PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 199: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, PT 10
LIFE TO THE FULL w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 199: THE LAND OF MOTHERHOOD, Part 10
The land of motherhood is a land that flows with milk, nourishment, and nurturing. Jesus used the word "suckling mother" to describe "female." What does this mean to us in the land of motherhood? We talk about a study of the Dogon tribe in Mali, Africa. Surprising information.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, Life to The Full, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies. We’re back together again, talking about this wonderful land of motherhood. The description we’re currently talking about is that it is a land that flows with milk and honey. God speaks about this phrase, this description, 20 times in the Word of God.
Numbers 13:27: “We came into this land, and SURELY it flows with milk and honey.”
This is a figurative phrase. Well, some commentators say that it’s figurative and others say it’s literal. I believe it is both. One Talmud description says, “Milk flows from the goats’ udders, and honey flows from the dates and the figs.” Other commentators say that it also would have been honey from the bees as well.
But really, the description is trying to tell us that it’s a land that’s overflowing with provisions. It’s abundant. It’s all that you’ll ever desire. Even before they get the wonderful promises that it’s a land that flows with milk and honey, it’s a land!
Can you believe it? Ladies, they are coming into a land that they’re going to own themselves. It’s their land, the land that God has promised to them for an everlasting possession. They hadn’t had land for . . . How many years had they been slaves in Egypt? And then wandering in the wilderness for 40 years. They never knew what it was like to even own land! But now God is giving them land. How amazing!
This was God’s gift to them. Do you know, ladies, God loves to give us a home to live in? God is a dwelling God, and He wants us to dwell in homes. It’s the way He planned for us to live. He was the creator of the first home back in Genesis, the Garden of Eden. God created this beautiful home.
Even when the children of Judah were taken to Babylon, and they were taken as captives, even as captives in the land of Babylon, God came to them with an amazing word in Jeremiah 29. He spoke it through the prophet Jeremiah, saying that this word was from the Lord God of Hosts. He said: “I want you to build homes and dwell in them. I want you to plant gardens and eat the fruit of them. I want you to have children and grandchildren.”
And here they are, captives in a foreign land. But that was still God’s ultimate plan for them. It is God’s plan for us to have a home. It is the opposite to what is the cabal and these people who planned this “Great Reset “that they are trying to bring in and trying to put upon the world at this time where they say, the No. 1 thing in this great reset is, “You will own nothing, and you will be happy.”
Of course, that is not true! Because God created us to own and to have our home. Well, of course, not everybody owns their own home. But it is a blessing from God. Even when we think we are in our own home it’s often owned by the bank.
But ultimately, that is God’s ultimate plan. When the blessing of God was on Israel, and they were walking in God’s ways, it says: “Every man sat under his own vine and his own fig tree” (Micah 4;4). That is the ultimate. Here God is taking them into their own land. It’s a land that overflows with milk and honey.
Let’s talk about the overflowing of milk, shall we? Of course, it would have been literal. They would have been getting milk to nourish them from the goats. Maybe mostly goats. I’m not even sure if they had cows. Maybe they did. But goats and sheep were plentiful. You can get milk from both the goats and the sheep.
Maybe some of you go to a goat farm and you get goat’s milk for your family. We love goat’s milk. We also can get wonderful raw cow’s milk just down the road from where we live. In the summertime we can get the goat’s milk. At the moment there’s no goat’s milk. They’ve all dried off. But, oh, I love it when it comes back! And I can make my kefir out of the goat’s milk. Goat’s milk kefir is so amazing! It’s just, oh! I think it makes so much better kefir than the cow’s milk.
And then sheep’s milk. I’ve never drunk sheep’s milk, but you can get sheep’s milk. I guess you may have even bought sheep’s cheese. I do love sheep’s cheese, don’t you? Back in biblical days, of course, because they didn’t have refrigeration, and they lived in this hot climate, they would have made a lot of their milk into kefir and cheese and so on, like that. But that was plentiful.
