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Mothers in the Image
of God
Genesis
2:18-25
Jim
Davis
Somebody said it
takes about six weeks to get back to normal after you've had a baby
............
Somebody
doesn't know that once you're a mother, "Normal,"
is history.
Somebody said
you learn how to be a mother by instinct ...
Somebody never took
a three-year-old shopping.
Somebody said
being a mother is boring ......
Somebody never rode in
a car driven by a teenager with a driver's permit.
Somebody said
if you're a "good" mother, your child will "turn out good."
Somebody thinks
a child comes with directions and a guarantee.
Somebody said
"good" mothers never raise their voices .....
Somebody never came out
the back door just in time to see her child hit a golf ball through
the neighbor's kitchen window.
Somebody said you
don't need an education to be a mother.
Somebody never
helped a fourth grader with her math.
Somebody said you
can't love the third child as much as you love the first.
Somebody
doesn't have three children.
Somebody said
a mother can find all the answers to her child-rearing questions in
the books ........
Somebody never had a
child stuff beans up his nose or in his ears.
Somebody said
the hardest part of being a mother is labor and delivery .......
Somebody
never watched her "baby" get on the bus for the first day of
kindergarten. . . .
or on a plane headed
for military "boot camp."
Somebody said a
mother can do her job with her eyes closed and one hand tied behind
her back .......
Somebody never
organized giggling daisys, brownies, juniors, cadetts and seniors
to sell cookies.
Somebody said a mother
can stop worrying after her child gets married ....
Somebody doesn't know
that marriage adds a new son or daughter-in-law to a mother's
heartstrings.
Somebody said a
mother's job is done when her last child leaves home
Somebody never had
grandchildren.
Somebody said
your mother knows you love her, so you don't need to tell her
.........
Somebody isn't a
mother. (The source for the
information above is unknown by me.)
It is difficult to think of mothers
or fathers---the family-- without thinking about how families are
deteriorating. Single-family one-parent homes are becoming
the norm. Many homes have been abandoned by one parent or in too
many cases by both parents.
The misery of today’s Me Generation
has opened up huge cracks in our culture. Things like
meaning, purpose, fellowship, community and family have fallen
through the cracks. The very things created to give us meaning and
purpose has been lost in our contemporary society. Families are
becoming nothing more than people sharing the same roof and the same
television set while each pursue his or her detached and separate
life.
When marriage partners recognize
they are made in the image of God it puts an entirely different
perspective on the family. When we live up to God’s image of
us it puts an entirely different perspective on our lives. It takes
us back to the beginning when God created man and woman and
commissioned them to subdue the earth together as one.
Marriages are made in heaven, but it
takes a lot of work on earth to make them what heaven desires them
to be. There are many enemies to healthy marriages. Personal
conflicts, individualism, materialism, two little time, infidelity
and drugs are all extremely powerful distractions. Marriages whither
and die because God has been left out.
Life is About
Personal Communion
Personal communion is what the image
of God is about—not only communion between Man and God, but between
Man and the rest of his environment, especially his fellow human
beings. We were created as relational beings because this is
what being made in the image of God is all about.
God created us to love and to be
loved and to discover our self-worth in our pursuit of a
relationship with him and our fellowman. John states that
God is love—it is who he is. The image of God is created in our
minds as we see him moving into a relationship with his creation. We
see God saying, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness.” The
statement reveals God’s relationship with those working with him in
creation. It is God’s love for us that defines the purpose of those
who created us in his image. This is why salvation is about the
Godhead working to restore our communion with God.
God summed it up by saying, “It is
not good that man should be alone.” God said this after Adam
had named all the animals—after he had seemingly been involved in
the work for which God created him. It’s as if God lets Adam work
with His creation until Adam realized there was something missing in
his life—until he realized he was alone. Adam came to terms with his
loneliness.
Genesis
2:19-25
19 Now the
LORD God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field
and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what
he would name them; and whatever the man called each living
creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the
livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.
But for
Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the LORD God caused the man
to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of
the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD
God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he
brought her to the man.
23 The man
said,
"This is
now bone of my bones
and flesh
of my flesh;
she shall
be called 'woman,'
for she
was taken out of man."
24 For
this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to
his wife, and they will become one flesh.
25 The man
and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame. NIV
You have probably heard someone say,
“If it weren’t for people the world would be a very nice place.”
That’s not how Adam felt about life without people. In this
zoological parade Adam realized in all of God’s creation he didn’t
have an equal. God took a rib from his side and made a helper to
match his eminence. Eve was flesh of his flesh and bone of his
bones. They were one flesh—it was the basis of their fellowship with
one another and God.
Dian Foosey was a girl who turned
her back on people to go off and live among the gorillas.
She said, “When you learn about the dignity of gorillas, you don’t
want to be around people.”
However, some of those gorillas
turned on Dian and killed her. When she needed protection the
gorillas made no effort to defend her. When she lay wounded
and dying, no gorillas came to administer medical treatment or to
pray for her. They didn’t come to hold her hand or comfort her. What
Dian needed most in her final moments was some of those good people
she didn’t want around.
When God made Adam a “suitable
helper” she was someone who was to have a special relationship with
Adam. They were made for one another. It wasn’t that Eve was
made for Adam, but Adam was also made for Eve. This is no
afterthought with God. God wanted to bring Adam to the realization
of his need for woman.
The woman is often thought of as
inferior; after all she was created last. Eve being made
last had to do with God’s good timing. They were to live in
communion with one another and God. It had more to do with equality
than with rank. In the Hebrew language a “suitable helper” carried
with it the idea of someone with equal eminence. Too often we see
man and woman’s relationship in terms of whom out ranks the other.
