Seven Bible Mothers
2 Timothy 1:1-7; 2 Timothy 3:13-17
INTRODUCTORY WORDS
We are studying a theme today which should have in it much of value to every one of us; even the men and the young men love mother, and we believe they will be very happy to study some things about Bible mothers. So far as the young women are concerned, it is a matter of very vital relationship with them.
By way of introduction we wish to speak of Eve, whom if you will permit, we will call, "The mother of us all." We can say this because the word "Eve" means, "mother of all living." Concerning this first woman there are several things we desire to suggest.
1. Eve was taken out of the man, but not made by the man. Adam stood for everything that concerns man and woman. Eve stood exclusively for the things which concern womanhood, and motherhood. Adam existed without Eve, but Eve was a part of Adam. However, Adam did not give to Eve all of her characteristics, inasmuch as she was created by God Himself.
2. Eve was never a child. When God took a rib from the man, He made a woman, not a woman fallen and blighted by sin, not a woman touched with infirmities, but a woman of all beauty, strength, and glory. We have suggested that she knew nothing of childhood, nor youth. She was made a woman, the finished work of God.
3. Adam needed Eve. When Adam named the beasts of the field we read, "there was not found an help meet for [Adam]." Eve supplied that lack, that want in the life of the man. The woman was not made inferior to the man, but the woman was made to complete that union of spirit and life which was necessary to the perfect happiness of Adam and of the human race.
4. Eve's beauty became Adam's snare. We do not blame Eve for the fall any more than we blame Adam. Eve was the first to sin, to be sure. However, Adam's guilt, to us, was even greater than Eve's. Eve, physically, stood for everything that was lovely and beautiful in the human. Adam, however, stood for the human, but also for the Divine. He was the son of God. God said, For by Adam, and not by Eve, sin passed upon all men, "For that all have sinned."
5. God's promise to the woman. It must have been a terrible shock to Eve when she, who so delighted in beauty, was cast out of the Garden of Eden. Weary days and years followed, and yet Eve, under the curse, still realized that she should be the mother of all living, and that her seed should bruise the serpent who had deceived her, and caused her to fall.
When her first child, Cain, was born, she said, "I have gotten a man from the Lord." She, doubtless, thought that he was the seed, who was to bruise Satan. However, it was not long until she awakened to the fact that her first-born was a murderer. The blood of her second-born told out the tragedy of life.
How long she lived, we do not know, but we know that from her came the Seed four thousand years later, begotten of the Holy Ghost, and born of a woman.
I. REBEKAH, THE MOTHER OF JACOB (Genesis 27:6-8)
Great men usually have great mothers. It has often been said that a child partakes of the characters, as well as of the faces of his parents.
1. Rebekah, the mother of Jacob, carried a family trait. We might say that she was true to her form. We do not know about her parents, but we do know about her brother, and we take it for granted that the two imbibed from their parents the disposition which marked both of them.
We know how Laban treated Jacob, Rebekah's son. He made Jacob work seven years for his daughter, Rachel, and then in deceit he gave to him his daughter, Leah, forcing Jacob to serve seven additional years for Rachel. We know that Rebekah, the mother of Jacob, connived with him against Esau, his twin brother. She made Jacob promise to obey her, then she dressed him in skins and prepared savory meat with which he might deceive his father, thereby stealing Esau's blessing.
This spirit of deception which Rebekah and her brother, Laban, both possessed always works havoc. From Rebekah, Jacob received more or less the same characteristics. He, also, was a trickster and a deceiver.
2. Rebekah, the mother of Jacob, reaped what she sowed. Rebekah's strategy worked, so far as securing the blessing for Jacob was concerned. However, her strategy caused Esau's unmitigated wrath; and Jacob was forced to flee for his life from his brother. Rebekah never saw her beloved offspring again. It never pays to do wrong, and mothers always reap what they sow.
II. JOCHEBED, MOTHER OF MOSES (Exodus 2:3-4)
The mother of Moses lived in the day of Pharaoh's persecution. She lived when those persecutions were at their height, and when every male child born to a Jewish mother was ordered to be slain. However, Jochebed never feared the wrath of the king. She knew that God lived, and that God would take care of her son.
In the Book of Hebrews we read, "By faith Moses, * * was hid three months of his parents, because they saw that he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king's commandment." It will be interesting, therefore, to observe how Jochebed's faith saved her son.
1. Shielding her son in an ark of bulrushes. Exodus 2:3 tells us that when the mother of Moses saw that she "could no longer hide him, she took for him an ark of bulrushes, and daubed it with slime and with pitch, and put the child therein; and she laid [the ark] in the flags by the river's brink."
