The Mystery of a Barren Woman
LUKE 24:13-17
13 ¶ And, behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about threescore furlongs.
14 And they talked together of all these things which had happened.
(They were speaking together of the current events of what had just taken place of the crucifixion of the one that they had faithfully followed for 3 years and of which they had fully come to believe in. It had been such an horrific thing for them to have witness such a brutal crucifixion, and especially of the one of which they were sure would restore Jerusalem to its former glory and power (as it had been in the days of Solomon)
15 And it came to pass, that, while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
16 But their eyes were holden that they should not know him.
(This also applies to us many times in the confusion of the events of our own lives, in that our eyes are also hidden to the fact that Jesus has drawn near to us and He is walking along the way with us also – He understands our reasoning and confusion, and He cares)
17 And he said unto them, What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad? (He has noticed their sadness)
*What these two on the road to Emaus had thought would happen under Jesus’ ministry had not come to any fruition of how they imagined things would turn out – because all they had hoped for, had seemed to have completely failed.
And so naturally (as all humans do when we feel that our hopes have been dashed), they were in a state of sadness and depression because of the barrenness of what it seemed like all that they had hoped and strived for had failed.
**All the planting of the seed of the teaching of the things that Jesus had spoken to them about the great kingdom that was to come, it had all seemingly been washed away before their eyes.
GENESIS 25:20-21a
20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21a And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren:
From chosen Rebekah, to engaged Rebekah, to married Rebekah, to barren Rebekah. We know that this story is a prophecy of this end time age, and of an end time people.
The Mystery of a Barren Woman
Infertility can have an incredibly profound and negative emotional impact on a woman who discovers herself barren.
*There is a great strain that is put on her relationship with her husband, as well as family members and friends.
*Yet barrenness is a thing that is not just restricted to a woman who cannot conceive and bear children, but it can also include many other things of life of the different struggles that we go through as we go along the journey of our lives.
*For example - when a man loses his job or his ability to provide for his family, then that is a form of barrenness for him – because it can make him feel unfulfilled, and he may even feel like a failure, and men don’t like to fail, because God didn’t design man to be failures. He may even experience feelings of uselessness and insecurity, and so all of this can become like a trial of barrenness in his life.
*Then there is the person who is trying to get over some weakness in their life, but cannot seem to overcome it, then that is also a form of barrenness, because they are desiring to give birth to a greater level of a standard of life of what they see that maybe others have given “birth” to.
*And so as we go along through our lives, we are exposed to and become more aware of our own personal weaknesses – and in many ways, that is a good thing, firstly because it helps to keep us humble, and that in turn makes us more merciful toward others who are struggling with their own struggles.
We notice that many women in the bible that conceived and gave birth to children easily; they looked down on and in some cases even mocked those of the women who were barren. And this is just human nature. Their attitude is that “it is easy for me, so what is your problem”.
**But what is easy for one person who is not barren in one area of their life, it can be very hard for another person to conceive and bear fruit in that same area of life.
*And so all of our life stories are different from each other with different struggles and troubles, but the same God who is writing the mystery of His grace in one person’s life, is the same God that is writing another story of His grace in the other person’s life. This is why we are not to look down on another person’s struggles just because that is not our area of barrenness.
GALATIANS 6:1-2
1 ¶ Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. (In other words - you are just another human being with the same potential to fail under similar conditions because of having the same human weakness)
2 Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.
3 For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Last service – we spoke about the subject of the reproach of barrenness.
And we showed how that whenever there is a great promise of God about to be fulfilled, then God allows a season of barrenness that the people of God have to endure under as a test of their faith before the fruit of that promise is manifested.
**Rebekah was ordained by God to be the bride appointed for Isaac.
From the time she met Eleazer at the well, everything about her life looked like a perfect love story that was supernaturally ordained by God – and it was.
*But then after all of that great start to Rebeckah’s life, as the story goes on, she finds out that she is a barren woman, and then her whole world of what had seemed like the perfect fairy tale love story, all of a sudden, and to the way that it looked to her, had come to a dismal end.
But yet there was a great purpose that God had for placing that season of barrenness in her life.
*Noah received from God the prophecy of the flood, but he had to suffered a season of barrenness of it not raining for 120 years.
*Abraham and Sarah had received the promise from God to become the parents of a great nation, but they had to suffer a long season of barrenness all the way until they had both grown old and were well past the time of child bearing.
*Many believes have had to remain “barren” as it were their whole lives of which they never saw the promise of God fulfilled during their lifetime – but they still held on to the promise of God.
HEBREWS 11:13
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
Many believers over the centuries have gone through their whole lives believing right to the end without even seeing one evidence of the manifestation of what they have believed in during their lifetime.
*Sarah under the ministry of Abraham was baren.
*Rebekah under the ministry of Isaac was a barren woman.
It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with Abraham’s seed, or Isaac’s seed – but God had a season and a time for their bareness to be taken away.
*Rachel was also a barren woman.
*Hannah was barren
*The mother of Samson was barren
*The Shunammite woman who was under the ministry of Elisha was barren
*And Elizibeth of the New Testament was barren
*Seven women in total from Sarah to Elizibeth were all barren woman of whom all suffered a season of barrenness in their lives, but we know that none of these women remained barren, because eventually, God would open up their wombs. Because He can shut wombs at will, and he can open wombs at will.
**And so God placed all these women in the bible to show us of a great woman in these last days at harvest time, because all of these women with each of their stories were placed in the bible to show us a portion of the great mystery of a barren woman in this end time hour.
