Did you know that God has a womb? Yep, you read it right. If that fact is confusing…keep reading.
I am married to a man who believes that females are God’s secret weapons for finishing the Great Commission. If the words God uses to describe women are any indication of his thoughts towards women, my husband just might be right.
I want to share with you two Hebrew words to help us understand the value God ascribes to females – rechem and racham. These words give us incredible clues about God’s thoughts towards us as women or towards our daughters/wives/mothers (if you are a man)! The words reveal why women are so strong and also why Satan hates us so much.
Rechem/Racham
A couple of years ago I discovered a fascinating word. In Hebrew language, “womb” is rechem. And rechem comes from a similar word racham. In Hebrew, racham speaks of tender love, deep compassion, and mercy (Psalm 103:8). It’s interesting to find these two words are connected and it makes so much sense!
Think about a womb (rechem). It’s an amazing place where deep within a mom, a tiny baby is tenderly nurtured and protected. Due to this protection and tender love, we each have life today.
I remember just standing in India when I first realized I was pregnant. I marveled that the only two who knew of this child’s existence so far were God and me. I was the only human to know, but God had beaten me to it. He already knew. I remember standing there as she was so tiny and patting my stomach and saying, “I am a mommy. I love you, dear child. I am your mommy! Welcome!”
Immediately I began to make decisions based on what was best for baby, not what was most convenient to me (not even a sip of Coke Zero). My womb sustained this tiny one. She was her own person from the moment of conception, but I was given the awesome privilege as a woman to house her, to protect her, to nurture her. I had the honor to feed her, to keep her free from waste products, and to feel her first tiny kicks (and the later rib-jabs that HURT!). I was the one allowed to supply her with oxygen. I was given the blessing for her to know my voice above all others. I was given the satisfaction that at birth her eyes stayed closed until she heard my voice and opened them. What an amazing privilege!
Did you know that each of us are held in the “womb” rechem of God’s “love” racham?
Because of God’s tender love and compassion, we each have an opportunity to be born again. In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that he must be born again. Nicodemus the scholar seems a bit confused, “Can a man enter his mother’s womb to be born when he is old?” Obviously, no. But Jesus says there is a womb we must enter – the womb of God’s love. God holds us throughout our lives, nurtures us, protects us. By accepting that tender love we can become a child of God. Or as Rabbi Jonathan Cahn says, “The racham (love) of God is the rechem (womb) of our new birth.”
It’s through God’s womb of love that new birth (salvation) can take place and we can become the children of God!
So, women, God relates his love to the powerful image of the womb that protects life and gives nourishment. This revelation contains so much richness in it I can barely find words to express it.
God loves women and men; Satan hates people. God protects and gives life; Satan steals, kills, and destroys. Because of God’s love, he wants each person to become a child of God (John 1:12); Satan wants people to reject God’s love and remain spiritually dead.
A young woman wept as the Voice for the Voiceless seminar ended. At its conclusion she stood and spoke, “I have never heard that women have value. And you are telling me that my value is given by Jesus Christ. I believe this great news. I will spend my life speaking of the value of the pre-born and women, no matter what happens to me. I will speak up for others and for the God who gives them value – Jesus Christ.”
May we as God’s people tell others of God’s amazing love that surrounds each person and makes new life possible.