Here is a tremendous lesson for mothers of today. We believe that they could build an ark of prayer around their sons. They can build an ark of the family altar to shield their children from Satan and his wrath.
2. Watching over her son. After she had hid her son, we read that she stationed her daughter afar off where she could watch and see what would be done. It does not take a strong imagination to see the mother at home in prayer to God for her babe, while her daughter watched from the shelter of the trees.
3. Bringing up her son. After Pharaoh's daughter discovered the little Jewish child, Moses' sister appeared quickly on the scene suggesting that a Hebrew nurse be chosen to care for the child. Thus, being commissioned, she quickly secured the child's mother, and Jochebed brought up her own son in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.
III. HANNAH, THE MOTHER OF SAMUEL (1 Samuel 1:27-28)
According to our way of thinking Hannah stands before us as one of the most beautiful of Bible women and mothers. She is an example to any young woman who has upon her the privileges and responsibilities of family life.
1. Hannah became a mother through prayer. She had no children and she was getting old. Her husband's other wife made light of her because she was not a mother. Hannah, however, laid hold upon God. She prayed for a son. God gave her a son, and then Hannah, herself, passes out of the Divinely written story. Never again do we hear of Hannah; she is never mentioned in the Bible. What we do know of her prior to Samuel's birth is wonderful.
By faith, through prayer, she became a mother and kept her maiden vow to lend her child unto the Lord.
2. Hannah was a mother who gave her son to God. We feel that we have a perfect right to say that when Hannah brought her infant, Samuel, to the Temple and left him there as a tiny babe, she left her very life, also. We simply mean that her son was her life. When she gave her son to God, she gave the very heart throbs of her own being to God. She gave up her little one without a murmur, without a complaint. She, who had long prayed for his arrival; she, who must have loved him as only a mother can love, took her infant and left him in the house of God, as her gift.
3. A mother who lived her life through her son. We suggested that Hannah passed off the Bible scene. However, Samuel, Hannah's son passes in where the mother passed out. When we read of the wonderful things about Samuel, the boy; and Samuel, the Prophet, we cannot but feel that in it all, and through it all, Hannah will receive an abundant reward.
IV. ELIZABETH (Luke 1:5-6)
We now come to the New Testament to consider the first mother mentioned. Our text describes that mother in a very beautiful way. We want to pick up just four things about Elizabeth,
1. She was a mother in righteousness. Our verse says, that her husband and she "were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Would that as much might be said of every mother. A righteous mother, and a God-fearing father, are the greatest boon that a son or daughter could possibly have.
2. She was a mother of unwavering faith in God. When God told her that she would have a child, although she was very aged, she did not doubt for one moment. Her husband did doubt, but not she. Not only that, but three months later when her cousin, Mary, came to see her in the hill country, she recognized the fact that God's promise to Eve in the garden, relative to the birth of a Seed that should bruise Satan's head, was about to be fulfilled. She even said unto Mary, "Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" Then she added, "Blessed art thou among women, * * blessed is she that believed: for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord."
God give us more mothers like Elizabeth.
3. She was a mother who stood firm as Gibraltar amid the crumbling faiths of her day. Remember that she was a daughter of Aaron, and her husband was a priest after the course of Abia. The general run of priests of that day was more like Caiaphas, than like Zecharias. However, Elizabeth amid Israel's apostasy, believed with unshaken faith and confidence.
4. She was a mother with a song. We cannot develop this thought, but we ask the student to read the magnificat to be found in the first chapter of Luke. How happy was Elizabeth.
V. EUNICE AND LOIS (2 Timothy 1:5)
1. From generation to generation. Our key verse tells us of this wonderful fact: "The unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also." Thus, the Holy Spirit traced Timothy's faith down through three generations.
We have before us very plainly the influence of a life, but we have more. We have the fact that God honors those whose children are "in the Lord." Does not the Bible say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house"?
2. A God-given, but humanly-cultivated faith. We do not mean that Eunice was a Christian because Lois was, or that Timothy was a Christian because his grandmother and his mother were Christians.
We know that each was a Christian because of their personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. However, of one thing we are sure: the grandmother, Lois, observing her daughter's faith; and the mother, Eunice, observing her son Timothy's faith (in each case), cultivated, nourished, and strengthened that faith. We cannot save our children, but we can put an atmosphere around them which will strengthen and encourage the faith which God gives them.
3. Inculcating the Word of God. There is one definite thing that is written to Timothy. It is this: that from his youth he knew the Holy Scriptures. How did he come to know them from his youth? Because he was taught them by his grandmother and by his mother. This is a further proof of what we have just said. While Timothy's faith was his own personal faith, and not that of his mother or his grandmother, yet they did cause that faith to grow by their teaching him the Word of God.
