The Mother's Comfort

Isaiah’s Prophecy of Comfort to God’s People

If y 'all would like to turn with me this morning to the prophecy of Isaiah and the final chapter in chapter 66 of the book of Isaiah. This will be our main passage for this morning. And here the prophet, the Lord, speaking through the prophet, says this, 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 born upon her knees, and be dandled upon her knees. As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this wonderful morning, for bringing us together, not just in the glories that are the Lord's Day each and every week, commemorating your resurrection, proclaiming your word, coming together in prayer, lifting our petitions to you, coming before your throne boldly together as a church body.

We thank you for that, but we thank you especially today for a day to commemorate our mothers, those that bring something that is completely unique to the rest of your creation, to your creation, so that you can be glorified in it.

We thank you for an opportunity to get to honor them as they are due the honor, to commemorate your ordination of the role of mother, and to see what your word has to say about it as well. We thank you for these things, and we ask that you please bless our service together, that the words may be consistent with your words, and that you're with us through it all.

We thank you, we love you, and we ask these things in the name of your Son. Amen. Now, in times like these, the days that we're living in, there's perhaps no better reason to use a day like this, like Mother's Day, to bring biblical truth into focus on a topic as massive as motherhood is.

The Cultural Devaluation of Motherhood

And there's no greater reason than the fact that motherhood itself, in this culture that we find ourselves in, has been robbed of so much of the glory that it should have in this present age. Now, it takes some time, it takes some contemplation, it takes some contemplation in the light of Scripture, as well as in God's good design for women and mothers, to understand how this is the case.

How is it that some of the glory of motherhood has been robbed? And what is a proper response? How should we react to this in such a culture? On one hand, motherhood has been given kind of a, and I have no better way to put it other than to say, a false elevation in kind of an odd and even a subversive way in the last few decades, certainly in my lifetime.

And you can kind of think of some examples like the, you have like the sitcom caricature of the mothers that are doing everything, you know, because the dad's a dunce, and he can't manage anything other than the nine to five, if he can even do that well.

And so we have like this strange distorted picture that isn't quite right on one hand. And on the other, it is also, and it's in kind of somewhat of a paradox, given, you know, what I just said in the multitude of examples we have there.

It's also been demeaned in a number of ways. It's been treated as if it doesn't require a unique God-given skill. And we think of things like the phenomenon of stay at home dads, or even worse examples of men that feel as if they could somehow be suitable for the role of mother and of keeper of the home.

But while our culture around us attempts to blur every line over and over again, nonstop, and ignore every distinction, and shun the differences in male and female natures as the people of God, of course, we are obligated to recognize God's good design for motherhood.

The Image of God in Male and Female

And even more specifically than that, the unique glory that radiates from a woman that assumes this honorable calling and fulfills a role that only she could ever fulfill. Now, perhaps one of the greatest testimonies of this honorable role is the fact that woman was created by God to manifest parts of God's image that man could not, even in the garden, in perfection, and cannot still.

God tells us,. And so the fullness of God's image is never more clear than in the one flesh union of marriage. Why is that? Because you have a coming together of man and woman, both as one now representing the fullness of God's image.

But that picture alone, the fact that God's image is fully manifest in the one flesh union, that alone implies that women are unique image bearers of God in ways that men are not and cannot be. Now, the reason I say this is because this is crucial in understanding the glories of motherhood.

Because in the role of mother, a woman exhibits attributes of God that would otherwise be difficult for God's creation to understand. And that brings us back to the main text we opened up with. I want to take another look at it, if you wouldn't mind looking at that with me.

Again, back to verse 12 of Isaiah 66. In other words, there will come a day in our future, because this is prophetic even in our future as we sit here today, of a time when God's people collectively, both Jew and Gentile, the collective nation of God, if you will, will be experiencing the continuance of God's abundance, of His riches.

