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I Kings 4: 20, etc.). Under such circumstances it was looked upon as a "reproach" for a
wife to be barren (Gen. 29: 31; 30: 22, 23), and part of the Lord's blessing upon
Israel was fruitfulness and safety in bringing forth young (Exod. 23: 26; Deut. 7: 14;
28: 4).
"Lo, sons are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward . . . . . . ."
(Psalm 127: 3, R.S.V.).
It seems also that outside of Israel, and probably stemming from the original
command to Adam and Eve in Gen. 1: 28, similar ideas were held about barrenness.
Abimelech, king of Gerah (a city of the Negeb) who lived in the time of Abraham, had a
taste of the judgment of God when "the Lord . . . . . fast closed up all the wombs of the
house of Abimelech" (Gen. 20: 17, 18).
A very big part of the calling of woman, as far as the Earthly purpose of God was
concerned, was motherhood, and the great honour which was to be bestowed upon
womanhood had been made known from the earliest times:
"the woman . . . . . her seed . . . . . it shall bruise thy (the serpent's) head" (Gen. 3: 15),
and when the fullness of time came, "God sent forth His Son, made of woman . . . . ."
(Gal. 4: 4). Herein lay the great privilege and blessing of womanhood, to be the vehicle
whereby the Word would become flesh, a promise which had its fulfillment in Mary,
"blessed amongst women" (Luke 1: 28, 42).
But this special calling of woman, the calling of motherhood, is very much tied to the
Earthly Calling of God, where the production of a seed was of prime importance. How
relevant is it to the present Heavenly Calling?
Motherhood and the Body of Christ.
It is quite evident from Scripture that the members of the Body of Christ have no
command from God to produce a seed. Such a command, if it did exist, would be of such
an important nature, that it would appear clearly in Paul's epistles of the Mystery, written
from his Roman prison. But no such word is found therein.
On the other hand it is necessary to guard against a too spiritual outlook on this
subject, which views the bringing forth of children as something too fleshly to have
anything to do with such an high and holy calling as that given to the Body of Christ.
Such an attitude savours of Gnosticism, which has been a great detracter from truth in all
ages.
Writing after Acts 28:, Paul assumed the existence of children in more than one
context:
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord . . . . . ye fathers, provoke not your children
to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord" (Eph. 5: 1, 4).
". . . . . she shall be saved in childbearing . . . . ." (I Tim. 2: 15).