Elohim as Mother
Elohim as Mother
Does Elohim have a Feminine Side?
Insights into the Tender Love of Elohim
IMPORTANT NOTE FROM MLT!
There is great confusion in Christendom about the gender of the Godhead. The three Persons of the Godhead are known as YAHWEH the FATHER (who is male), YAH'SHUA (JESUS) the SON (who is male) and the RUACH HA-KODESH (HOLY SPIRIT) (who is female - our MOTHER - and consists of seven Persons). Together they are known as YAHWEH-ELOHIM* and because Yahweh the Father is the Head of the Godhead, they are collectively called "He" (male)**. The author of this article is not aware of this so please bear this in mind when reading his material. He is, however, perfectly correct in saying that Elohim (God) has a "feminine side" although She is far more feminine than he could ever have dreamed of! Moreover, the Godhead is 7 parts female and 2 parts male!
*Elohim can also refer to just the Father as the Head but usually represents all the Persons of theGodhead
**On a few rare occasions all three members of the Godhead can be called 'Yahweh' as an abbreviation of Yahweh-Elohim
To learn more about the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) as our Heavenly Mother, first read: http://nccg.org/trinity/1-3.html
Any feelings of love and tenderness and warmth
that the word ‘Mother’ conjures —
Elohim is all that and more
There are hearts for whom the words, ‘Daddy is home’ are the most chilling, terrifying words that could ever pierce the air. Tragically, these dear people cannot even imagine how those same words flood millions of hearts with delight, making them feel warm, secure and content. That children can beam from ear to ear at the sound of a father’s entry staggers their imagination. So different is their father that they find it almost beyond belief that there are those for whom their father is not only their protector and hero; Daddy is fun. There are children who know that in their Daddy’s eyes they are as close to perfection as any child could get. These greatly loved children know it is not because they are special; they think all fathers are like that.When seeking to portray something that nothing in the universe can match, it is a communicator’s nightmare that what for some people conveys the most powerfully evocative and accurate picture, is for other equally important people so far off beam as to be considerably worse than nothing.
If the Christian Elohim is even remotely like the person many people know as father, we would have good reason for rejecting and despising him.
For vast numbers of us today the word ‘father’ produces little of the warmly secure feelings of being cherished, doted on, protected and wisely guided that the word was intended to have when originally delivered to humanity. In present-day western society, fatherhood has suffered such horrific breakdown that what Yahweh’s Word meant by Father is as foreign to many of us as ox-drawn plows and other features of Bible times. For possible reasons behind this breakdown, see The Degradation of Fatherhood.
So should we think of Mother Elohim?
Genesis 1:27 So Elohim created man in his own image, in the image of Elohim he created him; male and female he created them.
This famous Scripture shows that women, as much as men, are in the image of Elohim. It also hints that both male and female were required for Elohim’s image to be complete. In fact it might be that a man and woman made one through marriage portray the fullness of Elohim better than individuals.
The Interpreter’s Bible Dictionary sees it as highly significant that the Hebrew term for the uniquely female organ, the uterus (womb), is used in the original Scriptures to describe God’s compassion.
Elohim’s wisdom is obviously an integral, eternal aspect of Elohim. Scripture frequently speaks of this highly rated aspect of Elohim’s character as if it were a person. Scholars believe John’s concept of the Logos, the Word that was God and became flesh (John 1:1-14) was derived from the Old Testament understanding of Wisdom as much, probably more, than from the Greek idea of Logos. And yet Wisdom, the one with whom are riches and honor and righteousness (Proverbs 8:18) and who shared with God in the creation of all things (Proverbs 8:27-31) is consistently given a female gender in Proverbs and by Yah'shua (Proverbs 1:20; 4:6; 8:1,11; 9:1; 14:33; Matthew 11:19; Luke 7:35).
Ponder these words from the lips of God:
Isaiah 66:13 As a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you . . .
The Amplified Bible leaves no doubt as to how its scholars interpret the words immediately prior to these:
Isaiah 66:12 For thus says Yahweh, ‘Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream; you shall be nursed, you shall be carried on her hip, and be trotted on her [Elohim’s maternal] knees. . .’
