Her Children Call Her Blessed

Introduction

I know many of you here, or at least on your mind, is the very fact that today our nation has designated it as a special day in memory of mothers. We call it Mother’s Day. And while that’s not really a biblical or religious day set aside by the Word of God, yet it is a day, or it is a relationship that the Bible says a great deal about. And I think it’s certainly worthy that we should pause to give honor and thanksgiving to those whom we love as mothers, who have guided us, nourished us, and helped us to be who we are. Abraham Lincoln once said, All I am and all I hope to be, I owe to my mother. But more than that, the fact is that godly women are the kind of women who do indeed make an impact in this world.

The book of Proverbs, chapter 31, probably has as much to say, or as often quoted as any other chapter or passage of the Bible when we talk about godly women. In verse 10, in fact, it speaks about the woman who is worth more than anything money can buy. Raises the question who can find a virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies. Without reading that whole text, and I’m sure it’s one that you probably read many times, and it’s certainly worthy of reading, it really describes a lifetime of a godly woman. But noticeing the fruit of her labors, beginning in verse 25, the scripture says, Strength and honor are her clothing, and she shall rejoice in time to come. She openeth her mouth with wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of kindness.

She looketh well to the ways of her household and eateth not the bread of idleness. Her children arise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praiseth her. Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all. Favor is deceitful, and beauty is vain. But a woman that feareth the Lord, she shall be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates. Our society today, our culture at least, seems to lend a far different approach to what makes a woman great than what these scriptures seem to imply. So many women have been plagued with the idea that if you’re not really excelling in some career, you’re not going to make a mark or an impact in this world.

And many daughters, at least, have been urged that they need to get that college education and need to excel in some kind of occupation. That if they’re really going to make some kind of mark in this world, that the way they’ll do it is either in the business world or maybe in politics or some kind of way that really singles them out as some kind of individual that has really made an impact. But when you look at the word of God, it honors many women. But not because of the kind of things our society, with its pagan ideas, that our society has tried to urge upon us all. Really, as an example of that, I some years ago, Arlene and I used to help with a summer camp.

It was a Laura College Summer camp in Dry Creek, Louisiana. Some twenty five years ago, we actually helped start that, and for the first four or five years would go early in the week and stay all week, and that meant you didn’t sleep much, and when you got home, you were dead tired. But it was a time with our children that we really thoroughly enjoyed helping the young people. Well, the time finally came where one year I just really didn’t have the week to go. And at that point in time, Brother John Kilgore, who still directs that particular summer camp, he urged me, said, I want you at least to come over. And so on Thursday, I thought, well, I can go the last three days of the camp, last uh two nights of it at least and days.

When I arrived that day, about noon, it was about a three-hour drive from where I lived. Brother Kilgore began to describe to me the theme that week of the camp was to help young people focus on their goals for life. In fact, he said on the Sunday afternoon, as the young people began to gather, he asked them two different questions. Number one, the question was, describe who you are. And the next question, what you hope to become. In other words, the first question was you might say, I am a daughter, I am a sister, I’m in the seventh grade or whatever, and just describe who you are. And then the next question, well, what do you want to be? What are your goals for life? And then he pointed out it was the lunch line at that time when I arrived, and he said he pointed the youngest girl there, the shortest girl there, about nine years old.

And he said, You wouldn’t believe what she put down on her list of what she wanted to be. Well, number one, had three things they were to put down. And number one, she wanted to be a Christian. Well, that’s a pretty good goal, right? For those who are raised by godly parents, you’d hope that’d be their number one goal. The second was that she wanted to be a wife. Well, again, that’s a godly goal for a young woman, a Christian wife. Number three, she put she wanted to be a sex symbol. Now, how those go together. You notice they don’t go together, do they? But that was the influence of television. That was the influence of the media. That was the influence of the world in its thinking today.

She didn’t realize at that early age that didn’t go together. But how many of our young people are influenced by the media rather than by the word of God. I’m thankful that I was blessed with a with a great mother and with a godly wife. And with mother of our four children, with three of whom are certainly wonderful daughters who are making great mothers of their children. But I’ll tell you, none of them are even Bible examples, excel because of their political fame, or because of their acumen in business. It isn’t because they’ve followed some career of the world that has elevated women. In fact, when you look at the Bible, there are some great mothers. And I’m going to share with you at least stories of three different ones of what made them great.

