God’s Deliverance through Motherhood

Introduction

Just a moment I want to draw your attention to Isaiah 66, so you can turn to that text. We’re going to read there in just a moment. Isaiah’s prophecy is coming to a close at this point in his writing. And he’s promising that God is going to bring new creation. Despite trials and suffering, God is going to bring new life to his people. And he indicates that in a variety of ways. One of those in chapter 65, and then again in 66, as he talks about a new heavens and a new earth. God is going to give birth to life.

And this then brings us to this text in Isaiah 66, where I want to read here beginning in verse 7. And I want us to connect some things in this text with what I ultimately want us to see, which is the idea of the imagery of motherhood and what mothers do being connected in essence to the gospel itself, to Jesus Christ. Isaiah says, before she was in labor, she gave birth. Before her pain came upon her, she delivered a son. Who has heard such a thing? Who has seen such things? Shall a land be born in one day? Shall a nation be brought forth in a moment? For as soon as Zion was in labor, she brought forth her children. Shall I bring to the point of birth and not cause to bring forth, says the Lord?

Shall I who cause to bring forth shut the womb, says your God? 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 for her 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, and Yoshiba she 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. You shall see, and your heart shall rejoice, your bones shall flourish like the grass, and the hand of the Lord shall be known to his servants, and he shall show his indignation against his enemies.

There’s all sorts of imagery within Scripture, even within the book of Isaiah. It doesn’t take too long to flip back a few pages, and you see this picture of zeal and the warrior God who’s going to fight for his people. And so there is that aspect of God, one who is filled with strength and power and might and bravery, who’s going to defeat the enemy and crush them under his feet. But then there’s also this other side of God that is portrayed in places like Isaiah 66. God wants us to understand that mothers are to be honored. They are to be exalted, and in fact, he created man and woman in his image, and both of them bear his image in their own way. And we see that in imagery like this in Isaiah 66.

There are aspects of God that are borne out and portrayed through things like motherhood. And what I want us to understand this morning is that motherhood and the picture of mothers as God exalts them, really is a symbolic way to show salvation to the world. And it also shows that God places mothers at the center of his plan. Family is important to God. In fact, one of the sections that we teach our young people in our curriculum is that God is good at family. He’s always worked with family through his plan, and he shows this through multiple figures. He frequently portrays Israel and the church as his bride. Exalting marriage. We talk about that one frequently. We almost naturally talked just about brothers and sisters in Christ.

He’s our father. And so we have all this familial imagery and symbolism that we actually use pretty frequently. Scripture also emphasizes that motherhood is yet another way that God highlights the importance of family. And even more accurately, that God created family to better help us understand him and his work in the world. God’s perspective is quite different. And often the things that he does, he’s looking backwards. Right? And so from our perspective, sometimes we see things like fathers and mothers or marriage. And we think, oh, isn’t that a nice way to then see a connection to God? But keep in mind that it is God that created all of that as a symbol or an example of who he is. It’s actually the other way around.

And we understand the nature of how a father works or how a mother works, and both are talked about in scripture pretty frequently. And then this helps us understand more fully God and who he is. And so today it’s obvious that in our culture we are honoring mothers. Justin, it’s your birthday. Sorry, man. I know what that’s like. Maybe we need to talk about plan. I don’t know how y’all work things. Five years I’ll be doing this again on my birthday. It’s a tough dilemma. How do you operate in this scenario? But we value our mothers and we hold them up. We honor them. Not just because of sacrifice and love and those sorts of things, which are very important. But from a biblical perspective, it’s actually much more than that.

1. Mothers Have Always Been Central to God's Will

And that’s what I want us to walk away seeing this morning. That it is not just the tireless hours they put into raising us and the food they make and how they make sure we have clothes and all those sorts of things. Of course, that’s important. And all of that matters, but it is actually the way in which mothers embody the gospel itself that truly matters to God and the story he’s telling to the world. That’s what I want us to look at this morning. And so the first place to go to see that is just the idea that mothers and motherhood have always been central to God accomplishing his will. When we think about God’s story and how he’s going to bring deliverance, how he’s going to rescue the world from sin, we need to understand that even from the very beginning, this was going to happen through the work and the sacrifice of mothers.

