THE REFORMED WITNESS HOUR"Joyful Mothers"Rev. Carl Haak(e-mail: Rev. Carl
Haak) |
Dear radio friends,
The portion of the holy Scriptures that we consider together today is found in
Psalm 113:9,
“He maketh the barren woman
to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord.”
Perhaps, when you hear the word
“joyful mother of children,” you react today with a tinge of cynicism or,
perhaps, a pang of guilt. Joyful mothers? Maybe after looking at the harsh reality of so
much that goes on behind closed doors in your home, you would not refer to yourself as a
joyful mother. Oh, yes, with the firstborn
child in your arms. But what about the
lifelong tasks of motherhood? And what about
our sins and difficulties, the yelling and resentments, the discouragements? Joyful mothers?
Would your children recognize you? Is
not motherhood, as the world would have it, nothing but drudgery, chained to meals,
laundry, cleaning, thankless tasks, so much taken for granted by others?
And what about the Word of God? Does not God say in
Genesis 3:16
to the woman,
“In sorrow thou shalt bring forth thy children”?
Is there not such a thing as post-partum depression?
Has not sin really ruined motherhood?
And what about out own experience
as Christian mothers? Sometimes the Lord
sends us a child born with disease — some diseases very severe — a
learning-disabled child, or an impenitent child. Long
nights sitting up with them or praying for them.
Does this Word of God that we read in
Psalm 113:9
make light of all of those things? How
can God refer to mothers as being joyful? And
if it is joyful, then maybe we should just have guilt about our own shortcomings when we
are not joyful.
People of God, daughters of the
living God, the Word of God is speaking. And
the Word of God says, “Yes, motherhood is filled with joy — a joy in Jesus
Christ — a joy which, at bottom, is nothing less than the joy of salvation, a joy in
God, a joy that God faithfully imparts to your own heart. It is the joy of which Jesus spoke in
John 15
when He said, “My joy, which no
man can take from you, I give to you” — a joy found in the knowledge that you,
as a woman, a wife, a mother, are God’s servant and are being used of Him in the
building of His kingdom; a joy which God gives to every believing mother, to every woman
of God; a joy which is this: that God is your
faithful God who has given to you a beautiful and crucial task called motherhood.
This is the approach, also, of
Psalm 113.
Open your Bible to that Psalm. The psalmist there is thinking of God in all of
His glory and majesty. See verses 5 and 6,
“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!” God is so exalted, says the
psalmist, that, as it were, He has to stoop, He has to bend over, to view the heavens. You look up to the stars and you wonder? God has to bend over to see them. He must bend, He must humble Himself to see it.
But this God is not detached. He is not majesty in indifference. No, for although He cannot be added to and is
filled with majesty, He is the one who, according to verse 7, “raiseth up the poor
out of the dust.” He delights in
blessing the lowly. He delights in bestowing
His love and grace upon the insignificant, the downcast, the despised. He delights in making the barren woman to keep
house and to be a joyful mother of children — praise ye the Lord!
Unmistakably, then, and
unashamedly, the Bible identifies motherhood with joy.
“He maketh … a joyful mother of children.” The word “joyful,” as I said, refers to
the joy of salvation at bottom. It is a
great inward happiness that the Holy Spirit works. It
is not necessarily what we would call a bubbly, happy temperament. But it refers to the possession of a great good
which floods your heart and grants an inward satisfaction to your soul, an inward joy. This is something that God promises to His
mothers, to those women in His church who are made mothers.
Think of Sarah. She said, “God has made me to laugh, and all
that hear will laugh with me.” Think of
Mary, “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Savior.” Think of Hannah, “My heart
rejoices in the Lord.”
God speaks then of a joyful
mother. Now let us just get that into our
head and heart, by the grace of God.
The Word of God is saying,
“Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.” And if there is any area in which the world’s
system is trying to do so, it is exactly in motherhood.
There is a demonic, concerted attack on the dignity and glory of motherhood as
defined by God in the Bible. There are books,
TV talk-shows, politics — all telling us that motherhood, after all, is depressing,
and careers are more important; that motherhood can be chosen outside of marriage (you may
be impregnated by your friend — why should the unmarried woman be denied that
privilege?). And we are told that motherhood
really stands in the way of self-fulfillment. So
we live in a day of day-care. And, if
motherhood interrupts your plans, we are told that you may kill — you may
“abort” in a sterile operating room where a million and a half are slaughtered
each year, an entire generation.
Motherhood? The world says it is confining, degrading. You should not be restricted by children. You have
the right to kill your own child. That is
what the world says.
But now listen. Do not follow the world. If you follow the world, you will miss the truth
by a thousand miles. It is the Scriptures
that transform us, the living and abiding Word of God.