1. Samuel Consecrated to God by a Godly Mother

First of all, if you have your Bible open, turn to me to 1 Samuel chapter 1. And there we find the story about the mother of the last judge of Israel, and the man who really became the one who started the school of the prophets. Samuel is his name. Samuel anointed the first two kings of Israel. He really was prophet and judge of Israel. And with Samuel, the call of Samuel, formed a turning point in the in the history of the Old Testament kingdom of God. As the prophet of Jehovah, Samuel was to lead the people of Israel out of the times of the judges and into the times of the kings. He laid the foundation, you might say, of the prosperous and the prosperous development of the monarchy of Israel itself.

Samuel, though, was consecrated to God by a godly mother. When you read the story of 1 Samuel, it begins by telling about the husband, first of all, a man named El Cana, the son of Jehoram, the son of Elihu, the son of Tohu, the son of Zuth, and Nephrafite. He had two wives, first two sets. And the name of the one was Hannah, the name of the other, Phenina. The difference? Phenina had children. Hannah did not. Now Cana evidently was a godly man himself. And the scripture says that he went up yearly to worship and to sacrifice the Lord at that time at Shiloh, a place where Elias, the last judge’s son, or the judge before Samuel, his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, served as priest. But every year, as they would go up to worship, he would give after worshiping or making sacrifice.

He would give a portion of that which was left over to his wife and to her sons and her daughters. But to Hannah, he would give a double portion, a worthy portion, because he loved her the most. But Hannah was grieved. She had no children. She had no heirs for El Cana. And to make matters worse, Phenina often rebuked her, made fun of her, mocked her, in fact. As an adversary, the King James Version says in verse 6, she provoked her sore to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her wound. She did this though, year by year as they would go, and finally one year, as she went with El Cana, and she prayed unto the Lord. In verse 10 of chapter 1, she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore.

2. She Made This Vow and Kept That Vow

She vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. Actually, that was as a Nazarite vow, that he would neither drink wine nor would cut his hair, like Samson before it. Samuel really was a man devoted to the Lord, first of all, because of his mother. She did more than just give birth. She made this vow to the Lord, and then she kept that vow. Because as the last verse of this chapter says, in verse 28 or 27 and 8, for this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him.

Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he liveth, he shall be lent to the Lord, and he worship the Lord there. Samuel was given the Lord. Now, you look at her, first of all, was that bitterness of soul of having no child, of receiving the mocking and the ridicule from this other wife of El Canaan. And yet praying to the Lord sincerely, promising to give. Sometimes people make vows and promises, and the Lord will just do this or that. And then after maybe they’ve given been given the petition, they forget all about what their promise was. But not Hannah. Can you imagine the mother of a child that she’s now given birth to? That meant so much to her, first of all, for years she didn’t have and wished she could have.

This has to be a special child.

3. How Did Samuel Become Such a Great Man?

And then when it comes time that he is weaned or she is able to be separated from him, and we’re not really sure what age he was, but certainly very young. She takes him and delivers him to the high priest, Eli, and that he would then serve in the service of God. Every year she’d make him a garment and bring to him. But this child was given to the Lord, dedicated to the service of the Lord. Quite a sacrifice, right? How is it that Samuel became such a great man? Indeed, he was the last judge of Israel. Through him the monarchy was established, for he anointed both Saul and David. But Samuel became a great man in Israel’s history, as you may say, the father of the of the of the prophetic office.

Oh, there have been some prophets before him, but they sporadically appeared. But with Samuel, farther on down the line, he exerted an influence upon the nation of Israel and the prophets that followed after him. Through them, God spoke the message to Israel and to its kings. Samuel, the last great judge, the one who anointed the first kings of Israel, and beginning the school of the prophets. In fact, really, later in the scripture, in Jeremiah chapter 15, at a time when God is so displeased with his people Israel, that he is determined that he’s going to bring upon them the punishment for their sin. He said, Even if Moses and Samuel stood before me, I’d not change my mind. What that simply says is he made Samuel as though he was an equivalent of Moses himself, a great man.

How did this happen? It starts with a with indeed a great mother. He was a man who was given birth, but more than just birth. A hammer.

4. Children in View of Eternity

As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them, they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. An heritage of the Lord. When you think about children, mothers and fathers, you think of them in view of eternity. Not just a gift for a few years in this world, but rather as a soul that you brought into this world, who shall one day stand before God in judgment, who shall spend eternity, very much depending upon what you as parents may do in helping train up that child and teach that child. Yes, Hannah did a great service. But even though she lent her son to the Lord, you never see her moaning and groaning about such a sacrifice.

In fact, look at chapter 2 of 1 Samuel. In the first ten verses, you see how she rejoiced and uttered this prayer in the Lord. The scripture says in 1 Samuel 2 and verse 1, Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee. Neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogancy come out of your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge.