Feminine Images of God In Scripture & Church History

1. The Word of God: 
"Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them."        Genesis 1:26-27 

2. The Word of God: 
"Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the Lord alone guided him, no foreign god was with him."   
                                   Deuteronomy 32:11-12 

3. The Word of God: 
"O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing."                    Luke 13:34 (also: Matthew 23:37) 

4. The Word of God:

"When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called my son.

The more they were called,

the more they went away;

they kept sacrificing to the Baals

and burning offerings to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;

I took them up by their arms,

but they did not know that I healed them.

I led them with cords of kindness,

with the bands of love,

and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws,

and I bent down to them and fed them."                                      Hosea 11: 1-4 

5. The Word of God:

"Yet you are he who took me from the womb;

you made me trust you at my mother's breasts.

On you was I cast from my birth,

and from my mother's womb you have been my God.

Be not far from me,

for trouble is near,

and there is none to help."                                              Psalm 22: 9-10 

6.The Word of God:
"Upon you I have leaned from before my birth;
you are he who took me from my mother's womb.
My praise is continually of you."                                   Psalm 71: 6  #6

7. “Listen to me, O house of Jacob,
all the remnant of the house of Israel,
who have been borne by me from before your birth,
carried from the womb.       Isaiah 46: 3-4

8. 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.        Isaiah 66: 9-10

9.“Out of whose womb came the ice? And the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?”      Job 38:29

10. “For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant.”       Isaiah 42:14

11.  “You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you, and you forgot the God who gave you birth.”                 Deuteronomy 32:18

12. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open.     Hosea 13:8

13. As one whom his mother comforts, so I will comfort you; you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. Isaiah 66:13

14. O Lord, my heart is not lifted up; my eyes are not raised too high; I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me. But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child is my soul within me.      Psalms 131:1-2

15. 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 afflicted.

But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;

my Lord has forgotten me.”

“Can a woman forget her nursing child,

that she should have no compassion on the son of her womb?

Even these may forget,

yet I will not forget you.      Isaiah 49: 14-15

Just a Thought: The Scriptures contain many references to God that are explicitly feminine in character.  They all flow out of the creation account where we are told humanity, male and female, is created in the image of God (Genesis 1: 26-27).  God speaks of Himself as having a womb (Job 38: 29) and of giving birth (Deuteronomy 32:18). He compares Himself to a nursing mother (Isaiah 49:15). He cries out like a woman in the labor pains of birth (Isaiah 42:14). He repeatedly describes Himself in the role of a midwife at the birth of a child (Psalm 71: 6, 22: 9-10, Isaiah 46: 3-4, 66: 9-10).  He fulfills the role of a mother or nanny nourishing and teaching Israel like a young child (Hosea 11: 1-4). He comforts like a mother comforts her child (Psalm 131: 1-2, Isaiah 66:13). He is as the mother eagle who cares for and teaches her young (Deuteronomy 32: 11-12) and He protects His own like a mother bear protects her cubs (Hosea 13: 8). Jesus speaks of Himself as a mother hen who would gather her young to herself (Matthew 23: 37, Luke 13: 34). These feminine images of God do not make Him female any more than the masculine images make Him male. All of them serve to communicate to us that our God is a personal God to whom we can relate. How sterile would our knowledge of God be if we did not know Him both as father and mother, masculine and feminine? JDJ # 416

Just a Thought: The straight and narrow path is not a slippery slope, but it is often lined with pitfalls, enemies, and anti-Christs, those who presume they have the right to mark the path. I grow weary of warnings about the proverbial slippery slope, especially as it relates to issues concerning women in the church. The recurring argument against women being charged to serve God in all the offices of the church is that any discussion of women’s rights and responsibilities within the church will start us careening down that slippery slope into the ordination of homosexuals. Frankly, I find that offensive, illogical and demeaning to women. The question of the place of women in the church should never be juxtaposed with the issue of homosexuality or any other sinful behavior. It is offensive, if not sinful, just to make that link. The question of the role of women in the church may be debated in light of the Scriptures, but it must never be stated or implied that women are by nature spiritually deficient just because they are women. The Scriptures never frame issues concerning women in terms of sin; the texts that supposedly restrict women address the issues in terms of Christian practice or decorum and not as issues of sin. The Bible does not suggest that a woman who speaks or acts in a manner not appropriate to church life has disqualified herself from membership in the Body of Christ. Homosexual behavior is always addressed in the Bible as sin that disqualifies persons from participation in the Kingdom of God. It is never addressed in terms of misguided Christian practice. The world may place women’s rights and homosexual rights on the same slippery slope that they call social justice or civil rights, but the church must see them as altogether separate issues. In modern times, the issue of women being ordained to ministry and sharing as equal partners in the life of church and society was born out of the Wesleyan/Holiness movement with its commitment to sanctification and social holiness. The Holiness churches have maintained that commitment and never found themselves on a slippery slope into sin because of it. They have always understood that the path of holiness is a straight and narrow way that both eschews evil and cherishes the promises of the kingdom. JDJ # 417

