Mother's Day
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Mother’s day
Everyone on earth has a mother, and being a mother is one of the highest callings.
Even Jesus, our savior, had a mother.
The Bible has much to say about mothers.
Eve
The man called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living.
I think we tend to forget that Eve is our mother.
We tend to think of her as so far off and maybe make her a literary figure
And we give her so much greif because she fell to temptation and ate the fruit
But she is our mother.
And yeah she ate the fruit, and as a result she was cursed with painful childbirth, something that every mother has experienced.
but through childbirth she brings hope to the world
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.”
We only know the names of 3 of Eve’s children, Cain, Abel, and Seth
But she likely had many many children.
Jochebed
Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son, and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the river bank. And his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river, while her young women walked beside the river. She saw the basket among the reeds and sent her servant woman, and she took it. When she opened it, she saw the child, and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, “This is one of the Hebrews’ children.” Then his sister said to Pharaoh’s daughter, “Shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you?” And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Go.” So the girl went and called the child’s mother. And Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, “Take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages.” So the woman took the child and nursed him. When the child grew older, she brought him to Pharaoh’s daughter, and he became her son. She named him Moses, “Because,” she said, “I drew him out of the water.”
Moses’s mother, who is called Jochebed, although we do not find out her name until later. She made the hard choice to save her child, and gave him up, allowing him to be adopted by Pharaoh’s Daughter.
Sometimes it takes making a hard choice, to protect the lives of our children.
And maybe you made that choice, and you gave your child life, you are walking in line with Jochebed.
And Pharaoh’s Daughter adopts Moses, and sometimes she gets a bad rap becuase she’s egyptian the child of pharaoh, but in Jewish Tradition she actually joins the israelites in the exodus. and she is remembered for her mercy.
She might not have given birth to moses, but she raised him and gave him a good childhood and a home. sparing his life.
She is just as much a mother to Moses as Jochebed.
if you are a mother through adoption, you are following in the footsteps of Bithiah
Hannah
There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephrathite. He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.
And her rival used to provoke her grievously to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year. As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad? Am I not more to you than ten sons?” After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, “O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.”
They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord; then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.”
Hannah just wanted a child, and she prayed earnestly for a child, and as happens frequently in the Bible a woman has fertility issues and cannot have children
Hannah’s prayer becomes a symbol of how to pray from the heart, not aloud.
and she makes a deal, she will give her child back to the service of the Lord
And Samuel becomes a servant of the high preist, and then becomes the main prophet of Israel once he learns that God speaks to him.
And hannah had other children.
There is no higher calling than for your children to serve the Lord, and Hannah provides the example of dedicating a child to the Lord,
If you raise your children to Follow Jesus you are walking in the footsteps of Hannah
and if you pray for your children earnestly you are following in her footsteps.
Mary
Mary had the opposite problem, she was given a child before she even knew a man.
We know the story of the birth of Jesus well enough, but i want to look ahead at Mary’s love for Jesus, and Jesus’s love for Mary
But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
this verse and idea is repeated throughout the early hcapter of Luke,
when Mary hears the words of the shepherds
She Wnders when she hears the words of Simeon and Anna the prophet,
and when she finds Jesus at age 12 teaching the priests in the temple.
and Jesus performs his first miricle because his mother requests it.
On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.
And Mary was with Jesus through his whole life, and at his death on the cross.
Mary experienced all the joy and pain that being a mother can bring.
When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
Mary is a special case,
But She encouraged her son to be everything he was called to be.
We could go on and on about the wonderful mothers in the Bible.
But I want us to focus on our mother’s today
Proverbs 31, has a poem called “the Woman of Valor” and it describes a nearly perfect Godly woman, who does so much for her family and her household. It is written in honor of every God;y Wife and Mother
In Hebrew each line of the psalm begins with the next letter of the alphabet
So in a sense it is a “Godly Woman from A-Z”
Here is how it ends.
Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her: “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.
So Today, everyone, rise up and call your mothers blessed.
And if you are a mother, may you be blessed today.