Happy Belated Mother’s Day
God created women to be special. In general women are nurturers as God gives them a special sense of caring and reaching out with empathy and compassion. There are different types of mothers: biological, step, and spiritual. Then there are women who by choice enter into the lives of others. All of these women are critical to impart and make a difference in the lives of children.
There is a woman who is important in Old Testament genealogy; however, not much is said about her. She is King David’s mother named Nitzevet. Her name means strength, and she was a mother, wife, and caregiver. She watched in silence as she experienced the maltreatment and rejection of her son from within the family.
Sometimes it’s easy to think that there was not prejudice in the Bible but we’re sadly mistaken. Nitzevet’s husband, Jesse, had a problem with his genealogy. One of his ancestors was Rahab, a Gentile prostitute who hid Jewish spies when they scouted out the city of Jericho and helped them escape. Jesse’s grandmother was also a Gentile named Ruth, who left her home in Moab, converted to Judaism, and married Boaz the wealthy landowner.
Because he felt convicted by his genealogical past, Jesse refused sexual relations with his wife after the birth of his seven sons and chose to marry Canaanite maidservant to have more children with her. The maidservant, however, had pity on Nitzevet and together they made a plan to secretly switch places on the wedding night so that Nitzevet could sleep with Jesse one more time. The switch worked, much as Leah and Rachel’s switch had worked on Jacob, (Genesis 29:16) and Nitzevet became pregnant with David, her eighth son. Nitzevet never revealed to Jesse what she had done, even when her pregnancy was apparent; therefore, Nitzevet came to be despised as an immoral woman, and her son, David, grew up an outcast in his own family.
We don’t have much information on David’s mother other than she was a godly woman. She taught David to take risks and be bold in pursuing the right path. Without her taking the place of her maidservant that night, David, a man after God’s own heart and forbearer of Jesus, would never have been born. In one of David’s psalms he prayed, “Save me, because I serve you just as my mother did” (Psalm 86:16).
There is a woman who is important in Old Testament genealogy; however, not much is said about her. She is King David’s mother named Nitzevet. Her name means strength, and she was a mother, wife, and caregiver. She watched in silence as she experienced the maltreatment and rejection of her son from within the family.
Sometimes it’s easy to think that there was not prejudice in the Bible but we’re sadly mistaken. Nitzevet’s husband, Jesse, had a problem with his genealogy. One of his ancestors was Rahab, a Gentile prostitute who hid Jewish spies when they scouted out the city of Jericho and helped them escape. Jesse’s grandmother was also a Gentile named Ruth, who left her home in Moab, converted to Judaism, and married Boaz the wealthy landowner.
Because he felt convicted by his genealogical past, Jesse refused sexual relations with his wife after the birth of his seven sons and chose to marry Canaanite maidservant to have more children with her. The maidservant, however, had pity on Nitzevet and together they made a plan to secretly switch places on the wedding night so that Nitzevet could sleep with Jesse one more time. The switch worked, much as Leah and Rachel’s switch had worked on Jacob, (Genesis 29:16) and Nitzevet became pregnant with David, her eighth son. Nitzevet never revealed to Jesse what she had done, even when her pregnancy was apparent; therefore, Nitzevet came to be despised as an immoral woman, and her son, David, grew up an outcast in his own family.
We don’t have much information on David’s mother other than she was a godly woman. She taught David to take risks and be bold in pursuing the right path. Without her taking the place of her maidservant that night, David, a man after God’s own heart and forbearer of Jesus, would never have been born. In one of David’s psalms he prayed, “Save me, because I serve you just as my mother did” (Psalm 86:16).