Happy Mother's Day

Hello, everyone. Today is Monday, May the 15th. I'm Ryan Hill.

I'm John Galantis. You're listening to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. If you have any questions for Dr. Shah or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028, or you can email us at contact at ClearViewTodayShow.com. You guys can help us keep this conversation going by supporting the show, sharing it online, leaving us a good review on iTunes or Spotify, anywhere you get your podcasting content from. We're going to leave some links in the description so you can do just that. Today's verse of the day is coming to us from Proverbs 31-10, a wife of noble character who can find she is worth far more than rubies.

Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value. Love that so much, especially with it being the day after Mother's Day. We went back and forth on whether we were going to do this before Mother's Day, after Mother's Day.

We were like, you know, I'd rather do it one day after than three days before. Right, adjacent to Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms, moms to be, and moms at heart out there. Literally, we wouldn't be here if it weren't for you, so thank you for what you do. That's true, man.

That's true. We wouldn't exist if it weren't for mamas. What's your favorite story involving your mom? Oh, gosh. Mom, if you're listening to this, I'm going to tell a story from Ryan's Buffet. Ooh.

When I was a kid. Is that like a keyword? Like, she knows instantly what story? Yeah, she'd know it instantly.

Go for it. So, not my restaurant, but Ryan's, the chain restaurant, that big buffet, kind of like a Golden Corral type thing, if you're not familiar with what a Ryan's Steakhouse is. So we went there, a good bit, as we were growing up, because it was kind of right around the corner from our house, and there was one day that we were there, that it was, I think it was just the four of us, my family, my mom, my dad, me, and my sister, and my sister's younger than I am, and my mom, gosh, I can't even remember the context of what happened. My mom was upset about something related to the service of that night, and my mom is a very easygoing and agreeable person, until you ruffle her feathers, then she is not above like, should make you cry. Very typical of Southern moms.

Should make you cry. Yeah. So it was evident as the evening went on that this infraction, I can't even remember what it was now, was not gonna be corrected. So my mom was like, I'm going to go find the manager, and I was like, mom, please don't do this.

I was to the age, I wasn't a teenager yet, I don't think, maybe, I might have been like nine or 10. But I was to the point, like socially aware enough that I was like, I'm about to be embarrassed. So my mom was like, I'm gonna go find the manager. So she asked the server, can I speak to the manager? I'm sorry, he's on break.

Well, lo and behold, on break meant that he was dining at another table in the restaurant. So she's like, oh, there's the manager. How does she know?

I'll go take care of him. How does she know that was him? He had his like name tag on, and he was dressed in manager garb. He had his little blue vest. Yeah, yeah.

All right. So she sees him over there, and she's like, she gets up, makes a beeline for the manager. I look at my sister, and I was like, we got to get out of here. And I don't even know what happened.

The last thing I remember was her like charging over to the table, as this poor man is trying to eat his food on his break. And so I grabbed the keys, grabbed my sister, and we're out. Y'all fled.

Y'all really fled. We went to the van, and I was like, we won't ever speak of this again. I don't want to hear about it. I don't want to know what happened.

I don't know if that dude is still alive. So you're like, to this day, you don't know what was said? And my dad, my dad was sitting at the table, he was like, don't leave me. What are you guys doing? I was like, sorry, dad, we're out, we're peacing out. We took the keys, went to the van, and just kind of waited it out. 20 to 30 minutes later, our parents come out, and we're just like, my sister looks at me and I was like, don't say anything. Don't say anything. Don't say anything. Because we're going to get started on next time or something. And that was that.

So I don't know what happened to that dude. If you're the manager of Orion's from Charleston, South Carolina, circa like late 90s, sorry. My mom was similar. My mom was similar in a way, but not really with the service. It was more like with us, with me and Caitlin. She did not like any missteps in public. And I'm that way too.

I don't like, if Gavin is going to act up, that's completely fine. You can act up at home. But when we're out in public, you know, P's and Q's. Almost like Army. Mind your P's and Q's. Exactly.

