The Curse of Barrenness
Captain Sensible writes: Interesting comments here from Paul Scanlon's book: "It's not over 'till the barren woman sings." Inspired by the opening of Isaiah 54: "Sing, O barren woman...", Scanlon makes clear that this chapter is "not a scripture about gender; the barren woman is a prophetic image used to describe the spiritual barrenness of Israel at that time in her history." Yet he does go on to make some points about fruitfulness/barrenness in general, which vividly highlight why barrenness is so painful for women:
"You see, from the beginning fruitfulness was God ordained; it was written into the DNA of creation that everything should reproduce after its kind. Every living thing that God created in Genesis 1 was commissioned to keep on creating. All that God gave was designed to keep on giving. Every fruit had within it the next gereration of fruit in seed form. The animals, the fish of the sea and the birds of the air were all empowered to reproduce. And to Adam and Eve, the first church, he said I want you to be fruitful, to increase in number, to multiply and fill the earth. (Genesis1:28)
"Life is inherently reproductive. Life without reproduction is a stagnant pool, a dead end of locked up resources. Life will always reproduce after its kind and any organism which refuses to do so, by denying its facilities for transmission, commits a breach of trust. Nowhere in creation was life given as a possession to be enjoyed. It is rather a sacred stewardship to be managed and fruitful reproduction its ultimate goal.
"The account of the barren fig tree in Matthew 21:18 is a shocking description of how seriously God views a lack of fruitfulness: 'Early in the morning, as he went on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it: "May you never bear fruit again." Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this they were amazed. "How did the tree wither so quickly?" they asked.'
No doubt the disciples viewed this action of Jesus as a little strange and somewhat extreme; after all it was only a fig tree. To Jesus, however, it was far more than a fig tree; it was a parable of an unfulfilled trust, it was receiving life without passing it on. The fig tree was a creational violation.
"Singing requires something from you, praying requires something from God. Surely it would have made more sense to counsel the barren woman of Isaish 54:1 to 'Pray, O barren woman' rather than sing. But praying puts the initiative for change with God, whereas I believe with all my heart that the only way to break the stranglehold of barrenness in our lives and churches, is to take the initiative on ourselves. And that is what singing does."
"You see, from the beginning fruitfulness was God ordained; it was written into the DNA of creation that everything should reproduce after its kind. Every living thing that God created in Genesis 1 was commissioned to keep on creating. All that God gave was designed to keep on giving. Every fruit had within it the next gereration of fruit in seed form. The animals, the fish of the sea and the birds of the air were all empowered to reproduce. And to Adam and Eve, the first church, he said I want you to be fruitful, to increase in number, to multiply and fill the earth. (Genesis1:28)
"Life is inherently reproductive. Life without reproduction is a stagnant pool, a dead end of locked up resources. Life will always reproduce after its kind and any organism which refuses to do so, by denying its facilities for transmission, commits a breach of trust. Nowhere in creation was life given as a possession to be enjoyed. It is rather a sacred stewardship to be managed and fruitful reproduction its ultimate goal.
"The account of the barren fig tree in Matthew 21:18 is a shocking description of how seriously God views a lack of fruitfulness: 'Early in the morning, as he went on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it: "May you never bear fruit again." Immediately the tree withered. When the disciples saw this they were amazed. "How did the tree wither so quickly?" they asked.'
No doubt the disciples viewed this action of Jesus as a little strange and somewhat extreme; after all it was only a fig tree. To Jesus, however, it was far more than a fig tree; it was a parable of an unfulfilled trust, it was receiving life without passing it on. The fig tree was a creational violation.
"Singing requires something from you, praying requires something from God. Surely it would have made more sense to counsel the barren woman of Isaish 54:1 to 'Pray, O barren woman' rather than sing. But praying puts the initiative for change with God, whereas I believe with all my heart that the only way to break the stranglehold of barrenness in our lives and churches, is to take the initiative on ourselves. And that is what singing does."
posted by Captain Sensible at 3:47 PM
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