The Motherhood of God

Isaiah 66:13
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div.
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore

I suppose the attribute and character of God is by far the most preached subject of the Bible.   God’s infinite righteous character is solid and dependable.  His attributes are immutable: they do not change.  However, one aspect of God is often overlooked or simply ignored.  This morning I want us to explore the Motherhood of God.  God does refer to himself in the masculine gender.  Jesus always referred to him as Father.  Yet, God does utilize the feminine aspects of Motherhood at times when speaking of himself.

We are going to read a portion of the creation story.  In this record we discover that God is both the mother and the father of creation.  From his very being God created man and then created woman.  I would like for you to note Genesis 1:26, “Then God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness and let them have dominion…..”  Verse 27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”  God’s image involves both the male and female aspect.  I am not contending that God is female nor male.  God is Spirit.  But what I am asking us to consider this morning is God’s motherhood as well as his fatherhood. 

Isaiah writes this in Isaiah 66:13, “As one whom his mother comforts, so will I comfort you.”  In these humble words we have one of the sweetest and tenderest pictures of the character of God.  In the New Testament, Jesus teaches us to think of God as our heavenly father.  But here in the Old Testament, God is likened unto a comforting mother.