Dr. Rodney Plunket

This morning I want to begin in a book written by a Jewish prophet who lived several centuries before the birth of Jesus.  The Jewish prophet is Isaiah, and I want us to look at a few verses in the fortieth chapter of his book.  The material contained in that chapter is directed toward Jews who are living in exile following the conquest of their nation by the Babylonian Empire.  That empire had conquered Judah, destroyed the capital city of Jerusalem, and had taken the people away from their homeland to live as exiles in Babylon.  In this chapter, the Lord uses the prophet to convey hope to those exiles.  So Isaiah declares the Lord’s great love for Jerusalem.  Isaiah also begins to reveal the Lord’s plan to restore Jerusalem following its destruction.  And we should realize that the overall book of Isaiah is very clear that the destruction was God’s way to punish the people due to their wickedness.

What I am especially interested in noting this morning is the way that God describes His love for Jerusalem.  If you have a Bible, please open it and turn to Isaiah (Isa) 40:9-11 and follow along as I read.  If you do not have a Bible, please listen as I read.  Isaiah 40:9-11 says,

Get you up to a high mountain, O Zion, herald of good tidings; lift up your voice with strength, O Jerusalem, herald of good tidings, lift it up, do not fear; say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”  See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; his reward is with him, and his recompense before him.  He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.

Several times in vv 10-11 we hear spoken of as if God were a human.  The Bible does that a lot because one of the best ways for humans to understand God is to compare God to us.  I want to notice the places in these verses where that happens.

In Isa 40:10 the text says, “the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him.”  We know that God is spirit.  He does not have a physical body; therefore, He does not have physical arms.  So the word “arm” here stands for God’s power.  God’s power rules for God, and the prophet uses the word “arm” to refer to God’s power.

Now look at v 11.  Here the prophet compares God to a human shepherd.  He creates this comparison to communicate the kind of love that God is going to give to His people as they return to Jerusalem.  Listen to the prophet’s word picture again.  The prophet says of the Lord that “He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep.”  I want you especially to notice the third element of this picture.  The text says that the Lord will “carry [the lambs] in his bosom.”  Now let me tell you something about the word “bosom” as it used in this passage.  The relevant Hebrew word is qyEj, and that word commonly refers to the breasts of a woman, but the reference here is not to a woman but to a male shepherd.  You see, in the days when men wore robes instead of shirts and trousers, the area above the belt naturally formed a pocket, and that pocket was used by shepherds as a place to hold and protect a lamb in need of special attention.  The similarity between a mother taking a baby to her bosom to comfort it and the action of the shepherd is apparent.  So that pocket came to be referred to by the Hebrew word that means bosom because it stood for the mother-like care of a shepherd for his sheep.  And here the inspired prophet uses it for the mother-like, shepherd-like love of God for God’s people.  He lets us know that God’s love for God’s people is such that it causes God to take the people to God’s heart just like a shepherd takes a baby lamb to his heart, just like a mother takes her baby to her bosom.

Now I want us to look at a passage from Isa 49, a passage also directed toward the Jews who were living in Babylonian exile.  Please look with me at Isa 49:13-16.

          Sing for joy, O heavens, and exult, O earth; break forth, O mountains, into singing! For the LORD has comforted his people, and will have compassion on his suffering ones.  But Zion said, “The LORD has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.” Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb? Even these may forget,  yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of my hands;  your walls are continually before me.

I want to focus upon v 15 where we read, “Can a woman forget her nursing child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?  Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you”.  The power of this passage is due to the unlikelihood of a mother forgetting the child that she bore and nourished.  God is saying that in spite of how unlikely that is, it is more likely than Him forgetting His people.

It does not take a sociologist to figure out that a people in exile would feel forsaken by their God.  God, through the prophet, assures the people that they are not forgotten; God’s love for them is like a mother’s love––only stronger.  God’s love is like a mother’s love––only more certain, only more secure.

Now please go with me and follow along or listen as I read Isa 66:10-14.  This passage is not directed to the Jews in exile; this passage is directed to the Jews who have returned to Jerusalem after being freed from exile.

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 bosom.

For thus says the Lord:  I will extend prosperity to her like a river, and the wealth of the nations like an overflowing stream; and you shall nurse and be carried on her arm, and dandled on her knees.  As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.

“As a mother comforts her child, so I will comfort you.”  The German theologian, W. Kessler, made a splendid comment about this passage back in the mid-1950’s.  He noted that “that this is the first time in the Old Testament” that the Lord explicitly is associated with “feminine predications.”  You see, the religions of the ancient world had many goddesses.  And these goddesses were necessary to those ancient religions because of the sexual nature of the deities which these religions worshipped.  The Old Testament shuns goddesses and normally refrains from speaking of God in feminine terms in order to avoid such connotations.  Here that normal reserve is abandoned.  God explicitly says that God’s love is like the love of a mother who is comforting her child.  Kessler says of this clearly feminine metaphor in Isa 66, that its use “lends all the greater conviction to what is said here of the passionateness of God’s love for those who in sorrow and with humility wait for his salvation”.  Hear again Kessler’s phrase.  He refers to “the passionateness of God’s love” (See page 420 of Claus Westermann, Isaiah 40-66).  When God wants to drive home the power of God’s love to a people who face enormous challenges upon their return to a destroyed city and a deserted land, God drives home that love by comparing it to the love of a mother comforting her child.

Now I want you to turn to the New Testament.  Take your Bibles and turn to Mt 23:37-39 and follow along or listen as I read some words from Jesus.

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it!  How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!  See, your house is left to you, desolate.  For I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.”

Here Jesus ascribes to Himself a maternalistic style of love for Jerusalem.  He says that He is like a mother hen who seeks to gather he brood of chicks in a time of danger.  Jesus knows that Jerusalem is entering into a time of danger.  He knows that the Jewish people will allow the hotheads to gain control, and the result will be the destruction of Jerusalem, a destruction that takes place in 70 AD.  Jesus wants to gather the city under His love and protect it from and even avert the danger, but Jerusalem refused His message and His love.  Most important for our lesson this morning is that we have another example of maternalistic love, this time from Jesus Himself.

On Mother’s Day, it is appropriate to see the similarity between motherly love and the love of God, between motherly love and the love of Jesus.  Motherly love holds a child to its heart and nourishes the child with the bosom’s sustenance; God’s love is like that too.  The process of birth and the act of nursing makes it unlikely that a mother will ever forget a child; God’s love is even less likely to forget.  Motherly love comforts by nursing, carrying, and dandling a child on her knees; God’s love for His people comforts in a comparable manner.  Motherly love, in the animal kingdom as well as in the human realm, brings babies close and gives them shelter in times of danger; Jesus’ love does the same.  Yes, divine love is like the kind of love most of us received from our mothers.

And I want to honor this morning those mothers who have loved us with the love of the Lord.  About twenty-four hours before she died I thanked my mother for making it easier for me to believe and trust in the love of God.  I told her that she did that by loving me like God loved me.  I knew and trusted in my mother’s love long before I knew and trusted in anything else.  Having that foundational ground of trustworthy love helped me to know and trust in the infinite love of God.  So I thank you godly mothers, who prepare our souls to receive the love of God.

Like a mother’s love God’s love lifts us from the powers of darkness and confusion, from the power of sin.  If you are here this morning and know that you need the maternalistic love of your God, won’t you come and receive that love.  Come to the God who will never forget you.  Come now as we stand and sing.