Is there a heavenly mother?

Now when we look at the New Testament, where we have the heavenly bride, we have the Father, but no mother. Why the Father there, and the mother here? Because for us, all is divine in its source. The Father — the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — He is the One that is our God and our Father. But the mother is connected more with nature. The Father of Christ, who is the source of everything, is the One that gives us our place and being and relationship; but not the mother. We find here Israel's connection as the mother, so that I think there need not be a doubt on the part of any person who is open to conviction. Of course I am entirely hopeless of convincing those that will not be convinced. But I think that those that are willing to face the word of God need have no question whatever left in their souls as to the true intended bearing of this beautiful book.

Evidently, the church has no mother (who could this be?). This idea would be entirely foreign to Scripture. In relation to the future Jewish remnant, however, both will be true: they have a mother and a sister. As Ezekiel puts it: “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother” (Ezek. 23:2). These three women correspond exactly to the mother and the two daughters (sisters) in the Song of Solomon.

366 Luke 13:34. — For the motherhood of GOD, see Deut. 32:18, and cf., of course, Matt. 23:37-39, where a lamentation over Jerusalem was uttered by the Lord in the city itself, similar to this placed in Galilee at an earlier time.

There is a saying, ‘the hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world”. I desire to speak tonight to mothers, and in principle to fathers also. I say in support of that that there is a brother in the Scriptures who tells us he was acting as a mother, he says, “My children, of whom I travail in birth again”—that is mother's work but it was a man who said it—“until Christ be formed in you” (Gal. 4:19). Paul also said on another occasion, “We were gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children” (1 Thess. 2:7).

The first reference to mothering in Scripture is in the second verse of Genesis, “Darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. The same word is used in another passage where the eagle “ fluttereth over her young, spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings” (Deut. 32:11). It is the mothering instinct that is prominent. So the first reference to mothering activity in the word of God is related to God, we could expect that, and it is related to the activity of the Spirit of God because it is the Spirit of God who works subjectively in regard to the creation, and in regard to those who are related to the new creation. When we get to the end of the word of God the last reference to a mother is in Revelation 17, and what is said of her is this, “mother of harlots and abominations of the earth” (v. 5). Genesis is the seed plot of the Bible and we can expect to see in Revelation the seeds full blown. Thank God we do, but there is always that counterfeiting activity of the devil, to oppose and to counterfeit the mothering activity of God. The mother of harlots is the conglomeration of all that which is spurious, that which is foul, that which is defiling, it is all headed up in a system that is called Babylon. That system is shaping today.

Most salutary in this place is the added word — “and his mother and mine.” Doubtless the mother of Rufus had shown a mother's love and care for Paul. But what is the fruitful principle that will produce the world-wide glory and blessing that Rufus illustrates? The legal covenant will not do it, for this is the bondwoman; both she and her children are slaves. Nor indeed will the corrupt woman Babylon: she is “the mother of harlots and abominations.” “But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:26). This is the heavenly principle of divine grace, of which the birth of the Lord Jesus is the blessed fruit — His death also, and resurrection. And all who are of faith have the same blessed liberty of being sons of the freewoman — identified in grace with the Lord of glory.

"Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not: break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband." (Gal. 4:24-27.)

"But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the mother of us all." The word "all" has been added to this verse. The true text ends with "us," and obviously the sense is fuller and better without it. "All" was added, probably, by those who thought to strengthen the connection of all the children of God; whereas the inspired writer particularly refers to those that had been Jews. He says, We are no longer children of Jerusalem which is below, but we belong to Jerusalem which is above. As to the earthly Jerusalem, we owe her no allegiance now; we belong to Christ, and consequently to the heavenly Jerusalem. For it is written — and now he refers to a passage in the prophets — "Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband" The meaning may be a little obscure at first, but adds much, when understood, to the force of what the apostle insists on. It is connected not so much with Hagar and Sarah, as with the reference to Jerusalem. See Isaiah 54, where Jerusalem in a future day is looking back upon her past trials, and God makes a remarkable reckoning of grace. He is speaking of the time when she was long desolate, of her present season of trial, when she is reft of all her outward privileges; but of that very time it says, she has more children than even when the Lord was her husband. In Hosea Israel is spoken of as one most guilty, and the Lord about to put her away. Then she is the desolate one: the Lord has forsaken her because of her sin; but in due time, before there is any outward deliverance from under Gentile captivity or oppression, grace begins to work, and all those who are brought in under Christ now are counted in a certain respect her children. But all is connected with Jerusalem that is to be — Jerusalem that will have ceased to be Hagar and have taken the ground of grace. So that when she looks upon the Christians who will then be in their own heavenly place, the Lord will count them as children of the desolate wife. He will say, "Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not; for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband." It is a comparison of herself during her time of desolation with herself when she had a husband. The latter was the time when she was owned in her earthly standing, and she had few children then; but now, in her desolation, there is a mighty outpouring of God's grace, and a wide ingathering of souls, who are counted, by grace, as her children.

But the “bride,” “the Lamb's wife,” of Rev.21:2,9, is not the Church, but the “New Jerusalem.” The heavenly city is the Lamb's wife in His character as “the Father of Eternity” (Isa.9:6, Heb.). Christians, with all saints, are viewed as the “children” of this wife, for she is that “Jerusalem which is above…which is the mother of us all” (Gal.4:26). This is the great “free woman” of Scripture and of the prophets, of which Sarah was a type (Gal.4:21-31). It is a symbolic representation of that great bosom of grace and new creation which God, in His counsels, espoused to Himself as the fruitful principle by which He would beget all His spiritual children.

Nor is there any satisfactory ground in Gal.4:26; and this is the more in point because the apostle does say that Abraham's two sons, and their mothers, contain an allegory; not the language of the prophets, but the persons and facts in Genesis. "Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that now is; for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother," the critical text rejecting the word "all." The truth is that this scripture disproves the hypothesis, instead of giving the least warrant to construe Jerusalem of the church. Our mother, says the apostle, is "the Jerusalem that is above." The note to p. 32 <search for Gal. 6:16> has shown "the Israel of God" to mean those Israelites who now believe the gospel, and so to give no licence to call Christians, Israel, or to read Israel in the Old Testament into Christians. The general body of believers are distinguished from this special class, "the Israel of God," in the verse itself.

First we have the church, seen in her administrative capacity under the figure of a city. It is Jerusalem above, free, not in bondage, the mother of us all (Gal. 4:26). What grace to link us up with that which is nearest to the heart of Christ. How often we look at things from a merely individualistic point of view, from the village pump standard, instead of being linked up in our minds with the whole church of God upon earth, a member of Christ, to display Him in our place and measure, as fitting in with the whole scheme of display of His grace.