It's like it'll be flowing continually, nonstop, at this particular point in the future. Like a river, the peace will be coming like a river flowing, and the glory of the Gentiles will be like a flowing stream, something that cannot be stopped.

He goes on, and he says, Then shall you suck, or literally nurse, you shall be born upon sides, or another way you could say that is carried on the hip, if you can picture this image, and be dandled upon the knees, or in other words, played with, bounced on the knees.

Now, I want to say something really quick, because this will be important, not to take too technical of a turn, but if you notice, if you're reading along with me, and I don't know, some translations do this, some don't, but in the KJV, there's the word her in verse 12 a couple of times.

You notice it's in italics. In short, when you see a word that's in italics, whether it's in the Old or New Testament, that means that the translators made a translation decision to insert a word in English that doesn't have a one-for-one root in the original language.

This is something that's called a conjectural inundation, and what it is, is because it's very difficult to translate something from one language to another in the most literal sense, and it even sound good, you have to, a good translation will, by necessity, bring some things into it that may not have that literal translation in order for us to get the sense of what is being said.

So there's that. In most cases, I would say, they're pretty helpful. In many cases, you will see a word in italics in a particular passage of Scripture, and that will be helpful, because what they're doing is they are illuminating the sense of that passage in English, or in our language, specifically, so that we can grasp it.

Now, I'll say this. If you have a faithful translation, you're never going to have a bad case of an inundation, in other words, where a word was inserted, where they're trying to change doctrine or anything.

You're not going to see that. You don't have to worry about that in a faithful translation. But there are times when it may or may not be all that helpful, and this is a case where I feel like, while I understand the KJV translators, why they did this, you look at the analogy that's being used, there's clearly the analogy of a mother being pictured carrying her child on her hip, bouncing the baby on her knees, and all these types of things.

So what do they do? They insert the word her in English just to kind of fill out that picture. But the word her isn't there, and there are some translations that leave that inundation out, and I believe that is a good call, because think about what's in view here.

Look at it one more time and pretend like the word her isn't there. For thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the her there, of course, is God's people, and the glory of the Gentiles like a flowing stream.

Then shall you nurse. You shall be born upon sides and be dandled upon knees. And the reason why it's important to make this point here is because we have to keep in mind this is an analogy that is being used of God Himself.

This isn't talking about a mother. This is talking about God and His relationship with His people. But look at verse 13. He goes on and He says, As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

So there you see the analogy kind of consummated. What He's saying in verse 12 is that I am going to treat you in the manner of a comforting mother, which He brings into full focus in verse 13. Now when God formed Eve out of the rib of Adam, He did so.

He quite literally pulled her out of Him and formed her with a particular set of attributes and characteristics and a unique nature that was then embodied in this new form that was unlike anything else that He had created up to that point.

And when He created woman, that wasn't a point where as if He had not created any maternal creatures by then. He certainly did. There were male and female animals already. So the maternal aspect of creation wasn't necessarily unique.

But He had not, up to this point, created a female nature that was in His own image. That is what was new. That is what was unique in the forming of Eve, one that would have the natural capacity to manifest certain of His attributes that Adam could not have.

And I want to make a quick side note. There are some interesting theories and some conjecture on what was it like for Adam prior to Eve being pulled from his side, so to speak, and formed from his own rib.

Perhaps Adam exhibited all of these attributes, both the masculine and the feminine, prior to this distinct companion being formed on his behalf and for his benefit. And that's an interesting thought and things like that.

But regardless of whether or not that's true, I want you to realize that Adam at no point exhibited what it would have taken to be a mother. At no point did he have a womb that could have carried life and given life.

At no point could he have nursed and given life sustenance to a child. He never had the biological frame that was needed to be a mother. This is something that was needed, that was new with the forming of Eve, and that again represented something that is present in God that was never seen up until this took place.

One such attribute that was placed within Eve upon her forming that would be a picture of something that is within God and always has been is the attribute of comforter. And that's what you see in verse 13 there.