And it’s interesting, even after the fall of Adam and Eve, as he is dealing with that situation, he talks about this idea of increasing pain and childbirth. I’m going to get into that image a little bit later. But again, I think it’s maybe that God does this for his own purposes. Maybe there’s a reason why he does this because he wants to use this image later on as he’s going to describe some things that he’s doing in the world that are extremely important. And that is going to be demonstrated and seen even through childbirth. Be fruitful, he says, and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, Genesis 1 28. From the very beginning of creation, even before the fall, even before Adam and Eve sin, this is God’s plan.

Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, bring it under dominion. The two of you are going to work together. And it is quite obvious that on Eve’s side, conceiving and giving birth is going to be vital to this process. Being a mother is vital to the idea of multiplying and filling the earth, filling the earth for God’s glory. Little images of God running around everywhere. That’s the idea. To expand what God has created through procreation, through Adam and Eve, then going to fill the earth with the little images of God. And this is why you don’t create images, because we are image creators. And this is all working through God’s plan and what he wants. But even after the fall, when Adam and Eve have sinned in this scene in Genesis chapter 3, what we learn is that even in the midst of this horrible situation, the solution is going to come through the offspring of Eve.

He’s going to put enmity between the offspring of the serpent and the offspring of the woman. And while the serpent will bruise his heel, the offspring of woman will crush the serpent’s skull. And so the story is already underway in Genesis 3. The conclusion is already determined. Destiny is already set for how women are going to be a part of this process, how they are going to then work God’s plan to bring about salvation for the world through their offspring. Later on in the Genesis story, as this continues to be told time and time again, in Genesis 17, God has made promises to Abraham, one of those being the offspring, the promise that through his seed, all nations of the earth will be blessed. Don’t miss that.

To the offspring of Abraham and Sarah, the whole world is going to be blessed. This is how God works. He works through family and he works through mothers. This is what he says.

Kings of peoples shall come from her.

And what he’s telling Abraham is, your wife, I’m going to bless her. And she’s going to have this child, and from this, she is going to be the mother of nations, of kings. Just think about the impact of this one woman on the entire world and how all of this is going to come from her womb. That’s what God is telling him. Not only that, getting back on track with where I want to go this morning, God is going to work his plan through this. And so, yes, he works through Abraham and Moses and these various men, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the reality that he’s also working through these women like Sarah and Rebecca and Rachel, bringing about all sorts of things that are all part of God’s plan and what he wants to accomplish in the world in ways that we can’t even fathom or understand.

But he’s working all this and his sovereignty to bring about the things that he wants to bring about to accomplish his will. So from the very beginning, Genesis 1 and Genesis 3, and then as the Genesis story continues, God is working through mothers to accomplish the things that he is trying to accomplish in the world. There are various ways in which he does this that you’re very familiar with. There is what’s called a type scene, right? It’s like the same sort of scene that you see over and over again. And one of those is the barren woman. There’s a woman that cannot conceive. And yet God worked miraculously through her to bring about his will. And there’s all sorts of directions we could go with that.

Why is that the case? It’s sort of like the blind man in John 9. Did he set it up this way for his glory? And those are questions that sometimes we can’t fully answer. But what we do know is that God is using these miraculous conceptions and births to then progress and bring about the accomplishing of his will. And he does this through Sarah and Rebecca. He does this through Rachel and Samson’s mother, through Hannah, then through Elizabeth. The story is being told over and over and over. These women that God is using, their abilities and their talents to then not just have children, but then raise them for his purposes. And then there are children who are signs. They’re signs of God’s deliverance. Again, you’re familiar with this, the virgin in Isaiah 7 and 8, who Isaiah says, You’re going to conceive and give birth to a son, and his name will be Emmanuel, God with us.

2. Motherhood Is Kingdom Work

Right in the whole story from Isaiah 7 all the way through 11 is talking about how children are going to be used for the purposes of God. And of course, standing behind all of that are women, like this young woman that Isaiah points to and says, You’re going to conceive and give birth to a son, and you’re going to call his name Emmanuel. God is working through these mothers to accomplish great things in the world. But I want you to understand that God’s still working today. Not all signs work forward. Not everything is only about the future. Sometimes things look backward. And the New Testament does that quite frequently. And so bear with me here for a second as I set this up. Because what I’m about to read to you is not going to be popular in our culture, but it’s heading somewhere.

