Childbirth as a Theme of Biblical Theology
This article was first published in French at TPSG.
From September 14-October 19, 35 women from across Canada, the U.S., and Europe joined us for an intense six-week cohort in the book of Psalms. Our goal was to equip women for the harvest by teaching them skills in expository teaching. I share with you a portion of one of our sessions on childbirth as a theme of biblical theology. I trace this theme through each of the four epochs of redemptive history: creation, fall, redemption, and new creation.
Childbirth at Creation
Any woman who has given birth can probably recount her story in vivid detail. When our children are old enough, we enjoy transmitting them to them. These stories are powerful. But our first parents don’t have a human parent to tell them such a story. For, unlike every human being since, Adam and Eve were not born as babies, right? Did they have belly buttons? We’ll have to wait till we’re in heaven to find out! But seriously, while they were not born, they did receive the command in Genesis 1:28 to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth – by giving birth to sons and daughters who would bear the image of God.
Childbirth at the Fall
The Judgment Oracle against the Woman
At the fall, just a few verses later, the theme of childbirth is stated explicitly. In his judgment oracle to the woman in Genesis 3:16, the LORD God says that he will greatly increase her labour pains. Commentators believe that this refers to both emotional and physical distress, and the Hebrew term used finds its parallel in God’s judgment oracle against the man v. 17 in reference to his painful toil in the field.
Childbirth at Redemption
For anyone who has given birth, Genesis 3:16 cuts deep. I gave birth two both my daughters without an epidural. It was brutal! Yet, the beauty of redemption is that in the very midst of this judgment oracle, redemption is promised: the woman will give birth to a Son who will crush the head of the serpent. Moreover, while their sin introduces death into the world, Adam and Eve do not die instantaneously. More grace! Instead, God sheds the blood of a substitute, in order to cover their nakedness and shame.
The Genealogies and Barren Wombs of Genesis
Throughout subsequent chapters in Genesis, we read numerous genealogies that are boring to the uninitiated. But to me, they speak of the fact that through the birth of each of these men of old, we see God’s mercy, his preservation of the seed of the woman. And when we encounter Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we see the theme of childbirth once again, but in the negative – their wives are barren. When God intervenes and opens their wombs, the Scriptures show that the seed of the woman will not be born as a result of human efforts, but by divine intervention.
The God who Births a Nation
What we see God do in Genesis on an individual level for the patriarchs, we see him do in Exodus for the nation of Israel. Most of us recall that the book of Exodus opens with the story of Shiphrah and Puah, two courageous midwives who save the Hebrew people from Pharaoh’s genocide. This account is not merely a cool story of two awesome women, but rather it introduces the entire book of Exodus as a birth narrative. After all, consider the words of Deuteronomy 32:18, as Moses reflects on this great deliverance the LORD had accomplished for his people:
You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
The two midwives of Exodus 1 find their parallel in the leadership of Moses and Aaron, the human agents through whom God delivers or gives birth to the nation. The 430 years that Israel spends in Egypt are like their gestation period, and the ten plagues can be likened to labour pains. And, much like human birth, they deliver Israel through blood (at the Passover) and water (at the Red Sea). In the wilderness, he then gives them his Law, thus doing for the nation what he calls earthly parents to do in Proverbs 22:6,
Train a child in the way that he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
Childbirth and the Historical Books
According to Leland Ryken in the Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, the birth story is a distinguishable narrative genre in the Bible. When the Bible includes birth stories, it is generally because they are extraordinary rather than routine births. Although some of these accounts are brief, the more extended birth narratives often loosely follow a general pattern:
A barren woman or couple longs to have a child.
An angel announces the promise of a son.
The birth is accompanied by the supernatural or extraordinary.
Hostile forces come against the newborn baby.
God protects the child, allowing him/her to grow to maturity.
The child, once grown, becomes a hero or deliverer.
We see this in the early patriarchs, as mentioned before. And the theme emerges, following this pattern to one degree or another, with Moses, Samson, and Samuel, all the way to John the Baptist.
Childbirth in the Psalms and the Prophets
The image of childbirth appears in Psalm 90:2, where in Hebrew, it literally says, “Even before the mountains were born, and you gave birth to the earth and world...” What is remarkable about the use of this word picture is that it was penned by the same author as that of Genesis, Moses himself. And the terms “earth” and “world” may seem redundant to us. But the former is also the term used to refer to the promised land, while the latter can speak more generally of the entire creation.