But figuratively, milk always speaks of nourishing and nurturing. Milk gives sustenance to build healthy bodies. In this land of motherhood, it’s also a land of milk. We begin right when a little baby is born and comes to our breast. The first thing we do is put that baby to the breast and give milk to this baby. That’s a very big thing in the land of motherhood. It’s not something to be despised. It is a very powerful thing.
I want to talk a little bit more about this today. We all know it experientially, but sometimes it’s good to understand these things from the Word of God, because then we have a real solid foundation for what we believe. Not only what we do, but what we believe, especially in this hour of great deception.
Now, let’s go, shall we, to Matthew 19. In Matthew 19, the Pharisees came to Jesus, and they were tempting Him. In Matthew 19:3-5, they say to Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to put away or to divorce his wife for every cause? And Jesus answered, and He said to them, have ye not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, “For this cause shall a man leave father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh.”
We’re so familiar with those words. We often don’t take too much notice of them. Of course, we know God created male and female. But let’s look at what this word really means in the Greek in which this New Testament was written.
In the New Testament, there are two different words for “women.” The most common word is gune. That’s used mostly, in fact, it’s used 221 times in the New Testament! It simply means “a woman of any age, whether a virgin or married or a widow.”
But then there is another word. This word is not used very much at all. It is the word thelus. The word thelus comes from the root word thelazo. Thelazo means, listen for it, this word means “to suckle, to nipple.” Have you ever used that term? Well, here it is in a translation of this word. “To nipple, to use the nipple for the purpose for which it was created.”
The noun simply means, “a suckling mother.” Mothers who are in their childbearing years, having babies, are called “suckling” mothers. Babies who are nursing at the breast are called “sucklings.” This word, thelazo, is used six times in the Bible, thelus, five times. So, not so much as gune.
I guess this is because it’s not encompassing every woman, because single women are not going to be nursing a baby at the breast. Women who are past menopause are not going to be nursing a baby at the breast.
But the amazing thing here, dear ladies, is that Jesus chose to use this word. He didn’t use gune. He could have easily used that word, but no. He used the word thelus, meaning “to suckle.” He said, “This is truly what it means to be female, and this is how God created women in the beginning.” He created them female, thelus, “to nipple, to suckle.” Ultimately, this is one of the greatest things that we were created to do! To suckle a baby at the breast.
I want to remind you of this, ladies. Some of you, may be nursing your baby as you are listening to this now. There may be other mothers who have had difficulty in nursing their baby, or some who not even bothered to try. But I believe with all my heart, when God begins to give us babies, we should seek to nurse these babies from the breast because our body was created to do this very thing!
Now, there’s another word in the New Testament and it’s the word thaumazo. It has a totally different meaning. It comes from these root words, and it means, “to be wonderized, to marvel, to be gripped with wonder and astonishment at the view of something wonderful and marvelous.” This word is used 46 times in the New Testament.
It’s not talking about a nursing mother, but the word comes from that original word, thele, from which we get thelazo, and then we get thelus, these words, these derivatives that come from the original root.
I think that’s interesting, because as I was thinking about that, I thought, “You know, it is a marvelous thing.” It is a wonderful thing to nurse a baby at the breast. We take it for granted. But just think of the miracle, that we put a baby to the breast, and God miraculously enables the mother to pour, to flow, from her breast, this glorious, nutritious, perfect food for this baby! It is a wonder. It is a marvel. I think we should see how glorious it is. And talk about flowing with milk, if you are a new mom, you know what that’s all about, don’t you? When from your breast, milk doesn’t just trickle out, it gushes out! Especially when you first begin to nurse a baby, it’s gushing everywhere, all over the place! And you do everything in your power to try to stop it! And while you’re nursing from one breast, it’s gushing out the other side! But you soon settle down and baby and you begin to fit one another. But it is amazing, isn’t it?
This is what Jesus chose to call women: female, thelus, a mother who nipples, who nurses her baby at the breast.
