The sun shines and my coffee grows cold and of all the thoughts swirling around my head on this Good Friday morning, the thought of barrenness is what comes to mind.
This theme throughout the Pentateuch of God intervening in women's wombs, His insertion of new life where before there had only been barrenness, is at the head of Jesus' genealogy. The wives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob: Sarah. Rebecca. Rachel. Barren, barren, barren. All three of these could not in and of themselves produce the new life they so longed for. These women cried out with anguish for life to grow inside them, life that they could not themselves create. For these women, new life was only possible through spiritual intervention. This is not coincidence. This curse extends beyond infertility, it bores into our hearts. With death as humanity's curse, barrenness is the sign of our inadequacy: we cannot produce new life on our own. We are dead, we are barren, we are cursed.
Do you notice the promises of fertility in the Psalms and prophets? "Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman," says the LORD (Isaiah 54:1). All of Israel was barren; in their strivings and Law they could not in themselves produce the Life lost in Eden.
But infertility still ravaged in the New Testament: Elizabeth and Zachariah: barren. But! finally conceived through the hand of God. Do you see this theme? New life cannot be mustered, cannot be worked for or created by our own hands. This is at the foundation of Jewish genealogy. New life is impossible apart from divine intervention.
And Mary, in whom was conceived in yet another impossible womb by a God who longs with us for new life. Mary, the last miraculous conception recorded in the Word, birthed the One who would finally make new life possible. The perfect One who knew that death was the only way to new life. The one who carried out the sacrifice as the Lamb promised to His forefather Abraham.
And the anguish of the matriarchs could not compare to the misery faced by Christ on that Good Friday as He bore the desolate barrenness of our souls. As He hung on that tree whose roots would grow in our hearts and from that tree grew the fertility of new and abundant life. New life won for the dead through the death of a perfect life.
His suffering gave way to our joy, His forsakenness to our inclusion, His death for new life growing in the wombs of our oh so barren souls
This theme throughout the Pentateuch of God intervening in women's wombs, His insertion of new life where before there had only been barrenness, is at the head of Jesus' genealogy. The wives of the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob: Sarah. Rebecca. Rachel. Barren, barren, barren. All three of these could not in and of themselves produce the new life they so longed for. These women cried out with anguish for life to grow inside them, life that they could not themselves create. For these women, new life was only possible through spiritual intervention. This is not coincidence. This curse extends beyond infertility, it bores into our hearts. With death as humanity's curse, barrenness is the sign of our inadequacy: we cannot produce new life on our own. We are dead, we are barren, we are cursed.
Do you notice the promises of fertility in the Psalms and prophets? "Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman," says the LORD (Isaiah 54:1). All of Israel was barren; in their strivings and Law they could not in themselves produce the Life lost in Eden.
But infertility still ravaged in the New Testament: Elizabeth and Zachariah: barren. But! finally conceived through the hand of God. Do you see this theme? New life cannot be mustered, cannot be worked for or created by our own hands. This is at the foundation of Jewish genealogy. New life is impossible apart from divine intervention.
And Mary, in whom was conceived in yet another impossible womb by a God who longs with us for new life. Mary, the last miraculous conception recorded in the Word, birthed the One who would finally make new life possible. The perfect One who knew that death was the only way to new life. The one who carried out the sacrifice as the Lamb promised to His forefather Abraham.
And the anguish of the matriarchs could not compare to the misery faced by Christ on that Good Friday as He bore the desolate barrenness of our souls. As He hung on that tree whose roots would grow in our hearts and from that tree grew the fertility of new and abundant life. New life won for the dead through the death of a perfect life.
His suffering gave way to our joy, His forsakenness to our inclusion, His death for new life growing in the wombs of our oh so barren souls
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