Welcome to the Women’s Weekly Bible Challenge! I’m Lisa Ann Spencer. Today’s study is the conclusion of the two-part series on Barrenness. First we will review the Challenge Homework, then we'll consider what the Apostle Paul says about Barrenness.
If you took the Challenge last week, you may have discovered
WHY God abruptly changed the dispensation from Israel to the Gentiles. Acts chapter 7 is a critical pivot point in
Israel’s history!
The nation of Israel’s early history began when God called
Abraham out of all people on the earth to make him a great nation (Genesis 12:2). The
majority of the Old Testament is about ISRAEL. They were a special people to
God for 4,000 years. They entered a covenant relationship with God at Mount
Sinai with the giving of the Law, which included blessings and curses.
Where were the Gentiles?
God gave the Gentiles up as we are told in Romans 1:24-26. Gentiles were given up to uncleanness, to our own lusts, and to vile affections. It’s not that God did not care for
Gentiles. Gentiles could always be saved
by coming to Him through the nation of Israel. Rahab and Ruth, Naaman and Nebuchadnezzar
are examples of the many Gentiles that professed faith in the one true God. The whole world knew who
God was and where to go for salvation. God could always be found if a man desired to
know Him.
There was a period of silence when God did not speak to the
nation of Israel for 400 years between the Old and New Testaments. Though God was silent, His word was not
silent. God had given Daniel a very
specific prophecy about the nation of Israel, with a very specific timeline (Daniel
9:24-27; Zechariah 9:9). Those who
believed God’s word should have been in expectation of the coming Messiah.
There were many prophesies of Israel’s kingdom being
established on the earth with the Son of David sitting on His throne after a period
of 7 years of tribulation (Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 9:27).
After Jesus’s death, burial and resurrection, Jesus sent the
Holy Ghost to the 12 apostles and the 120 disciples that believed on Him in early Acts. The coming kingdom was preached and offered
to the nation of Israel. While a few thousand believed, the majority
of the nation rejected the offer.
Peter preached to the nation of Israel in early Acts:
- "Ye men of Judaea and ye that dwell at Jerusalem" – Acts 2:14
- "Ye men of Israel" – Acts 2:22
- "Therefore let all the house of Israel know" – Acts 2:35
- "Ye men of Israel" Acts 3:12
Acts 3:19 Repent ye
therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times
of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; 20 And he shall send
Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: 21 Whom the heaven must receive
until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the
mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
Israel had an opportunity to repent and turn to their God
and their King.
PROBLEM: Israel did not repent.
Q: What event brought on the dispensational change from
Israel to the Gentiles?
A: The Blasphemy of the Holy Ghost; the rejection of the risen Savior as Messiah and King.
REVIEW YOUR HOMEWORK
- Acts 6:5 – We learned that Stephen was a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost.
- Luke 21:15 – Jesus had said, “I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist”. Stephen spoke the irresistible words of the Holy Ghost.
- Matthew 12:31-32 – That generation was warned again the great sin of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost; it shall not be forgiven.
- Romans chapter 9 – 11 is Paul’s account of God temporarily setting the nation of Israel aside for a season until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in.
ISRAEL’S BLASPHEMY:
Acts 7:51 Ye stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears,
ye do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Scripture tells us again that Stephen was a man who was full
of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 7:55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up
stedfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the
right hand of God,
Nothing is insignificant in the Bible. Jesus was standing to
pour out the prophesied 7-years of judgment on the nation of Israel!
There are many scriptural references to standing and judgment:
Israel resisted God the Father in the Old Testament; they resisted Jesus Christ the Son and crucified Him in the Four Gospels; and Israel resisted the Holy Ghost when they
murdered Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost.
Just as Jesus Christ prayed for Israel on the cross, “Father
forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34), we hear the Holy Ghost’s
prayer.
Acts 7:60 And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice,
Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell
asleep.
As the Son had prayed, so the Holy Ghost in the mouth of
Stephen had asked God to not lay this sin to their charge. God answered the prayer by showing
exceeding, abundant grace and saving Saul of Tarsus.
Acts 7:58 … and the
witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul.
Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting to his death. And at that
time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem;
and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and
Samaria, except the apostles.
Saul is the leader of the rebellion against Jesus
Christ. He calls himself the chief sinner,
having blasphemed the Holy Ghost (1 Timothy 1:13-15)!
Saul could not have been saved through the ministry of the
12 Apostles under the dispensation of the Kingdom Gospel because he had committed the unpardonable sin, but God in His infinite mercy on Israel and the Gentiles, saved Saul first in the dispensation of grace as a pattern for His exceeding, abundant
mercy.
1 Timothy 1:16
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ
might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.
God had every reason to pour out wrath and judgment on the nation of Israel, as He had prophesied in His word, but instead He showed more mercy, calling the Apostle Paul with a new revelation of the dispensation of grace.
📓 NOTE: If you fail to see that Acts is a transition book from the
gospel of the circumcision to the gospel of the uncircumcision (Galatians
2:7-9; Acts 15), then the rest of scripture will be confusing.
ROMANS CHAPTERS 9, 10 AND 11 SUMMARIZED:
Israel stumbled, fell and were diminished by God (Romans
11:11-12) for a season, until the fullness of the Gentiles would come in
(Romans 11:25). God concluded the whole
world in unbelief, setting aside His special relationship with the nation of
Israel, that He might have mercy upon all (Romans 11:32).
During the book of Acts, the apostle Paul went to the Jews
first to save a remnant of Israel by grace (Romans
11:5).
By the end of Acts, Paul had declared three times that he is
turning to the Gentiles.
Paul’s letters, ROMANS through PHILEMON, are God’s letters
to us in this dispensation of the grace of God (Ephesians 3:1-13).