As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you. As Brother Otis used to say, and I love this. Dad brought up another great Otis reference in Sunday school this morning. It's always like a goldmine.

But one thing that he used to say is that Jesus didn't look around and just decide to, you know, use sheep as an analogy because they just made a fine analogy. That's not the way that he did things. What he did was he created sheep as an analogy.

He created them to be an analogy, to represent a preexisting truth. He didn't just look around and say, oh, this will work nice, so that will be a good picture, I'll use that. Things were created to represent preexisting truths so that we could understand or begin to grasp some of these transcendent realities that otherwise we couldn't.

He did that, just to use the Brother Otis example, in sheep so that we could see that he cares for and watches over his loved ones in a way that we can only begin to grasp when we look to the sacrificial labor of a shepherd over his sheep.

So it's not that he just picked them arbitrarily. He created the shepherd-sheep distinction or dynamic. There is a distinction, obviously, but the dynamic between them to show us a preexisting truth that Christ, of course, is the good shepherd and he cares for his loved ones in that kind of way.

Now, in a similar way, God doesn't look down at mothers and think, that's a good analogy, I'll use that. He didn't do it that way. Rather, what he did was he created women to become mothers so that they could show the cosmos, the entire universe, men, women, children, angels, demons, the rest of the creation, what his divine comforting already looked like before anything was created.

That's why he brought them into existence. That is why Eve was formed, yes, as a companion for Adam, no doubt, a primary purpose that she was formed, but also to exhibit some of these attributes that otherwise wouldn't have been easily known by his creation.

Like a mother that will pull her crying child into her chest where her warmth and her smells and the steady rhythm of her heartbeat, which that child still remembers from his time in her womb, all of that brings an incomparable comfort to the weary infant.

And all of that was meant to represent something that preexisted woman herself. And so in this picture, and in this picture only, something we have to emphasize, in this picture, we can just begin to grasp the comforting nature of our God toward his children.

Comfort, Counseling, and the Spirit’s Work in All Christians

Now, I've got to throw in a quick side note here because one might object with the thought that comforting, generally speaking, doesn't really seem like that unique of an attribute because, after all, every Christian is given the capacity to comfort others.

And just to give you an example, that would be an accurate summary of this particular thing. You don't have to go here, but just listen to this for a moment. This is the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 and 4.

He says,.

And this is an amazing passage in its own right. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted by God.

And obviously, this passage is all-encompassing. This is all Christians. And what the point is, is we have to understand one purpose of the tribulations we ourselves go through in this life, one purpose of the hard times we will face in the moment.

We don't always understand what on earth God could be doing in our lives or how He could possibly be using this in our lives. But one thing is for sure. Just like Paul tells us in Romans 15, we, and I'm paraphrasing it.

This is one way you could translate a particular phrase in our English Bibles. We, as believers, are competent to counsel.

How so?

Not in a ministerial way. Counseling is not unique to the pastoral office. This is something that in multiple epistles Paul exhorts all Christians to be able to do and tells them you are able to do it.

You have the capacity to do it because of the Spirit that lives within you. Well, one of the ways in which we become competent to counsel is right here. Going through tribulations, things that from the outside world they look in and say, I don't understand how they're going through that right now.

I don't understand how they have peace right now. And, of course, that in and of itself is a testimony of the supernatural aspect of that peace. It is Jesus' peace. It's not ours. They look in, they see that, they wonder how on earth we're getting through it.

Guess what happens when they begin to go through something themselves. They come to that person that they otherwise previously could not understand how they could make it through a time like that. How they could make it through a tribulation like that.

And they seek counsel. And that's what Paul is saying here. That we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted in God. Okay? It's a little bit of a side note.

Unbelievable passage. It deserves more time than what I'm going to give it this morning. But here's the point. It is certainly true that all Christians, all Christians, men and women alike, can and should comfort those around them as they experience tribulation and especially if we have gone through similar tribulation ourselves.