Okay, so 1 Timothy chapter 2. Paul is talking there and he’s talked some, said some things to the men. Now he’s speaking to the women. He says, I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. For Adam was formed first, then Eve. Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self control. What I want you to understand about this text is not that Paul is trying to limit what women can do and they just can’t do anything else, but what he’s recognizing is the way that God works in the world. The typical manner in which he has women working for him and his plans to accomplish his will. That women remain as a central part of God’s plan through bearing and raising children.

Both are implied in the statement there that Paul makes.

Multiply, fill the earth. You cannot do that without the work of women. Without women struggling and laboring, both in the time of waiting and then in labor itself to bring about that child and to raise that child, to nurture that child. And all things then come from that. Motherhood is kingdom work. It is not something that is lowly and something that you do because you can’t get some other job or because you don’t have a career. No, that’s not what it is at all. It’s actually part of God’s central plan of what he wants to accomplish in the world. And so mothers are working within the kingdom to accomplish the things that God wants accomplished. And it’s not public leadership. It’s not getting up and preaching or teaching classes or those sorts of things.

That’s not what Paul wants. He’s saying, don’t take authority over a man. But sometimes we so focus on what he says they’re not supposed to do that we miss the element that is supposed to be happening. What makes them exalted and glorious in the eyes of God. It’s bouncing children on their knee and holding them on their hip. It’s telling them the stories of Scripture and singing them songs about Jesus when they rock them to sleep. It’s teaching them every day how to live.

And I promise you, because Scripture says this, not because it’s just my idea, that this is what’s going to shape the world in the right direction. This is what’s going to help bring about the will of God and accomplish the things that He wants accomplished. It is mothers doing the things that mothers do. Embodying them in themselves the gospel and teaching the gospel to their children and to those around them as they walk by the way and as they work in the house and as they’re holding them and as they’re putting them to bed at night. And of course, I understand that men can help with all these things. And so we’re working with generalities here. We’re working with what is typical, but I want you to understand that this is what God has planned for the eaves of the world.

That through their offspring, the head of Satan is crushed. That is the manner by which it’s going to happen. Raising godly offspring. Those who love the Lord and want to accomplish his will. Some mothers, maybe some who were in the nursery this morning. Or maybe you’re still out here and you’re struggling at times with a wiggly little baby. You are not simply raising children. You are doing the Lord’s work. You are working in the kingdom this morning. You are patiently and carefully teaching your child about the things of God. You’re part of God’s plan, not just for your family, but for his family. Just like Sarah and Rebecca and Hannah. And yes, they made sacrifices in various ways for their own family, but also it was for the progression of God’s purposes in the world.

And so never lose sight of the importance of what you do, particularly in a world that discounts it, that looks down on it, that treats it like it’s unimportant. You are central to what God wants in the world. Again, a husband and a wife are a team, and they raise their children together. And so I’m not trying to make a statement that the mother has to do this alone or she does all the work in raising the kid, but I think we understand that typically that is what women do the most of. They’re the ones spending the time with the children and working and nurturing and raising them often while men are away at work doing the things that they do. Sometimes we’re able to work at home now, and we can help with some of those sorts of things.

3. Labor and Delivery Are Symbolic of the Gospel

But again, this is God’s plan. This is what God sees and wants in the world to accomplish his will. And God uses images all throughout Scripture through his inspired writers to portray not just the idea of a mother’s work, but the things that she’s doing are actually emblematic. They are an image of the powerful working of God in the world. How God’s going to bring about rescue and salvation and deliverance to the world is portrayed through imagery that relates to motherhood. It provides an appropriate metaphor to describe the process by which salvation typically comes. So this goes back to my reference about the increasing of pain in childbearing. Was this a punishment? Or is this just God working something that He’s going to then use later to describe what life in this temporary world is like as we await something so much better.

As we’re looking ahead to something much more glorious, something that’s going to bring joy. Labor and delivery is about struggle and waiting and pain. But also new life. And intense joy. And so in that way it’s symbolic of the gospel itself.

But here are a few examples that you can look at of how God does this in a variety of ways, actually. How he portrays and uses things like childbirth to then describe the salvation to come. Due to our sins and the sins of others, there is pain and suffering in this temporary world. We await better times coming in the future. And that’s difficult. It’s hard. We don’t always understand why it’s so hard and difficult and we have to suffer and go through difficulty. But at the fullness of time, when the time is right, we will be witness to God’s activity in the world. It doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been active before. Sometimes we don’t know it. We don’t realize it. But when the time is right, at the fullness of time, we will become witness to God’s activity in the world when he begins to transform and change everything.

