PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 69 – THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD, PT 2
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
Episode 69: The Glory of Womanhood (Part 2)
Rocky: Welcome to the podcast, FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy: Hello ladies, we are continuing our series of THE GLORY OF WOMANHOOD. Let me read you Isaiah 43:7. God says: “I have created him for my glory.”
We go back to Psalm chapter 8 in verses 4-6: “What is man that thou art mindful of him? And the son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and honor.” Now, last week, we were talking about two different Hebrew words, kabod and hadar. Here we see these words in the same Scripture where it says He has crowned him with glory and honor. Glory is kabod, and the word is honor is hadar.
Remember that beautiful Hebrew word, hadar? It's not only a Bible word. It's not only a word that is used for the glory of God because all these words about glory are used for God. Yet, they are words that are also used about us as women. We found that out in our last session. This word, hadar, is used in Israel today. Many mothers even call their daughters hadar because they want them to live in the glory that God has for them. This word means “beyond honor, beauty from above,” and God says that He has crowned His creation with glory and honor, and He wants us to live in it. “Thou makest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou hath put all things under his feet.”
Today, we are going onto our second point which is:
No. 2: MOTHERHOOD IS THE GLORY OF THE NATION
We are going to turn to Hosea 9:11. It's amazing how we can read Scriptures that give us an understanding about motherhood right throughout the Bible, in the psalms, in the prophets, in the New Testament, throughout the Old Testament. It's all throughout the Bible. In this passage, it's actually in the context of God bringing judgment and punishment upon Israel because of their sin. Then we read about the punishment.
It says in verse 11: “As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like the bird.” This was going to be their punishment. Their glory was going to fly away, it was going to go. What was their glory? This is where we find something interesting here. It says: “From the birth and from the womb and from the conception.” Here, God calls conception, the womb, pregnancy, birth, the glory of the nation. In other words, motherhood is the glory of the nation.
Therefore, mother, as your embrace your motherhood, you are living in the glory that God wants you to live in. This is your glory. I can hear you saying in your heart, “Oh goodness me, I don't seem to be having much glory around here today.” It’s true, motherhood is challenging. Motherhood is not for wimps. Motherhood takes a strong and courageous woman. Motherhood is a high and powerful calling, and anything that is high and powerful and worthwhile takes effort.
You're always facing challenges. You're facing children who are getting upset. You are facing challenges where you have to deal with children's behavior problems. It doesn't always seem to be very much glory. But dear precious mothers, really, motherhood comes back to our attitude. It's true. If you have a negative attitude about your mothering and if you think that, “Well, really, I just love my children but really, I've got other things I could be doing. I could be getting so much money out in the career that I've trained for. I just have to get through this.” You have all these negatives. I know ladies, the negatives come upon us from all around us. It's all around us in society. It comes from the words people speak to us—neighbors, family, people even in the church. The negativity is always there, and it sort of comes down on us. We are coming from this negative attitude. Even when we face difficulties, or we do have a hard day, we think, poor me, and we get into this trough of self-pity and into this pit of depression.
You know what, ladies? I think we have to gird up the loins of our mind as the Bible says. If you think about it, there are literally, right now, millions of God's people in Middle Eastern and western and northern African countries, and Muslim countries who are suffering incredible persecution. We also think of North Korea, which is number one for persecuting Christians in the world. They are being tormented, beaten, and physically tortured. They are starving. They are going through such torture and persecution and separation of families, yet they are still standing for Christ.
Here we are in our homes, God has given us a home, we have a husband, we have precious children, the most beautiful gifts God could give us, and we have a few problems, and we get into a state of depression or self-pity. What is wrong with us? I believe we've got to come up to what are God sees. God sees motherhood as a glory.
As I shared with you last session, I read you my little ditty:
“Why don't we live in our glory?
Because we've been told a different story!”
We've been told so much negative junk that you think motherhood is a negative thing. Therefore, every bad thing that happens, every little challenging thing, it all piles up into the negativity. No, we've got to have our minds renewed as it tells us in Romans 12:1, 2: “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.”
We have to cast off all these lies and deception that come from the pit of hell, and we have to renew our mind with Bible truth. Now, the Bible truth is that God says motherhood is the glory of the nation. Motherhood is our glory. Let's embrace it, dear ladies.
Let's read on a bit further in this passage. “Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them. That there should not be a man left. Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them.” Now, what is this judgment? It's taking away their glory, and God says, “When I do that, I'm departing from you.” That's pretty powerful, ladies. When God takes away the glory, God is departing from us. It's sad that there are women today who will choose the curse, who will choose to take the judgment and who will not embrace the glory. They don't want to have children. If they do, they'll make sure they limit them because they don't want too many; they don't want too much of this glory. They limit what God says is the glory. God says when He's taking away the glory, He's departing from us. Why would anyone choose that of their own volition? Because that is the judgment of God.