So there was one time where she could have yelled at me, but what she did was way worse. So there was like a, it was also a restaurant. It wasn't Orion's, but it was like a Western Sizzlin or something like that. And they had like this big salad bar. And I remember they had broccoli and cheese.

I think I've told the story on the podcast. I can't remember, but they had this like melted cheese and I was like four, five at tops. And I just, I just wanted some cheese. So I stuck my finger in it and I just, just like that. And the guy saw me do it and he didn't say anything. He just pulled it up and he took it back into the back. And so my mom got down on my level and just super calm, which this was very unlike her.

She would typically freak out. Why would you do that? That's not, no, you don't do that son. But she just got down and she was like, Hey, listen, you see why he took that away? He did that because of what you just did. You stuck your finger in that. And then she turned me around. She was like, look at all these people, see all these people in line. Nobody gets any cheese because of what you just did.

Go sit down at that table. And I cried my eyes. This is not a great mother's day story. Both of our mother's day stories are my mom acted out in public and made us cry. But I never forgot that moment. I'm 31 and every now and then that memory will just come to me and I never forgot that.

And I don't know why, but that's my favorite story that involves my mom. She was so calm. She was like, nope. She made me look at them.

She was like, look at all these people. Nobody gets any cheese. Go sit down. To your mom's credit, I probably would have done exactly the same thing. You see how these people get cheese because of what you just did.

Go sit down. Yeah, it worked. Yeah. It was rough. But your poor little boy heart. Oh man.

I don't have any mother's day stories, but David, do you got any stories with your mom? Yeah. Hold on. Let me clarify.

Do you have any stories where your mom acted up at a restaurant? Because that seems to be the thing. That seems to be the theme. Yeah.

I mean, I could pull a few. First and foremost, happy mother's day. Happy mother's day.

Happy mama. I don't really have any from the restaurant that are fun, but the one that I love to think of that kind of reminds me that she was a good mom that put up with a crazy child was the time that I ran away from my mother in Walmart wearing Heelys. And then when she finally caught me in the toy aisle, she had to put me over her shoulder in which I yelled, help, help somebody, please, while she carried me out. Now that story sounds fake. If I hadn't heard her tell me that story to my face, I would not believe it.

I certainly wouldn't believe it. But I was very, very wild. You were the definition of a wild child. Wow. Man.

That's crazy. Well, thank you for putting up with me, mom. Thank you. Thank you so much for us, for fighting for our dinners when we might be too embarrassed to do so, for standing up for what was right, and for raising us into who we are today. We love you, mama. Thank you for what you do. We're going to get started with our episode in just a minute. We're going to get Dr. Shah in here.

If you guys have any questions or suggestions, or if you have some great stories involving your moms, we would love to hear those. Send those in a text to 252-582-5028, or visit us online at cleaviewtodayshow.com. We'll be back after this. Well, good morning, afternoon, evening, Clearview Today listeners. My name is Jon. And I'm David.

And we just want to take a quick second and let you know about another way that you can keep in touch with Dr. Shah's work, and that is his weekly podcast series, Sermons by Abaddon Shah, Ph.D. As a lot of you may know, or maybe some of you don't know. If you don't know, you do now. And if you don't know, then maybe just hop off the podcast. David, hop off the podcast.

I'm just playing. Keep listening. Dr. Shah is actually the lead pastor of Clearview Church in North Carolina. Every single weekend, he preaches expository messages that challenge and inspire us to live God-honoring lives. One of the four core values of Clearview Church is that we're a Bible-believing church. So every sermon is coming directly from scripture, which is great because that guarantees that there are timeless truths that are constantly applicable to our lives. This is a great resource because whether you're driving, whether you're cleaning the house, whether you're working out, you can always benefit from hearing the Word of God spoken into your life. And God's Word is always going to do something new for you every time you hear it.