WHAT PAUL SAYS ABOUT BARRENNESS:
So, what does Apostle Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles,
have to say about barrenness? He quotes
Isaiah.
Galatians 4:27 For it
is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou
that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she with
hath an husband.
Isaiah 54:1 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 the LORD.
We know that Isaiah is written to Israel because when we
continue reading the Isaiah passage, we see that verse 3 says, “… thy seed
shall inherit the Gentiles…”.
God had spent 4,000 years of history in a relationship with
Israel through a conditional covenant. Israel, God’s wife, was BARREN and
unfruitful. They had little to no faith.
Paul is making application of this verse to Gentiles who never had a husband! The dispensation of the
grace of God, given to Paul and preached to the world, has yielded more
children by faith than the law ever did!
Though God has presently set aside Israel for a season while He obtains children by faith among the Gentiles, He has not forgotten Israel. After the church, which is His Body, this new creature, is caught up in the event known as The Rapture, God will return to Israel and save them just as He swore in His word. All Israel shall be saved! Romans 11:26
APPLICATION:
Barrenness under the Old Covenant had to do with the nation of Israel. Barrenness today is a result of living in a fallen world. In Israel, it was a reproach and a shame for a woman to be barren (Genesis 30:23; Luke 1:25). That is not the case today in this age of grace.
Unlike Israel, we are not under a covenant with God. We are the Body of Christ, a new creature,
neither Jew nor Gentile. We have no
promises from God that there will be no barrenness or sickness if we follow
God’s law. We are not under the law but
under grace (Romans 6:14).
What we possess is grace that is sufficient to endure all
manner of infirmities.
When suffering in the flesh, Paul prayed for a miracle.
2 Corinthians 12:8 For this thing I besought the Lord
thrice, that it might depart from me.
What was God’s answer to Paul’s prayer?
2 Corinthians 12:9 And he said unto me, My grace is
sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
And what was Paul’s response to God’s refusal?
Most gladly therefore therefore will I rather glory in my
infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take
pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in
distresses for Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
REPROACH – DISPENSATIONALLY CONSIDERED
The women who experienced Barrenness under God’s covenant
suffered reproach and shame.
- After Rachel conceived, she said that God had taken away her reproach (Genesis 30:23).
- After Elizabeth conceived, she proclaimed that God took away her reproach among men (Luke 1:25).
Today there is no shame in barrenness, or sickness, because God’s
grace is sufficient!
You and I can learn to be content in whatsoever state we are
in, including Barrenness.
Philippians 4:11 Not that I speak in respect of want: for I
have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.
According to ROMANS 6:14, we are no longer under THE LAW, as were the barren women mentioned in last week's study. God is not punishing us for not obeying the Law of Moses. God punished His Son, Jesus Christ, for our
sins, and He is pleased with us in Him! (Ephesians 1:6; Colossians 2:10).
God’s grace helps us endure all suffering.
WARNING! ⚠
The book of Proverbs gives a warning about the barren womb.
Proverbs 30:15 The
horseleach hath two daughters, crying, Give, give. There are three things that
are never satisfied, Yeah, four things say not, It is enough: 16 The grave; and
the barren womb; The earth that is not filled with water; And the fire
that saith not, It is enough.
The barren womb cannot be satisfied; it cannot be
content. It is compared with the grave,
the parched earth and fire. All these
are terrible things!
Some women will go so far as to actually commit murder to
get a child for her empty womb. Some
women cruelly create a multitude of frozen embryos and abandon these little
children for the sole purpose of fulfilling the insatiable appetite of the
womb. It ought not to be so! In our flesh dwelleth no good thing (Romans
7:18). Our flesh lusts against the
spirit (Galatians 5:17) and is at enmity with God (Romans 8:7).
We do not have to be slaves to our sin nature. Through Jesus
Christ, we can learn to be satisfied and learn to be content. We can know that God’s grace is sufficient;
it is enough! We can choose do make right choices that are pleasing to God and not
our flesh.
To do this, first we must be saved. Believe the gospel by
which we are saved; how that Christ died, was buried, and rose again the third
day (1 Corinthians 15:1-4). He did this to save us from the punishment that our
sin deserves. He took the punishment for
our sin so that we could have eternal life.
Nothing can compare with God’s grace, not even a satisfied
womb!
Romans 3:21 But now
the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the
law and the prophets; 22 even the righteousness of God which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no
difference:
We can have assurance of salvation when we believe God’s
word. We need not be ashamed.
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that
needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth (2 Timothy 2:15).
When we study the Bible God’s way, rightly dividing the word
of truth the way God divides it, we will not suffer reproach.
SCROLL DOWN FOR BONUS MATERIAL
The material covered in this Blog can be viewed here:
Bonus material:
One day God will finish His mercy to the Gentiles. We will be raptured out of this world, caught
up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians
4:17). God will then return to the
nation of Israel and fulfill all His word to them. They will inherit a kingdom on earth as
promised them since Abraham’s call. We
will inherit heavenly places as promised us through Paul’s call. Then after 1,000 years, God will completely
destroy Satan and unite all of us in a new heaven and a new earth (Ephesians
1:10). What a glorious day that will be!
The last reference of ‘barren’ is very unique. In this passage ‘barren’ is defined as being unfruitful in KNOWLEDGE of God.
2 Peter 1:8 For if
these things be in you [faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience,
godliness brotherly kindness and charity], and abound, they make you that ye
shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
This second letter of Peter’s, written to Israel, is
different from his first letter. Peter
now knows that the kingdom, which was prophesied to come on the earth, has been
postponed. Peter also understands the
reason why. He instructs his readers to
seek out the wisdom that God has given to the Apostle Paul (2 Peter 3:15-16) in
order to understand why He has delayed the coming of the kingdom to earth.
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