We go on over to verse 24. It's still continuing the judgment. “Give them, O Lord, what wilt thou give, a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.” That was the judgment of God, yet there are women today who choose to stop the function of their womb. Therefore, they have dry breasts. That's not blessing, that is judgment.
Verse 16: “Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Yea, thou they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.” Although this is in the context of judgment, we still see glorious things written here. We see what God calls our children. He doesn't just call them children, He calls them “the beloved fruit of the womb”. That's how God sees them. He knew that was how Ephraim, another name for the children of Israel, saw their children, as “the beloved fruit of the womb,” “the cherished fruit of the womb.” Then, His judgment was to take them away.
The New Living Translation of Hosea 9:11 says: ‘The glory, (the kabod, that is the kabod, remember that beautiful word?) “The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will not be born or grow in the womb or even be conceived.” Wow. That is really powerful, isn't it?
Let's go on to the next point ladies.
No. 3. RAISING CHILDREN IN THE HOME IS THE GLORY OF THE NATION
Now we are going to go to another one of the prophets, to Micah, Micah 2:9. It says here: “The women of my people have ye cast out from their pleasant houses, from their children have ye taken away my glory.” Hadar, my glory. Remember, God created us as hadar, He created us with glory. Now, He's talking about children. This is from their children “have ye taken away my glory forever.”
Here, the glory is revealed as the children growing up and being raised in the home. Something was happening here in Israel and the women were being cast out of their houses. Then it goes on to this part that we are going to talk about. “From their children have ye taken away my glory forever.” In other words, these children, along with the mothers, were taken out of their homes.
Now God says, “When they are taken out of their homes, they are taken out of my glory.” Do you notice something there? My glory. Yes, God is speaking. “From their children, have ye taken away my glory forever.” This is not man's glory. This is God's glory, ladies. Let's get it. We are coming back to the Bible language. You see, we haven't often lived in our glory because of what?
We've listened to a different story,
But we are coming back to the Bible story!
That is God's glory for our children to be nurtured, nourished, trained, prepared, and grow up in the home. The home is where God planned for children to be raised. God is the originator of the home. Back in Genesis, we see how all that God originates and His plan at the very beginning. In fact, when He created man, He created him before He created the home, which is rather interesting.
We go back to Genesis 2. We see this in the chronological order it is written here.
Verse 7: “And the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and became a living soul.”
Verse 8: “The Lord God planted a garden.” It was after He created man that He planted the garden and created the Eden home, the home of delight. We don't read about the women until down in verse 18, way down in the chapter, where it says: “It is not good for man to be alone. I will make him a help meet for him.” I'm going to make him this helper, this counterbalance. It's actually two words, help and meet. Helper is the word, ezer. It means to be a helper like God. It's one of the words that is used of God. God is my help, ezer, same word, yet this word was first used for the woman.
The next word, meet, is kenegdo, ezer kenegdo. Kenegdo meaning “counterbalance, over-against.” It's like when God created the woman, and He brought her to the man and they were face to face, counterbalanced. Now, there was the male and the female. He created them differently but equal to counterbalance one another. That's the beautiful thing about male and female. We each have our own characteristics that counterbalance one another.
That's the beautiful thing about marriage, we counter-balance one another. We, as the female, as the woman, we are the home-nester, the homemaker, the nurturer and the nourisher, and the man is the provider, and the protector, and the leader. We counterbalance one another. It is such a beautiful thing when we embrace this.
I got onto another point, but I was talking about how God was the originator of the home and when He created the woman, where was she? She was in her home. She woke up, and there she was in the garden, in her home. The man, He created him, the man, before the home.
God waited until he had the home ready before He created the female. He has put innately in her it be a home-nester, to make a home for her husband and for her children. God created this place, this place of safety, and this place of stability, and this place where we house the presence of God, and where we live in our glory to raise our children. This is God's glory. Don't forget those words. Let's read some other translations, shall we?
The Holman Translation says: “You take My blessing from their children forever.”
The Amplified says: “You take away My splendor and blessing forever (by putting them among pagans, away from Me).” When I read those words, I could hardly believe what I was reading. Obviously, these folks and these precious children were taken out of their homes, maybe even taken to another country. Here, looking at this, as it is today.
Let's read it again. “You have taken away My children by putting them among pagans, away from Me.” This is what is happening to many of God's children today. They are being taken out of the home and put in a pagan education system. I know that way back, years ago, it wasn't pagan like it is today. I remember growing up as a child, even in high school, every morning before we went to our classes, we all assembled together and listened to the Word of God being read and then we sang a hymn before we even went to classes. That is not the case today.
The Bible has been taken out of school. Prayer has been taken out of school. Now, we are faced with the liberal agenda becoming more and more and more prevalent. In fact, it is taking over. Now, there are more classes about the Muslim religion than, well, there's nothing about Christianity. We have this whole tendency, even of the transgender that is coming into our society. It's not just in our society, it's in our schools, it's in our classrooms. We better believe it.