And when that happens, there is great joy and hope. And so all of this is portrayed perfectly through the idea of pregnancy and labor and delivery. And that’s why time and again, God uses this image through the prophets and through New Testament writers to describe what this whole thing is like as we struggle to understand it in our life. Technology is great, and there’s so much we can see and understand now, and we can see images of our babies, and we can figure out all kinds of things. It’s relatively new. So I mean, if you think about ancient history and how things would have gone, there’s so much they didn’t know. It’s mystery. And yet at the right time, everything is revealed. And it is glorious and wonderful.

There is joy despite the pain that took place before. And it is that image that God wants us to have in our minds as we think about the idea of ultimate salvation and deliverance. As we are in a world of conflict and struggle, there’s going to be an other side of this that’s going to bring great joy and rest.

It’s particularly interesting, and I’m not going to go in depth here, but I’ll just point a few things out to you. In verse 7 and 8, it’s actually the reversing of the curse. God likes to do different things when he uses images. But notice before she was in labor, she gave birth. She doesn’t even have pain. When God comes, it’s going to be so easy for him to bring restoration to his people. It’s just going to happen, which is not like a typical childbirth. Right? So here he’s reversing the image almost. What happened in the garden when pain is increased in childbirthbearing because of the sin that entered the world and all of this happens. Now God’s going to take that and he’s going to reverse all of it.

And in verse 8, because God can do what God can do, who’s heard of such a thing? How could this even happen? It can happen because it’s God. And with God, all things are possible, we learn in the story of Mary and Jesus. As we continue within this story, we see that we can rejoice. Although there has been intense suffering and pain in the beginning of chapter 66 because of their unfaithfulness. And he’s calling them back to faithfulness. Now, in this process of struggle and difficulty, coming through on the other side, when God brings forth new life, now you can rejoice and be glad for Jerusalem. So there’s imagery here about the struggle and the pain that takes place, but then at the right time, God is going to make it all right again.

That actually all creation is groaning in labor pains right now. I’ve described that in the past that we look around at the world and we know it’s not right. We know things are bad. We can’t explain it all. We don’t know how to fix it. But what Paul’s telling us is that at some point, at the right time, God is going to make everything right again. And the way he describes this is describing a woman in labor. The groaning of labor pain is how he describes this whole process of how we don’t know how this is going to happen or how long it’s going to take, and we suffer and we work through life and it’s difficult. But the sufferings of this world will not be worth comparing to the glory that is to be revealed, Paul says.

And even in the midst of labor is groaning and having difficulty. And yet, what this is going to be like on the other side, as God says many times throughout Scripture, there’s going to be joy in which you forget that pain. I can’t speak with experience on that. But some of you can.

But the whole point is when you see that baby and you experience that child and that new life, which brings hope, it’s as if you’ve forgotten all the struggles that came before. It was worth it. And so I want us to understand from these images in Scripture that every time a child is carried in the womb, every time there is labor in birth, and sadly, I would say, even when there is miscarriage and stillbirth, the things that we struggle with, the pains and the sufferings of life, it still carries with it this image that God is portraying here in Scripture. Isaiah 26 is that exactly. They give birth to wind, to nothing. This is the pain and the suffering of the world. Sometimes things don’t go the way that they’re supposed to go.

But God then finishes that by saying He’s going to bring death to life. The pains and the difficulties and the struggles, even with this realm of motherhood that sometimes we struggle with, the loss of a child, at some point, everything is going to be made right again. Romans 8. We all groan in the pains of childbirth. We all labor and we groan inwardly. We struggle with the things that we face in this life. Do you see how motherhood portrays the gospel? It is the message. It’s the story. That things are not right in this world. And we have all experienced that in some way, sometimes even this exact way that’s talked about here in Scripture. Someone that you give birth and you don’t get to receive that joy in the end.

But God says, in the end, I will make all things right. One day we will be with him in glory in all these pains, the suffering that we go through now in this temporary life, which is meant to prepare us for the eternal, those will not be worth comparing to the joy. And that’s why it’s worth it. That’s why we continue in faith. Understanding what is to come. That’s why we face difficult times and just disappointment and struggle. Knowing that on the other side, through God’s sovereign will and in his plan, the glory that’s going to be experienced there will far outweigh, won’t even be comparable to the sufferings and the problems that we go through now. And then I want us to see the picture at the end of Isaiah 66 in the reading.

