How Should We Understand Scripture’s Feminine Images of God?

Episode 214 Show Notes

How Should We Understand Scripture’s Feminine Images of God?

From the Show

In the Prophets and Psalms I have come across more feminine images of God. I know that God is not female, but I struggle to understand what these images mean. Can you explain this?

It’s important, especially in our day, to emphasize that God’s neither male nor female in his essence, and at the same time to embrace and celebrate the analogies that we find in Scripture. We can’t go beyond scripture. “Well, how do we know those analogies fit God?” Because God’s the one who gave them to us. You know, if I tell you what I’m like, I may be wrong because I’m finite and sinful. I might inflate myself or I might be top self-deprecating. God, when he tells us what he’s like, he tellls us the truth, all the time. The analogies fit because God is the one who coined these analogies for us…. We have to say, it’s not your experience or my experience that determines the analogies God gives us. The analogies God gives us, if we’ll just let them, can heal and replace our faulty images of fatherhood. Embrace the good father. But acknowledge that he’s beyond maleness and femaleness. He’s the ultimate good. — Michael Horton

Questions in this Episode

1. Why does Paul say that there are people who commit certain kinds of sins that we shouldn’t even eat with? How does this fit with forgiveness?

2. Are there any prayers in Scripture specifically for lost souls, asking for God to save specific people?

3. What do you think about when Christians agree to disagree? Should we instead continue to have conversations and try to learn from other Christians even when we disagree?

4. Jesus says, “If you have seen me, you have seen the father.” How does Jesus reveal the character of God clearer than the Old Testament?

5. In the Prophets and Psalms I have come across more feminine images of God. I know that God is not female, but I struggle to understand what these images mean. Can you explain this?