The theme of childbirth recurs in the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah. But rather than imagery of salvation, the anguish a woman experiences while giving birth paints a vivid picture of God’s judgment on a nation that rejects God, whether it is in reference to Babylon (Is 13:8) or Israel itself (Jer 4:31). Yet the prophets at times juxtapose the same image of travail with the promise of deliverance (Is. 26:16-19, 42:14).
In Isaiah 66:5-14, the prophet employs the imagery of childbirth to refer to the rebirth of the nation of Israel when it returns to the Lord. That promise leads us to the New Testament, which opens with an amazing birth narrative of its own.
Childbirth in the New Testament
The life of Christ as recounted by Matthew and Luke opens with a birth narrative. Mary’s conception of Jesus is the most unique and supernatural of them all, and his birth narrative is the most elaborate in the Bible. Finally, the promised Son is born, the one destined to crush the head of the serpent! And the physical reality soon evolves into a spiritual one when Jesus employs the imagery of childbirth to illustrate regeneration to Nicodemus: “You must be born again (Jn 3:7). The very nature of salvation is encapsulated in the image of childbirth!
In his upper room discourse, Jesus uses the imagery of a woman in labour to describe the sadness his disciples will feel at his departure. And he adds that the joy that a mother experiences when she holds her newborn will be theirs in the coming of his kingdom. And what is remarkable is that Jesus is quoting from Isaiah 66, which we mentioned earlier!
In the epistles, Paul uses the theme of childbirth to speak of his tender love for his spiritual children:
Galatians 4:19 – “My children - I am again undergoing birth pains until Christ is formed in you!”
Woman Saved through Childbearing
I cannot move on to the final epoch without addressing this thorny verse.
But she will be delivered through childbearing, if she continues in faith and love and holiness with self-control. (1 Timothy 2:15)
What could this mean? This verse is a difficult knot to untangle! According to one commentator, false teachers in Ephesus minimized or maligned marriage and domestic life. Paul, therefore, is addressing a particular need among his hearers – “Get married. Bear children. Love one another well.” But he is not promising that making babies saves women, or else any woman who has borne a child would qualify. He is also not saying that unmarried, childless women are exempt from the kingdom, since Paul, after all, has elsewhere commended singleness as superior (1 Co 7). Plus, on a basic level, such an interpretation would deny one of the basic tenets of our faith: Sola fide.
He is saying rather that works are the evidence that one has been saved. The external fruit by which we can evaluate someone. In this context, under normal circumstances, a godly woman will marry and bear children and persevere in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. He is making a generalization about women. And he selects childbearing because it is the clearest example of the divinely designed difference between men and women.
Some commentators also see in this passage a reversal of the judgment on Eve we find in Genesis 3. Through the birth of the promised Son who crushes the head of the serpent, Eve’s deception by the serpent will be overcome.
Childbirth in the New Creation
The book of Revelation as a whole points us to other-worldly realities in highly symbolic terms. And, once again, we see the theme of childbirth, in Revelation 12.
Catholic scholars argue that the woman is Mary, the mother of Jesus. But if we use some basic the interpretation skills, we notice that the sun, moon, and stars appear somewhere else in the Bible, in Genesis 37:9, in reference to Jacob, his wife, and his twelve sons. For this reason, most scholars believe the woman is the nation of Israel, and that the child she bears is Jesus. The passage goes on to speak of a great, fiery red dragon who seeks to devour the Child at his birth. Here, again, we see the pattern repeat itself which we saw earlier: a miraculous child is born, an enemy seeks its destruction, and the child is divinely safeguarded so that he might deliver God’s people. And we know that that Child grows up to be the bridegroom who comes in glory to take his bride with him.
What else can be said of childbirth in the new creation? Well, for one, that at the resurrection, we will neither marry nor be given in marriage. This means we won’t have to endure any more excruciating labour pains. I, for one, am thankful for that! But in a sense, the new creation itself is a rebirth of all things! Romans 8:22-23 says,
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only this, but we ourselves also, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we eagerly await our adoption, the redemption of our bodies.
Can you hear the earth groaning? Can you taste the anticipation of that final labor and delivery? The day when all creation will be redeemed? In Revelation 21:5, the Lamb seated on the throne declares, “Behold, I am making all things new!” When that day comes, in the new heavens and new earth, all things will be made new once and for all! The rebirth of the universe! What a day that will be! As we await that day, let us make ourselves ready for the bridegroom. May his grace enable us to persevere in faith, love, and holiness with self-control. Amen!
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