We go back to the Old Testament. In the Hebrew, back in Genesis 21:7, it’s talking about how Sarah miraculously gave birth to Isaac. She says, this is what she says: “Who would have said unto Abraham that Sarah should give suck?” She’s talking about having a baby, but this is the language that she uses. It’s so miraculous, so wonderful. She can’t believe that she’s actually nursing a baby at her breast.
This is how she is describing motherhood. This is a description of motherhood. Therefore, dear mothers, in this land of motherhood we’re talking about, and in this land where God is giving you babies and you are nursing them at the breast, embrace this beautiful thing with all your heart. Begin to realize, “I’m a nursing mother! I’m a suckling mother!”
Now, when I started out in motherhood, I didn’t know what I was doing! I didn’t have a clue. I had lots and lots of wrong advice. I was told that I must only feed my baby every four hours. Oh goodness me! That was the most terrible time of my motherhood because it didn’t work!
I would try to feed my baby and do what these “old wives” told me. Every four hours! But my baby would wake up after two hours! But I’m not allowed to feed this baby until four hours! What am I going to do? This baby is screaming! I’m just about screaming. I’m upset. I don’t know what do to! How can I make this baby happy?
How ridiculous! And yet, if my baby wakes and it wants me, why aren’t I nursing it? Well, I didn’t understand that at the beginning. It was just ridiculous. I didn’t know how to be a real mother.
It wasn’t until time went along, and I realized that, of course, this is how God created me. This is what I’m meant to do! If my baby wakes, I nurse my baby! It’s the greatest way to make your baby happy.
Because nursing a baby is not just feeding a baby.
Nursing a baby is mothering your baby!
You’re most probably familiar with Isaiah 66, the last chapter in Isaiah. Beautiful description of a nursing mother here. Let me share it with you. Even if you know it, it’s so wonderful to read it again. I just love this passage. It was when I saw this passage in the Word of God that it set me free to understand how you nurse a baby. It’s amazing! Every single thing is in the Word of God. Everything is there.
So, in Isaiah 66, God is likening Israel, Jerusalem in particular, the city of Jerusalem, to a nursing mother! As he writes about Jerusalem, he writes about her as a nursing mother, so we begin to see how God looks upon a nursing mother!
What does he say? “Rejoice ye with Jerusalem and be glad with her, all ye that love her. Rejoice with her, all ye that mourn for her, that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations, that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith the Lord, behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the gentiles like a flowing stream. Then shall ye suck, ye shall be borne upon her sides and be dandled upon her knees, as one whom his mother comforted. So will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted.”
Oh, what a glorious description! Do you notice the words there? The baby, yes, the baby will be satisfied. The baby will be consoled. The baby will be delighted with your milk that is flowing out. As they suck, they will be comforted.
We see the words, “console, delight, satisfy, comfort.” Do we read anything there about feeding? No? There’s not one word about feeding your baby. No! It’s all about satisfying, consoling, comforting. You see, that’s what it means to nurse a baby.
When your baby wakes, cries, you put the baby to the breast to satisfy that baby. He wakes, maybe your baby’s crying and you don’t know why he’s crying. You just put the baby to the breast, to console your baby, to comfort your baby.
Your baby may wake up half an hour, one hour after you put it down to sleep. Well, it doesn’t matter! Just feed your baby again! You are a suckling mother. That’s who you are. As you suckle, the more you suckle, the more motherly you will become.
Let’s look at a few more things, shall we? I want to give you a little illustration, because we are living in a modern age where many, many young people, many young mothers, have no idea of what is even normal. They’re living in an age where deception is normal, so they don’t understand normality.
Now if we go back 60 years, 100 years ago, when did young girls begin menstruating? Back then, they mostly started menstruating at about 16 years of age, sometimes even 17. OK, let’s look at our modern era. Many girls today start menstruating at 10 and 11 years of age. Why are they starting so early?
Well, the body needs about 12% body fat to survive, to barely survive, but, of course, you need more to thrive. Usually once a girl gets to about 20% body fat, she will begin her periods. But today, because so many people are living off fast foods that are all cooked in fat, bad fat, not good fat. There is good fat.