Sometimes it's conviction, and sometimes it's encouragement, but know that every time you listen to God's Word, you're inviting the Holy Spirit to move and work in your life. You guys can check out the Sermons by Abaddon Shah Ph.D. podcast. First and foremost, check it out on our church app. That's the Clearview app. You can get that in the Google Play Store. You can get that on iTunes. But you can also find the podcast on the Apple podcast app or on our website at ClearviewBC.org. And listen, if you've got a little extra time on your hands, you just want to do some further reading, you can also read the transcripts of those sermons.

Those are available on Dr. Shah's website, AbaddonShah.com. And we're going to leave you guys a little link in the description so you can follow it. But for right now, David, let's hop back in. All right. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abaddon Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

You can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com, or if you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. Oh, sorry. I almost cut you off. No, man. I just got excited. No, you go ahead and finish yours, man. I insist. That was really the end of it. I was just going to say top of the week, top of the morning, top of the afternoon. I was going to cut you off again anyway.

Go for it. If today's your first time ever tuning into the Clear View Today Show, I want to let you know who's talking to you. Dr. Abaddon Shah is a PhD in New Testament textual criticism, professor at Carolina University, author, full-time pastor, and host of today's show.

You can find all of his work on his website. That's AbaddonShah.com. That's right. And Dr. Shah, you nor I, nor Jon, none of us are mothers. No, we're not. Not one of us.

Definitely not. I'm sure. But we have the benefit of interacting with mothers in our lives, both our moms and we came into this world through mothers. Right. That's right.

I said that at the top of the episode. I was like, we literally would not be here if it wasn't for moms. I think moms at the end of the day are good. Is that crazy? They're good.

They're good to have. But I'm not one. I'm not one. And you know what? That's okay.

That's okay. But in the spirit of Mother's Day, we're going to have a conversation kind of centered around this idea of mothers. And that's something that is carried throughout the Bible. The Bible doesn't just focus on the dads and it doesn't just focus on the father relationship. There are lots of moms that are talked about in scripture as well.

Absolutely. And before I go there, let me just say this right now where we are in our culture, I wouldn't even say that we are upside down. I think we've lost our ever loving mind. The whole idea of, you know, that anybody can be a mom or whatever or mom like, come on people, you know, God is watching and he's taking note of all this and there will come a point where enough is enough and that day is coming. So having said that, I'm just going to put that out there and say God has made us male and female.

God has made males to be fathers and females to be mothers based on whether or not you have kids. But that's how God has set it up and he can change that. That's right.

I love the way you put that. It's not even upside down. It's just something else entirely, like even more skewed than that. Yeah.

If it's upside down, it's still recognizable. Right. Like I can still be like, oh, this is wrong. But this is not even, there's no familiarity here. Yeah.

It's like someone put it just in like a batch of nitroglycerin and just set the whole thing on fire. Now it's like, this was once something, but yeah. And my heart goes out to people who are feeling this way or confused about things and things about life and gender and motherhood and fatherhood and my heart goes out to them. They need Christ, they need the truth, they need help and they need grace. Having said that, we as a culture are playing with fire and this is not how things should be. And so anyways, I want to lay that out there because I think it cheapens motherhood, it cheapens what godly mothers or just mothers have done through the ages, you know, sacrifice for their children. And it cheapens that when we start saying, oh, anybody or a man can be a mother or whatever.

I mean, come on, stand for the truth. And it's imperative. That's right. And so in today's episode, as we're talking about mothers, as we, you know, just got done celebrating our moms and the moms in our lives yesterday, we want to talk about one of the moms' inscription. Now there's lots of examples to pull from, but the one that we want to focus on today is Isaac's wife, Rebekah. You know, Rebekah had, of course, two children, twin boys, Jacob and Esau. And it's very interesting the dynamic between these sons and how the parents were involved in their relationship.

Right. Yeah, that was an interesting story. You know, when you think about two brothers, twins, right, Esau and Jacob. But they were hardly alike. And there's a conflict even before they come into this world. And Rebekah is the one who notices this because it tells us that she goes before God.