We need to be ready for that. But, and this is key, this is very important. In the same way that the fruit of the Spirit is given to both men and women and yet that same fruit of the Spirit manifests in ways that comport with the male and female natures.

In other words, the bearing of the fruit of the Spirit is not going to look the same for a man of God as it will for the woman of God even though it's the same fruit. The way the Spirit works that out will comport with the nature of the man or of the woman.

In the same way that all of that works, the ability to comfort is not the same between the sexes. It's not the same between men and women, though we are called equally to do that when times call for it.

This is still a unique attribute in the maternal sense that the prophet Isaiah kind of brings to bear in our opening text. And that is one of the reasons why. The reason why God, through the prophet Isaiah, uses the analogy that He does is because He knows that within our dimension, finite, limited by space-time, we are not in the dimension that He is, where He assumes all of these attributes in an amazing, comprehensive, full way.

In our dimension of time and space, there is no greater comfort, or I should say no greater example of comfort, than that of a mother. And that doesn't violate this principle that Paul just taught us in 2 Corinthians 1.

It is to say that that attribute manifests itself in a way that is unique to the female nature, to the female frame, to the way in which God designed the good design of women and of mothers. And with all of that being said, this, of course, is why the blurring of the parental lines in any way is such a heinous crime against God's natural order.

The Natural Order of Family Roles

And this goes back to kind of what I started with. We live in a time right now, in a culture right now, in an environment that is extremely antagonistic toward the natural order of the family, of the roles, of the unique roles, that one has the capacity to bear while the other cannot bear it, and vice versa.

We live in a culture that wants to blur the lines and make everyone think that somehow we are interchangeable. Now, of course, that kind of makes sense if you begin with kind of a secular materialistic worldview where we're all just matter in motion anyway.

Then, you know, sure, why not just kind of mash everything together, put everyone through, I don't know, an intensive care unit, surgery room, whatever, and let them come out as whatever they want to be?

Why not make everything interchangeable, if we're just matter in motion anyway? But of course, that is not the case. Humanity was created in the image of a creative God that wanted to exhibit His attributes in very specific ways.

And one of those ways was by giving us both man and woman, both equally in His image, but manifesting His image in different, distinct, unique ways that cannot be interchangeable. This is why the blurring of the parental lines, in other words, a father could just as easily be a mother, or a mother could just as easily be a father, those types of sentiments, and I'll say it again, are a heinous crime against the natural order.

We cannot ever kid ourselves into thinking that something like this, the comfort of a mother, could be replaced by anybody. Not by a father, not by multiple fathers, not by professional caregivers, not by educators, or by anyone or anything else that is not the child's own mother.

Because it is only there in her arms that he will ever feel the manifest comfort that he needs to remedy the pains that a life in a fallen, sinful world will bring. Now listen, I say manifest comfort and I say that intentionally because I don't want us to forget that obviously God's comfort is still present and needed also.

So it's not that a mother's comfort replaces God's comfort in some way. It's that God's comfort, as it comes through the Spirit and is shown upon His people and their children, He, by His grace, has given us mothers for us to see and to feel that kind of comfort in a very material way.

It's kind of like John in the opening of his first epistle where he's talking about how they saw the Word and they handled Him, and they felt Him. It's that kind of way. That is why mothers manifest this way, or why they were designed to manifest this thing.

Even though God's comfort is still present at all times as well. So both are true. It's not that one replaces the other. But we have to remember that. Now turn with me back, and if you're still in Isaiah, turn with me to Isaiah 51.

The Home as a Picture of Eden

Just a couple of more thoughts. We'll wrap this up. In Isaiah 51, there's one quick verse. We're going to see this concept once more, this idea of the comforting nature of God. Now, we have already seen in the final chapter of this how the best way to describe God's comfort is that of a mother and child.

