The Mothering Nature of God

Introduction

Motherhood has truly set in when:

You hide in the bathroom to be alone You hope ketchup is a vegetable because it’s the only one your kids will eat You read that the average five-year-old asks 492 questions a day and you feel proud your child is above average You use your own saliva to clean your child’s face You count the sprinkles on each kid’s cupcake to make sure they’re all equal You hear your mother’s voice coming out of your mouth You say at least once a day, “I’m not cut out for this job,” but you wouldn’t trade it for the world.

Isaiah 66:12–13 AV

12 For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream: then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides, and be dandled upon her knees. 13 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

1. Does God Have a Gender?

While this can be a controversial subject today, it’s certainly not intended to be for our purposes. This is a genuine question if I’m preaching a message titled The Mothering Nature of God.

A. The Feminine God

There seems to be a growing push and trend to portray God as feminine. In a post-feminist society we’ve seen many pushing to call God ‘she’ or ‘goddess’. We hear phrases like ‘The Divine Feminine’ or “Mother Earth’ or ‘Mother Goddess.’

In 1979, the Episcopal Church revised it’s prayer book so that God is no longer referred to by masculine pronouns. Other denominations are removing references to God such as ‘He’, ‘King’, or ‘Father.’

New Age concepts of God are prominent in religious fiction books like the Secret, the Shack, and the Celestine Prophecy.

Of course this concept does appeal to the natural man. Most of us run to our mom when we are hurting or in trouble or need someone to talk to or just in need of some tender loving care. But what does God’s Word say? Is there a Divine Mother in heaven? Does God the Father have a female counterpart?

B. God Our Father

The dominant gender used in the Scriptures to describe God is male. God is often called Father in the Bible.

Malachi 2:10 AV

10 Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?

1 Chronicles 29:10 AV

10 Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.

Ephesians 4:6 AV

6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

God is very clearly and most frequently portrayed as masculine throughout Scripture. But should we update this? Are we just using culturally gendered and sexist language?

Well He is not called father because men are better than women, or because OT religion was patriarchal.

One reason to call God Father is because Jesus did:

Matthew 6:9 AV

9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.

Another reason He is called Father is because He is the source of life - the progenitor.

John 5:26 AV

26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

In our humanity, we understand that practically as well. But with God, we see that He is the creator of all life and the redeemer of eternal life.

Next it shows us the unique relationship with the Son in the Trinity.

Ephesians 1:3 AV

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

If God was a Mother, then Jesus would be a daughter? But the Father-Son relationship is the one that God has chosen to reveal the nature of the Triune relationship.

C. So Is God Male?

NO. God is a Spirit!

John 4:24 AV

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

God has both a paternal and maternal nature

Though God is most often portrayed in the masculine throughout Scripture, there are several references that imply God’s motherly heart.

Both male and female were created by God

Genesis 1:27 AV

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

Both are partakers of His divine nature.

2 Corinthians 3:18 AV

18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Remember it wasn’t good for man to be alone

Genesis 2:18 AV

18 And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

At the beginning of creation, both male and female reflected parts of God’s character. They are so similar in nature that in marriage they are one.

Genesis 2:23–24 AV

23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

In reality, man or woman on their own do not complete the full representation of God’s character.

Genesis 5:2 AV

2 Male and female created he them; and blessed them, and called their name Adam, in the day when they were created.

In like manner, two men and two women do not reflect the fullness of God’s character. Adam and Eve together were called Adam - or mankind. Man and woman together more completely reflect the spiritual nature of God.

The fullness of God is seen in His Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - three in one. This is modeled in the ‘one flesh’ of man and woman - through their male and femaleness; man and woman together display the diversity of the Godhead.

So God does not have a gender, he is not male nor female, but God perfectly represents a father’s and a mother’s heart and nature.

2. The Motherly Heart of God

In Christianity, it’s easy for women to feel left out. But it doesn’t take much reading of Scripture to find the incredible role that women have played in God’s plan for human history. Actually man messed things up so much, that God’s solution was to skip men altogether and use a young virgin woman.

Ladies, I want to show you this morning (and men in a minute) that God is your example of what a mother should be. Just because we refer to Him as Father doesn’t mean He isn’t capable of being the perfect example of motherhood as well.

So, what does all of this imply for God’s attributes? Just this: God has feminine attributes as well as masculine. Or, perhaps better said, God has attributes which both men and women image uniquely!

There are things about God that men more directly put on display, and there are things about God that women more directly display.

A. God is Our Caregiver

Isaiah 49:15 AV

15 Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.

Deuteronomy 32:18 AV

18 Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God that formed thee.