Let me see if I can find that passage here in verse 22, I believe it is, Genesis 25 and verse 22. But the children struggled together within her. And she said, if all is well, why am I like this? What is going on?

What is happening? That's a question I'm sure every mother has asked at least one point in their life. At least in the pregnancy, you know, it's like, why do I feel this way? I feel so nauseous or I feel, you know, like Nicole.

I remember when she was pregnant with Rebekah, I believe. She woke me up at like 10 o'clock at night and she said, I want to eat this ice cream at Shoney's. Shoney's? Shoney's. Shoney's. If you know anything about Shoney's, like Shoney's, Ryan's, Quincy's, these are those steak houses, you know, and like, you want to go to Shoney's now? I said, they close at 11.

I know, but I want to go there and eat some of that ice cream. I said, okay. So we got in the car. Y'all went, y'all got up and went? Yeah.

Got there about like 10, 25, 10, 30, something like that. And I'm like, can we have some ice cream? Did you eat dinner? Did you just go in and have the ice cream? I just had the ice cream. You're a good husband for that.

Yeah, I remember that. You're a good husband for that. And we ate and then she was like, thank you. I'm like, okay. I mean, I don't know. Was the ice cream good?

I'm not sure what this did for you, but. She liked the ice cream with the chocolate topping and then the, you know, you go under there and you pour like the Hershey's, you know, all that stuff that you want to do that. But you know, so women go through that, especially during pregnancy. But in her situation, it was a whole different thing.

And I want us to talk about that today a little bit. Yeah. Well, I liked that she goes to the Lord.

Like that was the first thing you said is that she's not just asking or she's not web MDing what's wrong with me or going to her best girlfriends and being like, what, what is this? Like the first person she goes to is the Lord. That's right. Yeah. That's right. And the answer comes back in verse 23.

How would you like this answer, ladies? Two nations are in your womb. Huh?

You said what? And so two nations are in your wombs, but it gets even more direct here. Two peoples shall be separated from your body. One people shall be stronger than the other and the older shall serve the younger.

Imagine hearing that from God. Yeah. Especially in a, in a culture where that's kind of unheard of, where that, that thing that doesn't really happen, it goes against the grain, right? The older to serve the younger, that would just, that wasn't done. That wasn't how the way things work, right? So two things are happening here. If you, if you know the story, first thing is this God's plan of salvation was in motion.

Okay. So Paul explains this for us in Romans nine. It says for the children not yet being born, nor having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election might stand not of works, but of him who calls.

It was said to her, the older shall serve the younger. So Paul gives us a commentary on that passage in Genesis 22. And the commentary is this, that God was choosing the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not Abraham, Isaac, and Esau, but Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to bring his plan of salvation in this world. This was not election unto salvation. This was election unto service or election unto being the vehicle through which the Messiah would come. The second thing that comes to mind here, and I know some of our people who are listening or watching are wondering, where are you going with this passage?

Here where we talk about something that may be more applicable to you as you're raising your children or your family, or as you see your children grow up, or if you had contention in your home or there's sibling rivalry going on, whatever. Here's the second one. Some of the children's personalities were being manifested even before they were born. Wow.

Let's think about that for a while. It's interesting because we typically think that Esau turned out the way he did because either he was being favored or he wasn't shown enough love by his mother or his father set him up for failure. Yeah, he was the neglected boy. But if he was born wild looking and he was born who he was, and maybe there's some balance that we can find between the two, but we can't neglect the fact that God's plan for Esau came to pass. Yeah.

Right. I mean, even in the womb, it says in verse 25, the first one came out red. Ew.

My son came out purple, so if he comes out red, it's like, oh, what? Wait, it gets worse. He was like a hairy garment all over. Nah. Nah.

Like a wet rat. Oh. Oh, man.

I'm going to gag. So they called his name Esau. The older one was kind of red and hairy, kind of wild looking.

So the word for hairy in Hebrew is seer. So his name is Esau, a wild man. Wow.

