FEAR(Revere) MOM!—Leviticus 19:2-3
Attention:
Mother’s Day was created by Anna Jarvis in Grafton, WV, in 1908 as a day to honor one’s mother. Jarvis wanted to accomplish her mother’s dream of making a celebration for all mothers, although the idea didn’t take off until she enlisted the services of wealthy Philadelphia merchant John Wanamaker(noted Dept. Store merchant, & humanitarian).
She kept promoting the holiday until President Woodrow Wilson made it an official national holiday in 1914 to be celebrated every second Sunday in May. He established the day as a time for “public expression of our love & reverence for the mothers of our country.”
By the 1920s the holiday had became highly commercialized that many, including its founder, considered it to have become so overwhelmingly dedicated to such, so as to destroy its purpose. She eventually ended up opposing the holiday she had helped to create. Jarvis had become soured by the commercialization of the holiday that she incorporated herself as the Mother’s Day International Association, trademarked the phrases "second Sunday in May" and "Mother’s Day" so cardmakers couldn’t use it without her permission. She and her sister Ellsinore spent their family inheritance campaigning against what the holiday had become. She was once arrested for disturbing the peace in this effort. Both died in poverty. Supposedly, Jarvis became embittered because too many people sent their mothers a printed greeting card, As she said,
“A printed card means nothing except that you are too lazy to write to the woman who has done more for you than anyone in the world. And candy! You take a box to Mother—and then eat most of it yourself. A pretty sentiment.”—Anna Jarvis.
Anna Marie Jarvis died in 1948(b. 1864), regretting what had become of her holiday. She never married and had no children.
Need:
With or without a designated day called Mother’s Day, We can capture the spirit of the holiday only in the Spirit of Christ! as both Old & New Testaments encourage us to respect our mothers!
God expected every individual of Israel to possess a reverence for their mother & father.
Every one of God’s people is to possess a reverence for their mother & father.
What is the rationale/motivation behind revering one’s mother?
3 motivators for motherly reverence OR to ‘Fear’ Mom.
1—Reverence for your mother is found in...
Her GOD(:1-2)
Explanation: (:1-2)
:1-2—“And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, & say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy.”
Moses was called & ordained to be “as God” to Aaron & Aaron would be Moses’ “spokesman to the people”(Ex. 4:15-16). Moses would receive God’s revelation directly from God. Moses would then relate that truth to Aaron who would in turn relate it to the people. Eventually(probably by the time of this writing) Moses alone speaks rather than Aaron.
Moses is to instruct the gathering “of the children of Israel” regarding specificities from God.
They are first instructed to “be holy.” And they are further given a reason for such an expectation. It is because they are to declare/evangelize the existence of God thru every aspect of their existence as the children of God.
Their holiness is to directly reflect that of YaHoWeH their God. God’s holiness is to influence the lives of His people so that they are lived differently than those around them. Thus they are His witnesses by the very choices they make.
To be “holy” is to be separate or set apart from something or someone. Thus to some degree, God’s people are to be separate from the world in which they live.
Ex. 19:5-6—“‘Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice & keep My covenant, then you shall be a special[“peculiar”] treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. ‘And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests & a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.””
*LXX(Greek) translates “Special/peculiar” as periousiov 1) That which is one’s own, belonging to one’s possessions—1a) A people selected by God from the other nations for his own possession.
Titus 2:11-14—“For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness & worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, & godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope & glorious appearing of our great God & Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed & purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works.”
We relate to our mothers in a very different way if they are Christians than if they are not. Their motives & means of rearing children is dependent upon her God. If your mother’s is the true God of the Bible, then you(as her child) will be blessed in receiving—at a minimum— mothering which is truly expressive of the reality of this world in which we live & is the most practical & relevant. Not weird philosophical mumbo-jumbo that denies the reality of the human condition.
If we respect her fully we will respect her God as well, & her attempts to reveal Him to us. Even if we do not accept her God personally, we at least recognize that we are the recipients of His benefits thru our mother.
A child’s relation to the world is blessed in being raised in holiness.
