Deborah was not only a judge of Israel but also a mother in Israel; this points to the need of the real mothers in the church life, mothers not merely by human birth but in the transferred and transformed life of God which we receive by regeneration. Amen!
The Lord is looking to gain proper persons through whom He can flow, He can dispense Himself, and He can work; we want to be such ones.
In the days of Deborah, the men – especially the leading ones – failed, and God allowed the people to be oppressed under the hand of the enemies for twenty years.
Because of such an extraordinary situation, God did something extraordinary: He raised up a female to judge in Israel, and she was both a judge and a mother in Israel.
However, Deborah did all this by taking the male as her covering; she didn’t just call the whole people and lead them into battle – she took Barak as her covering, and she practised the female submission to the man.
These days, when man is so rebellious against God and does not want to accept His headship, everyone rebels against any deputy authority and no one thinks that there should be someone above him that would limit him by ruling over him.
However, God ordained certain things in a certain way; He ordained that God is the head of Christ, Christ is the head of the man, and man is the head of the woman.
This is not to be imposed in an outward way or in a way of putting down someone because “the Bible says so”; this is something that results from the proper order in creation according to God.
Actually, none of us can submit to others, for neither can we, the rebellious ones, submit to anyone except ourselves (actually, it is the enemy in us that we submit to, unwittingly).
But the Lord Jesus Christ came, and though He was God, He humbled Himself, took the Father as His Head, and did everything according to the Father.
The Lord Jesus humbled Himself and lowered Himself to the death of the cross, and He died to accomplish the Father’s will; humanly speaking, He desired that this cup would pass from Him, but He still obeyed the Father.
Therefore, the Father highly exalted Him and gave Him the name above every name, and now in the name of Jesus all the knees shall bow, both in heaven and on earth, for He is the Lord of all and the King of kings.
This One, the One who fully submitted to the Father and learned obedience by the things He suffered, He was perfected to become the Author of an eternal salvation.
When we come to Him, when we experience Him, and when we are filled with Him, He can live the same kind of life in us. He wants to live the life of obedience and submission in us.
The only way we as the wife of God can submit to Him as our Husband is by taking Christ and enjoying His life of obedience and submission.
He in us can do it; in ourselves, we cannot, but He can live in us the same kind of life as He lived on the earth.
The need for more Real Spiritual Mothers in the Church Life to Care for the Saints in Love
In Judg. 5:7 we see that Deborah rose up not only as a judge of Israel but also as a mother in Israel. She was not the mother of the whole people humanly speaking but spiritually speaking.
This is a second major function of the sisters in the church life; they need to become mothers in the church life, real spiritual mothers to the saints in the church life.
We all need a mother, and the sisters can be produced by the Lord to be mothers to the saints. This is confirmed by Rom. 16 where the emphasis is not on the brothers but on the sisters.
For example, in Rom. 16:1-2 Paul commended Phoebe our sister, who was a deaconess of the church which is in Cenchrea, for she has been a patroness of many, even of Paul as well.
Phoebe was not Paul’s flesh sister, but she was his spiritual sister.
Furthermore, in v. 13 he greets Rufus, chosen in the Lord, and his mother as well as Paul’s; Rufus’ mother was not Paul’s mother according to the flesh, but she became Paul’s mother in spirit, his spiritual mother.
Wow, Paul had a mother in the church life!
Such a great apostle with such a rich spiritual understanding and attainments, this one had a spiritual mother in the church life!
Rom. 16 is a remarkable chapter, for the words church and churches is used five times, and there are a lot of names, greetings to the saints, and the emphasis is on the sisters more than the brothers.
The apostle Paul needed a mother; without a sister as a mother to take care of them, all those who bear the burden for the Lord’s service would be sorrowful.
We all need the care of spiritual mothers, whose care is our real nourishment and our real protection.
We may have many brothers and companions in the Lord, but our need is for real spiritual mothers in the church life.
In 1 Tim. 1:2 Paul calls Timothy “genuine child in faith”, and in Titus 1:4 he calls Titus, “genuine child”; Timothy and Titus were not Paul’s sons according to the flesh but in the Lord.
Peter also said that he had a son called Mark (1 Pet. 5:13); this is not his son according to the flesh but in spirit, in the Lord.
The church life as a new realm, a new kingdom – the kingdom of God – changes our status according to the flesh; we may not be brothers or sisters according to the flesh, but when we are regenerated, we have an inward change and our status becomes different.
How amazing it is that, by regeneration, we become brothers and sisters with all the saints, and we can have spiritual fathers and spiritual mothers in the church life!
And in particular, how sweet it is when there are some real spiritual mothers in the church life who cherish and nourish the saints!
They may not teach much or lead people to salvation, and they may not be able to do great work for God outwardly, but they exercise their function of being a mother in the church life, and many are cared for.