Nice. Even before he was born, he is... He's sort of being set up. This child looks like a wild animal. He has a wild bent to him. He has this thing about him that is a little...

If you set up some boundaries, he's going to cross them. Yeah. And I think that also perfectly sets up Jacob, because that's just the way that God writes that story is there's foil.

There's... Okay. If Esau's over here and he's wild and he's kind of out of control and doing all this stuff, then you kind of naturally expect that Jacob is going to be, if not the opposite, at least very different. Right.

And he is. So Jacob is coming and holding on to Esau's heel. So his name was called Jacob. The younger one came out clutching his brother's heel, Akeb, hence Yaqub Jacob.

Oh, nice. A grasper. Yeah.

He grasps. So one is a wild man, the other one keeps grasping. Yeah. We think that children are just blank slates when they come out. Like they're just got complete blank slate.

Yeah. Way to be programmed. Any failure or any personality bent that they have is our direct reflection of the parents. That's your success or failure.

We don't stop to think that God made them a certain way before they're even born. It's a combination of so many things. Of course, the sin nature with which we're all born. Let's start with that. There is no blank slate.

On the slate, there is a word called sin. That's where it starts. But then add to that the negatives and the positives of our parents and grandparents. And that one uncle who we sent away.

Yeah. We all hope he's not coming back for Christmas. We dread showing up at the family reunion. Or that aunt who, twice removed, but keeps coming back. The one who just kind of hums in the corner during everybody else's Christmas.

Just don't make eye contact. Yeah. She can't hear, but she'll just hum hymns in the corner. So all these personality traits are also part of the composition of each person. Including me. Including you. Including our listeners, our viewers. I mean, this all makes us who we are. And if you want to know the formula, I'm sorry.

I don't have one. We don't know the formula. We don't know the makeup. That's what makes life, I hate to say interesting, but also very complicated and frustrating. Like, why? Why?

Why do we do these things? Didn't you say one time that, I think it was Thomas, he would walk around with his hands behind his back, and that was something your dad used to do? My dad would do that. And they never met at that point. Never met.

Never had met. And he would do that. Isn't that wild? A little kid. Something like that was just in him.

And recently, I heard, either you or you, I don't know who was talking about that their son was doing something. Walking on his tiptoes? Yeah.

Yeah, Gavin walks on his tiptoes. I did that all the time as a kid. Did you teach him? Did you teach him? No. Did you, like, help him to walk on his tiptoes? No. Like, come on, son, let me show you.

No, he just walks on his tiptoes. Why? I mean, it's just how we're built. And so, kids have certain personality traits, and let me just go and talk to the parents for a moment, because even though I knew this, at times I didn't believe it. Even though I preached it, it didn't really resonate until I had to really come to terms with that. Yes, there are things as parents we do wrong. We don't do good enough. We don't do right enough. We don't do biblically enough.

But at the same time, cut yourself a little slack. There are things that are way beyond your control, okay? They are a unique human being, right? Your boy or your girl, whether they are two years old or four years old, they are unique because they're built that way. They come with a sin nature.

They have certain combinations from your DNA makeup. And then there are things they learn in this world. Then there's the enemy who's waiting to steal, kill, and destroy. All these things are working, and in the midst of that, you have to fight the good fight. Don't internalize all that guilt, which I think is something that a lot of mothers do, is internalize that guilt. But remember that God is working. God still has a plan.

Absolutely. That, in a good way, goes contrary to what the world teaches. It turns out a certain way, or if they are messed up in a certain direction, it's your shortcoming as a parent. It's your failure. You're to be blamed for this.

Well, maybe there are some things that you could have done differently, just like you said. Maybe there are some mistakes that we made, but God has formed this individual. He is the one responsible for their development.

Yes, you have a part to play as their parent, a very important part, but their success does not rise or fall on you. There's a song called—is it Anthem or Anthem Part 2? From Blink-182.

