Sunday: More Than a Mother’s Love
Daily Lesson for Sunday 19th of January 2025
Perhaps the greatest love common to human experience is the love of a parent for a child. The Bible often uses the imagery of the parent-child relationship to depict God’s amazing compassion for people, emphasizing that God’s compassion is exponentially greater than even the deepest and most beautiful human expression of the same emotion.
Read Psalms 103:13, Isaiah 49:15, and Jeremiah 31:20. What do these depictions convey about the nature and depth of God’s compassion?
Image © Jeff Preston at Goodsalt.com
According to these texts, God relates to us as His beloved children, loving us as a good father and mother love their children. Yet, as Isaiah 49:15 explains, even a human mother might “forget her nursing child” or “not have compassion on the son of her womb” (NKJV), but God never forgets His children, and His compassion never fails (Lamentations 3:22).
Notably, the Hebrew term raḥam, used for compassion here and in many other texts describing God’s abundant compassionate love, is believed to be derived from the Hebrew term for womb (raḥam). And thus, as scholars have noted, God’s compassion is a “womb-like mother-love.” Indeed, it is exponentially greater than any human compassion, even that of a mother for her newborn.
According to Jeremiah 31:20 (NKJV), God views His covenant people as His “dear son” and “pleasant child,” despite the fact that they often rebelled against Him and grieved Him. Even so, God declares, “My heart yearns for him” and “I will surely have mercy on him.” The term translated “mercy” here is the term used above for divine compassion (raḥam). Further, the phrase “My heart yearns” can be translated literally as “My innards roar.” This description is the deeply visceral language of divine emotion, signifying the profound depth of God’s compassionate love for His people. Even despite their infidelity, God continues to bestow His abundant compassion and mercy on His people and does so beyond all reasonable expectations.
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For some of us, recognizing that God’s compassion for us is akin to that of a loving father or mother is deeply comforting. However, some people might struggle because their parent or parents were not loving. What other ways could God’s compassion be revealed to them? |
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Adrian Plass in one of his books described visiting a Christian home where the teenagers behaved perfectly. They said "Please" and "Thank you". They sat at the table during meal times making polite conversation liberally sprinkled with Bible verses. He glanced into their bedrooms and their beds were perfectly made and there were no clothes to be seen, so he presumed they had all been put away neatly in drawers and closets.
I don't think Adrian Plass expected us to believe the story because he went on to describe his own family of teenagers. It was much the same as our house. There was yelling and doors being slammed, sulking, accusations, meals eaten at odd times and dishes left in the sink. My daughter ran over the neighbour's letterbox and smashed it to bits with the car. Then she ran away from home for hours. They would promise to be home at 11 pm and then not get back until 1 am.
And through all of those turbulent years, they were still loved — not perfectly — we were still novice parents.
My kids are in their 50s now, and you can see that the umbilical cord of maternal love has never been broken. Mother and daughter spend hours on the phone talking to one another (often about teenage grandsons). Our unmarried son gets visits from us, when his fridge and freezer are filled with home-cooked food.
Teenagers are a huge test of our love. They grow up, test their boundaries, learn to make their own decisions and accept responsibility for those decisions. They rebel against authority and test the patience and Christian experience of their parents.
How similar are we to teenagers in our relationship with God? And yet, he loves us still.
I looked up the word "endureth" in the Bible and found that the Psalms used the word many times; typically, "His love/mercy endureth forever." Many of those Psalms were written by a rebellious king who kicked over the traces and did his own thing like a rebellious teenager. He experienced the umbilical love of God who continued to love him despite his rebellion.
Thank you Mr. Ashton, I needed to be reminder of God's unconditional love and a parent's tested love for difficult teenagers. It's truly difficult to watch young people choose to walk away from family values even though they have been taught better. Much like our own relationship with God when he's has given us instructions to obey and trust him. So the lesson I see in this is to have compassion and unconditional love towards them like God has for me
Who can fully comprehend the nature of God? Absolutely none! God uses relatable analogies to help us start to figure out who He is. Even then we miserably fail the test. The Bible reminds us how remote it is to know God’s modus operandi (Isaiah 55:8-9). Who knows how far the heavens are from the earth? In a very simplistic illustration, how far is the farthest known celestial object from the earth? We are told by astronomers that the farthest celestial object is GN-z11, a galaxy located approximately 13.4 billion light-years away. Just for information, one light-year is approximated to be 9.46 trillion kilometers. How do we get this big number (9,460,000,000,000)?
1. The speed of light is estimated at 299,792kilometers per second (in a vacuum)
2. It is estimated that there are 31,536,000 seconds in one year (365 days)
3. One light year = 299,792 km x 31,536,000 seconds = 9,460,730,472,580.8km
To put it in perfective,9.46 trillion km will go around the earth 236,000, 000 times (the earth has an approximated circumference of 40,075 kilometers at the equator).
Therefore, it is incredibly inconceivable to start to imagine how much compassion God has for us. He simply uses the love of a mother for her child to give us a little glimpse, even though this love is imperfect (Isaiah 49:15).
In the Bible, God uses several relatable analogies to give us a taste of His insurmountable compassion.
1. The Shepherd and His Sheep – Jesus said, “I am a good Shepherd” (John 10:1, Isaiah 40:11). A good shepherd handles the sheep with gentleness, care, and compassion, particularly the helpless lambs. God feels our helplessness in the adversities of this life. Jesus promised to give us a Comforter to help us out (John 14:16, John 16:13).
2. The Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32) – Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever walked on the face of the earth. In a very beautiful and relatable version, He used the love of a good father to demonstrate God’s compassion. How possibly could this earthly father have mercy on his “dead” son who brought misery to himself? Yes, God forgives and brings restoration.
