The miracles continue. God again will defy science! God created life from nothing in the beginning, and now with the second generation in a row, God created a child from nothing; to wit:
21 And Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 22 And the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If it be so, why am I thus?” And she went to enquire of the Lord. (Gen 25:21-22)
The word “barren” comes from the Hebrew word “aqar”. Rebekah was more than barren; for that means “incapable”, but she was “sterile” (Strong’s Dictionary). She was capable, but unable because she had no reproductive organs. God, however, was able, as He is in all things.
Although without the “plumbing”, Rebekah conceived. She was impregnated. Unknown, in this case, like Abraham before him, was whether Isaac planted his seed. Isaac “intreated” the Lord. He asked the Lord to intercede for him. God would not need Isaac’s seed to fulfill the Covenant because scripture reveals that Rebekah was of the same seed as Isaac. [i] They were relatives with the same genetic “Adam”.
What initiated the miracle of barren birth? “It came to pass after the death of Abraham, that God blessed his son Isaac” (Gen 25:11). The Hebrew word translated “blessed” is “barak”. Blessed is implied because God kneeled to Isaac. Kneeling, for the Hebrews, meant submission. God submitted to Isaac! How did God serve Isaac? His Holy Ghost perhaps overshadowed Rebekah just as with Sarah before and Mary long after. Neither Sarah nor Rebekah were virgins like Mary, but they were incapable of reproduction without the miracle of divine intervention.
Perhaps now, the reader might understand why the Israelites are God’s “chosen” and “peculiar” people! [ii] That is because, like Adam long before, God breathed life unto Isaac and Jacob (renamed Israel). In those cases, Sarah and Rebekah, since they were infertile, were no more than the dust of the ground from which Adam was created. They were as much “human incubators” for spiritual beings.
God not only planted His Seed in Sarah and Rebekah, but He created the “soil” into which to plant it! He created a womb for them both, and a placenta with an umbilical cord for nourishment. The placenta is an impermeable membrane that protects the unborn baby from the world until born. Inside that “firmament” is the blood and amniotic fluid of the new person. The placenta separates the waters from the waters as in Genesis chapter one. In this case, the waters of the mother from the waters of the baby. The miracle of conception and gestation is the same design as the birth of the universe!
Now for the scripture, “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (1 Cor 6:19). What was God doing for Isaac? He was building a Temple in Rebekah as He had Sarah. That “Temple”, her womb, was much like the celestial dome in which all things created are enclosed. Even the cosmos is the Temple of the Lord, and as such, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto Me? and where is the place of my rest?” (Isa 66:1).
Well, Jacob (Israel) was in that “heaven” and Israel would be the “house” that God was building for His rest. Who was born in the “House of Israel”? David and the Son of David. When God was creating Jacob, he was starting the foundation of His Temple that we now call the “Church” — “(You are of the) household of God… are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone” (Ephes 2:19-20).
God was building the Church in both the womb of Sarah and the womb of Rebekah. The Cornerstone was laid when Jesus was born of God in much the same manner as Isaac and Israel! Jesus was the “Cornerstone” in that transaction. Isaac was laid in relation to Jesus. Was he the seed of Jesus? Of course, not carnal seed, but he was the spiritual seed of Jesus!
God was building a House for Himself right there where the Garden had been. Israel was His House; David knew that and also what God was building. But Solomon was essentially building a house for himself!
Christians are “born again”. [iii] Rebirth is miraculous just as with Isaac and Jacob. Just as Jacob struggled with Esau in the womb, Satan’s legions do battle with Christians in the spiritual womb. That “womb” belongs to God but there is a battle of the spirits for whose you are!
Inside the soul of Christians, they are seeded by Christ; but again, not a carnal birth, but spiritual! That Jesus is the Cornerstone is if prime importance, because inside there is a struggle whether Jesus wins the “wrestling match” or Satan. The winner is whoever the person chooses to win. Choose carefully!
Christianity does not come easy. There are labor pains, caused not by muscles contractions, but by your “Jacob” wrestling with God [iv] in your “womb”, the soul. Jacob won the battle for birth against wicked Esau, and when you leave that altar, you must leave looking at God in the Face with arms spread wide.
God served Isaac. He served him Jacob. Then Isaac served the Lord. God became his God. Once a sinner is born again, they have been served by God, then they must serve Him!
Indeed, the “vocation” of those born again is to serve God and others. Serving God is to love Him and serving others is loving them in like manner. Agape love is essentially, good will toward God and mankind.
Now you know what God was up to back in the beginning stages of His Plan for you! There are two choices? Cooperate with God’s labor in rebirth or fight Him. I choose God!
(picture credit: shutterstock.com)
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