“Mothers of Promise”
This Advent for our midweek series, we will be looking in on 6 women from the Old Testament who share an important distinction. Each of them is a mother in the long line of the Messianic lineage. Through each of them, and the children they bore, God carried forward his plan of salvation and ultimately brought forth Jesus Christ the Savior of the world.
We will see various aspects of sin and grace in each of these women – and hopefully also draw connections with ourselves. And through it all give thanks to the Lord who never forgets his promises, but always works to fulfill them – whether through the rise and fall of nations – by the mighty deeds of famous and powerful men – or through the humble and common vocation of motherhood.
Each week, we will consider two women under a common theme, and tonight we look at Eve and Sarah – both “mothers of promise”. For each of these women received a particular and powerful promise concerning her role as mother, and the blessing that would come through the fruit of her womb.
Genesis 3:13-21 (Eve)
Consider first, Eve. Perhaps any discussion of biblical motherhood ought to begin with our first mother, the mother of all (as Adam called her), Eve.
As such, Eve’s story is the story of all of us. We find our true origins there in her and our first father Adam. We see that she was created, with Adam in the image of God. We see that she was made from Adam’s rib, a suitable helper for him, since it’s not good for man to be alone. And we see, also, that even before the fall into sin, God blessed our primal parents “be fruitful and multiply”. He had an ongoing work of creation in mind – procreation, part of the design of this created order.
But who can think of Eve without also seeing her role in the fall? The serpent deceived her, and she willingly ate the forbidden fruit, gave some to her husband also, and thus the world was plunged into the corruption of sin. How things might have been different had Adam interceded, or had Eve not listened to the old evil foe. We may never know.
But we do know what happened next. God came, personally, to the garden and spoke with them. Whole books can be written, and surely have been, on these precious verses of Scripture which tell us the real predicament of this world and its origin. But let us focus on one important part of the aftermath – the promise of the seed! The first Gospel! The first prophecy! The first mention of the One who would come to reverse the curse, crush the foe, restore all things, and bring us back to paradise.
And it would happen through the seed of the woman! Through child-bearing, procreation, through birth. Surely the Father knew he would one day send the Son to be born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law. That the little babe of Bethlehem would be the Lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. The mystery of the incarnation – as inextricably linked to the mystery of the cross.
Eve, who is so well known not only for being the first woman and mother of all, but also for being the first sinner – is also bound up in the first promise of God’s savior. And so Eve is blessed, and we do well to remember her as a mother of the promise.
Some, like Martin Luther, seemed to think that when Eve had her first son, Cain, she thought that God would accomplish all this through him. “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” Perhaps, so, perhaps not. But at the very least, we see Eve’s faith in this statement. She is looking for that promise to be fulfilled, and she knows the Lord is helping. And where Cain would fail, and miserably, there was another son to come, one who didn’t kill his brother, but died for his brothers. And where Abel’s blood for vengeance pleaded to the skies, the blood of Jesus for our pardon cries.
We are, like Eve our mother, guilty of sin. We are, like Eve our mother, saved in the promise of a Messiah who crushes the Serpent’s head at the cross. As Eve looked forward to the fulfillment, may we look back on the help the Lord has provided in the person of his son, the seed of promise, the Christ.
Genesis 18:9-15 (Sarah)
Our second mother to consider is Sarah. We might begin by regarding Sarah in comparison to our first mother, Eve.
Like to Eve and Adam, God came personally to speak with Abraham and Sarah. The central figure of the three men who visited their tent seems to be an appearance, a manifestation of God himself – likely God the Son. We call these Old Testament appearances “theophanies”, and they are rare and precious occasions. It means God has something important to say, so important he’s coming in person.
Like Eve, Sarah was a sinner. You can see that from her jealous dealings with her maidservant Hagar and Abraham’s son with Hagar, Ishmael. You can see it with her complicity in Abraham’s more than once passing her off as his sister, not his wife, before powerful men. And you can see it also in her reaction to the promise she here receives that she will, in her old age, bear a son. She hears, and she laughs. And then she lies and denies it, out of fear.
We’re often not given to know the thoughts of the characters in the Bible, and see only their outward actions. We know Sarah laughed, but we don’t exactly know why. Did she laugh in derision- at the ridiculousness of such a promise? Did she laugh in nervousness, not knowing exactly what to make of it? Or was it laughter that rises from joy, amazement, or wonder – like a child might laugh as a butterfly floats by? Maybe it was a mixture, or all three of these, for you and I know mixed emotions and reactions as well.
But what it appears not to have been is the response of faith, at least not at first. She laughed to herself, in seeming doubt that such a promise could come true, when she was “old and worn out”. After all, she had already heard the promise to Abraham and found another way to make God’s word come true. But a son of Abraham by her slave Hagar was not what God had in mind. He would bring about the fulfillment of the promise, not you, Sarah.
And when the Lord asked her why she laughed, she denied it, which further indicates her guilt and shame at her reaction. Perhaps similar to Eve and Adam who sought to hide their nakedness with fig leaves, and hid in the garden at the sound of the Lord. Sarah, it seemed, was ashamed at her reaction. But like, Eve, she too would later believe.
The Lord gently, but firmly rebukes her. He doesn’t let her deny her unbelief, but calls her to believe the promise. It’s a promise he had already made and reiterated to Abraham. It’s a promise he would be repeating again to Isaac and all his descendants. It’s the continuation of the promise, really, that he made to Eve about the seed that was to come, to crush the serpent.
Like Eve, Sarah was a mother of promise – the promise, in her case, of a son in her old age. A promise connected to the promises to Abraham, and carrying forth the promise made to Adam and Eve. A promise that continued the unfolding of God’s plan for salvation.
And soon, Sarah would see this promise of a son for her fulfilled. And she and Abraham would name him “Issac”, that means, “laughter”, in obvious memory of Sarah’s laughter.
So often we think about the patriarchs, Abraham, Issac, Jacob, and on the paternal lineage of the Christ. But what of the matriarchs? These faithful women by their sides? What of their faith? Shouldn’t we also see God blessing them and the whole world through the babies they would bear, as generation after generation the Lord of history and master of time would work not only through the rise and fall of nations, but also through the humble and everyday bearing of children?
And of one child in particular. One child who was promised to Eve, and to all. One boy who would descend from Sarah’s womb, and fulfill God’s promise to Abraham and bless all nations.
This one, this child, this Christ – would be Eve’s Savior and Sarah’s too.
He would restore Eve and all her children to the tree of life and we will eat its fruit in season and out of season forever. The serpent who once overcame at a tree will be overcome by the tree of the cross. The lies that he told about being like God in disobedience are undone in Christ, who raises us in a glorious body like his. So that death which came as the fruit of that first tree is overturned in the fruit of the cross.
This same child of promise would restore to Sarah and all the children of Abraham by faith, and give us true joy in his presence. He would bless all nations by incorporating them into the New Israel by baptism and in faith. He would make those people of his a royal priesthood – princes and princesses given a share in his eternal reign.
And so, now, you. Heirs to the promises of these women, heirs through the promises fulfilled in Christ. Don’t hide your sin and deny your shame as they once did, but trust in the one who keeps his promises, as they both learned to do. For the God who was faithful to them is faithful to you. The Christ who was promised to them, has already been born for you, died for you, lives for you. We await the annual remembrance of his birth. And we await his coming again in glory, according to his promise.
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