VI. HERODIAS (Mark 6:17)
It is too bad to consider one of the evil mothers in the Bible; and yet here is a story placed before us by the Holy Spirit because of its tremendous significance and warning. A good woman is God's greatest gift to man, humanly speaking. A bad woman is the greatest curse to man.
1. A mother who had disregarded her earthly marriage vows. Herodias had been married to Philip. Salome was the daughter of that union. However, Philip was not a king, or ruler. He had no special power, or authority among men. Thus it was that when Herod was a guest in the home; he broke up the home, and stole away the heart of Herodias; his brother Philip's wife.
However, we are quite sure that Herodias was as much a part to all this as was Herod. She surely desired the prestige and power which would be hers as Herod's wife. When a mother breaks her marriage vows and throws them to the winds, what can she expect of her daughter?
2. A mother given to subtlety and intrigue. Not only had Herodias left her husband, Philip, but she had also induced Herod to do away with his wife, and queen. She had done this through that cunning which she, as a woman, possessed. Afterwards, she showed the same subtlety and intrigue against John, the Baptist. John was, perhaps, the only one who had ever bluntly told Herod and Herodias of their sins. Herod trembled; Herodias was angry.
3. A mother with uncontrollable hatred. The anger of Herodias knew no bounds. She was determined to get the head of John the Baptist. In order to achieve this purpose, she brought in her daughter, Salome, and compelled her to become a common dancer at a feast of wine. God pity such a woman, and a daughter, who is raised under such an influence.
VII. THE UNNAMED MOTHER (1 Kings 3:24-27)
1. Solomon's tribute to his own mother. We do not care to discuss David's sin, nor Bathsheba, as in any way a party to it. We do want to say that David was a friend of God, that he truly repented, and was forgiven his sin. We would add, also, that Bathsheba seems to have been a true and faithful mother to her son, Solomon. Here are Solomon's glowing words concerning his parents: "I was my father's son, tender and only beloved in the sight of my mother." With this before us, let us study a wonderful deed by a king, the wisest of men; by a king, who knew the heart of a true mother's love. This is all set forth in the story of an unnamed mother. Here is the story:
2. Two mothers of evident shame. Our context tells us that these two women lived alone; both of them had become mothers. One of them accidentally smothered and killed her child, as it lay with her in the bed. This woman then arose and made an exchange of babes, leaving the dead child in her friend's bed, and taking the living child to herself. We stop long enough just for one thing, and that is to say that both of these wicked women still had in them a desire and a love for children; even the woman who turned out to be so cruel, at least, wanted a child. We say, in all candor, that these two unnamed mothers are far ahead of some Christian women today who abhor children, and want to have nothing to do with them. Some even go so far as to do away with them in order to save themselves from what they consider an awful time in rearing a child in their home.
3. An evil mother's devotion to her child. Before King Solomon these two mothers stood, both claiming the living child. Solomon ordered that the child should at once be cut in twain, and divided between the two mother claimants. He did this, not with the intention of slaying the child, but in order to discover its true mother.
The woman who was not the mother sternly acquiesced with Solomon's demand. The true mother, vile as she was, threw herself at Solomon's feet and begged him, rather than kill it, to give it to the other woman.
Beloved, we are bringing this plain message to our young people just to show that in the old days, people fallen deep in sin still loved their children. Even the beasts of the field love their offspring and protect them. Alas, today, how often are the little ones despised.
AN ILLUSTRATION
A great company had gathered in the auditorium for the evening service. There were men and women gray and bent, because the years had been long and full of care. There were young men and women with the morning glow upon their faces. Here and there sat a little child, and over all brooded the Sabbath hush.
Then softly into the silence began to steal the notes of a song. Tenderly, yearningly, almost caressingly, it came:
"Oh, mother, when I think of thee,
'Tis but a step to Calvary."
The silence deepened into a solemn stillness, as all the love and the longing, the joy and the sorrow, the disappointment and the achievement of the years poured themselves into the singer's voice. Again it came:
"Oh, mother, when I think of thee,
'Tis but a step to Calvary,
Thy gentle hand is on my brow,
'Tis leading me to Jesus now."
Then, as if the audience were but one great, hungry heart, hungry for mother, heads bowed, eyes closed and song and singer were forgotten. The sweetest face in all the world came back and with that face, a life. The long years gave up their store, and a little child, a youth, a man was once again with mother. Then, the heart made answer, the common heart of the great, bowed audience made answer to the song:
"'Yes, mother, when I think of thee,
'Tis but a step to Calvary'"
and thence to Calvary's God. A. B. Lamoreaux.