Let’s get to the nitty gritty. Did you know that the Bible portrays the female as a su.ckling mother? We have gotten so far away from truth in our modern and humanistic society that we hardly know what is normal anymore.In Matthew 19 we read about how the Pharisees came to Jesus to ask him about divorce. He answered them with these words: “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female . . .”
When Jesus spoke the word “female,” He used the word thelus, a different word that is usually used in the New Testament. It comes from the root word thele meaning “the female breast, a woman with nursing breasts, one who gives su.ck.” One word study states “glorifying God by reflecting the ‘other wonderful half’ of the divine image.”
In other words, Jesus described the female as a “su.ckling mother.” “This is how God made them in the beginning” He reminded them. And God has not yet made a new model! It is the true picture of a woman, created with a womb to nurture life and breasts to nourish that life. When we breastfeed, we embrace our womanhood the way God intricately and wondrously designed our bodies.
I know that this description would be offensive to some women today. Isn’t that sad that women have turned away from the way they were created? We see the end result of this in Romans 1:26 where this same Greek word is used: “For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women (thelus) did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Even the animal kingdom does not turn away from its natural function to nurse and nourish its young. Lamentations 4:3 says: “Even jackals offer their breasts to nurse their young, but my people, have become heartless like ostriches in the desert.”
God wants us to rise into the glory of our femaleness. To embrace our femininity. To be proud of the word mother. To encourage breastfeeding mothers. To be who God created us to be.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Painting: Maternidad Óleo sobre lienzo Autor: Elin Danielson Gambogi (1861 - 1919) Fecha: 1893