In a beautiful picture of maternal love, Yah'shua expressed the depth of divine compassion with the words:
Matthew 23:37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.
Since Yah'shua came to show us the Father (John 14:11-6) it is not surprising that we find in the Old Testament a similarly beautiful picture of Elohim’s love:
Psalms 36:7 How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings.
Significant Additional Scriptures about God as Mother
Millions upon millions of people see Yah'shua as tender and giving and compassionate; a friend of the outcast; a defender of the downtrodden; someone personally and voluntarily overwhelmed by the depths of human suffering. They see him as warm, approachable, innocent. He is all that is loving and desirable. He is a dove; a soft, inviting blanket to cozy into in a shivering world; a protector who would gladly take a knife or bullet for you. What is startling, however, is that many who rightly hold this view of Yah'shua see Yahweh differently. Nothing could break Yah'shua’s heart more than someone imagining the Yah'shua is kinder or gentler or more forgiving than the true Elohim.There are a million mistaken views about Elohim. Yah'shua’s Elohim – the true Elohim – is nothing like them. A significant part of Yah'shua's mission was to sort out the mess by revealing that Yahweh-Elohim as he really is, is exactly what you see in Yah'shua.
John 14:7,9-10 If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him . . . Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.
John 5:19 Jesus gave them this answer: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. . . .”
John 10:30 I and the Father are one.
Yah'shua’s Elohim is so different from the Elohim of most people’s imagination that one of the favorite names early Christians had for Elohim was “the Elohim and Father of our Lord Yah'shua the Messiah”.
Let’s select one of these:
2 Corinthians 1:3 Praise be to the Elohim and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the Elohim of all comfort (Other Scriptures)
No wonder the New Testament is filled with such Scriptures as:
Hebrews 1:3 The Son is the radiance of Elohim’s glory and the exact representation of his [i.e. Elohim’s] being . . .
When wanting to gain insight into Elohim, is it Scripture’s intention that we should use as a springboard not so much our feelings towards our parents as our parental feelings toward our own children?
Let’s read Scripture with new eyes:
Matthew 7:11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Yah'shua was not saying, think of your father: Elohim is like that. He was saying, think of your tender feelings and sacrificial love for your own children: Elohim is like that. Moreover, he was saying that Elohim’s love is so good and pure and selfless that alongside him even our best attempts at love are evil.
The insurmountable difficulty is that there will always be people for whom an analogy evokes the intended warm feelings of love and security far more effectively than any abstraction, and at the same time there will be some people, though fewer, for whom the analogy is a disaster. Any group of humans – children, lovers, grandparents, sisters, pet owners, pastors, nurses or any others you could name – who for some of us epitomize tenderness, loyalty, devotion, selflessness, wisdom and all things good and wholesome, will be symbols of raging hurt for a few of us.Communicators can only appeal to the intelligence and charitableness of their audience to realize that when they select an analogy they are thinking of the finest examples of that group of humans. There will be some dear people, however, whose emotional pain screams louder than their ability to be coldly intellectual. Ironically, those for whom an analogy is an excruciating disaster are the very ones who desperately need to discover that Elohim is the one person who can fill their gaping wound with his loving compassion and faithfulness.
Three times the New Testament in its original Greek refers to Elohim as Abba (Mark 14:36; Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). The peculiar thing is that this is not even a Greek word. It was the word Yah'shua used when speaking his native language. Mark, apparently because he felt there was something precious – almost sacred – about the expression, left Yah'shua’s choice of words untranslated. We can’t be sure whether Paul’s use of the term was influenced directly from Yah'shua’s earthly preaching or came from the apostle’s own revelation, but he, too, clearly felt there was no Greek equivalent that adequately reflected the depth of Abba.
It is popularly thought that Daddy is the best English approximation, but we can do a little better. For the people Yah'shua addressed, Abba was a baby’s first attempt to call out to its father. The closest English is Dadda. It is not entirely coincidental that it even sounds a little like Abba. It is derived from baby talk. Being one of the very first words a normal baby ever utters, it must be easy for a baby to say. (In some households the word would be Pappa, but again you’ll recognize the similarity.)
