. Brothers, say what needs saying; leave your God to sort out the consequences. Tell me whom a man speaks for and whom he speaks against, and I will tell you what sort of man is in our midst.
Young man, a royal masculinity is required in your generation. You will someday be a king with Christ. Rule yourself now in preparation. Banish evil desires, abhor a tipsy mind, and rebuke a timid tongue. Give not your strength to women, your faculties to drunkenness, or your tongue to cowardice. Reign justly in your small spheres now, for Christ promises that those faithful with little will be entrusted with much more.
Desiring God