THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR"A Joyful Mother
of Children"
Rev. Carl Haak(e-mail: Rev. Carl Haak) |
Dear Radio Friends,
The Reformed Witness Hour celebrates the gift of Christian mothers today by turning to the Word of God in
Psalm 113:9.
There we
read, “He (that is, God) maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful
mother of children. Praise ye the Lord.”
Perhaps on this Mother’s Day, even as a Christian woman, you react to those
words, especially “a joyful mother of children,” with a bit of cynicism, or of
guilt. “Joyful mothers”? Maybe after looking at the harsh reality of so
much that goes on behind closed doors in your family, you would not call yourself
joyful. Yes, with that firstborn in our arms
we are filled with joy, but what about the lifelong task of motherhood? And what about the many sins that attend it —
the difficulties, the yelling, the resentment, the discouragements? Joyful mothers?
Would your children recognize you today? Is
not motherhood, as the world would have it, drudgery?
Does it not mean to be chained to meals, laundry, cleaning, thankless tasks —
so much that is taken for granted? Joyful?
And what about the Word of God itself? Does not God’s Word say in
Genesis 3:16
to Eve, and in her to all women: “In sorrow thou shalt bring forth thy
children.” Has not sin really ruined
motherhood, as is evident in post-partum depression and PMS and many other difficulties?
What about children who are born with diseases?
What about learning-disabled children — long nights sitting up with them and
their homework? Rebellious children? Then, to add to it, the reality at times (may God
forbid) of faithless husbands.
Does the Word of God make light of all of this?
Does the Word of God intend to mock us? “He
maketh thee to be a joyful mother of children”?
People of God, daughters of God, the Word of God (God!) speaks of joyful mothers. It is no myth.
God is speaking here of a joy that at bottom is nothing less than the joy of
salvation, a joy in God, and a joy that God imparts to the experience of your heart as a
Christian mother. It is the joy of which Jesus spoke in
John 15:
My joy which no man
can take from you. A joy found in the
knowledge that you are God’s servant being used of Him in His kingdom — a
joy that God gives to every believing mother today — every woman of God — a joy
that is this, that God is your faithful God, who hath given to you a beautiful and
a crucial task in His kingdom. It is called
“motherhood.”
Our text is an example of the condescending goodness of God. In
Psalm 113
the psalmist is thinking of God in
His glory and majesty. “Who is like unto
the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high, who
humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven, and in the earth!” (vv. 5,
6). So exalted that He must stoop down low to
view the heavens! He must bow to see the
stars! So glorious is God.
But this God is not like the detached idols of the heathen, like the Greek gods. Their majesty was seen in indifference. No, for although He is high and cannot be added
unto, yet verse 7 tells us that He delights to raise “up the poor out of the
dust.” The glorious God, the fullness of
blessing in Himself, delights in blessing the lowly and the insignificant, the downcast
and the despised. And He delights especially
in blessing His daughters, women, mothers, to make them joyful.
Unmistakably and unashamedly, the Scriptures of God identify motherhood with joy. “He maketh a joyful mother of children.”
The word “joyful” refers to a great inward happiness, not necessarily to
what we might call a bubbly, happy temperament, but to the possession of a great good
— a good so great that it floods the heart and gives an abiding inward joy or
satisfaction to one’s soul. That is the
meaning of joy in Scripture.
Certainly we may show outward happiness. But
when the Scriptures speak of joy, they are referring to something within, something deep
within, present even in the midst of grief, something, in fact, that grief causes to
shine. My soul, says David, “shall be
joyful in the Lord. I will rejoice in God all
the day,” even in times of trial and gloom. The
picture, then, of this joy is that of the heart, of a restfulness and satisfaction of soul
in God, an abiding joy possessed by every believing woman.
Sarah, Abraham’s wife, said, “God has made me to laugh. All that hear me will laugh with me.” Mary said, “My soul doth magnify the Lord,
and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.” Hannah,
in the Old Testament, said, “My heart rejoiceth in the Lord.”
Let us get that into our heads and into our hearts for a moment. God gives to mothers an abiding, inward,
imperishable joy — joy rooted in God and in His grace to you as His daughter. Do not let the world squeeze you into its mold. And if there is any area in which the world system
is trying to do so, it is in the area of motherhood today.
There is a demonic, concerted attack on the dignity and glory of motherhood as
created by God. Books, TV talk shows,
politics — all proclaim that motherhood, as we understand it, is really depressing. A career is more important. Motherhood, we are told, can be chosen today
outside of marriage. Why should an unmarried
woman be denied this privilege? Motherhood
should not stand in the way of a career. And
if motherhood threatens to interrupt your plans, then the world says you may abort your
child. Sterile operating rooms in our country
slaughter millions of children, of people. And
our generation, which in hypocrisy decries the holocaust of World War II and of Hiroshima
and marches in protest against the death penalty, condones and defends and insists upon
the slaughter of children. And is going to
answer one day to the Almighty! Motherhood
— we are told that that is confining, degrading, restrictive, evil.
