Mothers are some of the most underappreciated
people in the world. A mother knows what it’s like to sustain and
nourish another human from her own body. A mother knows what it’s like
to give her body and her strength, to give up her waking
hours and her sleeping hours, and even to give up her life for the care
of her children. A mother knows what it’s like to deplete herself to
the point of exhaustion, to give all of herself for the little people
who depend on her for their very life but treat
her with such disregard and disrespect all day long, always demanding
more and never showing any appreciation or giving anything in return.
Mothers, if this is any encouragement, God knows exactly how you feel.
God identifies himself with mothers and motherhood
in at least three ways. First, in His sufficiency; second, in His
self-sacrificing tender-kindness and loving-care; and third, in His
unrequited love. By examining how God identifies Himself
with mothers and with motherhood, we can learn a little about God and
we can draw comfort from knowing more of God’s companionship with us and
His care for us.
God chooses to identify Himself to us primarily in
masculine terms, He wants to be known as the Father. But God, as the
perfect parent, is the one who protects and provides for His children
and nourishes and sustains them. Furthermore,
human fathers and mothers both are created in the image of God. Genesis
1:27 says, “In the image of God, He created him; male and female he
created them.” It follows then, that God’s parenting of His children has
the characteristics of both fatherhood and
motherhood.
God identifies Himself with motherhood most strikingly in the use of His name, El-Shaddai. El-Shaddai
is the second name by which God chooses to identify Himself to man. He
reveals
this name to Abraham in Genesis 17:1-2, “When Abram was ninety-nine
years old the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, ‘I am God Almighty
(El-Shaddai); walk before me and be blameless that I may make my covenant between me and
you and may multiply you greatly.’” The name El-Shaddai
is mistranslated as God Almighty in our English Bibles. The name El
signifies strength, power, or might and is used through the Old
Testament as the word “God” or “god,” it
indicates to us the power of God Himself. Although there is still some
ambiguity around the origins of the name
Shaddai, it is believed to be derived from the Hebrew word,
shadaim, for breast. This indicates sufficiency or nourishment. Some have made the ill-advised suggestion that the name El-Shaddai be further translated as “the many breasted One.” A more
appropriate translation might be something like God All-Sufficient. God introduces Himself to Abraham as El-Shaddai with the promise that He will “multiply [him] greatly.” God also introduces Himself as El-Shaddai
to Jacob, repeating the same promise to him in Genesis 35:11, “I am God Almighty (El-Shaddai):
be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come
from you, and kings shall come from your own body.” God introduces
himself as El-Shaddai and associates this name with the promise of offspring. Later, Jacob, now known as Israel, invokes El-Shaddai in his blessing to his children, most notably in his blessing on Joseph
in Genesis 49:24-25:
“His arms were made agile by the hands of the Mighty One of Jacob (El-Shaddai, God of Jacob) … by the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty (El-Shaddai)
who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the
deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.”
Jacob, looking forward from the brink of the
population explosion he has been promised in Genesis 35:11, appropriates
the name of El-Shaddai, and calls down
distinctly maternal “blessings of the breasts and of
the womb” to his children and grandchildren. God, does not only provide
multiplied offspring—blessings of the womb—but also promises to nourish
and sustain them—blessings of the breasts. Of the Patriarchs it is
Jacob who is most associated with the name El-Shaddai.
Jacob himself calls El-Shaddai “the Mighty One of Jacob,” and afterwards, through the Old Testament, the name El-Shaddai is often used next to the name of Jacob. We can imagine Jacob, who was so close
to his mother, having a particular appreciation for God as El-Shaddai,
the God who nourishes and sustains. The prophet Isaiah invokes the same
maternal imagery when he writes, “You shall suck the milk of nations;
you shall nurse
at the breast of kings; and you shall know that I, the LORD, am your
Saviour and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob (El
Shaddai, God of Jacob)” (Isaiah 60:16), and
“Rejoice with Jerusalem,
and be glad for her, all you who love her; rejoice with her in joy, all
you who mourn over her; that you may nurse and be satisfied from her
consoling breast; that you may drink deeply
with delight from her glorious abundance. For thus says the LORD:
‘Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the
nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse, you shall be
carried upon her hip, and bounced upon her knees.
As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be
comforted in Jerusalem’” (Isaiah 66:10-13).
Through the prophet Isaiah, God promises to comfort
the people of Israel with the restoration of Jerusalem, “as one whom
his mother comforts.” In this translation it seems the consoling breasts
belong to the city of Jerusalem, but still,
it is God who provides the nourishment that flows through them; God is
the true comforter and here he is a maternal comforter, comforting His
children like a mother. The breasts are a metaphor for both nourishment
and comfort, like a mother comforts and nourishes
her child with her breasts, God will comfort and nourish His people.
The Bible does not use this imagery reluctantly, God is not afraid to be
identified with motherhood.
As we see in the passages quoted, El-Shaddai
is the God who nourishes and sustains. His power is sufficient to all
His children’s needs. He provides for them abundant blessings. He uses
the imagery of breasts
as metaphors for the way He nourishes His people from Himself. El-Shaddai
is the God who provides Manna for the Children of Israel in the
wilderness. He is the God who, through Jesus, says, “I am the Bread of
Life” (John 6:35) and
invites us to feed on His body and drink of His blood (John 6:54). This
is the God who gives life by the breaking of His body and the draining
of His blood. He is the God who, by His own self, nourishes and sustains
life.
