#3 I AM: Love (Like a Mother) Exodus 33:19

Transcription

1 Series: I AM: Discovering the Character of God #3 I AM: Love (Like a Mother) Exodus 33:19 Dr. Matthew Cassidy 5/12/14 You Tube: P & G Thank You, Mom Pick Them Back Up (Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games) [Closing caption of video: For teaching us that falling only makes us stronger. ] That is about as good as it gets today. I don t know how many times I have seen that video and I want to cry every time. Our media team found that and we are grateful. Review It is Mother s Day and I want to talk to you about attributes of God that relate to that. One of the reasons we have the Bible and one of the reasons Jesus came to walk amongst His creation is because God has a bad reputation. What I mean by that is He has an inaccurate reputation. We ascribe things to Him that are not true about His nature, about His emotions, and what motivates Him. Because of that, we end up living lives that are usually filled with maybe shame or anger or spite. There are probably a 1000 different descriptive terms to how to live when you don t understand what God is like. But in summary, I will tell you that your life will be a lie because you are living as though God were one way but He is not; He is a different way. Understanding that, God spent an enormous amount of time and effort to preserve a biography, called the Bible, which is about Him so that we would know what He is absolutely like. The Bible has been preserved over time so that the message itself would be clear and true. But we don t listen to it and we don t read it. How many times in Jesus life on earth do you hear Him say: You have heard it said. But I am here to tell you this. You have heard people talk about the Father like this; I am here to tell you it is absolutely the opposite of that. We continually find ourselves misrepresenting God and, therefore, in many respects living a lie. Two weeks ago, we looked at God s attribute of being trustworthy. He is like an anchor. But even that word is contaminated because we say things like: I am trustworthy. My handshake is as strong as oak. Really? You want to close a deal on a handshake? You would sign on the dotted line? We would say sure, because we know that even if it doesn t work out, it is all about who has the best lawyer. I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 1 of 11

2 But we would be scared if we had to sign our name in blood would we not? What if you had to sign your name in blood? That is what God does to explain and to help us understand the idea of His trustworthiness being an anchor to us. In the Old Testament, God comes up with this word picture called a covenant. It means to cut a covenant. They would make blood covenants. God says: I cannot lie. I don t know how to lie. It is impossible for Me to lie and so I will show you how trustworthy I am by making a blood covenant. His promises are true. The ultimate fulfillment of this blood covenant is the ultimate fulfillment of His promise that He would send a Provider, a Promised One, a Savior. It is in His blood, the blood of Jesus Christ that we were singing about that He made and fulfilled that promise. God is trustworthy; He is like an anchor to your soul. Last week we looked at the attribute that God is loving, like a father. He wants to make us holy. Even that word, father, is polluted, because some of us do not have very good fathers. Even if you had the ultimate expression of a father, He says over and over again: Your father is like this God the Father is so much more. The love of the Father is committed to making you holy. That experience of being holy, what God wants to make out of your life, would blow your mind. That is what God is up to in loving us like a Father. Today s topic: God s Love (Like a Mother) Today we are going to look at the attribute that God is loving like a mother. His great compassions never fail. God is loving Like a mother And His compassions never fail. I want to spend time on this today because what you believe about God is the most important thing about you. Today we will look at this mother love that in our opening video allows us to fall so that we will learn we only grow stronger by getting up. We are going to learn about God s love being maternal, as intimate, that is disciplined, merciful, and that His compassion is relentlessly pursuing us. It is unrelenting love and that is what we are going to look at today. I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 2 of 11