Now listen. All the people of God,
listen! I do not want you to miss this truth. Scripture informs us of this truth: Motherhood is a joy given of God.
What is the source of this joy? It
arises from three considerations. First of
all, motherhood is the gift of God in bearing and delivering a child of the covenant. A believing woman, then, is given the joy of
witnessing a wonderwork of God — a work that must produce awe and rejoicing of the
heart before God. The text emphasizes that
motherhood is a work of God. He maketh the
barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. This is reminding us that pregnancy and birth are
exclusively the work of almighty God. Yes, He
sometimes does withhold children according to His will and grants His promises of love and
grace when He withholds. But God is telling
us that every time that pregnancy and birth occur it is His wonder of life.
Now, I know that all the medical and technological innovations and learning of men
seem to rob us of this miracle of God. We
hear of test-tube babies, in vitro fertilization.
But the fact remains: life is created
by God alone. And medicine and science cannot explain it.
Ecclesiastes 11:5,
“As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the
womb of her that is with child: even so thou
knowest not the works of God who maketh all.”
Now pause, women and mothers, and all of us, to consider. Ponder these things in your heart. God forms another life out of you and gives to
that life a soul. God uses your body to
nurture, your organs to make room, so that this child draws his life from you and comes
forth from you. And all of this is the
wonderwork of the wondrous God. It must
produce a humble joy — not boasting, not saying, Oh, look what I did! but look
what God did.
The world, of course, sees a child as an extension of self, to bring pleasure to
oneself. But the child of God boasts in the
profound work of God in the gift of a child.
Secondly, the joy being referred to here is the joy of being found in the will of
God. And that is biblical joy. What does it mean?
It means that our God assigns to each one of us a station in His glorious kingdom,
a place that is marked out with gracious care. That
place can come to us in the church, home, family. And
He says to us in that place, “Occupy till I come.” Work out here your salvation. And He gives us the talents for that place —
talents that are not all the same, but wisely fitted for us.
The joy of heart that God gives to believing mothers is to receive their place from
God thankfully and to seek to perform the will of God in that place. Motherhood is the will of God for you mothers. God’s will for you is that you nurture, rear,
and give life to children and care for your husband.
Outside of that will of God for you there is no joy.
We can see that in the modern woman today, who rejects with disdain God Himself. There is no joy, but there is a deep, abiding
grudge, bitterness and emptiness, a resentment. But
the child of God finds joy in being in the will of God.
’Tis joy, we say, to do Thy will.
God’s will, which brings joy, is motherhood.
It is the nurture and it is the care of children.
That is a joy that comes not in spite of the task of being a mother. It is not a joy that is added to the task. But it is found exactly in the task. The Savior Himself said that “he that findeth
his life shall lose it; and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” When you are, as a mother, pursuing the will of
your Creator and Redeemer, then your Creator and Redeemer, your Lord, rewards you with the
experience of joy — the joy of being in His will.
Finally, the joy of a mother is found in this:
you understand from the Word of God the importance of the task He has given. You should never say, and we ought not allow the
statement, “I’m just a mother” — as if that is drudgery. Never say that!
But let us have some joy. Let us have
some amazement in the statement, “I have been blest to be a mother!” Let us hear some thrill in the voice.
Through mothers God is preparing a church to praise Him. There is nothing more awesome than this, for God
loves His church. And the end of all things
is when His glorious face is going to shine reflected in the church that Christ saves. But Christ is now preparing that church in a very
significant and indispensable manner through the instrumentality of believing mothers. This is the Scriptures. God is so gracious, so good, that He takes weak
and sinful women, whom He loves in Jesus Christ, and He sanctifies them by His Holy Spirit
and gives to them a crucial place in His kingdom of grace.
Are you going to envy the world’s women?
Oh, no! Honor those whom God hath
honored. God takes sinful and frail and
sometimes crabby women and prepares the children of the kingdom through them.
Are you joyful? How do you respond to
the Word of God? We ought to respond today
with humble thanks: “Oh, Lord, when I
consider Thy works, the works of creating life within me; when I consider, O Lord, the
privilege of serving Thee in Thy will; when I consider the importance of being a Christian
mother and how Thy mighty hand prepares my children even for their eternal place; O Lord,
I stand before Thee in humble joy!” Are
you joyful?
“Joyful,” in the Scriptures, as I said before, is not always jumping up
and down, but it is the contentment and it is the resolve and it is the peace of the
heart. God calls me to do this and I am
thankful that the Lord calls me to do this in my home.