It is the best analogy that we have in the universe to express God's comfort. We see that again, the comfort idea here in verse 3, but we also see a couple of other things. Pay close attention, and I want to see if anyone has a thought pop in their minds as you read this.

Isaiah 51, look at verse 3. For the Lord shall comfort Zion. So there's that divine comfort once more. The Lord shall comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places.

And listen to this.

He will make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein. And thanksgiving in the voice of melody. Now, of course, we notice the attribute of comfort once more.

And I don't know if you guys noticed it as well, but the first thing that pops in my mind as I read this verse is that what we see here is obviously God restoring all things to its true form. But if you want to look kind of down on the micro level of things and talk about pictures and typology and things within God's creation that represents the cosmic scale, I can't think of anything better that is analogous to this making a wilderness like Eden and a desert like the garden of the Lord and joy and gladness shall be found therein and thanksgiving in the voice of melody than in the home, than in the home where the mother is present, than in the home where the mother's touch is felt by everyone that's there.

He will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found therein. Thanksgiving in the voice of melody. That sounds an awful lot like the beautification of a home by a mother.

At least it does to me. It's another truth that cannot be touched. There is no person that can make the home environment more like Eden and full of joy, full of gladness, full of beauty and song more than a mother.

A mom might think, gosh, you know, that sounds like a big task all of a sudden. You know, I don't feel all that confident in my eye for design. Maybe I should have someone else do it. They would do better than me, that sort of thing.

But for someone like myself, to me, the answer to that is an absolute no. You absolutely can do it. Another person would not be better to bring beauty and style and taste and all of these things into a home because I can promise you one thing, in my experience, your husband and your children want your touch in the home.

They want your style. They want your interior design. They share your genes. They probably share your tastes as well. They probably think whatever it is you come up with is going to be fantastic. And so in the way that God is the master, in the same way that he is the master of turning ugliness into beauty in the universe, on a cosmic scale, so too was the mother created to be the master of turning ugliness into beauty in the home for those closest to her.

Motherhood as a High Calling and Long-Term Investment

Now we live in a society today, once more, I will keep beating this drum, until things are reformed around here. By around here, I mean in our culture. We live in a society today and have for too long that has tacitly undermined the role of motherhood in ways, in the ways that it prioritizes other things, in the way that it prioritizes literally everything else above children.

And children are really the linchpin, because children are tough to raise. They have their own personalities, their own will. They themselves are made in the image of God. They themselves have a desire to subdue and take dominion, even at the littlest age.

And so children are tough. And it's an incredible sacrifice, not in the way the world talks about sacrifice, but in the way that Jesus talks about sacrifice. It is an incredible investment, of course, but it's a long-term investment.

It's one where the fruit is often born, in some cases, way later down the road, at least in its consummate form.

We know that.

I mean you can see fruit in the day-to-day, obviously. But you get the point. It's a tough thing. And so because it's tough, it is very easy for society to look at these little daredevils, in some cases, and say, think of all of the things that you'll miss out on if you go for that.

Think of all the things that you could do if you maybe kick that can down the road for a while, if you even ever pick the can up. It has tacitly undermined the role of motherhood in the ways that it has prioritized literally everything above children, above bringing them into the world, raising them, caring for them, grieving when they're sick, rejoicing when they're hitting all of those amazing milestones.

Everything else is prioritized above that, if you think about it. And the more you think about it, the more you will see it. And you can't unsee it. Now our society may pay a lip service to the moms that are actually doing it.

In other words, they have kids. But in reality, what our society has done is it's catechized our minds, and it has catechized the minds of women into believing that children and family equals constraint.

It equals constraint against things like the corporate life, like nights out, like world travel, or anything else that is to be desired over and above the children themselves. But of course there's a great problem with the shift in priorities here that is a relatively new phenomenon, by the way.

This is not something that you see throughout history other than usually in the aristocratic classes where they put hedonism above all else. But generally speaking, the fabric of almost every society has been held together by the home and the role of mothers within that home.

