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May, 2026 (Vol.60-No.5) |
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Preached by Dr. Gene Scott on May 13, 1990 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you… Isaiah 66:13 THE TITLE OF TODAY’S MESSAGE comes from an old Jewish proverb that says, “God couldn’t be everywhere, so He made mothers.” I have added a question mark after the words “God Couldn’t be Everywhere,” because we know that, theologically speaking, God can indeed be everywhere. But this proverb still conveys a poetic truth about a mother’s love. I am aware there are feminists who want to remove the masculine references to God from the Bible, but there is no reason to change the reality of what is written in the Scripture. God has already revealed in symbol that He has the qualities of a mother. We read in Genesis 17:1, in the King James Version, “The LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him, I am the Almighty God…” The Hebrew words translated “Almighty God” are El Shaddai. I quote from an entry in The Scofield Reference Bible, regarding this name of God: The etymological signification of Almighty God (El Shaddai) is both interesting and touching. God (El) signifies the “Strong One”…The qualifying word Shaddai is formed from the Hebrew word “shad,” the breast…Shaddai therefore means primarily “the breasted.” God is “Shaddai,” because He is the Nourisher, the Strength-giver, and so, in a secondary sense, the Satisfier, who pours Himself into believing lives… Thus the name El Shaddai conveys the imagery of a mother breastfeeding her child, supplying all the child’s needs. In the pictorial language of the ancient Hebrew, God is saying through this name that our heavenly Father is also willing to be our “heavenly Mother,” supplying all that we need! Dr. Charles Price, the congregational preacher, interpreted the name El Shaddai to mean “The God Who is Enough.” As a mother’s arms hold and envelop her child, and as her breasts provide nourishment and give him life, God promised to be that to Abram: God would be the Strong, Mighty, Nourishing, Sustaining, and Fulfilling Breasted One, which portrays a perfect image of the mother side of God. Our second text for this message is Isaiah 66:13, where God promises His people, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you…” Even the most cynical and worldly mind recognizes and gives credence to a mother’s love as the finest, fullest, and most enduring expression of love that anyone can find on this earth. Obviously, not everything on this earth is bad; there are plenty of earthly examples of goodness. Jesus would sometimes point to earthly examples of goodness and use them as stepping-stones to teach us truths about God. When Jesus found an example of the best qualities in human relationships, He would build on that illustration and say, “How much better is the same expression when it flows from God’s heart!” For example, Jesus spoke of our earthly fathers and related their qualities to our heavenly Father. He said that if you ask your father for bread, he will not give you a stone; and if you ask him for a fish, he will not give you a serpent. Therefore, if earthly fathers know how to do good things for their children, how much more will our heavenly Father do good things for His children? And if that be true of the best of fatherhood, then I can take that as license to apply Jesus’ teaching to mothers: if mothers can give us a glimpse of the highest expression of love here on earth, how much more shall God as our “heavenly Mother” express His love for us? But I take no license, having laid down the textual frame in God’s own words, to speak of Him as the “Breasted-One,” our never-failing source of strength, sustenance, and security. God told Abram, in essence, “I will be all of these things to you.” And God said through Isaiah, the great Messianic prophet, “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.” The best of motherhood, when it is found on earth, is only a partial glimpse of what God will be in His mothering role to His children. And what better day than Mother’s Day to highlight those qualities? I have chosen three biblical mothers to illustrate a mother’s love. The first mother we will look at is Jochebed, the mother of Moses. Her name means, “Jehovah is glory.” We learn of her name in Exodus 6:20. She is the first person in the Bible whose name is a compound word linked with Jehovah, the self-revealing name of God. In addition to Moses, Jochebed bore a daughter, Miriam, and another son, Aaron. Our study begins at the close of Exodus 1 and takes us into the first ten verses of Exodus 2. Jochebed was pregnant with Moses. At this point in time, Miriam was at least seven years old, and Aaron was about three. Take your mind today and hurl it back into a slave compound in ancient Egypt. Pharaoh had decreed that every newborn male Hebrew be thrown into the Nile River to drown or to be eaten by crocodiles. According to one ancient Jewish tradition, Pharoah had been warned by his soothsayers that a deliverer would come for God’s people. This