This week I read about a father and son who were out walking
in the woods when they came across a stray dog. After checking for tags, the
father said, “You know son, we’d better take this little guy home with us,
because it doesn’t look like he’s got one.” So, carefully the little boy picked
him up and carried him all the way home. Once inside the house the father said,
“Well son, what do you think we should name him?” And before his son could
answer, his wife chimed in, “Why don’t you name him ‘Mother’, because if he
stays, I go.”
Now that’s a real threat. I mean dads are important, but
moms are essential. I remember a number of years ago when a prison system in
the south offered free Mother’s Day cards and free Father’s Day cards for any
inmate who wanted to send them. Within two days, 10,000 Mother’s Day cards were
requested and no Father’s Day cards.
As we have learned over the years God has numerous names in
the Scripture from Elohim to Alpha and Omega. But there’s one name
that is particularly rich and well-used and that’s the name El Shaddai. It’s used over two hundred
times in the Old Testament and each time it’s translated, “God Almighty”.
Now on the face of it, it seems that this divine name
implies strength and muscle. But when you examine the Hebrew word Shaddai, you find that it doesn’t mean
muscle, it means breast. Shad in
Hebrew means breast. Now think of it. When God shows up, it’s at the point of
Abram’s greatest despair. And how does He come? As Elohim? No. He comes as El
Shaddai, the God of rest and nourishment. And when you examine the other
four places in the Book of Genesis where
El Shaddai appears, you find the need of Isaac and Jacob is just as great
as Abram’s. What they need is not might. What they need is nourishment. And
that’s what God provides each of them.
You know who shows us the clearest view of the attributes of
God? Jesus. We see Him doing that in John 21 in His encounter with Peter on the
beach after his three-fold failure. We see Him doing the same with Mary at the
tomb and Thomas behind closed doors in Jerusalem the night of the resurrection.
But perhaps more than any other New Testament figure we see
the Shad of God being most
transformative in the life of the Apostle Paul. This Sunday we are going to dig
into the opening lines of his final epistle – II Timothy. It’s here that we find
some of the clearest evidence of Paul’s radical change from a religious
mercenary who’s hell-bent on stamping out Christianity to a man whose heart is
as soft and sensitive as any on display in the New Testament. As we will see on
Sunday in the span of thirty years from his Damascus Road experience Paul goes
from a religious mercenary to a faithful, spiritual mother.
In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the
following:
- What would you say is Jesus’ view of women?
- Would you consider His view of women to be in step or out of step with the culture of Orthodox Judaism of the time?
- Can you site examples from the Gospels of how Jesus treated women in an uncommon manner?
- On whose authority does Saul of Tarsus (Paul) head to Damascus to arrest followers of Christ? (see Acts 8 & 9)
- How accurate is it to refer to Saul/Paul as a religious mercenary prior to his conversion?
- How does Paul demonstrate a tremendous shift of heart in his final words to Timothy in II Timothy 1:1-7?
- What does he mean when he says he serves God with a clear conscience, “as my ancestors did” in verse 3?
- What does he mean in verse 4 when he says, “As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy”?
- What role do Eunice and Lois have in Timothy’s faith?
- How does Paul show Timothy and us Jesus in this text?