God says motherhood is a joy, a joyful mother.
You ask me, what is the source of
this joy? Three considerations:
First of all, motherhood is the
gift of God in bearing and delivering a child of the covenant. A believing woman is given the joy of witnessing a
wonderwork of God, a work that must produce awe and wonder and rejoicing in the heart. The text is emphasizing to us that pregnancy and
birth is the work of God. He maketh the
barren woman to keep house and to be a joyful mother of children. Life is the work of God. It reminds us that pregnancy and birth are
exclusively the work of God. God, in His
power, is able to withhold and make us childless. And
He is the One who brings forth, conceives and gives birth to, each child. Oh, I know all of the medical and technological
innovations. Men talk of test-tube and in
vitro fertilization and all the rest. But
the fact remains that life is created by God alone.
It is a great wonder. Do you ever
pause to consider, as a believing woman, this wonder?
Do you ponder these things deep down in your heart?
God forms another life. He gives a
soul. God uses your body to nurture, to make
room for, and to draw life for another. And
all of this is the work of God! What joy! Not boasting (look what I did), but, no, when you
give birth to a child you say, “Look what God did!”
The world sees the child as an
extension of themselves. The world sees the
child as subject to their own pleasure. The
child of God sees a child born as a profound mystery of God. And we rejoice in His wonders.
But there is another reason for
joy. More to the point, this joy of a
believing mother is to be found in the will of God. That
is biblical joy. You say, “What does
that mean?” It means this: That God assigns to each one of us a station in
His kingdom, a place marked out with gracious care. And
He says to us: “Occupy till I come, work
out your salvation within this sphere,” and He gives you the talents for that place. Joy of heart is receiving that place from God
thankfully and seeking to perform the will of God in that place from your heart. Motherhood is the will of God. You, as a mother, are in the will of God. That will of God is to give you a child so that
you might nurture, rear, and give your whole life to that child and to your husband.
Outside of the will of God there
is no joy. You see that in the modern woman. There is no joy.
They are filled with grudges and emptiness. You
see that in them. But the child of God finds
joy in being in the will of God. We say,
“ ’Tis joy to do Thy will, O God.”
That will of motherhood involves a
thousand different facets. You are to
nurture, care, give your life for that child. But
that brings joy. Joy for children of God is
when they are pursuing the will of Him who has redeemed them, and they are aiming at that
which will glorify Him.
But there is still a third reason
for this joy of a mother. That is found in
understanding the importance of motherhood in God’s covenant. As a believing mother, you should never say,
“I’m just a mother of children.” You
ought never say “just.” You ought
never think that you are buried in drudgery. No,
there is an amazement that you should have when you see the importance that you have in
the hand of God. Through God-fearing mothers,
God is preparing a church to praise Him. There
is no more glorious and awesome task in all the world than that! A Christian mother is an instrument in the hand of
God unto the nurture and the development of believing generations — of generations
yet to be who shall arise to praise God. Remember the theme of
Psalm 113:
God’s great
goodness in lifting the lowly and exalting them to glorious tasks. God saves you as a woman. He grants you not only salvation. But He assigns to you the task of molding that
which is most precious — the children of His covenant — in order that there
might stand forth a people of the Lord God. God
is so gracious, so good, that He takes weak and sinful women whom He loves in the Lord
Jesus Christ, whom He sanctifies by the Spirit, and He places them in the crucial place of
His kingdom of grace.
Envy the world’s woman? Honor is found where God honors. What an honor to be used of God to prepare
children for the place of glory in His kingdom. Let
the Word of God mold your perceptions. Let
the Word of God determine your judgments. Let
the Word of God form your values. Not the
world. Yes, motherhood is a joyful thing
— to witness the gift of God in birth, to be in the will of God nurturing your child,
and to be used of God in the preparation of His eternal kingdom.
How do you respond to that Word of
God? Do you respond in thanks —
“Oh, Lord, Thou hast blessed me as a mother”? Or
do you say to me, “Now, just wait a minute. You’re
telling me that there is a specific role that I have to follow? Are you living in the Dark Ages? This idea of fixed roles went out in the 60s and
70s. Women can make it now in sports and in
business.” If that is the way you
respond, then you are rebelling. Not against
me, you are rebelling against God and His Word. God
makes a joyful mother of children. Are you
this joyful mother? No, not always jumping up
and down in joy — but the joy of contentment and the resolve to follow your God
whithersoever He leads you. Your child needs
to see this joy. You child needs to see that
you are committed to the will of God, that you find your joy in taking your place as a
mother of children within your home.