might provide an explanation for why he gave the order to slay all the male children. Remember, Moses’ mother was a slave. She was under almost constant surveillance. She would not have been able to hide her pregnancy from public view, and she could not remain hidden in her little mud hut forever. Imagine her fear as the child grew in her womb. Imagine her wondering, “Will it be a boy or a girl?” If it was a boy, she knew what his fate would be. The child was born, and it was a boy. Put yourself inside Jochebed’s mind. There was no apparent way out of her situation. If the child were discovered, he would immediately be thrown into the Nile. At great risk to herself and the rest of her family, she somehow managed to hide the boy for three months. I will always wonder how she did it. Babies are not that easy to hide, unless they are born without a mouth! Yet somehow, she found a way. By himself, Moses was completely helpless. He had no way to determine his own fate. He had no means to deliver himself. But his mother found a way. She came up with a plan. She used all her energy and creativity, and every method available, to save her child. She had a never-give-up, never-say-die, and never-quit-trying attitude. This mother would not stop until she found a way to deliver her helpless child. She made a little basket out of reeds, tar, and pitch, and she placed her baby in it. Imagine her sneaking through the streets of the slave district. She had to make it down to the Nile undetected. Somehow, she found out where Pharaoh’s daughter went to bathe. I am aware than anyone who has gone to Sunday school has heard this story a hundred times, but I ask you to put flesh and blood on it today. See her sneaking up to the water’s edge and placing the little basket among the reeds. I would have us note that she put her baby into the very river that Pharaoh, as an instrument of Satan, had conceived to be the place of destruction. The lesson is that God often delivers you by using the very thing that appears to be designed for your destruction. God also uses that apparent means of destruction to humiliate Satan. Moses’ mother cleverly had Miriam watch from afar to see what would happen to Moses. Pharaoh’s daughter saw the baby and drew him from the water. She had compassion on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Miriam, seeing the baby in the arms of the princess, ran up and asked her, “Would you like to have a Hebrew mother nurse the child for you?” The princess was already in love with the baby, so she said, “Yes, bring her.” In this miracle of deliverance, Jochebed was allowed to nurse her own child! She would be able to spend time with him and plant the seeds in his formative years that would later bring him forth as the deliverer of God’s people. This is an old and familiar story, but I want to make the point: God is saying to us today, “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you, and as a strong mother, El Shaddai, so will I be to you.” Words fail us unless we have a deeper insight that sometimes only poetic phrases can bring. Your circumstances might have made you as helpless and hopeless as Moses was. But the qualities in Jochebed, when elevated to God’s level, allow us to see the One who loves us and gave Himself for us. And if this earthly mother would never give up until she found a way to deliver her helpless child, how much more will our “Mother above” come to our rescue in our helpless condition? My ministry is a faith ministry: this is a church that seeks to teach you how to grab hold of God’s promises and make them yours. All of His promises are yours to claim, on the authority of 2nd Corinthians 1:20: “All the promises of God in him are yea, and in him Amen…” If you are overcome by your circumstances today, or threatened by forces beyond your control and are helpless beyond belief, I am saying on this Mother’s Day that God’s word gives you the right to reach up in faith and make this promise yours. God is saying to us today, “As a mother comforts, so will I comfort you,” One of God’s names is “the LORD of hosts.” That name is used to let us know that He has every resource at His disposal. He has angels at His beck and call, and He controls hosts of heathen armies. He controls the stars in their courses. Think of it: if Jochebed, with her limited ability, would never cease searching until she found a way to deliver her helpless child, how much more will our God, the Lord of hosts, find a way to deliver you from the forces that impinge upon you? Simply look up today and claim that side of God’s nature as revealed in His word! The second mother we will look at today is Mary. Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, was also Mary’s son. Jesus had been rejected by all the people, and He was being crucified in Jerusalem. John 19:25 says that at the time of His crucifixion, “there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother…” That is Mary. Because of the influence of the Catholic Church, Mary is one of the most admired women in world history. I traveled to northern Tahiti and visited a little church in a jungle clearing, where I saw pictures of Mary on the walls. On the other side of the globe, in La Paz, Bolivia, I watched as a procession marched up a hill at Easter time carrying an image of Mary with darts in her heart. This was symbolic of Simeon’s words in Luke 2, when he saw the baby Jesus and said to Mary, “A sword shall pierce through thy own soul also…” Mary has been revered around the world, but I do not speak of her today using the saintly tones that so much of the religious world uses. I want to talk about Mary as a mother who saw her son being rejected. And in her view, she was also rejected by her son. She obviously did not comprehend His calling, despite the prophecies that were given at the time of His birth. The people of Nazareth remembered Jesus’ earthly father and viewed Jesus as a hometown boy. But when they listened to some of the outrageous claims He made about Himself, they thought He was out of His mind. His family was embarrassed by His behavior and sought to lay hands on Him. Someone came to Jesus and said, “Behold, thy mother and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with thee.” But Jesus just brushed them off, pointed to His disciples, and said, “Behold, my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Years earlier, Jesus had done something similar. As a twelve-year old boy, He had traveled with His parents to Jerusalem for Passover. On the return trip, they discovered He was not among their company, and they became worried. They returned to Jerusalem and found Him in the temple courts, answering the teachers. I can imagine Mary’s motherly tone as she scolded her son, saying, “Your father and I have been looking all over for you!” But Jesus just brushed her off, saying, “Don’t you know I must be about my Father’s business?” He obviously was not referring to His earthly father, Joseph, the carpenter. Now Mary watched as Jesus, beaten and bloody, dragged His cross through the streets to the hill of Golgotha. She saw the Roman soldiers stretch Him out on the cross and drive the nails into His hands. She watched as they raised the cross, dropped it into a hole with a thud, and shoved it into an upright position. She saw the nails tearing into His flesh, and she watched her son die on that cross. I ask you to forget all of the holy overtones and saintly exaggerations that have applied to the mother of Christ, and think of her as the natural mother she was. She did not understand her son. In her view, she was rejected by Him and denied her natural right of a maternal relationship with Him. She did not understand Jesus’ message, and she did not understand what was happening to Him as she saw Him rejected by everyone. Yet Mary did not flee, as most of the disciples did. She did not go into hiding; she did not even sit down. Go inside of her head and view the horror of this scene; yet the Bible says that she stood by His cross. What does that say to us today? “As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you.” What is the message of this mother? Although Mary perceived herself as being rejected by her son, it did not diminish her love for Him. Her claims on Jesus were not legitimate to the extent that they intruded upon God’s calling, but God’s claims on all of us are legitimate. Maybe you have rejected God’s claim on your life, but that has not diminished His love for you. Now, if an earthly mother can continue to stand by her son and express her love, even when met with what she perceived to be rejection, how much more will our “heavenly Mother” be there! God will still be standing by you when you finally turn from your foolish rejection of Him. But there is something even more profound: God does not select recipients of His love based on how popular they are. This message is to those who have been rejected by everyone. Although Jesus was crucified by the world, His mother stood by Him. I fail in this message if you only hear the words of familiar stories. If you are helpless, experiencing pressure on all sides and confronting forces you have no control over that are designed to annihilate you, God will find a way to deliver you. If you have been rejected, wherever you are, and have been so beaten down and crucified by the world that you think no one will stand by you, God, your “heavenly Mother,” will be standing there waiting for you to notice Him. Many people feel that they have been rejected by this world, with its establishment mentality. The world demands that we pass some kind of test to prove that we are deserving of its love, but our “heavenly Mother” makes no such demand on us. Now let’s look at the third mother in our study. Her name is Rizpah. She is not as well-known as other women in the Bible. We learn about her in 2nd Samuel 21. Rizpah was a girlfriend of Saul, the first king of Israel. She was not even his wife; she was his concubine and she bore him two sons. Saul was a great king in the beginning of his reign, but he quickly degenerated into an imperious and self-serving ruler. He forgot the things that God had said to him, until God had to send a prophet to remind him that when he