Isaiah: Blessed and a Blessing

Sermon 5 in the Isaiah Series

Last week we talked about Isaiah’s use of imagery, specifically focusing on plants and trees. He talked about the Stump of Jesse, the family line through whom the Savior would come would be like new life coming out of that which was dead. A new shoot, turning into a branch, coming out of a stump. We can picture it and the message of hope that image relays. And every time you see a stump, you can think of this promise of Jesus. Every spring, when you see new little shoots coming out, like on the tree outside the church, you know if they were let go…they’d eventually turn into branches. Jesus, the Messiah wasn’t just any branch…he produced fruit. And He produced it as his follower stayed connected to him, and he stayed connected to the Heavenly Father. 

Today, we get another type of interesting imagery used by Isaiah. Maybe not as frequently referenced as plants and trees, but more than you might think. This is the concept of motherhood. Isaiah was not only a prophet, he was a master poet. He turned words and phrases to not only keep his audience listening but also accurately express the spiritual, using these physical metaphors and similes.

To understand what dots Isaiah is connecting here with these passages concerning motherhood, we have to ask the question, “What are the key elements of motherhood?” These aren’t the only elements, but ones I see reflected in those around me and demonstrated in scripture. First one:

1) Having children, 2) Care, protect and comfort of said children 3) Never ending love 

[If you’d like to listen to the audio recording of this message, CLICK HERE or click the Spotify player at the bottom of the post.]

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Let’s look at each element  and the scriptures that connect to them.

1. Having children

This typically would mean giving birth and raising those babies. This is more than likely the reality into which Isaiah is speaking, However, we know that being a mother is MORE than just giving birth to little humans. You can choose to become a mother through adoption. You can marry someone with kids and help them raise up those kiddos. One way or another, kids come into your life and look to you as mom.

When we think back to the earliest example of motherhood in the bible we look to Eve. After sin entered the world through Eve and Adam’s choice to eat of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, there were dire consequences. For Eve, childbirth was going to be more than a bit uncomfortable. 

“I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; 

with painful labor you will give birth to children.”

(Genesis 3:16b NIV)

If you’ve ever gone through the physical and emotional pain of having or trying to have a child, you may have looked back and shaken your fist at Eve. “Thanks a lot, Eve!”

Interestingly enough, this implies that it was not God’s original plan for giving birth to be painful…or at least not as painful as it became after sin. 

Not only did she have a painful birthing experience, but she was the first mother to know what it feels like to lose her child to death. What’s worse, her other son: Cain was the one to end his brother’s life!

In one fell swoop, the first mother lost both her children…as the remaining one was exiled. Eve didn’t stop being a mom, though. She gave birth to Seth and had a renewal of hope with her third child.

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OK, I know: none of that was in Isaiah. We needed to lay some context before jumping into what Isaiah says about it.

6 Hear that uproar from the city,

    hear that noise from the temple!

It is the sound of the Lord

    repaying his enemies all they deserve.

7 “Before she goes into labor,

    she gives birth;

before the pains come upon her,

    she delivers a son.

8 Who has ever heard of such things?

    Who has ever seen things like this?

Can a country be born in a day

    or a nation be brought forth in a moment?

Yet no sooner is Zion in labor

    than she gives birth to her children.

9 Do I bring to the moment of birth

    and not give delivery?” says the Lord.

“Do I close up the womb

    when I bring to delivery?” says your God.

10 “Rejoice with Jerusalem and be glad for her,

    all you who love her;

rejoice greatly with her,

    all you who mourn over her.

Isaiah 66:6-10 NIV

Verse 7-8 uses poetic language to describe a “quick labor.” If you’ve had children, you might remember how long or how brief it took for them to be born. I know this is true, moms swap stories about this…especially around the birthdays of their children.

But in the context of this passage, Isaiah is not talking about a real life mom, but rather the venue through which God brings his blessings. Namely: Jerusalem. Again, he mixes the names of Jerusalem throughout this book calling her Zion or daughter of Zion.

This passage is not about what the people of Jerusalem can create to fix their dire situation, but rather what God will birth out of them because of his power. When we look back to verse 6 

“Hear that uproar from the city,   hear that noise from the temple!  It is the sound of the Lord     repaying his enemies all they deserve.” God wants the people to know, he’s taking care of business, not delaying or drawing out deliverance from their enemies. Isaiah likens it to quick labor. God says, “I’m not going to wait forever to deliver you! It’ll happen quickly.”