3. God as a Potter – This analogy beautifully illustrates God’s compassion in shaping, molding, and refining us for a higher purpose even though we have to go through some pain for a little while (Isaiah 64:8).
4. God as a Bridegroom – Perhaps one of the sweetest and most beautiful human relationships is that of the bride and the bridegroom. The compassionate love they have for one another is boundless. Unfortunately, at times things go wrong, but God’s compassionate love and faithfulness never fade away (Isaiah 54:5).
In the final assessment, we can possibly grasp God’s compassion through Jesus Christ who is the ultimate expression of God’s compassion. Secondly, we need to have personal experience of this compassion by allowing the Holy Spirit to transform our lives. Thirdly, we can see God’s compassion through scripture. We need to invest our time in the Word of God which reveals the true nature of God. Fourthly, we need to observe nature and how God sustains it. How does God take care of little sparrows that have no insurance policies?
Does Isaiah 55:8-9 describe heaven as a balloon that contains all galaxies, and heaven itself as everything beyond this balloon? When Jesus "was lifted up while they were looking on, and a cloud received Him out of their sight." the angels described the event as "Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven." Acts 1:9-11 This event was a matter of minutes and a distance of a few hundred meters.
I do not see these verses in Isaiah 55:8,9 as describing heaven at all. I see these verses as comparing God's thoughts to be above and beyond human thoughts and thinking and that is all. And I also see that the speed of "thought" for us humans, is similar to God's "Speed of thought." And that is one of the things that makes us humans in "God's Image." And "The Speed of Thought," is faster than the "Speed of Light." And that is one thing that makes "Prayer" so "Powerful."
So what about the Psalm that says God pities those who fear him? Psalm 103:13
1. Substitute the word pities with compassion.
2. Psalm 103:17, even gets stronger. The love of God lives forever with those who fear Him. Those who fear God have wisdom, obedience, and reverence to Him. The fear of God is about recognizing God’s power, holiness , and authority. Basically we love God enough to do something about it.
Psalms 103:13, Isaiah 49:15, and Jeremiah 31:20. What do these depictions convey about the nature and depth of God’s compassion?
This simple children’s song gives us the depth and nature of Gods compassion for us.
Deep and wide
Deep and wide
There’s a fountain flowing deep and wide.
Digging a little deeper this song also fits the description of the stream flowing from the temple, during the millennium, which grows deeper and wider as it leaves the temple (Psalm 46:4, Ezekiel 47:1). A stream similarly flows from the throne in the new heavens and earth (Revelation 22:1).
Now some one will. Awe but what about the millennium?
According to many Christian interpretations of the Bible, particularly from the Book of Revelation, after a period of "a thousand years" where the earth is desolate and essentially uninhabitable, Jesus Christ will return with the righteous, who will then inhabit a "new earth" created by God, signifying a renewed and perfect world free from sin and suffering; this thousand-year period is often referred to as the "Millennium.".
What does it mean, "Indeed, it [compassion] is exponentially greater than any human compassion"? As I understand, 'exponentially' refers to the rate of growth, what is "exponentially greater"?
As a mathematician, I understand exactly what is meant by exponential. But I also accept that colloquially it is often used by the non-mathematical populace simply as an expression to mean "much greater than".
(Exponential is a relationship and does not necessarily mean growth. We can also have exponential decay. But that is getting technically digressive - apologies, non-mathematicians)
Thank you for your explanation. It would be better to use simpler language so that people who are not familiar with science do not need to look up dictionaries, and those who have no access to those sources could understand it.
I think most people are familiar with the colloquial use of "exponential", meaning "much greater than".
On January 7th, my friend underwent emergency C-section to deliver her twins. She is 46, the babies were breach and had already broken her ribs as she is so small. They flew her from one hospital to another by helicopter, strapped in great discomfort to a gurney. The medical team wanted to wait to give the unborns' lungs time to develop more fully, but after several days of my friend hemorrhaging and dilating in spite of meds to slow contractions, they rushed her into surgery. She lost 2.5 L of blood! They cut 3 long incisions in the shape of an I and still her abdominal wall tore and the doctors nicked her bowels in the process of getting the twins out. God is healing her faster than the medical team thought possible and the twins are already off oxygen. Thank You, God!
As I read Isaiah 49:15-16, I think of my friend. The pain she went through, the way she is 1000% devoted to the health of her babies - she is still traveling to the hospital to nurse them so they have the best nutritional start, and her body is producing all the babies need, even though her own fluids dipped so low. The super-human strength, grace and love that God is giving her is, to me, relatable to His super-human love and compassion for us. We know from Jesus' exchange with Thomas in John 20:27 that He raised back to life from the tomb with the scars of His tremendous sacrifice for us still present. The gashes and wounds of the Cross left their marks of love on His eternal body. Just as my friend catches her breath to breathe, as her ribs and wounds continue to heal, I imagine God always catching His breath at the great sacrifice He has made and continues to make for us, His precious children.
What a broken world we live in. I read about a young mother caught trying to flush her newborn daughter down the toilet. So yes, unfortunately a mother can forget about their own child. However, God's love isn't fickle, lacking, or absent like human love can be. His love is everlasting. He loves us as we are, but too much to leave us as we are. Yes, He loves us in our mess, but wants that love to transform us from the mess we might get ourselves in.
There's nothing ethereal, mystical, or magical about God’s love. It's the real deal!
I'm sure anyone can find reasons for God's love for humanity, but living the parenthood experience has brought me a new understanding. As time goes by, this intensifies even more. God is such a perfect father/mother Figure!