God, The Mother. Series

Text: Isaiah 66:7-13

Theme: God, the mother.

(Mother is a symbol of Nursing-Caring-Comforting).

Isaiah 66:12-13: “For this is what the Lord says: “I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees.  As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you; and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

Greetings: The Lord is good; and His Love endures forever.

Introduction: We rarely remember God as mother. We were taught to call God as “Father”. Not a physical sense but a more spiritual. “Our Father, who art in heaven…”

But Mother’s Day is as appropriate occasion to recapture the biblical maternal images for God to help us see further truths about God. “People described God in feminine terms, not because God is actually a woman, but because feminine or maternal traits say something true about God and about their experience with God.” (Japinga, Feminism and Christianity, p. 66).  

‘God, the Father’ is a biblical term (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 1:1) and not ‘God, the mother’. Though, the Bible teaches us that both men and women are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:28) and are equal before God, men and women have different yet complementary roles.

Bible is very careful to address God as Father rather than mother. Bible calls God as male because of the female character was associated with sexuality in the Semitic religions. Bible doesn’t want to give an evil notion to the creator just other religions have mentioned God as sexual being produce children, mother God concepts.

But a careful attention to the Holy Scriptures reveals that God is having more motherly character (Isaiah 66:13; Isaiah 49:15; Hosea 11:3-4; Deuteronomy 32:18). God is pictured as mother bear - Hosea 13:8, mother eagle- Deuteronomy 32:11-12, comforting mother - Isaiah 66:13. God as women in labour- Isaiah 42:2. So the motherhood is celebrated by the Bible.

The fullness of God is revealed as God the Father, and God the Mother (Genesis 1:27). Liberal theologians as well as the feminist theologians emphasised God with feminine character not as weaker vessel but a strong will power to save Herod children life a lioness as well as bear.

However, bible projects men to be leaders in the home and church; and He holds men responsible for how they exercise their authority. Since God is the Ultimate Leader, His position is best conveyed in masculine terms such as Father and King (rather than Mother and Queen).

God the Father, and God the Son are both masculine titles, and the Holy Spirit is consistently referred to with masculine pronouns. God has revealed Himself as male, and He is referred to by male pronouns throughout the Bible. There is no direct references to God as female but the motherly character is revealed and more biblical.

Today, I would like to bring out the understanding of God as mother who is

A Cherishing mother,

A Compassionate Caring mother; and

A Comforting nurturing Mother.

1. Cherishing Mother. God, the nursing cherishing Mother

First of all, God is a nursing mother. The nursing of a mother include, feeding, nourishing, teaching, and passing on the core values of the faith and life. There are many bible verses emphasis on those important roles of a mother.

Deuteronomy 32:18 says that God is the one who gives birth: “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.”

Moses prayed to God regarding the burden of the children of God. Numbers 11:12 ESV “Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers?”

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I [God] will not forget you!” (Isaiah 49:15). Nursing mother is always gentle with her child as per 1 Thessalonians 2:7 ESV Paul says that “But we were gentle among you, like a nursing mother taking care of her own children.” 

Perhaps this is what God meant when he revealed himself to Abram as El-Shaddai (Genesis 17:1). The word shad means “breast” in Hebrew. Could God be calling himself “the breasted one” as some scholars suggest? Women nourish, satisfy and pour themselves out as they breastfeed their children.

The mother and grandmother of Timothy nursed him with faith, love and fear of God. 2 Timothy 1:5 ESV “I am reminded of your sincere faith, a faith that dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice and now, I am sure, dwells in you as well.” Proverbs 1:8-9 ESV “Hear, my son, your father's instruction, and forsake not your mother's teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.”