Worship on the Lord's Day

[This entry is taken from an unpublished piece I wrote a couple of decades ago. Pastor Jackie]

For two thousand years the overwhelming majority of Christians have gathered on Sunday to worship God through Jesus Christ.  Historically, Sunday has been both a Sabbath day and a Feast Day.  As a Sabbath day it is a day of rest and remembrance.  It is a holy day that belongs to God.  On the seventh day of creation God rested and so he decreed that creation rest and renew its devotion to its Creator.  On the Sabbath all the ordinary activities and engagements of life are set aside in order to focus fully on God and his Word.  This holy day is intended to actualize and reinforce the fact that God is sovereign over all of his creation.  As such, Sunday is a time of surrender to the lordship of Christ who continues to work in history by attending to his creation, especially his people.
     
Sunday is also a feast day, a day of celebration.  The first Christians moved their Sabbath from the seventh (last) day of the week to the first day of the week.  Their reasons were simple.  Sunday was the "day of the Lord."  It was the day of Christ's resurrection and the day of his post-resurrection appearances. For them, attending to the Word of God meant meeting with the living Word of God and living under His direct sovereignty by the powerful, personal presence of the Holy Spirit.

Early in the second century Christians began referring to Sunday as the "eighth day" of the week.  For them
it was the last day of the first order of creation,  the order and age that was passing away because of sin.  In the resurrection of Christ, God had brought into final completion the first order of creation by conquering death, hell and the grave.  The resurrection was a restoration from death to life for someone (Jesus) who was fully human.  Therefore, in the resurrection Jesus entered into an ultimate rest.  In so doing, He split the veil of separation between God and humanity. As "Son of Man" and "Son of God" He entered into the eternal rest of living in the presence of God.

Jesus is the second Adam, the firstborn of a new order of creation. Through faith in Him believers also become a whole new creation and share in the life he gives.  The hope of the resurrection should be a vibrant reality. When the early Christians met together they understood they were sitting together in heavenly places in Christ. When they ate at the Lord's table they considered they were at the marriage supper of the Lamb of God. They were feasting on the presence of God and understood themselves to be living in His Kingdom.  Sunday was by its very nature a day for celebrating the righteous reign of Christ over creation.  It was a day in which the believer's future resurrection was a present reality.

Thus, on Sunday believers gather as members of God's family to attend to the things of God.  On this day they meet together as one body to make real the Lordship of Christ over all creation.  The past is remembered and brought into the present as a sacrifice of praise.  In hope, the future is grasped and made real in the present. The old is passing away; the new is breaking in.  Sunday gatherings for worship infuse believers with the grace and strength they need to walk with Christ until that day when He splits the eastern sky and gathers them together in the air.

But in this time in which we live Christian seem to have lost both of these two understandings of Sunday. We neither rest nor enter into the coming presence of Christ. Can we recapture a sense of it being a sacred day? What would that be like? How would we be changed? How would our worship change?

Just a Thought on Family with link to book chapter

Just a Thought: Modern myths about Biblical families. I am concerned about families in the Western world. Our culture is disintegrating; there is an absence of core values and even foundational social definitions are suddenly being changed. Decades ago my commitment to the family drove me to study closely God’s plan for family life. Those studies led me to challenge several modern myths about family. If we are going to nurture Godly families we must follow God’s plan which is not the same as the one promoted by many. One overarching myth of the modern church is the very definition of family. To my surprise, there is no Scriptural term for our modern concept of “family.” Instead, Western Christianity long ago adopted a Roman definition of family as being determined by the father as titular head, the “pater familias.” The Biblical terms, both Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek, which are generally translated as “family” are more literally translated “house” or “household.”  The error is that we read into our understanding of the Scriptures our definition of “family” as principally a nuclear, biological unit. In brief, we define family in terms of a contract of “commitment,” and “love,” etc. while the Scriptures understand family as grounded in a social covenant with God. Certainly the marriage covenant is at the core of the family identity, but by its very nature covenant is a different kind of relationship than one defined primarily by affections and genetics. Covenant with God holds families together and not the inverse. [More to come tomorrow. You may wish to read a piece I wrote as a chapter in a book published by the Church of God: “Our Covenant to Nurture Our Families” in “NurturingPentecostal Families.”] JDJ #242http://www.newcovenantcleveland.org/uploads/4/7/1/2/4712880/our_covenant_to_nurture_our_families_-_jjohns.pdf

Blog Entries

My current Facebook series on marriage and intimate relationships is being added daily to "Thoughts on Human Relationships" below (2-10-2013).