was little in his own eyes, he was great in God’s eyes. Saul presumptuously got ahead of God. In one fateful incident, he presumed to step into the prophet Samuel’s role. Saul had once had a heart for God, but God took it away from him and gave him another heart. This man who had received God’s word from a prophet ended up consorting with a witch. He would not do things God’s way, and he failed to honor a vow that had been sealed in God’s name by Joshua. Years earlier, when the children of Israel first started moving into Canaan, the Gibeonites heard about the Israelites’ victories and were terrified. So the Gibeonites concocted a plan to deceive the Israelites into making a peace treaty with them, which was something God had commanded His people not to do. But Joshual made a vow with them and sealed it in God’s name. Joshua swore that God’s people would never kill the Gibeonites with a sword. Once that vow had been sealed, God would honor it through the years. But Saul imperiously violated the vow by setting out to exterminate the Gibeonites, killing them with the sword. Saul’s reign continued to decline. His army fled before the Philistines, and many fell dead of Mount Gilboa. Saul took his own life, falling on his sword. His son Jonathan also died that day, along with two of his other sons. The Philistines took their bodies and nailed them to the wall at Beth-shan, in a humiliating display that finished the descent Saul’s pride had brought upon him. King David ascended to the throne. Then there was a great famine in the land, and David enquired of the Lord to find out the reason. The Lord told him it was because of Saul’s failure to honor the vow made to the Gibeonites. So David summoned the Gibeonites and asked them what he could do to make atonement for Saul’s violation. In that brutal age, and in that brutal frame of reference, the Gibeonites said that they wanted to hang seven sons of Saul to take their vengeance. David met their request and turned over seven of Saul’s sons, including the two who were born of Rizpah, and the Gibeonites hanged them on the hill of Gibeah. The Bible says they were hanged at the beginning of the barely harvest, which corresponds to our month of April. Rizpah heard what had happened, and she went out to the hill. She spread sackcloth on the rocks and remained there until the coming of the rains in late October. She stayed on that hill for seven months, fighting off the birds by day and the animals by night. Think of that! This mother, in a primitive, brutal land, stayed by those sons as they hung there and began to decay in the sun. She watched as those dead sons turned ugly, repulsive, and despicable. She endured the elements; by night, she fought off the animals, and by day, she fought off the birds, never giving up. I am convinced that if Daivd had not intervened, she would have remained there until she died. David was called “a man after God’s own heart.” When he was told of what Rizpah was doing, he took those seven bodies down from the hill. He also ordered that the bones of Saul, Jonathan, and others be recovered, and he gave them all an honorable burial. Again, I want you to hurl your mind back to that hill and put yourself in the place of this poor woman. Rizpah had never received much honor in life. She was only a concubine to King Saul and had borne him sons. Imagine what must have gone through her mind as she viewed their deterioration, still with eyes of love. There was nothing of beauty in those seven bodies hanging there. At the risk of being repulsive, imagine the stench of decaying flesh, the bodies disintegrating and deforming, as she looked at those sons whom she had once held in her arms. When they were young, she had much hope as she thought about their future and watched them grow up. Yet now she watched them become obscene, disgusting, rotting relics of humanity. Day after day, for seven months, she could see them, and night after night, she fought off the wild animals. Try to comprehend the kind of love that would not turn away, even as these original objects of love became despicable objects, hanging on those trees. She never backed away for a moment. What is the message of Rizpah? Rizpah expressed the love of a mother to the unloving, the unlovely, and the unlovable. There is no earthly love that matches that of a mother. I preach the grace of God, which is God’s love poured out on those who do not merit it. I am glad that on this day, out of 52 weeks in the year, we can focus on these illustrations that make the simple but unchanging and wonderful point. Helpless though you may be, God will find a way to take you through. Rejected though you may be, and perhaps even guilty of rejecting God, He still stands by to give you His love. You might be despicable and have convinced yourself you are beyond evoking love from anyone, yet if an earthly mother can do what Rizpah did, how much more is the love of our God available to you today! Those of us who have responded to God’s love can hear this message today. I want to focus on God’s word on this wonderful truth: wherever you are today – helpless, rejected, despicable, which certainly covers the worst conditions we can be in and thus embraces all that is in between – God loves you, and He will not give up on you. If you feel you are despicable and unlovable, God will stay with you to fight off the birds and the beasts and all the things they symbolize as elements of destruction. If you never knew your mother, you can learn about God’s love from these biblical mothers. One writer who lost his mother while he was very young wrote in his notebook, years later, “If any excuse will be allowed to a man at the great day of judgment, will it not be to him who can say, ‘Lord, I never knew my Mother?’” How wonderful if you have learned from a mother something about love that can only come from God and is nothing less than the deposit of His own nature. Psychologists tell us that half the habit patterns of a lifetime are formed by the time we are six years old. I am thankful that I have learned something about love from my mother as well as from my father. If your mother is still living, I hope that after you leave the service today, you will find a florist or a telephone. In closing, let me read some famous statements that have been made about mothers: All that I am my mother made me. - John Quincy Adams The bravest battle that ever was fought; Shall I tell you where and when? On the maps of the world you will find it not; It was fought by the mothers of men. -Joaquin Miller A mother is a mother still, The holiest thing alive. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge Men are what their mothers made them. -Ralph Waldo Emerson To the soldier who falls on the battlefield, We give bronze and tablet. But to the mother it is a battle without glory… She wears no medals of a nation! Her badge is the furrowed lines upon her face. -Unknown Years to a Mother bring distress; But do not make her love the less. -William Wordsworth Blessing she is: God made her so, And deeds of weekday holiness Fall from her noiseless as the snow… -James Russell Lowell And to those of you whose mother waits for you in heaven: She always leaned to watch for us, Anxious if we were late, In winter by the window, In summer by the gate… Her thoughts were all so full of us, She never could forget! And so I think that where she is She must be watching yet. Waiting till we come home to her, Anxious if we are late… Watching from Heaven’s window, Leaning from Heaven’s gate. -Margaret Widdener Thank God for mothers. I would like every mother in this building to stand in order that we might applaud you for teaching us something about God’s love through the love you have given your children. You are our special guests today. Remember, God is love, and mothers show us only a glimpse of what God will do in your darkest hours; so never forget it, and claim His love for your life today. Reprinted with permission from Pastor Melissa Scott  Mothers deserve respect “Honor your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, that your days may be long, and it may be well with you” (Deuteronomy 5:16). Also, you should treat older women as you would your mother. Sons and daughters, love your mother, and care for her “Now there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother Mary, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus therefore saw his mother, and the disciple standing by, whom he loved, he saith unto his mother, Woman, behold thy son! Then saith he to the disciple, Behold thy mother! And from that hour that disciple took her unto his own home” (John 19:25-27). Even as Jesus was suffering on the cross, He was worried about His mother’s well-being, and so He made provisions for her care. Although you may be facing challenges in life, also consider how you can care for your mother. Mothers are wise and kind in caring for their children “She opens her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness. She looks well to the ways of her household, and eats not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her” (Proverbs 31:26). Children are a blessing to a mother “I am the woman who stood here beside you praying to the Lord. I prayed for this boy, and since the Lord gave me what I asked Him for, I now give the boy to the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:26-28). Mothers often pray for the blessing of having children, and they continue to pray for them as they grow. Women have a Godly role in the world The Bible shares that older women are important in sharing their wisdom with the next generations: “That they may teach the younger women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good and obedient to their own husbands” (Titus 2:5). Mothers are not perfect “Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres” (1st Corinthians 13:4-7). Your mother’s love is beautiful, and it comes from a human being who also faces the challenges that life brings. Love her with all your heart. Don’t forget your mother on May 10th! Happy Mother’s Day to all mothers! | Return Home | Current Wingspread | Wingspread Archives | Contact Us | |
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