This is what we need today: we need more real spiritual mothers in the church life so that all the saints would be cared for, cherished, nourished, and preserved in the way, for the Lord to have a way to build up the church.
Thank You Lord for regenerating us with Your divine life to make us children of God and brothers and sisters with the saints! Hallelujah, by being born again we belong to God’s family, and now we have so many brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers in the church according to the spirit! Amen, Lord, thank You for all the brothers and all the sisters. Raise up more spiritual mothers in the church life to cherish and nourish the saints for their going on. Raise up the proper care and shepherding by the dear sisters who function as real spiritual mothers to the saints!
We experience a Life Transfer by Looking at the Cross of Christ and become Brothers and Sisters in the Lord
In John 19, as the Lord Jesus was suffering on the cross before He died, one of the seven things He said was to John, His disciple and cousin, and to Mary, His mother according to the flesh.
To John, He said that Mary is his mother, and to Mary, He said that John was her son.
At that time there were four sisters standing by the cross, watching Him being crucified; Mary was there and her sister and another two sisters also named Mary.
Mary’s sister was the mother of James and John, and these were the Lord’s cousins according to the flesh.
Toward the end of His crucifixion, He looked at His mother and told her that John was her son, and He told John that Mary was his mother (John 18:25-27).
How can this be? There is something mysterious yet so wonderful that was happening here.
The gospel of John is a book on life; this life is not the natural life but the transferred and transformed life, the divine life of God.
The record at the cross with Mary and John shows us how the life of the believers of Christ could be transferred by the cross of Jesus and by His resurrection.
When we look at the cross of Jesus, when we believe in the crucified Christ, we will be transferred.
When we look to Jesus, we are crucified with Him and raised with Him, and His death becomes life-imparting and life-releasing to change our life.
Originally John wasn’t Mary’s son, neither was Mary John’s mother; but because of the Lord’s crucifixion, something happened there: in the divine life, the transferred and transformed life, John became Mary’s son, and Mary became John’s mother.
By Christ’s life-releasing death and by His dispensing resurrection, we all became brothers and sisters in the Lord.
By His life union with us, we became the sons of God and the brothers of Christ, and we have millions of brothers and sisters, and there are many mothers and fathers according to the spirit. Hallelujah!
By looking at the cross, by looking to the crucified Christ and receiving Him as our life and person, we experience a life transfer; the divine life comes into us, and we become something else, even someone else.
This is how we can be brothers with men whom we never met but we share the same life with, and this is how we can have many sisters all around the world, simply by sharing the same divine life. Amen!
In Rom. 16 we see this in Paul’s greetings to the saints in the church life, how he had brothers, sisters, and a mother there in Rome.
This chapter starts with Phoebe – who was Paul’s sister and also the patroness to many saints, including Paul, and later we see that Rufus’ mother was also Paul’s mother.
In the practical church life, we need to advance and arrive at the peak, where we have some real sisters and some real mothers.
If there’s a shortage of sisters like Phoebe among us, the church life is not practical. Similarly, for us to reach the church life at its peak, we need some real spiritual mothers who care for the saints in love. We all need a mother in the church life.
And these mothers are not by or according to the flesh; they are mothers in the church life based on the transferred and transformed life, the divine life.
Amen, may the Lord make this real to us in the church life today!
Thank You, Lord, for Your life-releasing death and Your life-dispensing resurrection! Hallelujah, we believers in Christ have a life union with the Lord and have become children of God and brothers and sisters with the saints! Praise You, Lord, for the transferred and transformed life that has come into us to cause us to be sons of God and members of the Body of Christ. Hallelujah, by the life transfer we have received by looking at the crucified Christ we have a new family with many brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers! Amen, Lord, raise up many real spiritual mothers in the church life who care for the saints by cherishing and nourishing them for them to grow in life and continue with the Lord.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1975-1976, vol. 1, pp. 47-50, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Joshua, Judges, and Ruth (2021 summer training), week 7, God’s Raising Up of Deborah as a Judge of Israel and as a Mother in Israel Who Practiced the Female Submission to the Man in Order to Keep God’s Ordination and Bring All of Israel into a Proper Order under God’s Kingship and Headship.
- Hymns on this topic:
– We’re churching in the Spirit / On the church’s local ground; / We’re churching with our brothers, / Our family we have found. / Oh, yes, we’re churching with the churches, / And we’ll make the earth resound / With hallelujahs for Christ our land! (Hymns #1236)
– O home in the church, / Where we’ve ended our search / With the brothers rejoicing all day; / Where Christ is our life, / And we’re through with all strife, / Now we’re home, hallelujah, to stay! (Hymns #1233)
– In the brothers and sisters, O how blest to see the Lord, / In their attitudes and actions Christ expressed! / But the day soon is coming when in rapturous accord / We shall see His Person fully manifest. (Hymns #1317)
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