3 Context and Definitions I feel like we need to do two things before we look at the stories of the Bible that illustrate this maternal love. The first is learning about the word compassion, which in the Bible almost exclusively describes God. Let me show you this in a Scripture passage that is used throughout the rest of the Bible from Exodus 33 on, as the most descriptive sentences to drawn boundaries on the nature of God. Exodus 33:18-20 Then Moses said, Now show me your glory. And the Lord said, I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But, He said, you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live. The most descriptive word for God that is used from the beginning of the Bible to the end is this word compassion. In Hebrew it is pronounced rahaim. Let s all say that together. It is probably not pronounced that way. I am really no good at Hebrew but that is the way it is going to roll today. [I was dating Melinda when I was taking Hebrew in graduate school and I don t remember a thing and I am still blaming her for it.] Rahaim means compassion. It is such a picturesque term that even the term alone is inadequate because most of the time when it is being used to describe God, they put the word great in front of it. He has great compassion. He has great rahaim. It is rarely used to describe a human being. On those exceptions when a human being is described as rahaim, as compassion, it is a female who is being described as compassionate or merciful or having loving kindness. Here is why. The Hebrew language is one of pictures and the picture that we are supposed to have in our souls when we think about the compassion of God is the word womb. Rahaim means compassion and it is the same word for womb. God is greatly compassionate, like a mother s love. It is never failing. This word, womb, captures that in a way that we could not understand. This place is safe for us. It is comfortable for us. It is a place where we just receive, where we are nurtured all the time. It is the safest and most protected place in our whole experience. It is the womb of our mother. That is the same word rahaim for God s compassion towards us. Whenever we see the word from now on today, I will have it in all capital letters, in red, and I want you to think that this is womb love, womb compassion; it is great mercy towards us from God. I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 3 of 11

4 Is that the way you think about God? Is that the way you live your life in light of that? We will see as we look for ways to apply that more effectively. The second is learning that faith is Peek-a-boo. Eugene Peterson is a Bible scholar, famous for writing a translation of the Bible you might own, called The Message. It is an easy-to-read Bible translation. He wrote an article a number of years ago called Back to Square One: God Said. Eugene Peterson compared and contrasted infants to infantile faith. He compares young people to young faith. He particularly spent time on a phrase you might know object permanence. You moms or dads might know this phrase. Object Permanence is that value that infants and toddlers have. You, the adult, are only permanent when the infant can see you. This is the magic of Peek-a-boo. The reason Peek-a-boo works with infants is because when they don t see you, you don t exist. You are not there any more. So you say to them, Peek-a-boo and they think you just came up out of thin air. Then you shield your face with your hands again and to the child, you are gone you are there you are gone you are there. You can do this for hours and you might have suffered that. The child has no concept of their not seeing you but you are still there. Eugene Peterson says: People do that in their relationship with God. If people who are infants in their faith say: If I don t feel His presence or experience His answers to my prayers, then He is not there. He does not exist. He is not happy with me. He is probably vindictive. Or if they comprehend object permanence, they say: God exists regardless of my circumstances and independent of my emotions and feelings. Today, what I am trying to appeal to is a goal of a mature faith that you believe in God s rahaim, His great compassion never fails you, independent of what you have experienced, where you are now, or what you are feeling particularly. Isn t the very definition of object permanence faith? Faith is this peek-aboo. In the Bible, faith is defined as Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. You don t see but you have a conviction He is behind there somewhere and you believe it and act that way. How do you do with peek-a-boo in your personal relationship with God? If you experience two days in a strange place that is a little scary: Where is God now? Where did He go? I am lost. I have been abandoned. That is an infant stage of faith. I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 4 of 11

5 If you experience two weeks in a hospital bed and the medical team still does not have a diagnosis peek --- a ---- boo. Maybe that would be adolescence in the faith before you wonder: Does He care or does He know? If you experience 14 summers, always the groomsman but never the groom, and you quit talking to God about the fact He said: It is not good for man to be alone. That is a mature faith. Today, let s combine these two things that compassion, rahaim, means this womb-like love with peek-a-book that faith is being able to believe when you don t see. That is what we will look at today. How long it takes us to go without any kind of experience or personal emotion or return on a prayer request before we say: All is lost. I am being ignored. God s discipline is vindictive. He has given up on me Or, we are going to grow mature when we begin to understand that His love for us is intimate and affectionate at all times. God s discipline is merciful in fact. God s love for us is persistently, constantly coming at us. That is what we are going to see. Three Biblical accounts demonstrating God s Compassion I am going to tell you three stories and I think there are twelve stories in the Bible where this particular word for compassion is used rahaim this word that means womb. We will look at three stories that help us visualize the different flavors or perspectives of rahaim. Then we will consider how we should look at this and how should we live. These three stories are all in the Old Testament because it is written in Hebrew. A. The theme of the first story is that God loves us like a mother and His compassion is intimate. It is a feminine word, womb. It is intimate. It means affectionate. It is used in Isaiah to contrast the most loving and nurturing mother but that is nothing in comparison to the love and nurture of God. This is where the maternal aspect of God is shown in conjunction and contrast with this word rahaim. Zion is Israel. Isaiah 49:14-16 But Zion (Israel) said, The Lord has forsaken me, [woe is me] and the Lord has forgotten me. God comes back. :15 Can a woman forget her nursing child and have no compassion [rahaim] on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms [of My hands]; I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 5 of 11

6 You ladies who have had children, can you imagine in your wildest, darkest moment, forgetting your child that you have nursed or are nursing on your breast? Really? Never. Or the son you raised from your womb, could you have a moment where you go: What was his name? Not likely. God comes in and says: That is not even the entry level of God s intimacy and affection He has towards you. Application: Let s put it to the peek-a-boo test. How long before you think that God has forgotten you, that you are not even in His memory? Are you in this infant stage where all is good therefore God is good. Or, are you at a more mature stage of your spiritual life that says: God is good. He affectionately loves me regardless of circumstances or the trials that I am in. God is always good. God is always compassionate. His mercies are great towards me. Live this way, that in that moment, when however fast it might be that you have doubts about God s concern for you, that you would imagine that when He opens His hands up, this the God who sent His own Son for you. How will God not with His Son also freely give you all things? [Romans 8:32] When He looks at His palm, He sees your name. His thoughts are fixated upon you, it says. You might forget your child but God will never forget you because His loving kindness is like a mother; it is affectionate. Do you live that way? 2. The theme of the second story is that God loves us like a mother and His compassion will discipline you with mercy. This is a more complicated story to understand. In the Old Testament, the greatest king of Israel in their history was David [you know him from the account of David and Goliath]. When David takes over the kingdom, he is supposed to rule God s nation as an archetype of how to live by faith. So, David is supposed to put his trust in the power of God and the protection of God. David continually dealt with the issue of pride and power. So some given Tuesday, in a moment of weakness, he tells his head general, Joab, and all of his generals who are like his military council sitting before him, he says: I want you to number all the men in our army and all the men who could be in our army. Then I want you to enlist them into our army. I want to know how big this vast military is. You can t brag about how big your army is unless you know exactly how big it is. There is nothing wrong with numbering and there is a lot of that going on here. But it is clear that it was about selfish ambition and pride that was motivating David instead of humility and dependence on God. Joab, this five-star general who worked directly with him, said: David, don t do this. All of us are against this because we don t brag about how many men we have. We brag about how big our God is. I know what is motivating you is nothing short of arrogance. I would hope that you would see the troops multiplied a hundredfold and see God work in our military expeditions before you would number the troops. Don t do I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 6 of 11

7 this. (2 Samuel 24:8-16) David replied: Tomorrow, get started. Joab said: Guilt will fall on our entire country if you do this. David replied: That is an order. --- David commits this crime. 2 Samuel 24:8 After they had gone through the entire land, they came back to Jerusalem at the end of nine months and twenty days. [They even name the number of days] :10 [Then] David was conscience-stricken after he had counted the fighting men, and he said to the Lord, I have sinned greatly in what I have done. Now, O Lord, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing. :11 Before David got up the next morning, the word of the Lord had come to Gad the prophet, David s seer: :12 Go and tell David, This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options [for your discipline]. Choose one of them for Me to carry out against you. :13 So Gad went to David and said to him, Shall there come upon you three years of famine in your land? [The disciplinarian will be nature.] Or three months of fleeing from your enemies while they pursue you? [The disciplinarian will be other men.] Or three days of plague in your land? [The disciplinarian will be God s angel.] Now then, think it over and decide how I should answer the one who sent me. David realizes he has done something terribly, terribly wrong and both he and his country will pay for it. He has to choose what kind of paddle he is going to be hit with. Here is what David appeals to. :14 David said to Gad, I am in deep distress. Let us fall into the hands of the Lord, for His compassion [His rahaim] is great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men. David knows God s discipline is merciful. David says: I have to be spanked for this. This pride has to be removed from me somehow. I want God to do it because His discipline is merciful. What happens is there are three days of plague. The angel of judgment moves over Israel and when it gets to Jerusalem :16 When the angel stretched out his hand to destroy Jerusalem, the Lord was grieved because of the calamity and said to the angel who was afflicting the people, Enough! Withdraw your hand. Do you know why? God s discipline is compassionate and merciful. Enough was done. The lesson was learned. Application: Faith is peek-a-boo. How long does it take when you are living with the consequences of your choices or the realization that you have deep-seated root weeds in your soul that need to be pulled? How long after the first throbbing before you say: Woe is me. God is vindictive. He I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 7 of 11

8 hates me. Why all of this? Are you like an infant where you think that God would be compassionate if He would just leave you alone with your pettiness and selfishness, with your superficial values of life, and greed or vanity or anger? Would that be compassionate if God just let you be? Or, are you a mature person of faith who realizes that when God is going to discipline you, you know this is not a limb that needs to be cut off; this is a weed that needs to be dug out and the roots go deep on some of our sins. So, you say to Him, God, if You have the spade out, let s go get it and get it all. I know this about You that You are loving like a mother and Your compassion is shown in your discipline with mercy. God is not out to break you. He is out to push you into a break through moment because that is what compassion does. That is what rahaim looks like in God. 3. The theme of the third story is that God loves us like a mother and His compassion is persistent. It is unrelenting. It is always coming at us. It never gives up. The volume is always on full. We cannot out send this God. He will not leave us alone. In the book of Nehemiah, it is essentially the history of Israel, about 700 years of history. I will read four paragraphs and with each paragraph, there is a common theme: (1) the rebellion of the people of God (that is you; if you follow Christ, you are a child of God.), (2) and the consistent rahaim, great compassion of God. Listen for that. Listen for the volatility of our obedience and the persistence of God. Nehemiah is doing this survey, back to the golden calf [Exodus 32]. You might have seen that in the movies. Nehemiah 9:18-31 Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf [made out of gold], and said, This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt, or when they committed awful blasphemies. Because of your great compassion, You did not abandon them in the desert. By day the pillar of cloud did not cease to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. :26-27 But they were disobedient and rebelled against You; they put your law behind their backs. They killed Your prophets, who had admonished them in order to turn them back to You; they committed awful blasphemies. So you handed them over to their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to You. From heaven You heard them, and in your great compassion [rahaim] You gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies. This is unedited. This is just the next sentence. :28 But as soon as they were at rest, they again did what was evil in Your sight. Then You abandoned them to the hand of their enemies so that they ruled over them. And when they I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 8 of 11

9 cried out to You again, You heard from heaven, and in your compassion You delivered them time after time. :29-30 You warned them to return to Your law, but they became arrogant and disobeyed Your commands. They sinned against Your ordinances, by which a man will live if he obeys them. Stubbornly they turned their backs on You, became stiff-necked and refused to listen. For many years You were patient with them. By Your Spirit You admonished them through Your prophets. Yet they paid no attention, so You handed them over to the neighboring peoples. The summary of the story -- :31 But in Your great compassion [rahaim] You did not put an end to them or abandon them, for You are a gracious and compassionate [rahaim] God. The only thing they succeeded at was failure. The only thing we succeed at is failure. God s love is like a mother s love that is relentless. It is forever charging. It is never turned down. It is always dominating and domineering us. Application: Faith is peek-a-boo. So what sin is it? Or is it a list of sins that you get to and then you say: God is not there any more. He has had enough. He has given up on you. You have hit the mark and went past the line and you are done. Or, do you have a mature faith that says: What can you do to out sin the great [rahaim] compassion of God? Do you have a mature faith? Do you live a life that reflects that the love of God is like a mother s love for you? His compassion never fails you. How do you grow up spiritually? How do you grow up? How do you get from this peek-a-boo life to a mature life? Well, Eugene Peterson helps us with that. He gives us three ways to help us grow. He does this in a marvelous way. I am not going to spend much time on it because so much of it is review for us. 1. Listen to God more than yourself. A child is consumed with his current circumstances and his current condition. That is all he/she thinks about, talks about, cries about, or moans about. No wonder God is not present because that is all that is on this child s mind. The best thing you could ever do for your maturity or to grow up is to spend more time reading what the promises of God are, how He has defined himself and not your definitions for Him. You read those words; you memorize those words; you meditate on those words; you fill your life with the promises and attributes of God. Be consumed with those words that are true. 2. Obey the Word of God. We must respond to what we hear and what we read in the Bible. I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 9 of 11