Verse 9 speaks of the idea of the continuation of the Abrahamic promise (I will make you as numerous as the stars in sky, grains of sand.) He asks a rhetorical question, “once one blessing and deliverance has come…will I stop there? The answer is clear from the context: NO. God’s blessings flow and they flow because he is the one giving them.

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Another attribute of mothers is their ability to provide…

2. Care, protection and comfort

A close physical bond is formed between a child and his or her mother. If you think of babies that are still nursing, the mother very much gives of herself to provide nourishment for that baby. Even in bottle feeding, both moms and dads get in on the closeness to the baby. Cuz when you bottle feed a baby, you hold them like this. 

They are physically close to you. You are providing food. You are providing protection or shelter. Your arms become a makeshift cradle for this little one. If you’d ever fed a baby it’s important to pay attention because they might need to burp! That air builds up inside them and…to give them comfort you might help encourage it to come out by patting or rubbing the baby’s back.

Now I want to make clear, not all women who give birth to children also provide care, protection and comfort. But the opportunity is there. God made us the way he did for a reason and I’ve got to believe He wants babies to bond with their mothers.

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12 For this is what the Lord says:

“I will extend peace to her like a river,

    and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;

you will nurse and be carried on her arm

    and dandled on her knees.

13 As a mother comforts her child,

    so will I comfort you;

    and you will be comforted over Jerusalem.”

Isaiah 66:12-13 NIV

What is that Word?! Dandled? Sounds like “dangled.” Definitely not something you want to do with a child, especially over precarious locations. No, I had to look up Dandled. It looks like this. 

The child is on your knee or hip, and you bounce them about. It’s entertaining to the child, it’s fun and not too complicated. Part of the fun is that the child has to TRUST you completely. 

That’s right, if you are playing horsey and dandling your kiddo on your knee, you are probably securing them in some way so they don’t bounce right off and crack their skull. The child can only guess which way you are going to bounce them and how fast…but they don’t know for sure. To play this game is to have complete trust in the one who’s lap you’re on.

In the context of this passage, something else is going on besides just play. Verse 13 “As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you;” This act of dandling is a soothing comforting action. Instead of rubbing or patting the child’s back going “shhhhuuuush” (by the way, I hear that “shushing” a baby is not 100% effective.) Instead of all that … this dandling thing is a fun, entertaining distraction! 

As a new dad, I noticed that the girls sometimes had issues with…shall we say “staying vertical?” They’d sometimes slip and fall. They’d get a “boo boo” (as we say in the cool parenting lingo.) My Sr. Pastor at the church I was working at at the time, Pastor Don, taught me a trick. He once saw one of the girls fall down in the church hallway and he’d immediately make a funny noise: “BONK!” he’d say. He didn’t coddle them, didn’t ask if they were hurt. He just helped them laugh it off.   When I picture this mother in Isaiah dandling her child on her knee, I picture it as a comforting distraction from “pain” that gets blown out of proportion.

And if you remember from last week’s message, the people of Judah were in for some bad times. The Babylonians would come and take them away, into exile. These later chapters in Isaiah are Isaiah foretelling of this very certain future. Their circumstances and choices in Judah, much like Israel, would lead to their exile. But don’t despair. It won’t be forever. And God will “…extend peace to her (Jerusalem) like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream;” After a time of exile, essentially homelessness, God would extend peace and bring wealth to Jerusalem again. This is God’s restorative nature. And the comfort that a mother can give brings restoration, making a child feel whole, and loved and cared about.

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After care and protection comes the big promise. It’s a quality that not every woman that gives birth will have, but it does make her a reflection of God’s everlasting love. It’s the motherly sentiment that:

3. They’re your baby forever, no matter what.

If you have children, you may feel this way about them: There is nothing they can do to stop you from loving them. There’s nothing they can do that would cause you to disown them. You might not agree with their life choices. You might support them by not helping them in their poor decisions. But no matter what: that’s your daughter, that’s your son. You love them and there’s nothing that will ever change that.

Isaiah expresses this kind of love. A never ending love of a mother to her child. Then he uses that example to express how much more The Lord loves, remembers, and cares for his people.

“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.

14 But Zion said, “The Lord has forsaken me;

    my Lord has forgotten me.”

15 “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 49:13-15 ESV)

He asks another rhetorical question (and yes, if you were making a checklist of things to do in really good poetry or prose, rhetorical questions are on that list.)