These verses give us a picture of birthing - very strongly motherly here. Don’t forget where you came from! In the same we shouldn’t forget our mothers, we shouldn’t forget our God.

The imagery of God’s care is like a midwife as well.

Psalm 71:6 AV

6 By thee have I been holden up from the womb: thou art he that took me out of my mother’s bowels: my praise shall be continually of thee.

We often see God as a gentle caregiver in the Bible - very mothering

Hosea 11:4 AV

4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

This is even manifested in the person of Jesus.

Matthew 23:37 AV

37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!

We see this in the Holy Spirit.

Genesis 1:2 AV

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The Spirit of God moving is like brooding over, hovering, even the picture of a hen.

This caregiving, birthing, loving, gentle, brooding nature of God doesn’t sound very manly does it? The greatest picture of a caring mother is our Heavenly Father.

It’s been said that, “An ounce of mother is worth a pound of clergy.”

B. God is Our Comforter

Isaiah 66:13 AV

13 As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Let’s say you came off the field as a teenager at a baseball game. You struck out three times and made an error. As you come off the field what’s going to happen when you meet your dad - he’s gonna tell you about your swing, your stride, and how you misjudged the ball. But your mom? She’s just gonna hug you, tell you she loves you and she’s proud of you - guess which one God is more like?

This comforting aspect of God is especially feminine. Men sometimes are really really bad at comforting.

But God uses the illustration of a mother’s comfort to express how He relates that to us.

This idea of comforting was so important that before Jesus ascended, He left us a comforter.

John 14:26 AV

26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

C. God is Our Protector

You know how we use the phrase of a mom going ‘mama bear.’ Well that’s from the Bible!

Hosea 13:8 AV

8 I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

Also used in the picture of an eagle.

Deuteronomy 32:11–12 AV

11 As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings: 12 So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.

On August 16, 1987, Northwest Airlines flight 225 crashed just after taking off from the Detroit airport, killing 155 people. One survived: a four-year-old from Tempe, Arizona, named Cecelia. When rescuers found Cecelia they did not believe she had been on the plane. Investigators first assumed Cecelia had been a passenger in one of the cars on the highway onto which the airliner crashed. But when the passenger register for the flight was checked, there was Cecelia's name. Cecelia survived because, even as the plane was falling, Cecelia's mother, Paula Cichan, unbuckled her own seat belt, got down on her knees in front of her daughter, wrapped her arms and body around Cecelia, and then would not let her go.

This is a fascinating picture of God’s providence:

How often do we refuse to trust God in order to guide us?

How often do we think God is making us fall when actually he is helping us fly?

God, in the Bible, is often described as a mother bird protecting her young.

Psalm 57:1 AV

1 Be merciful unto me, O God, be merciful unto me: for my soul trusteth in thee: yea, in the shadow of thy wings will I make my refuge, until these calamities be overpast.

Look also at Paul’s instruction.

1 Thessalonians 2:7 AV

7 But we were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children:

We see this gentle protecting quality even in male leadership in the church.

Now we all haven’t had perfect moms, but isn’t typically your mom your number 1 fan. In her eyes you can do no wrong! And just imagine what would happen if you tried to go against her.

Can is say in much the same way, that God is your number one fan.

Believe it or not, God is fighting for you right now. The terrible thing about some of our sins – some of the dark things we are trapped in – is that we don’t know what trouble we are in. We don’t worry about all trouble we could be in.

Moms fight for their kids, physically and spiritually. Moms want to protect their children with every ounce of their being. God is fighting for us right now and always.

So simple we see the mothering nature of God as our Caregiver, as our Comforter, and as our Protector. So mom’s if you need help mothering, go to God - he’s got all the answers on how to be a loving, caring, protecting mother.

3. God is Our Everything

So here’s really the final point I’d like to make.

The Bible explains that there is only one true God and He is our all and all. We are complete in Him. He alone is God.

Colossians 2:9–10 AV

9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. 10 And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

In every human relationship, God is the perfection of that example.

A. He is a Giving Father

Matthew 7:9–11 AV

9 Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10 Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

B. He is a Caring Mother

We just saw all these.

C. His Son is the Perfect Spouse

Isaiah 54:5 AV

5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

Revelation 19:7–9 AV

7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 9 And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.

Christ is the perfect husband to us as the church, the saints.

D. He is our Best Friend

John 15:15 AV

15 Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.

He is our father and mother, our caregiver, our comforter, our protector, our redeemer and savior, a perfect spouse, a faithful friend!

God is not male, God is not female, but he is the perfection of everything that makes us male and female. He is the completion and fulness of every human relationship!