But there’s bad fat. All fast foods are cooked in bad fat. Yes, they’re eating all these carbs, and they’re eating all these chips, and soda, and all this junk. In fact, goodness, when I grew up, every person was skinny! Now most people are, I shouldn’t say fat, should I? But fatter [laughter] than what they used to be!
But it is true! It’s unbelievable. You look back on photos, and I can look back on photos of my childhood, and life back then, growing up. You never even ever saw a fat person! They were all skinny! I can remember as a child being skinny as a rake! You could see every bone in my body. But I was healthy.
It was the way we lived. We never had heard of fast foods. There were no fast foods. You just lived from your garden. You didn’t have any of these extra things. There never were snacks that are available today. So, everybody was skinny, but they were healthy. Amazing!
Girls didn’t begin periods so early. Now the statistics are today that, because girls will start menstruating early, and then they get married. Then they fit in with the society today, and have their 1.9 children, which is the statistic for America. In European countries, it’s even much lower, right down to 1.2.
Maybe they are having two children. They’re hoping for their boy and their girl. And then that’s done! Woohoo, finished for that! So, they are menstruating up to 450 times in their lives. God never intended that. A normal mother, if she happens to live in normality (not many live in normality today) they would only menstruate about 100 times in their whole life.
Now, I read a very interesting story awhile back. It was about this scientist whose name was Beverly Strassman. She went to Africa. Let’s see, what country was it? Yes, it was in Mali, the Dogon tribe in Mali.
They were a tribe who had never been touched by the west and all our western ideas of motherhood. They mothered innately, just how God put it in them! They didn’t have any books to read. They didn’t have any lectures. They just mothered instinctively. She went to discover, well, what do they do, and what was it like?
She actually found that, over there, without all our western ways, the girls began their first period at about 16 years of age. Then, during their mothering years, they gave birth about eight or nine times. That was pretty average.
No, it wasn’t 22 times, like some people think. “Oh, if I trust God, and don’t try to stop having babies, I’ll have 20 children!” Well, no, it doesn’t work like that. Here’s these people, and this tribe, way out in the wilds. They don’t have any birth control. Goodness, they’ve never heard of it! But they only have about eight or nine babies.
Oh, another thing she found was that, as they had their babies, they would just nurse their babies. Of course, they nursed their babies instinctively. They’ve never been told anything about you have a four-hourly schedule or anything like that. Oh, goodness me, they’d never heard of it!
They mother instinctively. When their baby cries, they put it to the breast! They sleep with their babies at night. Their babies are nursing off and on through the night. They most probably used to have their babies in a baby carrier. Most people who are tribal people all carry their babies in some kind of carrier they have. Or they learn how to tie their baby onto them.
They work in the fields, and they’re working, but their baby is with them non-stop! Their baby is nursing on and off all day and all night. So, menstruation doesn’t start until about the baby is about 20 months old. That’s nearing two years. All that time, total natural contraception.
If they were to conceive straightaway, after they started menstruating, and, of course, you don’t always conceive straightaway. But if they did, they would be having a baby about two-and-a-half years apart. It could well be even longer, because not every mother conceives straightaway.
You see, without having all our man-made ideas, they mothered innately. It was also beautiful. She also found that these people also only menstruated about 100 times in all their lives. Well, right up, of course, in their mothering years, up to menopause.
Here’s a couple of quotations from that scientific study that this woman did, studying them. She was there for quite a few years, studying them. She says here, “What we think of as normal, frequent menses is, in evolutionary terms abnormal. Women who subject themselves to 400 menses means that their bodies are subject to changes and stresses for which they were not designed.”
It continues again, “Incessant ovulation serves no purpose, except to increase the occurrence of abdominal pain, mood shifts, migraines, endometriosis, fibroids, and anemia, the last of which is one of the most serious health problems in the world today.”
So, my lovely ladies, to embrace who you are as a suckling mother brings great blessings to you in every way! Physically, all these, why are we having such epidemic of female cancers? Of the breast, and the endometrium, the cervix, and so on. It’s because of atrophy, and because the way God has created us, where we’re not even using it!