For we read, “He maketh the
barren woman to keep house.” The
Scriptures are very plain that the calling of a mother is within her house. It is a vast calling, as I said. It is a calling to love your husband and your
children. It is to be a keeper at home,
spending all of your energies for that home. What
a task of a mother! You need to be a
paramedic — to take care of the injuries of your child; a dietician. You need to know about medicine and finances. You need to be a cook, a counselor. And how are you going to do all of these things? Only if your soul is soaked with the Word of God. You must teach your daughters what it means to be
a woman, a woman of God. There is a vast task
that is before you in your home.
But I would like to safeguard
this. I want to safeguard the truth that the
place of the woman is within the home. First
of all, I want to safeguard it from one excess, an excess that is prevalent today in
evangelicalism and in much of Christianity. There
is a reaction of the world, a false reaction, that leads some to exalt the home as being
enough and then to look at the church as being only an aid to the home. If we happen to like the church, then the church
is fine. But if we do not, well, we really do
not need the church because we have the home and the home is everything. That is a sinful excess. I warn you against it. Direct your home toward the church. Involve your family in the church, in the worship
of the church. Without the church your home
is cut off from the lifeline of the means of grace, the way that God is pleased to
strengthen you through the preaching of the Word. Do
not withdraw from that church because, you say, “Well, this is the way I raise up my
child, and nobody else does it as well as I do. One
is not faithful if he doesn’t do it the way I do.
So I am going to take my child away from everybody else in the church.” Oh, no. That
is a sinful excess. Your home is your place
as a mother. But your home must abide within
the church.
I want to protect this truth not
only from an excess, but also from a danger. The
danger that I warn against is the sin of gossip. The
Scriptures refer to that, that often a woman is subjected to the temptation of gossiping. Instead, then, of being focused upon your own home
and your own duties within that home, you become interested in everybody else’s home. And the telephone becomes a convenient way to go
from house to house, asking questions that you ought not ask, telling things that you
ought not tell, quick to criticize other homes and other children. The result? Sometimes
the result is that there is no meal ready when your husband comes home, the house not
cleaned, the laundry not done — there has just been gossiping and talking. Keep your eyes on your own home! You have a husband to confide in.
Now I want to protect this truth
of the woman, the mother being in the home, from one weakness. The weakness is this: as mothers, sometimes you are tempted to a false
self-criticism and a hopelessness when you see your shortcomings. This is what I have in mind. You have had a busy day. It began at 6:00 in the morning with breakfast and
preparation of lunches, the husband off to work and the children off to school. You spent a little time straightening up the
house. You put the little ones down for a
nap. You watered the flowers. Then when the little ones woke up, you went to the
park. You came home for a little more
cleaning and to prepare dinner. After dinner
there were baths and then bedtime stories and homework.
And finally at 10 or 11:00 you fall into your bed exhausted. But you cannot sleep because you begin to
remember. You remember how short you were
with your daughter about her dirty room and you yelled and screamed. You remember how disappointed your little boy was
when you told him that you did not have time to color with him because you needed to fold
the laundry. You remember that you have not
dusted for about a week now. You have gained
five pounds. You have not had time for your
husband. You have had little time to pray. And as all of these things come upon you, you
conclude, “I’m not a good mother. I’m
a horrible wife.” And you are led to
anxiety and depression. I warn you against
that. If you have sinned, confess that to
God. Do not look to yourself, but look to
God. God says that He is pleased to use you
and that you are precious in His sight through Jesus Christ.
When these thoughts come to your mind, I commend to you a chapter in the Bible (
Philippians 4),
especially verse 8: “…if there be any virtue, and if there
be any praise, think on these things.” Think
on this, that God does not condemn His own daughters, that God delights in showing mercy
as the Father of comfort, that God does not pile up on you accusations so that you will
not be able to get out of bed tomorrow morning. God
does not do that. Look to Him for
justification, forgiveness of sin in Jesus Christ. Be
a joyful mother in Jesus.
And praise the Lord for what He
has done for you.
We must do that, not only as
mothers, but as husbands too. Sometimes I am
amazed that husbands cannot verbalize their thankfulness for their Christian wives and the
mother of their children. They say,
“Well, she knows. I don’t need to
tell her.” Do you talk that way? You should praise God and thank God and thank your
wife for all she does as a mother. Let the
Word of God mold us.
Yes, joyful mothers. The world will raise their eyebrows. They will say to you, “Another child? Don’t you know how children come? It’s going to ruin your figure.” Let them say what they want. Let us exalt God who delights in showing such
mercy that He raises us up and makes us a joyful mother of children.
Let us pray.
Father, we thank Thee for Thy Word
today, and we pray for its blessing upon our souls. Be
with us as Christian women and mothers. Pardon
all of our sins and establish the covenant with us and with our children after us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.