Biblical Mothers of Distinction

By Walter Lofton

Biblical Mothers of Distinction is a collection of essays about outstanding mothers of the Bible.  Each of the mothers cited had her own personal moments of sorrow and grief, as well as her moments of triumph and joy.  Some of the mothers are well known, while others are somewhat obscure.  However, each was used by God for a special purpose that He had providentially ordained.  They performed their roles admirably, as they walked through the pages of history, leaving profiles of encouragement and faith.  All scriptural references in the book are taken from the Authorized Version of 1611 Bible, more commonly known as the King James Version.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Escarpment Press
• Release date: Jul 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201711849

Book preview

Biblical Mothers

Of

Distinction

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by Walter G. Lofton

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Published by Escarpment Press

Biblical Mothers of Distinction

Copyright © 2021 by Walter Lofton

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be used or reproduced by any means, electronic, graphic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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Front cover illustration

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CONTENTS

Foreword

Eve—The Mother of All Living

Sarah—A Mother of Promise

Rebekah—A Mother of Thousands of Millions

Rachel and Leah—The Mothers That Built Israel

Jochebed—A Mother of Foresight

Naomi—A Mother of Perseverance

Hannah—A Mother of Prayer

Mary—The Mother of Jesus

About the Author

A Word about Reviews

Foreword

It is my humble pleasure to present to you this volume about outstanding mothers of the Bible. Each of these mothers had her personal moments of sorrow and grief as well as triumphs and joy. Some of these mothers are well known, while others are somewhat obscure. However, each of them was used by God for a special purpose that He had providentially ordained. Each one performed her role admirably as she walked through the pages of history and left us a profile of encouragement and faith.

All Scriptural references in this volume are taken from the Authorized Version of 1611 Bible, more commonly known as the King James Version.

As I review the lives of these and other godly mothers, I cannot help but think of my own godly mother that God so graciously allowed me to have. She was devout in her love and devotion to God long before I was born. Her love and guiding influence in my life is worth more than all the world’s gold. She went to her heavenly reward one day before my thirtieth birthday. I look forward to joining her when I receive my summons from the Heavenly Father.

I would like to share one beautiful memory that I cherish concerning my mother. After I left home, I would visit on weekends once or twice a month. On one such visit I was sleeping late while Mother prepared breakfast. In the middle of her cooking, she came into my room and sat on the side of my bed with her apron to her eyes and said: Walter, you are my joy. I love you. She immediately wiped her eyes and returned to the kitchen to finish preparing breakfast. This warmed my heart and I have never forgotten this spontaneous expression of my mother’s devoted love. It is to her love and memory that I dedicate this book.

Walter Lofton

Eve

The Mother of All Living

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And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. (Genesis 3:20)

It is fitting to begin this book on Bible mothers with Eve who was the very first mother on Earth, making her the mother of the human race.  There is not a whole lot said about Eve in the scriptures, but enough is said of her to give us a glimpse of her uniqueness on the stage of human existence.  To see her as God would have us see her, we must begin at the beginning just as God did in His infallible Word.  By necessity we must first take a look at her husband, Adam, to see how Eve fits into the overall picture.

The first biblical record of mankind’s existence on earth is found in Genesis chapter one, verses 26 and 27.  "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. (27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them."

A word of explanation is perhaps in order concerning the biblical terminology that is used here.  Notice the words man and them in these verses of Scripture.  Both of these words refer to mankind or the human race in general.  In scriptural references to members of the human race, including both the male and the female, one can see the words man or mankind being used.  In the above verses one can see that both male and female are meant by the term man.

In today’s politically correct society, many seem to be offended when their pet (or narrow and biased) verbiage is not used.  For example, I was listening to the news one evening when a woman from our neighboring country of Canada was giving a report and she innocently used the word mankind.  She was stopped by that country’s president who suggested that she change that word to peoplekind.  I suppose there is nothing wrong with using that particular word to denote one of the human race, but to me the word humankind would be a better word if indeed she must change it to appease the elitist in the crowd.  Biblical terminology often runs afoul of today’s modern culture.  Since this is a book about Bible mothers, we will use biblical terminology and trust that those who may differ with our language will understand and bear with us inasmuch as we do not aim to offend.  So much for the explanation on terminology, now let us get on with our insight into our universal mother, Eve.

God formed Adam from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.  His (and our) life literally came from the breath of God. God went on to say: "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him" (Genesis 2:18).

The word meet here means suitable.  Therefore help meet means a suitable helper.  Scripture goes on to say: "And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;) (22) And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. (23) And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. (24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" (Genesis 2:21-24).

Notice that Adam called his help meet woman which referred to what she was rather than who she was.  She was to be called woman indicating the gender of the human race that she represented.  It was not until verse twenty of chapter three of Genesis that she