**And so it is because of this problem of barrenness, that we have seen over the years that there has been such a pressure by many ministers in the message to try to prove some form of a proof of a manifestation of pregnancy and life in their churches, and we have seen movements that have raised up over the years within message circles of groups that have tried to show that they are extra happy because they feel that they are no longer barren – and all that is ok.
*Some will maybe shout or jump around the church building (and that is ok if it is done in a genuine way with a pure heart) but we have seen that many times it is done in order to try to show it as a proof that life has taken hold within their wombs, because nobody wants to be infertile, and nobody wants to be sad because of being a married woman that is receiving seed but is not bringing forth life. And then you will sometimes see that these same ones will often look down upon and even mock those of whom they consider to be barren.
**Rebeckah had been under the ministry of Elieser at the evening time.
She had traveled alone the camel train journey; she had married Isaac of whom Elieser had spoken so much to her about, and he had introduced her to Him and Him to her at the evening time of the setting of the sun.
**And now finally, she was receiving seed from Isaac as his married wife – but only then to discover (to her great sadness) that she is a barren woman.
*And so now she is suffering under the shame of not being able to show forth life in her womb, even though she is receiving Isaac’s seed.
THE.REPROACH.FOR.THE.CAUSE.OF.THE.WORD_ JEFF.IN V-2 N-16 SUNDAY_ 62-1223
22-5 Watch the scoffness of barrenness, being scoffed, the reproach of barrenness first. They had... She had to stand the reproach of being barren for all those years. She was nearly a hundred years old... She was ninety. But the Word of God that said she would also be princess--a mother of this child. And she and Abraham barren, both of their bodies as well as dead, but yet they never doubted that Word one bit. But they had to stand that first, and then (Hallelujah.) God kept His Word in that dark hour. Isaac was born, and his seed is like the sands of the sea or the stars of heaven. See, God always answers His Word. Yes, barrenness first then Isaac.
**For Rebeckah, everything had seemed to have gone perfectly, and she could rejoice over all that had happened in her life.
She was chosen, and she was blessed, and she had seen the supernatural hand of God guiding her right from her first encounter with Elieser at the evening time well, and all the way along her journey of life to her marriage with Isaac.
But then right after her marriage with Isaac, then everything seemed to have gone wrong for Rebeckah because she had discovered that she was barren –then all of her dreams of fulfillment seemed to have disappeared in a puff of smoke as it were, because there was this great promise of Isaac’s seed becoming a great nation. Just like the pressure on a queen to bear a son and an heir for the king.
**And this is just like it was for the two that were on the road to Emmaus – they had been with Jesus for all those years, just to discover that it all seemed to end in barrenness.
**And so Rebeckah was sad, and the two on the road to Emmaus were sad.
And Hannah was sad, and Rachel was sad, and we also find ourselves sad during the times of when we discover areas of our lives that are barren of certain things of what we know we should be giving birth to and bearing fruit.
**And so barrenness brings feelings into people’s lives of failure and unfulfillment, and that results in feelings of sadness, and humans were not designed by God to be sad.
**And so this is why we find that many people will sometimes try to fain pregnancy, and manufacture happiness in order to combat this sadness of barrenness that they are experiencing in their lives.
THE.RESURRECTION.OF.JESUS_ CHICAGO.IL THURSDAY_ 56-0405
E-20 …And if you notice, it's when you are discouraged that's when the devil can really pour it on you. That's when He gets you. If you come to the church and say, "Well, I don't know. I don't know whether I'll ever get any better or not. I've been prayed for twice." Oh, my. You might as well go home; that's all.
(What is he talking about? He is talking about a person who receives and believes the truth of the seed of the word of God, but then their life seems to remain barren from a manifestation of the fruit of the promise of that word) But when you can cast that aside... God don't want you to be frowning. God wants you to be happy. The human heart was made to be happy. Worry will cause cancer. Temper will cause cancer. Don't never be upset. Just walk in His love. Amen. Knowing that you're walking in Him, and nothing can harm you. There's nothing can harm you. There's neither powers, things present, things future, nothing can separate us from Him. We're in Him. And we never come in by our own will. He, by choice, elected us and brought in to Him. Amen. So it's His business to take care of what He's took Hisself. "No man can pluck them from My Father's hands, 'cause He's the greatest of all of them." Amen. It's the Father Who takes care of it. Who's got any more power than God? So what kind of a power have you got over you to take (care) of you? The whole powers that created the universes. Amen. That took the solar system and blew like that and every star went to its place. Sure. And He watches over you. Amen. That's the kind of a Father we have.
E-21 So as they went along down the road, said, "Oh, Cleopas," said his friend, "I--I tell you. I--I'm discouraged this morning. But how could that Man ever die? Cleopas, He died. I seen Him dying. I seen the sun go down. All the stars refused to shine. I know He died. I seen that soldier ram the spear through His heart. And He died. And I know He's dead. And how could He do it? We trusted in Him that He would be the great Messiah that should take the--would mold all of our spears, and the pruning hooks, and go out; and the Romans would be finished; and the world would be tramped down; and He'd rule it with a rod of iron; and He'd set on David's throne; and there He is laying up there in the grave? How can it be?" They just couldn't understand it. (It was the mystery of a barren woman being lived out in their lives)
E-22 While they were thinking on these things, a Stranger walked out. That's usually...?... That's when you want to get... When you go to thinking about Him, that's when He appears. They were talking about Him when He appeared.
*This is why we want to keep talking about Him (and He is the revealed word of this hour), because that is when He will also appear to us in this hour, and He appears in order to deal with our sadness because of our condition of barrenness – because we are talking about the mystery of a barren woman.
Barrenness first, and then the promise.