God intended us to be birthing mothers and suckling mothers. You’re suckling your baby today? Embrace this lifestyle and understand that nursing your baby is not every now and then. It doesn’t matter how many times your baby nurses. If you’re a nursing mother, you need to have your baby with you at night because your baby wants to nurse from you at night.
Now, many people will say, “Oh, goodness me! I get my period back straightaway! And I’m nursing a lot too!” Well, sometimes people . . . I remember talking to one lady, and she said, “Yes, I’m just a natural mother! I nurse my baby lots. But I still got my period back.” And I said to her, “Well, look, just tell me, do you nurse your baby through the night?” “Oh, no, I’ve got my baby sleeping through the night.”
Well, if you’ve got your baby sleeping through the night, your period will come back, because it’s the amount of sucking that holds back the ovulation! The more you suckle, the more you hold back ovulation. The less you suckle, it comes back. It’s just as simple as that.
Then, I remember saying to this lady, “How much does your baby nurse during the day?” “Well! She nurses about seven or eight times! “Help! Goodness me, that’s nothing! When you’re a nursing mother, your baby might nurse twenty times a day, at least!
It’s just normal, because babies often don’t want to sit there and suck for half an hour. They just want a little bit and then they maybe just nap. Then they want more. It’s just a lifestyle.
I remember when I read this. It was quite a few years ago I read this study. I was reading it out to Serene. I think it was Breeze. Breeze is 12 years old now, but at that time, she was just 20 months old.
Serene said, “Wow, Mum! I’m right on cue!” Because little Breezy was just 20 months and her menstruation had just come back.
Because Serene is not a modern mother. She’s a back-to-the, what would we call it? She’s a back-to-the-beginning mother. She nurses her babies, oh, goodness me! Serene nurses her babies day and night. If you know Serene, you know she’s a psycho. She does everything to the ultimate.
So, when she’s a nursing mother, well! Her babies sleep with her, and they nurse all night. Her babies nurse so many times during the day. With all her babies, she’s always desperate! “Help! When am I going to get my period back so I can have another baby?” Because she has over two years, or up to three years, between her babies, just because of nursing, and not because she’s trying to stop! She wants to have another baby!
But I do have to pop in a little thing here. Yes, I know there are some moms who do nurse day and night, and their periods will come back earlier. I think it’s the day in which we are living. Even all the hormones that we get in our food today, and we’re living in such an artificial society, I think that affects the hormones of many mothers. But this is the way God intended it to work.
Well, I’ve got more things to say, yes! About the suckling mother. But already this session has come to an end. So, we’ll close here and talk a little bit more about it next time. Even though it’s taking us a while to get through this land, that doesn’t matter, because it’s the land we live in! It doesn’t really matter how long it’s going to take to take this drive through the land. There’s going to be many more exciting things yet.
“Father, we thank You so much again for Your wonderful Word, and how it shows us how You created us, and how it shows us how You want us to live. Lord Jesus, You are the One Who called us “suckling mothers.” You said that this was how we were created in the beginning. This is how You created us. Lord, God, help us to embrace who we are, to embrace it to the full.
“I pray that You will bless every mother today, Lord, nursing mothers, and mothers who no longer have nursing babies. But bless them, Lord. I pray that Your blessing, and protection, and wisdom, and joy, and anointing will be on every mother as they nourish and nurture their families today. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.”
Blessings from Nancy Campbell * www.aboverubies.org
Transcribed by Darlene Norris * This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
If you have a moment, it would be lovely if you could email a little thank you letter to Darlene. She sacrifices much of her time to transcribe these podcasts for you and I know it would encourage her to know that you are blessed by her hard work. Thanks so much.
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BREASTFEEDING AND FERTILITY
How to practice responsive breastfeeding to nourish and nurture your baby and discover God’s design to naturally delay fertility.
By Jenny Silliman
Go to: Breastfeeding and Fertility (mybigcommerce.com)