He makes a joyful mother of children. Let
us give God praise for that! Let us rejoice
today in that. And as we rejoice, let us
guard this Word of God from a weakness, first of all, that is found at times in mothers. Let me explain.
I believe that Christian mothers, who love their Lord Jesus Christ with all their
heart and desire to be pleasing to Him, yet, as they come under the difficulties of being
a mother, very often are tempted with morbid introspection and excessive self-criticism
and a hopelessness when they see their shortcomings.
This is what I have in mind. You have
had a busy day. It began at six o’clock
in the morning. You had to make the breakfast
and the lunches and you had to get your kids off to school and your husband off to work. After that, you straightened out the house. You put the little ones down for their nap. You watered the marigolds. And after the little ones woke up, you gave them
lunch and you went to the park. You returned
in time to make and serve dinner. After that
there was the homework, baths, bedtime stories, and the prayers. Finally, at 10, 11 you fall into bed exhausted. But you cannot sleep. For suddenly you remember how short you were with
your daughter about her room, which was messy after you told her to pick it up. And you yelled.
You remember how disappointed your son looked when you told him that you did not
have time to color because you needed to fold the laundry.
You think of the fact that you have gained five pounds. You have not had time for your husband. You had little time to pray. And you conclude that you are not a good mother,
you are a horrible wife, and you feel the tons of anxiety and depression crushing upon
you.
What does God say? God says this, of
course. Whenever we have sinned we must
confess that to God and, if need be, to the child tomorrow.
Tomorrow will be sufficient. You do
not need to wake the child up. But the Word
of God says this: “You must not look to
yourself, but you must look to your God, the God who delights in you and the God who is
pleased to use you.”
I commend to you a verse in the Scriptures (Phil. 4:8), “If there be any
virtue, and if there be any praise (if there be any good report, if there be any good
thing), think on these things.” God
does not condemn His daughters. He is the
God of all mercy and the Father of all comfort. The
living God does not pile upon you accusations, so many and so heavy that you cannot get
out of bed in the morning. No, look to your
heavenly Father, who loves you, who has justified you in the blood of Jesus, who cherishes
you and has promised never to forsake you and who says, “I make you a joyful mother
of children. I will use you for the good of
your children.” Look to God.
When we see, then, the blessings of motherhood, let us praise the Lord. And let us do that with irrepressible praise for
God’s grace and goodness today. Do we do
that? Do we do that today? Do we do that as those who know the truth of the
covenant, who know the truths of the promises of God?
Do we do that today for our Christian mothers?
What does God hear from your heart, man, husband, today about your wife and the
mother of your children? When you see all of
her work in the home and the marriage, the work of a wife and mother, what does God hear? Does He hear simply a grunt, “Well, yah, yah,
I’m certainly thankful for my wife.” Or
does He hear rumbling in your heart, praise of how merciful God has been to you in giving
to you such a wife and such a mother for your children?
Do you praise and thank Him? Do you
praise God, as a husband? I am amazed
sometimes that husbands cannot, apparently, verbalize thankfulness. How many times, when I have asked a husband,
“Do you ever thank your wife and show that you appreciate her?” he responds,
“Well, she knows. I don’t need to
tell her.” Yes, you do. That is the way God has made her. You need to tell her that you love her. You need to tell her that you pray for her. You need to tell her that you are thankful and
praise God for her as your wife and as the mother of your children.
Do we do that as children today? Do
we do that as young people, teenagers, young men and young women? Are you thankful for your mother? Children, are you thankful for your mommy today? Do you thank God for her, not just today, but
always?
I remember my children telling me when they were younger how unique it was for kids
to have lunches with homemade cookies, and then my thoughts went back that my mother, of
course, would always make my lunch. When she
would put a cookie in that lunch, there was a part of my mother’s love in that
cookie. Of course, today, the attitude is,
“Why waste time with all of these mixes and baking stuff when we can use
lunchables?” You know, it can even be
seen in a lunch — the love and care of a mother.
Children, do you thank God for your mother? Girls,
teenage girls, do you thank God for your mother, or do you just argue with her? How long has it been since you thanked God for
your mother, teenage boy? Do you praise God
for her?
Let us hear the Word of God and let it mold us:
God makes joyful mothers. The world
raises its eyebrows. Another child? You are going to have another one? Don’t you know how they come? You are going to ruin your figure! Let us pray to God for our mothers. Let us call them blessed gifts of God. Let us exalt God who delights in showing such
mercy to those who are nothing of themselves, those whom He raises up and makes joyful
mothers of children.
Let us pray.
Father, may Thy Word be our joy, our comfort, our encouragement. Lord, we thank Thee that Thou hast so shown Thy love and presence in the gift of believing mothers. To Thee be praise and honor through Jesus Christ, Amen.