Proverbs 6:20-24, Motherhood’s Honoured Role!
March 13, Proverbs 6:20-24
2 Tim. 1:4-10; 1 Pet. 2:2-4 “Continue thou in the things…, knowing of whom thou hast learned them” (2 Tim. 3:14).
Motherhood’s Honoured Role!
There is a mistaken notion, fostered by the position of women in the East, that the Bible treats women as inferiors, but the truth is far otherwise. Father’s commandment signifies parental authority, but it is the law of thy mother that receives special mention here, for her law is God’s Law. In one place in the Law, the mother is placed first as deserving filial respect (Lev. 19:3). David mourned for his mother (Ps. 35:14). In all of Proverbs the duty of children to love and obey their mothers is consistently taught. This is what we also find in the NT. The same respect for one’s mother is in evidence in both Books. The birth of Christ gave to motherhood the highest possible honour. What woman is today, particularly in her motherhood, she owes, in large part to the Bible.
- Mother’s Mediation! Parents, but especially mothers, play the vital role of mediators, for a very important, if all too brief time between God and their children. It is a humble, but sacred ministry, and has the sanction of the Lord. Have a care what law and what observances you set before their tender hearts, for it is the first ideas and impressions that go deepest and give direction to the rest of their lives. As mediators, mothers being their needs to God, and show to them God’s will for their lives.
- Mother’s Motivation! A mother, in whom the Word of God dwells, becomes the channel conveying that precious treasure to her children. In the formative years, what a mother gives her children they will receive. Just as a babe drinks its mother’s milk, so spiritually, children drink-in what flows from the heart of their mothers. Be full of Christ, O mothers, so that what your children drink in will be the over-flow from your drinking at the Fountain of Truth (Jn. 7:37-39). What must be the joy of a believing mother to be the channel through whom the milk of the Word flows to her children, and then to see them desiring more milk and growing in the Lord. Children believe it as the law of their mothers, and trustingly receive it. What a privilege! What a responsibility!
- Mother’s Ministration! Can there be any purer vocation or more honourable rank in life than for a mother to minister to her own children? Women in the OT moved on the same social plane with men, often occupying public positions. The love of offspring was deeply ingrained in the heart of Hebrew women, and thus motherhood was highly valued. How sad today to hear motherhood treated as secondary or unfulfilling. Modern women, in the desire to compete in a “male-dominated” world, and to prove that they can, are denying or undermining their greatest, God-given role, that moulding the future generation for God. What a travesty of the divine order, when two lesbians, living together as “husband and wife” admit that they can only be a complete family with a child, so they adopt one!
Thought: Mothers, sow in hope, sometimes in tears, but trust God for a glad harvest.
Prayer: I thank Thee, Lord, for the blessings and privileges of motherhood.