Last year, my husband and I were speaking at an Above Rubies' retreat. There were two high school teachers at that retreat and both of these men were wonderful men of God and their wives were homeschooling their children. But their profession was a teacher. One of them got up. He said, “Please pray for me. In my school in New Jersey, we were told that we must promote the transgender ideology that is coming in.” He said, “I have two children in my class who are changing from one sex to the other, and we are expected to honor them in the classroom.” This is unbelievable. It's hard to believe we are even living in this kind of thing happening in America. We have to be watchful. I think there are many, many Christian parents who, I don't think, truly understand what is happening in our education system today. They are sending their children amongst pagans. There may be a few Christian teachers here and there, but these Christian teachers’ tongues are tied.
What are our precious children receiving each day? In fact, our younger generation coming up are really, perhaps, the most dangerous generation of our time because they are getting closer and closer to voting, and they are brainwashed, especially in our colleges today. They are being absolutely brainwashed with a socialist agenda. When they vote, what will they vote for? It will not be for righteousness, it will not be for life, it will not be for family, it will not be for God, but a totally ungodly, socialist agenda.
We need to be praying for a mighty revival. I cry out every day for a great, mighty, supernatural revival amongst our young people. I know God is moving amongst many of our precious young people, but there in those in colleges, they are being duped and brainwashed and propagandized with total deception. Without a great intervention, that is on a downward path for this nation. We need to be praying and crying out.
We also need to be aware of what we are doing when we send our children into this pagan system because it has now become a pagan system of education. Here, we read it, right in the Word of God. Let me read it to you again. “You take away my splendor and blessing,” that is another word for glory that explains that word hadar, “by putting them among pagans, away from me.”
Do you remember how in the King James version, it says, my glory? God wants to be with us, dear mothers. He wants to be with us in our homes as we nurture and train and teach our children. When we send them off to pagans, to ungodly teachers, to teach them and influence them for all those hours of the day, they are being taken away from Me (God states).
You, as a godly mother, are to teach your children God's ways and teach them of Him. That is the most important part of their education, being taught His ways, His words, who He is. Even the character of God, we know so little of it. How we need ourselves to seek and understand more and more of His attributes and character and teach them to our children. Dear lovely mothers, if your children know who God is, they will never turn from Him. Some mothers feel fretful and wonder, “Will my child ever turn away from God?” That's your greatest thing that would grieve your heart. As you teach them His ways and you teach them who He is, when they know who He is, not just about God but they know who He is, how can they ever turn from Him?
Let's have a look at some other translation.
The New Living Translation: “And forever stripped their children of their prized inheritance.” Children's prized inheritance or in other words, their glory, is to be raised in the home. Little children who are sent into day cares are a substitute for the home. They are substitutes. The devil loves to have substitutes. He has substitutes for everything that is of God.
The New English Translation says: “You defraud their children of their prized inheritance.” Once again, it's talking about their prized inheritance.
Lovely ladies, embrace your motherhood. Embrace your home. It's your glory. This is your glory and if you will understand that this is the truth and embrace it, you can find glory in your home. I'm not saying that it's going to always be easy. Yes, you'll face lots of difficulties, challenges, and heartaches, but it is glory.
I love that Scripture in 1 Peter 4:12: “Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trail which is to try you as though some strange thing has happened unto you but rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's suffering. That when his glory shall be revealed ye may be glad also with exceeding joy and if ye have been reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye, for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you.”
God, who is the God of glory, the Spirit of glory, He is resting upon you, not just when everything is going good, but when you're going through suffering, when you're being reproached. It says here: “The Spirit of glory rests upon you.” Be encouraged. Even in the most difficult times, even in the darkest times, you can know and experience the Spirit of glory upon you.
Embrace the truth. As you get the truth into your mind, you will begin to live in the glory of it. I'm thinking of a Scripture in Jude, the second to last book in the New Testament. In verse 6, it talks about when Satan rose up against God. It says: “And the angels, which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, He hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.”
I wish I had with me some other translations of that Scripture. Look it up in the translations you read. I'm reading from the King James Version. In some other translations, it's also very, very powerful, how Satan and his angels left the place that God had ordained for them. As they left it, they left their glory, and they ended in utter destruction.
God has given to every person, even to every animal, and everything in the world, He's given that sphere. There is a sphere for everything in life. Even for His people, God gives us a sphere. He gives to mothers a sphere in which He wants us to mainly dwell and raise our children and that's our home. Of course, we are going to go out of the home. We have to go out of the home to even bring food for our home and so on and to do so many things, but our base, our foundation, it's our glory. The more you understand of it and come to embrace it, the more that you will truly enjoy the glory of it.
Let's finish here. Next week, we are going to find another glory.
“Dear Father, we thank You so much for Your wonderful Word and how You're showing us that, Lord God, You've created us to live in Your glory as we embrace motherhood, as we embrace our home. Thank You, Lord for showing us that You want our children. This is their prized inheritance. It's Your glory, not only ours, it's Your glory for them to be raised in the home. We thank You for teaching us Your wonderful Word, in the name of Jesus, Amen.”