In my opinion, modern feminism has overplayed its hand in finding the oppression of women under every rock. But even still, the women of ancient times experienced oppression in a very real sense. At best, they were considered second rate citizens, and at worst, they were considered property. Their value was wrapped up in their ability to produce heirs, and if they could not produce them, then they weren’t worth much at all. So, it is interesting that the theme of barrenness is such a consistent thread throughout the Bible. At face value, if you were to read the text of Scripture, you might think that the Bible is no different than any other ancient book in its treatment of women. The Mosaic law, for example, sets lower prices for the redemption of a woman than for a man. It requires more stringent cleanliness for women than men. It does not allow women to obtain property. Yet, written over the top of that standard ancient story is another story. This other story is a tail of God’s grace and favor being showered on women who would otherwise be the most marginalized. In Scripture, the Barren Woman receives the special favor of God.
This favor tells us something about God’s purpose in the salvation of the World through the birth of his Son, Jesus. And, that special favor is reflected in the birth stories about Jesus. So, over the next five weeks, let’s search these stories of the women of Christmas to find the beauty of the Gospel. To do that, we need to start with the first barren woman mentioned in Scripture, Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Read Gen. 18:1-15 with me to see her story.
There are four facts that we know about Sarah throughout the story of God’s blessing on Abraham. The first fact is one we are told at the very beginning of her story in Gen. 11:30 – “Now Sarai was barren; she had no child.” This fact is given to us right before Gen. 12:1, where God makes the bold promise that he will bless Abram and make him into a great nation. Now, you can imagine the initial hopefulness of Sarah, that maybe now God will fix this problem of my barrenness. She was already old when God called them to go to Canaan, so you can imagine that she, for 55 years or more, had lived with the burden of that barrenness. Other women had probably chided her about her inability to have a child. Abram had likely looked on her with disappointment. Her in-laws may have made snide comments about the lack of a grandchild and heir.
Second, Sarah was apparently very beautiful, even at the age of 70. Twice, Abraham gives her away to two kings in order to avoid any conflict with them, knowing that she is beautiful, and they would covet her. This beauty sets up an interesting paradox for Sarah, as it is often assumed that God’s favor rests on the talented, the smart, and the beautiful. Sarah had these things, but she could not perform the greatest expectation of a woman of her day. So, what seemed to be a blessing in her beauty only highlighted the curse.
Third, Sarah was no different than many others when put under the pressures of failure and societal expectations. She was willing to compromise her marriage, her morality, and the promise of God for the sake of acceptance. In Genesis 16, she makes the terrible suggestion to Abraham that he should take her maidservant, Hagar, and have a child by her, and in that way, she could have a child through Hagar. That plan ends in family strife and injustice.
Finally, we find out from verse 11 of our passage, that Sarah was not only barren, but at this point in her life, she had also hit menopause. So, there is no physical possibility for the conception of a child, now. You can imagine her reasoning – sure, God could possibly make me fertile when I still had the hormones to do so. But, now there is just no way that he can do anything for me. It’s so ridiculous to her, that she laughs to herself while listening to God make a final promise to Abraham. She questions, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” There were two reasons for her skepticism. She’s “worn out” – old, barren, and post-menopausal. Second, her husband is old, too, which carries with it another set of challenges. There is no way, in her mind, that God can fulfill his promise.
Yet, God, in his sovereignty, knows that she has laughed and the questioning of her heart. So, he asks in verses 13-14, “Why does she laugh and question me? Is anything too hard for the Lord?” Of course, this is a rhetorical question for which the answer is absolutely, emphatically, NO! Nothing is impossible for God. And, we know this to be true because we know the rest of the story. We are told in Gen. 21:1-3, “The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac.” God took the impossibilities of Sarah’s circumstances and brought joy and laughter out of it. And, there is a beautiful, poetic twist in the naming of Isaac – his name means “Laughter”. God took the skeptical laughter of a woman who had been beaten down by the hardness of her life, and from that he brought the laughter of new life in this son of promise.
Barrenness carries a real spiritual dimension to it in the Bible. It is a form of death, you might say – not an immediate, personal death, but the death of a family line. It is a hopeless state because it means that there is no future for the family. You could say that everyone is born into a state of spiritual barrenness. You are born with gifts and talents. You live and work hard to put food on the table. You raise a family and send them off into the world. But after all that toil, death comes, and after death, judgment. It seems that life is fruitless, even when it is full of fruit. As Ecclesiastes puts it, “everything is vanity and vexation of spirit.”
But, the Christmas story gives us hope in the midst of that barrenness. It gives us the hope that God favors the one who is barren, and he gives life where it seemed impossible. He turns sorrow into laughter and joy. God promised, in Isaiah 7:14, “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.” The people of God waited some 400 years for that promise to be fulfilled. Like Sarah, they had lost all hope that it could ever be. For one, it is a physical impossibility for a virgin to conceive. For another, it was far too dark a time for God to dwell with his people (which is what the name “Immanuel” means). But in that impossibility and the darkness of the times, a little baby was born to a virgin girl in the town of Bethlehem.
Nothing is impossible for God – even the salvation of your soul. You may say, “Preacher, there is no hope for me, you don’t know what I’ve done.” Nothing is impossible for God. You may think, “Yes, but I keep turning back to my old sins, even after accepting Jesus.” Nothing is impossible for God. You may think, “But, I’m in the midst of this terrible trial and it seems as though there is no hope.” Nothing is impossible with God. Trust in the God of promise who makes the barren to laugh.
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