And so when you fast forward today and you see this novel doctrine of prioritizing just about everything else over kids, the problem with that is that with no children, there's no motherhood. And with no motherhood, then from the human viewpoint, there is no outlet to fully express the exclusive ability to display God's attributes in the feminine form.

Women have some attributes they display whether they have children or not, but in the full form of displaying those attributes comes exclusively with motherhood. And this is why we see grief in the Bible when a mother's womb was closed.

This is why Hannah shed the tears that she shed in her desire for Samuel. It's because it's built into our natures. We know that to be a mother is to express these attributes of God to the full degree in this life.

Motherhood, as it was ordained by God, is one of the highest callings that he has ever constructed within the great story of human history. It wasn't an afterthought. Motherhood is not a mere option that he gave women to choose among many as they decide what to spend their time on.

Rather, motherhood is the thing that he gave women time for in the first place. He put us in space-time on a linear track to do some stuff. He gave us time as a gift. You remember we did a sermon a while back, and I talked about the fact that time was originally created for our benefit.

And when we are saved, when we are regenerated, when we have the Spirit living within us, even though that doesn't fully revert to what it was like in the garden until Jesus comes back, for Christians, there is a unique thing there where sanctification is taking place, where true, genuine progress is taking place.

The thing that time was created for, in the case of a woman, was to be a mother and to experience the joys and the treasures that come with that. Because the nurturing, and to bring it back one more time, the comforting of eternal souls, those little eternal souls that bear your characteristics, your eye color, your sense of humor, your aesthetic tastes, your strengths, and your weaknesses, to raise someone like that is a priceless treasure that no culture could ever replace, regardless of how lofty they try to make everything else look, seem, or feel.

And so when those fellow image-bearers of yours that look just like you come to you in need of comfort, remember that that comfort with which you offer them is something that cannot be outsourced. Only a mother can display that kind of comfort in the way that is needed in moments like that.

As the Lord said, As one whom his mother comforteth, so I will comfort you. These are the words of the Lord. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this wonderful day. We thank you for this glorious occasion of bringing the honor that is due for mothers, for putting them in our lives so that we can have life in the first place.

We thank you for the way you have ordained everything, the family, the way, the dynamic, and the structure within it, so that we see your image in all of it, not in one thing in particular, but in the full thing, the full picture.

And without that full picture of the household, and husband and wife, and even children coming into the picture, it's not that we can't understand your glory, but perhaps we can't understand it as well.

And so we thank you for ordaining the household as one of the most significant spheres of influence in this world, so that we can experience it on the most personal, intimate level we could possibly imagine, not just in having our own mothers, but in becoming mothers in some cases, or being a father and seeing the dynamic between mother and child in the home.

We thank you so much for these graces and for the glory that is within all of it. We thank you, Lord, that we have your word to lift us up in a time when we are experiencing that degradation of the home, and with the robbing of the glory of motherhood, and with all of these travesties that we see around us, as devastating as it is, we thank you that we can run to your word and cling to it, and see that in reality, what you have ordained is something that no man can break down, can break apart, and certainly they cannot replace it.

And that these truths hold a true, regardless of the things that we experience in this life. So we ask that today, Father, you please give the comfort to our mothers, so that they then can in turn show that to the world, and manifest that specific divine attribute that you yourself have in a way that nobody else can.

We ask that you encourage them, that you give them strength and your peace and your comfort, as they dive into the grind of day-to-day motherhood, regardless of what stage of life they're in. Whether that be a mother, a grandmother, it doesn't matter.

We ask that you be with them and you give them the strength for the grind, yes, but also all of the wonderful little treasures that come with the day-to-day, and that we soak it in, that we don't take it for granted, and that we enjoy every bit of it.

We thank you, we love you, we ask you to be with us for the remainder of our fellowship time today, and we ask all these things in the name of your Son. Amen.