Much of the difficulties in the home and society have revolved
around this issue.
The roles God gave Adam and Eve in
the beginning was the means to maintaining communion with one
another and with God. They were suitable helpmeets for each
other. Man was created as a man and woman was created as woman. Each
had a specific place in God’s order. Neither was inferior. Adam was
created to till the ground—to be one who enjoyed accomplishments and
achievement. Eve was created to be the mother of all the living.
“Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all
the living” (Genesis 3:20). However, both were created to live in
communion as a family.
Genesis
2:24
24 For
this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to
his wife, and they will become one flesh. NIV
Families flourish when father and
mother give God glory by living according to the principles laid
down from the very beginning of human history. When man and
woman regard each other as being truly made in the image of God,
commissioned to subdue the earth together, there is a stable basis
for marriage and family. (D. Stuart Briscoe, Genesis, The
Communicator’s Commentary, Word Books, Waco, Texas. pg. 235.)
The Value of
Parental Relationships
So much was riding on Adam and Eve
living up to God’s plan for the family. The first six
chapters of Genesis briefly describe what happens when husbands and
wives fail to accept God’s mission for the family. These chapters
cover about 1200 years. Life begins in paradise and the world is
destroyed in the flood with only Noah’s family surviving.
Failure in Eden was the failure of
two people to live in communion with each other. It is a
brief story from creation of the flood. God wants us to realize to
realize the catastrophic results when communion fails. There was a
sudden sense of loss and aloneness that was in sharp contrast to the
depth of completeness and intimacy they had enjoyed up to that
point. Since that day loneliness and alienation has ruled. Life has
never been the same.
In age when the family is minimized,
maybe we need to remember Mr. & Mrs. Noah’s heroic efforts to save
their family. Because of them we are here today. God
continues to place tremendous responsibility on the home.
1 Timothy
5:1-8
5:1 Do not
rebuke an older man harshly, but exhort him as if he were your
father. Treat younger men as brothers, 2 older women as mothers, and
younger women as sisters, with absolute purity.
3 Give
proper recognition to those widows who are really in need. 4
But if a widow has children or grandchildren, these should learn
first of all to put their religion into practice by caring for their
own family and so repaying their parents and grandparents, for this
is pleasing to God. 5 The widow who is really in need and
left all alone puts her hope in God and continues night and day to
pray and to ask God for help. 6 But the widow who lives for pleasure
is dead even while she lives. 7 Give the people these
instructions, too, so that no one may be open to blame. 8 If anyone
does not provide for his relatives, and especially for his immediate
family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.
NIV
Titus
2:3-5
3
Likewise, teach the older women to be reverent in the way they live,
not to be slanderers or addicted to much wine, but to teach what is
good. 4 Then they can train the younger women to love their
husbands and children, 5 to be self-controlled and pure, to be busy
at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no
one will malign the word of God. NIV
The story of the beginning in
Genesis is all about relationships. When man writes about
his story or should we say History, he speaks of his
accomplishments. When God writes His Story He speaks of it in terms
of relationships. Genesis is about relationships. God gave Adam
everything his heart could desire in Eden except an equal and it was
not good. He needed a relationship with some who was his equal.
Adam’s relationship with God was not sufficient until Eve was
created. You have to have God and you have to have people to make
life complete. Without either the other becomes meaningless.
Mothers and fathers have the
responsibility of teaching children the importance of maintaining
and sustaining relationships. It is tough living around
people. John Drakeford said, “By people we are broken, and by people
we are put together again.” Why do you think the New Testament is
called the gospel of reconciliation? Christ came to tear down that
wall between man and God and man and man. The only way it can be
done is through coming into relationship with one another through
the working of God, Christ and the Holy Spirit in our hearts. The
apostle pleads with us to become reconciled to God and to one
another (2 Corinthians 5:18-20). It’s the only way to build a home
as God intended.
Who do you think commands the most
respect in the family, or who has the most authority? Who do
football players say “Hi” to on TV? That’s right—it’s Mom. But why?
It is because she is the one who leads the family function as a
community.
No one compares to mom when it comes
to details, intuition and relationships. Mom cooks and
cleans. Mom gets up at night with the kids when they are sick, and
takes the kids to the doctor. She shops, and taxis the kids, and
goes to all the sporting events, and helps at all the school
parties. She pays attention to our likes and dislikes. This is what
makes mom such an authority in the home. No man in his right mind
would make a decision without first asking mom. It’s because mom is
more in touch with what the family needs and desires. Mom leads the
home because she is in a unique relationship with each member of the
family. She knows how to make decision that is best for everyone.
Mom’s have a way of putting the family in touch with one another in
a relational manner.
Conclusion:
The Lord tells us that when we lose
our lives for others, then we will find life. You don’t find
life by being overbearing, but by serving.
Lives were meant to be molded in the
context of family. Many families are failing in this
respect. The greatest gift a family can give to the world is a
family that seeks to live in communion with God and others.
If you didn’t have or don’t have this kind
of family, the church can become your family where you can enter
into communion with God and others.
Bible
Study Questions
-
How does the average American family
measure up to God’s idea of family?
-
What are the greatest enemies to the
family?
-
Why did God create Eve last?
-
What does it mean when Eve is spoken
of as a “suitable helper”?
-
How did Adam feel about life without
people?
-
What are the draw backs of a single
parent home?
-
How can families flourish today?
-
How do the first six chapters of
Genesis explain the result of the demise of the family?
-
How does Noah’s family reveal the
importance of the family?
-
Where do children learn how to
maintain and sustain relationships?
-
Why do moms have the most respect in
the family?
-
How do moms set the tone for
relationships within the family?