10 The idea here is separation anxiety. If you parents, you are familiar with this. When you drop your child is some kind of daycare situation, they scream and cry for you. You go around the corner and then you come back. That is a little like peek-a-boo. Separation anxiety is the belief that you are never going to come back. How does a child grow out of that? The parent usually has to leave them somewhere and in their little brain they are studying your consistency in coming back. There is a lot of crying and adjustments taking place. That is you. What attribute of God, what aspect of God s nature are you the most vulnerable in the context of peek-a-boo; name it. Then try to extend the time before you start doubting God. In that time, you are meditating not on your circumstances. You are not consumed with your own emotions. You are going back to these promises of God and saying: This is true, regardless of my circumstances or my emotions. I will not be determined by my circumstances. You make a project out of realizing that God can go around the corner for two days, for two weeks, for 14 summers. That is how. 3. Listen and believe the right people. [This is mine, not Eugene Peterson s.] There are people who you might spend time with who are telling you that: God does not care about you. God is not intimate. God s disciplines are vindictive and He is just punishing you because He enjoys it. Or, they are telling you that God has given up on you and you have committed the unforgiveable sin, whatever that might be. I will tell you, life is not long enough for you to endure those kinds of relationships. Spend time with people who say this: What does the Bible say? Remember the first thing you have to do to mature? You read the Bible. Don t fill your mind with your thoughts and don t fill your mind with my thoughts. I am telling you to go read the Bible. What passage did you read today? What memory verse do you have stuck on your dashboard? What are you meditating on? That is a good friend. Are you meditating on the fact that God is intimate with you and that God is rahaim, like a mother s womb towards you? Are you meditating on the fact that His disciplines are merciful and His compassion will not spank you any more than you must receive. His discipline is for good and not for evil. He is always, relentlessly pursuing you with great mercy. That is what God s love is like. Why is God this way? Think about that. Why is God greatly compassionate towards us? I will go back to the very beginning. Exodus 33:19 I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. God has compassion towards you I am sorry, great compassion towards you. He has rahaim towards you because He has chosen to. That is that. That is why it is settled. God said so and so it is. I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 10 of 11

11 Here is what I would like to do to finish up. Would you mind closing your eyes, maybe bowing your head and I want to ask you some questions to see how your faith is growing in the assurance of the things you hope for and if you are convicted about things you cannot see because your eyes are covered [peek-a-boo]. Do not lose hope because you think God is distant. God is close to you. He is intimate with you. His rahaim is like a mother s womb. He cannot forget you. Your name is written on His palm. Do you believe that? Do you live like that is true? Do not lose hope because you think pain is purposeless. Indeed most pain is purposeful. His discipline is rahaim; it is compassionate. He will never leave you. Do not lose hope because you think that God has given up on you -- that you have crossed the line and you have gone too far and you hit the place of no return. That is not true. God has not given up on you. He cannot give up on you. He is obliged by His own promises to be compassionate towards you. He will never leave you. He cannot forsake you. God loves you like a mother and His great compassions will never fail. Believe that and live that way. Lord, help us do that. In the name of Jesus we all pray. Amen I AM Love.Mother.Cassidy.web.docx Page 11 of 11