It is almost Thanksgiving and I wanted to give everyone an update on our expected Christmas gift. We are getting closer!!! If you haven’t heard my wife and I are expecting a daughter towards the end of December.
I put the car seat in the car the other day. There are two ways to anchor the seat to the frame. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to engage both systems when the instructions state you should only use one or the other. Of course, as soon as you know you should only use one then installing the seat becomes a lot easier.
For the most part our hospital bag is packed. I had not even considered that I might need some things in a bag as well. We are not yet close enough that I worry that we could go to the hospital at any moment, but we are close enough that it is not outside of the realm of possibilities. Soon, I will meet my daughter as she takes her first breaths. I am excited!!!
“My hat is off to all those men and women who have been called to service in this endeavor we call childbirth.”
I do have to say that those portions of the birthing class that depict the details of the process, specifically the pain and pain management, are not comfortable. At one point a scream could be heard in the video’s audio and I had to swallow hard. And it is not just the pain. Just about everything to do with childbirth and pregnancy is painful, uncomfortable and/or inconvenient. I just learned about breastfeeding and it is not as easy as I thought. There is such a thing as a breastfeeding consultant. My hat is off to all those men and women who have been called to service in this endeavor we call childbirth. Thank you!
Anyway, I have often wondered, “why are we being punished? we didn’t eat the apple.” That question has always existed, but it is very apparent for me today.
The reference is to the fall as recorded in Genesis. Satan had convinced Eve to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen 3:1-5). When she did, she gave a portion to Adam who was with her, implying that he heard the whole argument and could have stepped in at any time (Gen 3:6). The ultimate consequence of this action is that sin is let loose on the creation and as a result death. But the immediate consequences are that Satan, or the serpent, is cursed to crawl on his belly and eat dust, man is cursed to work a ground that will fight his efforts, and the travail of women in childbirth will be greatly increased.
“To the woman he said, “I will surely multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.”
Genesis 3:16
But is this a punishment for Adam and Eve’s sin or is there more to this? Punishment in the bible comes from the idea of judgment. It is what is owed for an offense. It is both the recognition that something is not fair and the appeal that it be put right. Adam and Eve have committed an offense and a judgment is owed. But what is that judgment? What is the cost? Today we hear about the unjustness of a God who would punish someone for an eternity on the account of a finite offense. But that is based on a misunderstanding of the offense (more on that here). The cost of an offense has as much to do with who was offended against as it does with what the offense was. Adam and Eve had offended against an infinite creator the judgment will carry in its value an infinite cost.
What this means is that Eve’s difficulty bearing her child can not be a punishment in that it can not pay the judgment owed. It is finite. It would be a finite payment in exchange for an infinite debt. That check would be returned insufficient funds. In fact, should all the difficult childbearing of every women down through time be offered in payment the check would still be returned insufficient funds. That is why Jesus was required. He is the only eternal man capable of paying that check.
“The sins that lead to the divorce can be forgiven by the atoning work of Jesus but, this side of His return, the consequences often remain; divided custody and the challenges of mixed marriages.”
It, childbirth, must be a consequence then. Sometimes our sins bear consequences. The brokenness of a home divided by divorce can be a good example. The sins that lead to the divorce can be forgiven by the atoning work of Jesus but, this side of His return, the consequences often remain; divided custody and the challenges of mixed marriages. The payment is made but the scars remain.
Still, as a consequence, difficult childbirth is strange. It does not appear to be connected to the crime. It follows that an adolescence who commits a crime and comes out of years of prison as an older adult would have their development arrested. Although they have paid for their crime, they now find themselves in a world without the skills that their peers, who did not go to prison, developed in that time. It follows that a thief and an adulterer would not be trusted as readily, and a convicted child molester should not be put in charge of a daycare. Most consequences follow from the sin, but a difficult childbirth does not seem to follow from the sin of disobedience to God.
“…that something is of great joy.”
Then the other day, our midwife reminded us to remember that every pain, every discomfort, is moving us towards something and that something is of great joy. I was reminded of another great joy. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we are to look, “to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross (Heb 12:2).” It is one of my regular “go to” verses because I am always reminded that Jesus did what we needed Him to do for us because we are the joy that is set before him. The difficulty of childbirth is endured for the joy that is set before the parents.
Could it be then that the penalty placed on Eve and handed down through her was not meant to pay the judgment but rather to point to the necessity of a worthy payment and then to the results of that payment? I think so. Looking through the Bible the labor of childbirth is often synonymous with most of what we would call the result of the fall. Jesus describes the coming of the end with wars and rumors of war, famines, and earthquakes as the beginning of the birth pains (Mat 24:6-8). I have often wondered how we will recognize those birth pains from what we already see today. The reality is that they are all the birth pains that could one day lead to great joy.
“In the midst of the nation’s sin Hosea pleads with the people of Israel to recognize their situation.”
But beware! There are risks. Hosea, writing in the Old Testament gives us a little more clarity. In the midst of the nation’s sin Hosea pleads with the people of Israel to recognize their situation. He writes, “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is kept in store. The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son, for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb (Hos 13:12-13).” Hosea is describing a still birth. Ephraim has gone through a life under the consequences and influence of the fall and failed to come into real life. You must be born of The Spirit offered freely by the blood of Jesus.
How difficult would childbirth have to be to be synonymous with the reality of sin? If sin can be understood through the paradigm of difficult childbirth what would constitute the joy that is on the other side of the labor? How great is the loss at spiritual still birth? I don’t yet know why the fall was necessary but what I do know is that Jesus has paid the judgment price for my sin and the sins of the world and the day I believed that to be true I became an inheritor of the joy that was set before Him. Do not go through this life to miss that!
“What would it take for a human being to be born into eternity?”
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you (Joh 16:20-22).”
What would it take for a human being to be born into eternity? A judgment equal to the penalty must be paid. Jesus after telling Nikodemus that he must be born again, (Joh 3:1-8) concludes that in order to be born again you must believe that the Son of Man was lifted up to bear the sins of all (Joh 3:9-15). It turns out that the difficulty of childbirth is one of those earthly things that God uses so that we can understand spiritual things.
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