4. God Portrays Himself With a Mother's Love

And that it goes back to how I portrayed this early on, that sometimes God most commonly portrays himself as a father. But in this text, he is imagining himself for us with a mother’s love. He wants us to see that aspect of him, the care and the provision. And so God portrays himself like a loving mother in Isaiah 66. He’s the warrior in 59. Right? He’s the loving father all throughout the prophecy. But when we get to texts like Isaiah 26 and Isaiah 66, he is purposely portraying himself as one who is going to nurse his children, one who will comfort them.

This is not a hard image to understand, is it? I mean, when a child is upset, when they’re crying, and then they see mommy. Don’t we understand that sense of peace? That a mother’s love and a mother’s comfort is what brings security to that child. So the Lord says, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river.

Glory of the nations are going to be like an overflowing stream. He’s going to provide for them. He’s going to nurture them and bring them along. You may nurse and be satisfied from her consoling breast. Drink deeply with delight from her glorious abundance. She’s going to give you everything you need. This sounds just like motherhood, doesn’t it? We want to give our kids the best, and mothers in particular. They want to take care of that child. They want to give that child the things that it needs to thrive. Not just to be sustained, but to thrive and to grow. And I love the image in verse 12. Not just nursing, not just feeding, but also playing. Carrying on the hip and bouncing on the knees. God loves us, even in a maternal way.

The way he portrays it here. He wants not just to provide for us and to nurture us, but also to come for us and show love. There’s a sacrificial type of love that he has for his people that’s demonstrated not just here, but also in places like Ezekiel 16, where he goes to great length to fight for his people. To make them healthy and make them well again. This is the nature of what mothers do. They will go to great lengths for their child. And so this then pulls us back to the image of Christ. One who had sacrificial love for his people.

And to bleed, to bring salvation. God himself, we’re told, sent his son to save the world. An act of sacrificial love. Christ died when we were sinners, we’re told in Romans chapter 5. Not because we were worthy, not because we deserved it, not because we’re so good, but because he loved us.

And every mother in this audience this morning knows that feeling of you doing things for your children, not because they’ve done things so well for you, not because they’ve done it all right, but because you love them and you want what’s best for them. You want to save them from the boo-boos and the pains.

And it pains you when they aren’t. I’m convinced in a way that a father probably can’t understand. Because they came from you. And there’s just something special and different about the body that grew inside of you and that you gave birth to.

And now he cherishes us. He formed us in the womb. We are his.

Conclusion

That’s how motherhood is the gospel. It is a story of God saving love for all humanity, working through the powerful working of women, as he created them to be to bring people back into harmony with himself. We honor our mothers today for how they shape our lives for their sacrifice and love and tireless work within our homes. But I want us to walk away today, understanding it is actually much more than that. Mothers are meant to be seen as an embodiment of the gospel. Through the giving of themselves and the powerful working of God within them comes a new life. And there are means through which we see Jesus Himself and His sacrificial love. Jesus told his disciples as he was preparing to leave.

He says, When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come. But when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish. For joy that a human being has been born into the world, so also you have sorrow now. But I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you. John 16, 21 and 22. For them, I think that was more about the resurrection, how they would see him again. They’re going to have great sorrow at his death, but he was going to rise. But I think the same principle applies, and in some of those passages I gave you, it’s actually talking about final judgment. It’s talking about the end. And the same concept is there.

When we are his, and we have sorrow sometimes in the world, when he comes again, there’s going to be a joy that cannot be taken away. Just like when we hold that baby in our arms. And when he comes again, he wants you to be his. You are his child.

He wants your trust and your faith. He wants you to be by his side. Will you give that to him this morning? Will you see the story of Scripture and the message, the gospel, as it’s being told time and time again, that God loves you, that he gives himself for you. He is sacrificial and he wants your love in return. He tells us we can give ourselves to him. We can be baptized into Jesus Christ for the remission of our sins. We can die to self and then have a new life. We can go into the grave and we can come out a new person. And that invitation is there for you this morning. Can we help you? Why don’t you come now as we stand and we sing?