The answer is seemingly “NO” a mother won’t forget her child. Of course she’ll have compassion on her son.  But as much as that is helpful information, using those assumptions to get a point across is the true nature of the questions.

“Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you.” (49:15b ESV)

However unlikely it is that a mother would forget her child, God certainly will not forget or abandon his children.

What about us?

Does that seem hard to believe? Is it hard for you to believe that God’s love for you, his memory of you…that any of it would ever run out? Why? Is it because of something you did? Something you are ashamed of? Or some impossible standard you’ve held yourself to? 

~God can’t love me…not after what I’ve done. 

You are Wrong. God loves you, inspite of what you’ve done!

Here’s a few examples from the bible:

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

(Romans 5:8 ESV)

“We love because He first loved us.”  – God started it! This whole Loving thing. We’ve got to love as reaction and reflection of his love to and in us. 

1 John 4:19 NIV

Here’s what Peter says about loving each other: 

says

“Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.”

1 Peter 4:8 NIV

In this passage, Peter is telling his readers the “the end of all things is near.” A life focused on loving each other was the way to live. How can we best show we love someone? 

The best way to show how we love someone is to forgive them.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just in Christ God forgave you.”

(Ephesians 4:32 NIV)

Blessed and a Blessing

“Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.”

Prov 31:28 NIV

Mothers are a blessing and are blessed. The areas we’ve looked at through the lense of Isaiah’s poetic prophecy:

1) Having children, 2) Caring, protecting and comforting her children 3) Her never ending love for her children.

These things Mothers have in common with God. It makes sense if you think about it. God made them and gave them an amazing calling. Before Eve, there were no other humans who could give birth to other humans. There wasn’t anyone like her who could comfort and care for her sons, grieve the loss of both of them and be willing to have more children. And Isaiah identifies something that very much a “well duh!” moment. Moms, typically will love there children no matter what. They’ll always be her babies, her kiddos.

So those attributes- in a sense– are blessings. To have those attributes and to be a person who is looked up to? That’s being “blessed.”     But there is a very tangible blessing that God says in the book of Isaiah. One that uses moms once again as a metaphor for Jerusalem. It is a blessing of Hope.

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“Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; 

      break forth into singing and cry aloud, 

      you who have not been in labor! 

 For the children of the desolate one will be more 

      than the children of her who is married,” says the LORD. 

            2       “Enlarge the place of your tent, 

      and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; 

                  do not hold back; lengthen your cords 

      and strengthen your stakes. 

            3       For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, 

      and your offspring will possess the nations 

      and will people the desolate cities.

(Isaiah 54:1-3 ESV)

Verses 2-3 give the idea of preparing, in hope and faith that God will fill the empty space in your life and it will be a blessing to you. 

The people of Judah would grow. They would spread out, they would “possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.” The people of God were just that: His people. And He spread them out and blessed them over and over. But Hope and Faith had to come first. “Enlarge the place of your tent.” They had to make room for this blessing to come.

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When my wife and I were approached by a church member to consider doing respite care for foster kids, we prayed and looked into what a person would need to do to have a certification and be an acceptable home for respite care. It was practically the same requirements as if you became a foster or foster to adopt home. So we started to pursue becoming a foster to adopt family. In my heart, I had settled something…if this was the right decision for our little family of two. This was the phrase that gave me peace every step of the way, especially on the rough days. “We’ve got space in our home and in our hearts.” It was very much like what God is saying here in Isaiah 54. In faith, make room for the blessings of God!

Bringing new life. Caring and Comforting, and expressing unconditional love. Moms: when you show these qualities, you are reflecting the character and heart of God. 

Though they are exemplified in mothers, these qualities can be found in any of us. And more likely than not, we have a mother of one sort or another somewhere that invested those qualities within us. 

When you positively influence someone, pray and guide them closer to God, you are part of birthing them into the Kingdom of God. When you lend and ear to hear the cares and woes of another you are showing kindness and compassion. When you joke and play around, to help people not get so stuck on their pain sorrow, you are also acting with compassion and comfort. When you choose to NOT give up on someone, loving them and praying for them, opening up the wings of your tent, hoping and trusting they will enter the Family of God. You know the heart of a mother and the heart of her Maker.

I’ll leave you with this.

“Her children arise and call he blessed; her husband also, and he praises her.  Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.”

(Proverbs 31:28, 31 NIV)

May you be blessed and be a blessing this week.