The significance of this choice is that Dadda engenders feelings of tenderness and intimacy and trust that might not be there with the more formal Father. The word Dad might suggest someone a little boring or taken for granted, but Dadda or Daddy has connotations of someone who is special, maybe even exciting. Names used by older children might also bring with it overtones of a disciplinarian, since fathers are likely to be stricter with older children than with babies. The point is that this tender expression was Yah'shua’s and Paul’s choice of the most appropriate form of address to Elohim.
If thinking of Elohim does not elicit within you warm feelings of love and acceptance and security, then you are missing a significant aspect of what Elohim was wishing to convey to humanity by the use of this word. When things get tough, Yahweh would like us to have the carefree confidence of a little child happily going off to play, certain that ‘Daddy will fix it.’
There are some very moving Scriptures about the depth of Yahweh’s compassion for his children. The eye can slip over them in casual reading, but I urge you to view these Scriptures one on top of another, letting the impact mount until they touch you deeply.
Of course divine love is not merely equal to that of earth’s best parents. Yahweh’s love, being perfect, is incomprehensibly superior to all human feelings.
Psalms 27:10 Though my father and mother forsake me, Yahweh will receive me.Matthew 7:11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
Isaiah 49:15 Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!
Yahweh-Elohim’s love is so immense that we are forced to scan the full range of human attachment and love and compassion to find a mere shadow of His feelings for us.
In grasping for glimpses into divine love that we might understand, Yah'shua in just one chapter, likened Elohim’s love to a woman, a shepherd, and a father. The woman was deeply anxious about her lost coin, which might have been part of her dowry, having great sentimental and emotional, as well as material, value. Today’s equivalent would be a stone from an engagement ring. The shepherd, upon finding the sheep, actually carried it home, joyfully lugging the quite heavy eastern animal on his shoulders. The highly forgiving father had apparently been on the constant lookout for his ungrateful son, day after day, month after month, year after year. Seeing him a long way off, he runs the distance, throws his arms around him and showers him with kisses in an emotional display that could call for no less than the slaughtering of the prize calf and throwing a party (Luke 15).
Another hint of Yahweh’s love is the commitment of the most faithful husband or even the excitement of a newly wed:
Isaiah 62:5 . . . as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your Elohim rejoice over you.
Yet another way that Scripture tries to convey to us what is ultimately indescribable is by using our commitment to our own body. The New Testament often refers to Christians as being part of Christ’s own body. What could be more intimate? Christ nourishes you, protects you and feels your pain, like you would feed, look after and to rush to soothe the pain of any part of your body.
Yahweh treats his people as the apple (pupil) of his eye – that most precious part of the body which we instantly shield by blinking or taking whatever measures are appropriate to meet its every need. Thus we find this description of how God treated the Israelites:
Deuteronomy 32:10 In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye.
In a rush of metaphors, the inspired psalmist prayed:
Psalms 17:8 Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings
And the Bible’s attempts to convey Yahweh’s love keeps coming. Many people think Yah'shua must have had a very special love for his earthly mother. He did. There’s a wonderful side to this, however, that is often overlooked. The special feelings Yah'shua had for Mary are the very same feelings he has for you. It is with that extreme devotion that he loves you.
Or maybe for some of us, the love of a brother or sister is more meaningful. No problem. Yah'shua said:
Matthew 12:50 For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.
Yah'shua’s longing to be our brother, pushed him to astounding extremes:
Hebrews 2:11 Both the one who makes men holy and those who are made holy are of the same family. So Yah'shua is not ashamed to call them brothers.
(14) Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death – that is, the devil –
(17) For this reason he had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to Elohim, and that he might make atonement for the sins of the people. (18) Because he himself suffered when he was tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Romans 8:29 For those Elohim foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
Ephesians 3:17 . . . And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, (18) may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, (19) and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of Elohim.
As brilliant as Paul was at communicating, he found himself forced to resort to prayer because he wanted his readers to gain insight that no amount of explaining or describing could ever achieve. He longed for them to experience the supernatural miracle of knowing that which was beyond knowing.
Each time Paul mentioned Abba, he did so in the context of receiving a revelation from the indwelling Spirit of Elohim.
Romans 8:15 For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.”
