In [Isaiah 49:15] does God allude to Himself as a Mother?

Question

In [Isaiah 49:15] does God allude to Himself as a Mother?

[Isaiah 49:15] "Shall a mother ignore her nursing baby (הֲתִשְׁכַּ֚ח אִשָּׁה֙ עוּלָ֔הּ)

Or from having mercy on the Son of her womb? (מֵֽרַחֵ֖ם בֶּן־בִּטְנָ֑הּ)

Perhaps these she may forget, but I will not forget you. (גַּם־אֵ֣לֶּה תִשְׁכַּ֔חְנָה וְאָֽנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א אֶשְׁכָּחֵֽךְ) "

Answer 1

In Matt 23:37 we read, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing." Thus, Jesus compares Himself to a mother hen - a very beautiful and famous metaphor.

The Bible often uses the literary device of metaphor to describe some abstract aspect of something, especially people and their relationship to God. No one really believes (and should not believe) that these are literal, but merely symbolic of a deeper truth. To illustrate this, here is a partial list of metaphors from the Gospel of John:

• 1:1-14 – Jesus is the “Word” (Greek: “logos” means idea or principle)
• 1:29 – Jesus is the Lamb of God
• 1:51 – Jesus is the ladder between earth and heaven (Gen 28:12)
• 2:19-21 – Jesus’ body is the temple that was to be destroyed and raised in 3 days
• 3:3-12 – Jesus’ disciples must be born from above
• 3:13, 14 – Jesus is the bronze serpent in the wilderness (also 8:27, 12:34 & Num 21:9)
• 4:13, 14 – Jesus’ message becomes a fountain/river of living water flowing out of His disciples (see also 7:38)
• 4:32 – Jesus’ food was not of this world (ie, conversions to discipleship)
• 4:35-38 – Jesus’ disciples must reap the “harvest” of the Gospel
• 5:13, 14 – Our work is to labour for “manna” or “food” that endures (also, 6:27)
• 5:35 – John the Baptist was a lamp preparing for the greater light
• 6:35, 41, 48, 50, 51 – Jesus said, “I am the bread of life”
• 6:53-58 – we must eat Jesus’ flesh and drink His blood
• 8:12 – Jesus said, “I am the light of the world” (see also 1:4, 9, 12:46)
• 8:38-47 – Jesus’ disciples are Abraham’s children and children of God, whereas, His enemies are children of the devil.
• 9:39-41 – converted disciples are not blind but those who will not see are blind
• 10:1-18 – Jesus said, “I am the good Shepherd” (v11, 14) and the disciples are sheep
• 10:8 – Jesus said, “I am the gate/door to the sheep”
• 11:25 – Jesus said, “I am the resurrection and life”
• 12:24 – Jesus compares his life to a seed that must die to produce more life
• 14:6 – Jesus said, “I am the way the truth and the life”
• 14:26 – Holy Spirit is called and advocate (Greek: “parakletos”) (see also 15:26ff)
• 15:1-5 – Jesus said, “I am the vine and you are the branches”
• 16:21, 22 – troubles of this life compared to child birth
• 18:11 – Jesus’ trials likened to a “cup”
• 21:15-17 – Jesus’ followers likened to lambs and sheep (see also 10:1-18)

In order to round out this list, here are some further metaphors from the OT:

• Prov 13:14 - the teaching of the wise is a fountain of life
• Isa 64:8 - But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You our potter; And all of us are the work of Your hand.
• Ps 23:1 - the LORD is my shepherd. See also Ps 80:1
• Isa 5:5 - So now let me tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will remove its hedge and it will be consumed; I will break down its wall and it will become trampled ground.
• Deut 32:4 - the Lord is a rock. See also 2 Sam 22:2, etc.
• Ps 18:2 - The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
• Gen 49:9 - Judah is a lion’s whelp
• Ps 84:11 - For the Lord God is a sun and shield
• Isa 11:10 - In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples

In Isa 49:15, God is simpply saying, using the well understood metaphor of a nursing mother, that God's care for His people far exceeds that of a nursing mother for her child. Again, no one should understand a metaphor literally else we end up with nonsense.

Answer 2

Jesus in John 10 said He is a door, Is he really a door? No, is a symbol, In the same chapter we are represented as sheeps, are we literally sheeps? No, they are symbols. Is God a mother based of an interpretation of a symbol? NO, In the whole Bible He is never referred as mother, but always in a masculine way. Why then we call him Father? because Jesus call him Father, and He told us that we should call him like that in Matthew 6.

Where it come from the interpretation of God as a mother? It comes from the kabbalistic teaching of the sefirots where the 10th is the Shekinah (Malkuth) and it is interpreted as the female presence of God, it really is of a god.

Kabbalah is a satanic practice because it denies the gospel of Jesus Christ, so should be completly rejected.

Answer 3

If I say to my own son 'Does a dog forget to feed its puppies ? Nor will I forget to feed you' then am I not suggesting that I am a dog.

And if I go further and say 'A dog may forget to feed its puppies, but I will not fail to feed you' I am showing that I and the dog are not equivalent.

I am plainly showing that I do not wish to be equated with said dog. I am more than the dog. I am other than the dog.

And for anyone to overhear and to then publish abroad that Nigel is a dog, would be slanderous.