1Cor. 7:13-14—“And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, & the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.”
“Congregation”—hde ay-daw’—1) Congregation, gathering. Strong—A stated assemblage (specifically, A concourse, or generally, A family or crowd):-- Assembly, company, congregation, multitude, people, swarm.
“Holy”—vwdq qadowsh’ —1) Sacred, holy, Holy One, saint, set apart.
LXX & NT translate this —agiov—1)Most holy thing, a saint. Strong—Sacred (physically, pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially, consecrated):-- (Most) holy (one, thing), saint.
1Pet. 1:13-16—“Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, & rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.””
Mat. 5:48—“Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
“LORD”—hwhy yeh-ho-vaw’—="The existing One"
Ex. 3:13-15—“Then Moses said to God, “Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel & say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ & they say to me, ‘What is His name?’ what shall I say to them?” And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And He said, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” Moreover God said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘The LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, & the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is My name forever, & this is My memorial to all generations.’”
Isa. 44:6—““Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel, And his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the First & I am the Last; Besides Me there is no God.”
Jn. 8:58—Jesus said to them, “Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM.”
Rev. 1:8, 17—““I am the Alpha & the Omega, the Beginning & the End,” says the Lord, “who is & who was & who is to come, the Almighty.””....“And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First & the Last.”
“This signifies the real being of God, his self-existence, & that he is the Being of beings; as also it denotes his eternity & immutability, & his constancy & faithfulness in fulfilling his promises, for it includes all time, past, present, & to come; & the sense is, not only I am what I am at present, but I am what I have been, & I am what I shall be, & shall be what I am.”—John Gill
“A name that denotes what he is in himself (Ex 3:14): I am that I am. This explains his name Jehovah, & signifies—1) That he is self-existent; 2) That he is eternal & unchangeable; 3)That we cannot by searching find him out. This is such a name as checks all bold & curious enquiries concerning God, & in effect says, Ask not after my name, seeing it is secret, Jud 13:18; Pr 30:4. Do we ask what is God? Let it suffice us to know that he is what he is, what he ever was, & ever will be. How little a portion is heard of him! Job 26:14; 4)That he is faithful & true to all his promises—Matthew Henry
"I AM THAT I AM:" does not so much reveal as declare the veil that hangs before Him.”—ENT FWG
Argumentation:
Joel 2:27—“Then you shall know that I am in the midst of Israel: I am the LORD your God And there is no other. My people shall never be put to shame.”
Deut. 13:4-8—““You shall walk after the LORD your God & fear Him, & keep His commandments & obey His voice, & you shall serve Him & hold fast to Him. But that prophet or that dreamer of dreams shall be put to death, because he has spoken in order to turn you away from the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt & redeemed you from the house of bondage, to entice you from the way in which the LORD your God commanded you to walk. So you shall put away the evil from your midst. If your brother, the son of your mother, your son or your daughter, the wife of your bosom, or your friend who is as your own soul, secretly entices you, saying, ‘Let us go & serve other gods,’ which you have not known, neither you nor your fathers, “of the gods of the people which are all around you, near to you or far off from you, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth, “you shall not consent to him or listen to him, nor shall your eye pity him, nor shall you spare him or conceal him;”
Deut. 6:4-7—““Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, & with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, & shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, & when you rise up.”
Acts 17:22-32—“Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, “Men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious; “for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Therefore, the One whom you worship without knowing, Him I proclaim to you: “God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, “so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; “for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’ “Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man’s devising. “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, “because He has appointed a day on which He will judge the world in righteousness by the Man whom He has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising Him from the dead.” And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked, while others said, “We will hear you again on this matter.””
Mk. 3:35—““For whoever does the will of God is My brother & My sister & mother.””
Illustration:
The one involved in determining policies, reactions, responses at her house(with husband of course!)
Travel Channel or some such cultural anthropology related or human interest shows/People do some strange things/We get a glimpse of the gods people serve by observing the reasons(or lack thereof), for their actions/Their GOD
Every aspect of one’s understanding of God, god, or gods determines the doctrine we hold to &, in turn, the life that we lead.