Galatians 4:6 Because you are sons, Elohim sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out, “Abba, Father.”
So the only hope we have of truly knowing Elohim’s love is by a spiritual miracle that begins with new birth.
Vast numbers of us carry wounds because our earthly father was considerably less than perfect. Your loving Lord feels your pain and he wants to heal you in two ways:
1. By continually being the Perfect Father you have always deserved. (This is something you secretly crave and yet something you fear. What makes it scary is the thought of again being let down. Thankfully, unlike any human, Elohim fully understands and is utterly trustworthy.)
2. By removing the festering bitterness that would otherwise keep infecting your wound and preventing healing.
The following few paragraphs are extracted from my web series for survivors of sexual abuse. Maybe your resentment is as strong towards your father as implied below, maybe it is less, but the principles remain the same.
Suppose someone broke your hand. This makes you so mad that every day as you pass that person’s photo hanging on the wall, you punch it with your broken hand. The release of pent up anger might feel good, but the constant punching prolongs your agony and prevents your hand from ever healing. A desire to see someone else suffer inevitably ends up perpetuating our own suffering.
The devastating thing is that resentment is addictive. Like a junkie, we focus so much on the welcome relief resentment offers that we hardly realize it inflames the downer that follows, and so the agonizing cycle continues.
It is unlikely that we will ever see the person we resent suffer so much as to satisfy our lust for revenge. So if we follow this track, in fifty years’ time we will still be no closer to a resolution.
For as long as we are dominated by the longing to see someone suffer, that person has succeeded in lowering us to his abysmal level. He hurt us. Now we want him to hurt. We degrade ourselves by entering the slimy world of hate, staggering through life a defeated person, floundering in the same moral mud in which our tormentor lives. In fact, sex offenders are often themselves abuse victims with heart-wrenching stories. They failed to resolve their anger and pain and so inflict it on others. Regardless of how it manifests, resentment enslaves and corrupts its victims. Pathetically, people blinded by anger or hate usually feel morally superior to other people who are blinded by anger or hate. Bitter people are beautiful people turned ugly. Thankfully the process is reversible, once we learn to forgive.
We move from victim to victor only when we break free from resentment’s death-grip.
I often hike in wilderness areas infested with snakes so venomous that without specialized medical treatment I would have only a couple of hours to live after being bitten. Suppose a snake bit me, then slid out of sight. I would be a fool to squander precious time angrily trying to find and kill the snake. First priority must be to seek medical attention.
For your own survival, focus on healing, not revenge.
I am convinced that just as martyrs are especially honored in heaven, so are those who have suffered greatly and yet have forgiven.
Forgiving others is tough. It is so critical to our own emotional and spiritual well-being that our spiritual enemy strongly attacks us on this issue. Nevertheless, divine help is available.
It’s sometimes subconscious, but people suffering great difficulty in forgiving others usually have as the basis of their agony the pain of having great difficulty forgiving themselves. The two sides of forgiveness – forgiving yourself and forgiving others – rise or fall together. Many people raging against someone else’s guilt are pressured to do so by an urge to keep suppressed the tortured screams of their own conscience. Their subconscious is forever frantically trying to deflect the attention off themselves by blaming others. Peace soothes our troubled mind when we dwell on the extent of the forgiveness and purity that we have in Christ. When we realize how much Yahweh has forgiven us, it becomes easier to act more Godlike and have that same forgiving attitude towards ourselves and others. For this reason, I recommend beginning with the webpages about handling guilt. Other pages you will benefit from are:
Breaking the stranglehold of bitterness:
Wrap Up
A failure of those close to you to love you like Yahweh loves might leave you emotionally bleeding. But everything that is missing in human love is found in the endless depths of the One who longs to hold you in his arms forever.
Those close to you are imperfect, but the One who is closest to you is perfect. Everything that a starry eyed bride could wish for in love and security and faithfulness and devotion; everything a little child could hope for in a Mommy or Daddy or brother or sister or grandparent; Yahweh-Elohim is all that and more.
© Copyright, Grantley Morris, 1999, 2005. For much more by the same author, see www.net-burst.net
No part of these writings may copied without citing this entire paragraph. No part may be sold.