In this way, God is not being like a mother, rather
the imagery works in the opposite direction. Mothers are image-bearers
of God, they reflect His tender nurturing heart when they tenderly
nurture their children. The mother who sustains
her child with her own body, who nourishes her child from her breasts,
and who comforts her child with the closeness of her body until that
child thrives reflects the God who is our El-Shaddai.
The God who is sufficient to all our
needs. The God who births us by His Spirit. The God who sustains and
nourishes us from His own self. And the mother who exhausts herself for
the nourishment, sustenance, and comfort of her children can be
sustained, nourished, and comforted from the resources
of El-Shaddai who is sufficient to all her
needs. Perhaps you, mother, exhausted in the late hours with an
unsettled child in your weary arms have been comforted to find yourself
cradled in the everlasting arms of El-Shaddai.
God also identifies Himself with motherhood in the
way He self-sacrificially cares for His children. This is expressed by
Jesus in Luke 13:34; He laments over Jerusalem,
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!
How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers
her brood under her wings, and you were not
willing!”
He draws on the imagery of a mother hen, sheltering
her chicks from danger with her own body. He points to the instinct in
mothers to put themselves in harm’s way to protect their children. In
His lament, Jesus is referring prophetically
to the time when, by the breaking of His body, He shelters His people
from wrath. In His sacrificial death, Jesus holds nothing back,
thrusting Himself fully into danger to secure the safety of His people.
The fact that He likens this to the care that a mother
hen has for her chicks is evidence that God has purposely designed
motherhood to reflect Himself. The loving care and tender kindness that a
mother has for her child reflects God’s care and concern for His
children. Like a mother, awake in the night with a
troubled child, God is the one who “will neither slumber nor sleep”
(Psalm 121:4) as He cares for His people. Like a mother who sets aside
her busyness and her work to hold a needy child, God cares for His needy
children, “In His arms He carries them all day
long.” Indeed, His attention to His children, described in Psalm 121 is
a kind of maternal care:
“He will not let your
foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. … The LORD is your
keeper; the LORD is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not
strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The LORD
will keep you from all evil; He will keep your life. The LORD will keep
your going out and
your coming in from this time forth and forevermore” (Psalm 121:3-8).
We can imagine the Heavenly Father, here paying
close attention to His small child’s every step as He walks beside His
child, He protects His child from the glare of the sun with His body,
casting a cool shade. In this way, a mother who
forgets her own needs and desires to be diligently attentive to the
comfort and safety of her child reflects the tender care of God for His
children. Further, God is the God who “swears to His own hurt and does
not change” (Psalm 15:4). This is intentional,
He does not make promises carelessly, not realizing the cost; no, God
weighs the cost, and considers it worthwhile. In this way, a mother who,
for the love of her child, endures the pain and
labour of childbearing and the personal cost
of caring for her child through the day and through the night and
considers it worthwhile, is an image of God’s self-sacrificing care for
His children.
A mother who gives of her body, her spirit, her
attention, and her energy out of love for her child and finds her love
unrequited knows something about the love of God. Motherhood is a
thankless vocation. To a child, a mother's sacrifices are expected and
demanded; her desires are meaningless or nonexistent. Her child openly
believes in his own supreme importance: mother is of no more value than a
dispensary. Her commands are taken as idiotic suggestions, or
completely ignored. She rescues her unwitting child from danger and is
thanked with screaming resentment. Her child repeatedly returns to the
danger and ignores her mother's warnings. A mother knows exactly what
God means when He says, "All day long I have held out my hands to a
disobedient and contrary people" (Romans 10:21). God holds out His hands
in grace, giving and giving. Each moment of life is a gift from God,
each breath, each new day, the food that sustains, these are the least
of His gifts but if He withheld any one of them no one would survive.
How like small children we are. We depend on God's grace but give Him so
little thanks. We complain about the good gifts He gives us because
they are not precisely to our liking. We grow bitter towards Him when we
don't get the things we want, the way we want them. We often remark on
the foolishness of the Children of Israel when they complain to Moses in
Numbers 21:5, "Why have you
brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no
food and no water, and we loathe this worthless food.” "There is no food
... and we loathe this worthless food," how ridiculous, how like small
children they are. But how like them are we? There is no love like God's
love, no one could give more than He gives. But His love is unrequited
every day. Arrogantly, we receive His gifts with no regard for the
giver. Still, God gives. He gives at such cost, He gives His greatest
treasure to win us. Jesus, God's great gift, for us. But His gift is
largely ignored or rejected. We fail to value it, we don't appreciate
the cost. We treat God with the disregard of small children for their
mothers. Still God loves us, He chooses to see past our unreceptive
hearts and He loves us with the kind of tender love a mother has for her
small children. The mother who smiles at her children's petulance, who
patiently serves her children with a love that makes her forget their
unkindness, reflects the love God has for His children. Our God is kind.
Today
is the day the world sets aside for the appreciation of mothers. We
should appreciate mothers all the more for showing us something of the
great love of God for us. He is the God who, like a mother, nourishes us
from His own self, gives to us at such great cost, and whose gifts we
receive with indifference and contempt. We should appreciate mothers for
reflecting the kindness of God in their care for small children.