It's a song written by this guy right here that says, if we're messed up, you're to blame. This guy's a liar. That's not true.

That's not true. But you do like the band. I like the band, yeah.

Yeah, we're going to see them in July, but that song is a lie. So the Bible tells us in verse 28, and Isaac loved Esau because he ate of his game, but Rebekah loved Jacob. And so, I mean, a word to the parents, please don't play favorites. It's never good. Don't do that. It's not right. And I know you may get accused of that by your kids or siblings, but favoritism is detrimental to the whole family, not just to the neglected child.

It's not a good thing. But why did Rebekah love Jacob? Because this is where a lot of people misunderstand what happened. They think that each person had picked their favorite. Jacob picked Esau. Rebekah picked—Isaac picked Esau. Rebekah picked Jacob.

I don't think that really is happening here. The reason given for Isaac's love for Esau is different from the reason given for Rebekah's love for Jacob. In fact, no reason is given. In other words, Rebekah sided with Jacob because she saw Jacob being neglected. Maybe she saw his spiritual bent and gave him the spiritual encouragement he needed. Isaac gained from favoring Esau. Rebekah didn't necessarily gain anything from picking up Jacob and supporting him and encouraging him. And the reason we know that there was a spiritual bent is because when Jacob cooked a stew, Esau came, and he was weary, and he said—he was starving—and he said, you know, feed me with that same red stuff.

Give it to me. And that's why his name is called Edom, the Mountains of Edom. I mean, it's all red, red, red. The emphasis is on red.

In ancient times, red or reddish brown was considered to be heroic. So this is a lot. We don't have time to cover all this. But Esau was geared towards earthly awards and approvals. And Isaac should have done something about it, talked to his son and said, son, it's not about all that.

But he didn't do that. But Jacob said to Esau, well, give me a birthright. I want to be the firstborn.

I tried to grab your heel on the way out, but you beat me to it. Let me have your birthright. Why did he want the birthright? Because Jacob wanted to be part of God's plan. He wanted it to be Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not Abraham, Isaac, and Esau. He wanted him. And so when he saw that his brother had no regard for that family tree of being a vessel for the coming of God's son, he's like, hey, can I have it then? And we typically vilify him for that.

We typically, Christians typically will vilify Jacob. Listen, how his name is described. He's a grasper. He's a heel grabber. He's a deceiver. He's, he's the one who reaches for things that aren't his. But that's not how he's painted. That's not how he's painted. He was not just a trickster.

I think it was more about, he saw what mattered in life and in death, in eternity. And he said, I'm hanging on to that. Yeah. If my brother's not going to value it.

I won't. I'll take it. Yep. You know, somebody's junk is becoming somebody's treasure.

That's right. And so in Hebrews 12, 17, 18, that's exactly what it says, Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears. Means once he kicked it away, then he wanted it back.

Did you know that Esau wanted the plan to be Abraham, Isaac, and Esau? Later on, he realized, oh my goodness, I blew it. Can I have it back? Can I have it back?

Because I want to be part of the coming of God's son. Like, no, it's over. He sold it out. You give it away. You can't do that.

Wow. If I can give a couple of things, principles that would help parents that has helped us. Imagine your child's bent, you know, no, and this is nothing you can do about. This is how they're born. Don't play favorites.

It didn't work out for Isaac, as you can see. Encourage those with a spiritual bent. Generate spiritual bent in those who don't. So this one is not spiritually bent, but then take them to church with you.

Go places with you and talk to them about Jesus. You never know the first shall be last, the last shall be first. This one who doesn't have a spiritual bent may become a spiritual warrior. That's right. And ultimately lead your children to Christ, no matter what you do, lead them to Christ.

That's right. Absolutely. Amen. If you guys enjoyed today's topic, or you have suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 252-582-5028. You can also visit us online at clearviewtodayshow.com. You can partner with us financially on that same website. Every gift that you give goes not only to building up this radio show, but countless other ministries for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We love you guys. We'll see you next time on Clear View Today. And happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.