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Last Updated on : Saturday, October 11, 2014

 

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selah

 

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Chapter 6

Comfort the Childless

 


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AMONGST those things never satisfied is "the barren womb", Prov. 30:16 for when God created male and female he said, "Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it". Children, then, are the purpose and fulfillment of marriage. The God given desire for children became intensified when sin entered into the world. The sentence on the woman, "I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception", was essential to replenish an earth now filled with violence, disease and death.-- Sorrow had entered into the life of the woman. "But as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world", John 16:21. But what of the woman who does not experience that joy?

"Children are an heritage of Yahweh and the fruit of the womb is his reward," Psa. 127:3, "happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them," v.5. But Yahweh has not blessed with children merely to satisfy selfish desires for it is written, "And did not he make one? And wherefore one? that he may seek a Godly seed," MaL.2:15. Children do not belong to their parents, they are only lent to them that they may be brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord as His children. Those whose quiver is full are indeed blessed and should acknowledge it, for not all are so blessed. Many an otherwise happy marriage is tinged with sadness because the womb is barren. In your converse with the childless be gentle, "guard the door of your lips". A thoughtless, though perhaps well meaning, comment to such a sister may hurt deeply. Comments such as, "its about time you had a family", or "perhaps you are not meant to have children" or, "of course you haven't got any children have you?" become a sword piercing her own soul also.

Remember your sister from whom the fruit of the womb has been withheld. Her lot is often lonely hours of private grief and weeping for a baby to hold to her breast, to love and to cherish.-- How grieved was Hannah as she wept because, "her adversary also provoked her sore, for to make her fret, because Yahweh had shut up her womb" 1 Sam. 1:6. Hannah, loved dearly by her husband, desired a child as the fruit of their love. We do not despise her for this. Herês was not just a selfish desire. Her desire was for a redeemer in Israel who would vindicate the ways of Yahweh before the unrighteous nation. Hannah asked for a child whom she could dedicate to Yahweh. Distress had purified her faith! Have we the measure of Hannah's faith?

If the childless have consolation, it is in the knowledge that the path of sadness has been trodden before by many faithful sisters over the centuries. What desperation drove Sarah to give her maid to her own husband! Sarah was 90 years old when God gave her conception and the seed of promise was born. Rebekah comforted Isaac after his mother's death, but she was not comforted. "And Isaac intreated Yahweh for his wife because she was barren: and Yahweh was entreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived", Gen. 25:21.

Today medical science can sometimes find the physical cause of childlessness, but it is Yahweh who gives or withholds the fruit of the womb according to His purpose. There is a purpose known only to Him; our lives are in His hands. In His good time He will bless if we patiently endure the trial of our faith without wavering. 'Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised," Heb. 11:11.-- The question often asked is "why?" "why must i be childless?". Our Father knows what is best for us. We are assured that "all things are working together for good to them that love God", Rom. 8:28, and that each has a trial to endure. Our horizon must never be bounded by our own trials, each mustthink of another's needs. Endurance is character building. It is the process by which faith is tried that it may become more precious than gold and "might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ," 1 Peter 1:7.

When the years of childlessness have passed and fruit is eventually given, how much more precious a little one becomes. How much more earnest the spiritual training and education of such a child that He may be a Godly seed.-- What if we are not to be so blessed? Has not the Father called us to be espoused to Christ? Are we not united as the family of God? Can we not share in the blessing of others by assisting in the care and training of the children of our sisters in the ecclesia? To those who are parents, remember the joy, the love and the warmth your children may bring into another's loneliness if you allow

The natural defense of the childless avoiding children should be resisted. To enjoy children, and take a positive role in their development. become dedicated to Sunday School teaching or to cheerfully helping families in need with your personal assistance and encouragement. The dearest brother and sister i remember were truly a father and mother in Israel, though their home never rang with the sound of their own children's laughter. But it was a home open to children and many were brouqht into the truth by them. These were begotten by the Word, and the brother and sister became greatly loved by them.

Even our Lord, who was "touched with the feelings of our infirmities," Heb. 4:15, loved children, though marriage and home were denied him. "Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not", he said. Surely even Jesus felt the longing for a family of his own, but recognised the greater purpose for which he had been born. He shall yet "see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied", Isa. 53:11. It is often forgotten that men also long for children of their own. The Ethiopian eunuch was reading Isaiah 53 as Philip approached, and took comfort in the words of the prophet, "Neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree ... even unto them will i give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: i will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off," Isa. 563,5.

Soon we shall be called to the wedding; we shall be united with our heavenly bridegroom. "Sing, O barren, thou that didst not bear; break forth into singing, and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child: for more are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife, saith Yahweh," Isa. 54:1.-- Do not let sorrow overwhelm you, joy cometh in the morning. "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us," Rom. 8:18. In hope we look to the day when we shall receive, "beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness," Isa. 61:3. -- Sis. J. Cresswell

 

 


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