Application:
?Your Mother’s GOD Motivate your reverence/respect for her?
?Your Mother Revered?
?Are YOU revered by your children?
2— Reverence for your mother is found in...
Her AUTHORITY(:3a)
Explanation: (:3a)
:3—“‘Every one of you shall revere his mother & his father, & keep My Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.”
PERSONAL:
“Every one of you”—
“His mother”—
Each individual of the children of Israel is expected to “revere/respect” his/her parents Reverence is a personal commitment entertained & engaged with the integrity of heart, mind & body, which are in turn, dedicated to the God whose Sabbaths are observed.
AUTHORITATIVE:
Respect for the ‘office’ of motherhood. Nurture of the child(ren) is the name of the game.
Sadly some shirk this responsibility even though they bear children.
They raise them in the demeaning squalor of selfishness. The child learns to be selfish & IF they find their station in life it is an uphill battle at best!
She is your mother & you are her Sons/Daughters/Babies/Children, birthed from her & for whom she willfully takes responsibility.
Children are thereby answerable to their mother. She determines &/or enforces the house rules by which they are to live rightly by God. She offers her children loving, encouraging, nurturing hands.... yet guiding, steering, directing hands putting us on the course for righteous living in the midst of a sin-sick society.
Her authority is ordained of God. She is designed with the close, loving nurture of her children in mind. She thinks, acts & relates to them differently than a father does. Thereby she nurtures differently—more closely & intimately early on in their formative years than does their father, who in turn, has a more intimate nurture later.
“Revere/Respect”— ary yaw-ray’—V.—1) To fear, revere, be afraid—1a) (Qal)—1a1) To fear, be afraid, 1a2) To stand in awe of, be awed, 1a3) To fear, reverence, honor, respect, 1b) (Niphal)—1b1) To be fearful, be dreadful, be feared, 1b2) To cause astonishment & awe, be held in awe, 1b3) To inspire reverence or godly fear or awe, 1c) (Piel) To make afraid, terrify. Strong-Morally, To revere;causative, To frighten:-- Affright, be (make) afraid, dread(-ful), (put in) fear(-ful, --fully, --ing), (be had in) reverence(-end), X see, terrible (act, --ness, thing).
Gen. 22:12—“And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.””
ary yaw-ray’—Adj.—1) Fearing, reverent, afraid. From ary yare’ yaw-ray’—V. (See above).
Argumentation:
Ex. 20:12—““Honor your father & your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the LORD your God is giving you.”
Ex. 21:15, 17—““And he who strikes his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”.....““And he who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.”
Deut. 21:18-21—““If a man has a stubborn & rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, & who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father & his mother shall take hold of him & bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn & rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton & a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, & all Israel shall hear & fear.”
Prov. 1:8—“My son, hear the instruction of your father, And do not forsake the law of your mother;”
Jer. 29:11—“‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare & not for calamity to give you a future & a hope.”—(NASB)
Jer 31:3—“The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.”
Eph. 3:14-19—“For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven & earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted & grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width & length & depth & height-- to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
God’s love is that which has placed our lives in our mother’s hands!
Illustration:
Someone who is a recognized authority in a subject:
We go from general practitioners to Specialists.
Dr. Maurice Robinson/House is full of books/Book after book after book/All of them have been & are continually being read/Compiler of the Byzantine Text Type of the Bible/AUTHORITY
My transmission going bad/Mechanics at Car dealership/Specially trained some specialized/AUTHORITY
Application:
?Your Mother’s AUTHORITY Motivate your reverence/respect for her?
?Your Mother Revered?
?Are YOU revered by your children?
3— Reverence for your mother is found in...
Her INTENT(:3a-b)
Explanation: (:3a-b) Love, Purpose,
:3—“‘Every one of you shall revere his mother & his father, & keep My Sabbaths: I am the LORD your God.”
Reverence for parents is here associated closely with “keeping” YaHoWeH’s “Sabbaths.” These Sabbaths are intended as days to honor YaHoWeH’s magnificent work of creation & give His highest creation(man) the opportunity to worship personally but especially corporately.
In order to enforce the importance of this concept, YaHoWeH declares Himself the Israelite’s God. This effectively makes the hearer/reader morally culpable to YaHoWeH.
Thus YaHoWeH is pleased as His people follow His desire from the heart.
Mk. 2:27-28—“And He was saying to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, & not man for the Sabbath. Consequently, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.””
Col. 2:16-17—“Therefore let no one act as your judge in regard to food or drink or in respect to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath day-- things which are a mere shadow of what is to come; but the substance belongs to Christ.”
*?What is a mother’s intent?
They are to be “revered/respected” or feared because of their God-ordained authority, their husband-agreed authority, & their personal sacrifices expressed in such authority.
They surrender/give up self for the sake of their children. This highlights the worth of the the one sacrificed for.
Without Christian mothers we(our mother’s child) would not experience the guidance, we need to easily enter into an independent life, able to establish our own families.
It is sobering to think of myself as so important in the eyes of my mother, that she would literally give her life for me. I thereby “revere/respect/fear” her in the sense that my choices are, by her, of grave consequence. My every decision suddenly becomes crucial. My life’s course becomes purposeful. My spouse or lack thereof becomes hugely significant. My relationship to the world becomes of greatest concern. My relationship to God becomes paramount...thru her.
Her concern is to exemplify Christian marriage for her child’s benefit—practical & common education as well as imitation.
Single motherhood is rampant in our country today. It is not God’s intent & if one is wise, it would not be a mother’s intent either. All too often due to decisions made in the flesh by husband &/or wife.
Argumentation:
Prov. 22:6—“Train up a child in the way he should go, And when he is old he will not depart from it.”
Eph. 6:4—“And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training & admonition of the Lord.”
2Tim. 1:5—“when I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois & your mother Eunice, & I am persuaded is in you also.”
Implied is that faith is shared between mothers & their children.
Ezek. 20:18-20—““But I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor observe their judgments, nor defile yourselves with their idols. ‘I am the LORD your God: Walk in My statutes, keep My judgments, & do them; ‘hallow My Sabbaths, & they will be a sign between Me & you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’”
Mk. 12:28-31—“Then one of the scribes came, & having heard them reasoning together, perceiving that He had answered them well, asked Him, “Which is the first commandment of all?” Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one. ‘And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, & with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment. “And the second, like it, is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.””
Prov. 31:10-29—“Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies. The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain. She does him good & not evil All the days of her life. She seeks wool & flax, And willingly works with her hands. She is like the merchant ships, She brings her food from afar. She also rises while it is yet night, And provides food for her household, And a portion for her maidservants. She considers a field & buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard. She girds herself with strength, And strengthens her arms. She perceives that her merchandise is good, And her lamp does not go out by night. She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hand holds the spindle. She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy. She is not afraid of snow for her household, For all her household is clothed with scarlet. She makes tapestry for herself; Her clothing is fine linen & purple. Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land. She makes linen garments & sells them, And supplies sashes for the merchants. Strength & honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come. She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness. She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up & call her blessed; Her husband also, & he praises her: “Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.””
Her very actions speak of the overwhelming importance she places upon her family. She is consumed by it. Her actions speak of her love for her husband & children. She seeks their godly success!
Illustration:
A child supposes they want to be a medical doctor/His mother encourages anything that will help others, seeing the excitement in their eyes/They grow up seeing the despondency of poverty/Desires-to meet that need....
As a physician offering services for free or reasonable pay....As a businessman who provides funding.....Dentist....Missionary, etc./Mom’s INTENT has lead to proper training for such!/Her INTENT
Application:
?Your Mother’s INTENT Motivate your reverence/respect for her?
?Your Mother Revered?
?Are YOU revered by your children?
CONCLUSION:
Visualization:
Anna Jarvis’ creation of Mother’s Day
Action:
Motivators for revering your mother are...
1. Her GOD(:1-2)
2. Her AUTHORITY(:3a)
3. Her INTENT(:3a-b)
Presented 05/08/2011am to:
Needmore Baptist Church
1620 Mt. Vernon Rd.
Woodleaf, NC 27054
