a theology on infertility
Introduction
I’m a pastor’s kid, so the church was pretty much my second home growing up… Sunday schools, youth clubs, church family camps, summer youth camps, christian schools, summer mission trips, conference events. And yet, to this day, I’ve still never heard a single talk or preach given in a church that attempts to tackle any real biblical teaching or theology around the difficult subject infertility or pregnancy loss.
I know that this isn’t an especially easy subject to tackle. But even so, it’s kind of surprising when you consider that infertility now affects as many as 1 in 7 couples, and that pregnancy loss is experienced by at least 1 in 4 in the UK today. And it’s not like fertility issues aren’t mentioned in the Bible either. In fact, there are a total of seven stories of infertile women (or couples) that can be found in the Bible, including:
Abraham & Sarah (Genesis 11)
Isaac & Rebekah (Genesis 25)
Jacob & Rachel (Genesis 29)
Elkanah & Hannah (1 Samuel 1)
The unnamed wife of Manoah (Judges 13)
An unnamed Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4)
Zechariah and Elisabeth (Luke 1)
So it’s clear that this subject matters to God. Yet more often than not, these stories can leave us with as many questions as they do answers.
Why did so many prominent characters in the Hebrew Bible struggle with infertility, and what does this tell us about God’s heart of compassion for infertile couples?
Also, why do these stories always seem to end with miraculous healing in the Bible? And if God can heal infertility seemingly so easily, why do so many christian couples continue to struggle with fertility? Does it matter that they were all in the direct line of Jesus?
Finally, what if anything, can we take learn from these individual stories and apply to our our own personal experiences with infertility today?
A few key principles
I want to start unpacking some of these big questions by considering them through the full narrative arc of the Bible. This is because I feel it’s a much more helpful place to start looking at this issue from, rather than honing straight in on a single verse or passage or individual’s stories, and trying to pull out principles to fit ‘all’ people’s stories from theirs, so here’s a few key biblical principles to keep in mind as we dig further into this issue.
Infertility is not a punishment from God
There are numerous references to infertility (or ‘barrenness’) in the Bible and most of them are found in the Old Testament. As such, many of these mentions are in the context of passages about God’s blessings and curses over Israel. For example, in Exodus 23:26 Israel is promised that “none will miscarry or be barren in your land” if the people keep the mosaic covenant with God, and in Hosea 9:14 the prophet suggests that God should give his people “wombs that miscarry” because of their disobedience.
It’s easy to see why at times these verses have been used to extrapolate all kinds of theories about how a couple’s infertility might be happening as a result of unconfessed personal sin or disobedience towards God, or generational sins in their family line, but the simple fact is that this is both damaging to those it is used against, and also just an incredibly poor and inaccurate reading of scripture.
Firstly, these kinds of verses are prophetic not literal in nature, so they are based on metaphors in which Israel’s spiritual condition is being compared to physical barrenness. Secondly, it’s also important to recognise that the Bible often reflects the ancient cultural belief systems of the time it was written in, and although culturally at that time infertility was often understood as a form of God’s punishment on individuals, today, we know that medically speaking there are many different physical causes of infertility. This includes factors such as low sperm count, poor sperm function or anejaculation in men, and endometriosis, ovulation problems, hormonal problems, polycystic ovary syndrome, blocked or damaged fallopian tubes, and uterine fibroids in women - to name just a few.
The New Testament also makes it abundantly clear that this is not a correct belief system or theology for us to use as christians today.
The New Testament view is that “there is no one without sin”(Romans 3:10), but also that ‘there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). How then could this view of God punishing certain individuals with infertility ever be maintained by any believer today?
Again, it comes down to reading the Bible as a whole, and not just taking verses or passages out of context, and not in light of the whole arc of God’s story about his dealings with humankind which is told through the Bible, spanning from Genesis through to Revelations, and from creation and the fall, through to his rescue plan in Jesus, and the future redemption of all things which we await.
2. Infertility is not God’s design for us
The Bible is very clear that God is the creator of life in the womb (Psalm 139:13), and that children are a great blessing from Him (Psalm 127:3). Scripture also makes it very clears that God’s original design and intention for us as humans is to enjoy the blessing of growing a family. In Genesis 1:22, he encourages Adam and Eve with a mandate to ‘be fruitful and multiply’.
But if God is for our human flourishing and for us growing a family, why does infertility happen? Personally, I’ve found it most helpful to consider miscarriage and infertility within a similar theological framework to any other form of sickness or disease or brokenness in our bodies - not as God’s plan, will or original intention for our lives, and not as a judgement upon individuals either, but as part of the results of the Fall.
In Genesis 3, which is the Bible passage that describes the original sin in the Garden of Eden, it refers to “pain in childbearing” as one of the direct consequences for Eve, and for all women descending from her. There is often a tendency to see this as referring to the pain of labour itself, but I would argue that it also covers the emotional turmoil of infertility and pregnancy loss and everything that can go wrong in the reproductive process. Human sin broke the world in ways that affect every area of life, and christians who experience infertility today are experiencing it because the world is still waiting for Christ’s return.
3. Infertility really matters to God
I think it’s also really clear from the sheer amount of references to infertility in the Bible, that this is a subject that matters greatly to God and that it is not His will for anyone. Not only is it a form of pain and suffering that He seems to care about greatly, but one which He is repeatedly moved to divinely intervene in and set right.
Just think about how God meets Hannah in her emotional torment as she pours out her tears at the Temple through the prayer of Eli the priest. And how He refuses to leave Sarah drowning in her disbelief despite her many years of childlessness. Or how He rescues Rachel from the bitterness and envy that threatens to consume her as she watches her husband’s other wife Leah conceiving a child when she can’t.
Although each of these women’s stories of infertility and childlessness are nuanced and unique, it is evident across all of Scripture that God is not distant, disinterested or indifferent to any of these women’s plights. He cares, is moved by and is actively engaged in their stories, and we will look at each one of them in more detail in the next section.
4. Infertility can be healed by God (but isn’t always)
It can’t be a coincidence that every single story of infertility in the Bible ultimately ends in healing. And yet if God can fix infertility seemingly so easily, then why do so many christian couples continue to struggle today? Does it matter that each of these couples who were healed of infertility were in the direct genealogical line to Jesus? Perhaps so, but I also believe that this fact reveals something of God’s heart towards all couples who long for a baby. He longs for their healing and wholeness too.
God’s desire is always for our healing and wholeness and flourishing, and in many, many instances God still steps in to physically heal infertility today - be that through medical interventions such as IUI or IVF treatments, or in more unknown and mysterious ways. It’s still not uncommon for people spend many years hoping, waiting, struggling to get pregnant and then one day it unexpectedly ‘happens’ - just as it did for each of those couples in the Bible.
And yet, we also know that this is not everyone’s experience and many wonderful christian couples remain childless despite faithfully crying out to God over their longing for a child over many, many years. So what then can we conclude? God promises to heal each one of us - but that healing can come in many different forms, and can happen in many different timelines. For some people that healing comes very swiftly and tangibly, while for others it’s a slow and gradual process. Still, for many others the fullness of that promise will only be made complete in eternity - rather than here on earth.
And I don’t say that last part lightly as I fall into this latter camp too. Despite my own and many other people’s faithful prayers over many years, the cause of my recurrent miscarriage was never able to be diagnosed, resolved or healed here on earth during my child-bearing years. But even so, I believe I will be healed. God’s promise on this is repeated again and again (Isaiah 43:18, Isaiah 65:17 Revelation 21:5). One day He will make all things new.
A closer look
In this next section, I now want to take a closer look at each one of these seven infertility stories included in the Bible, in search of some more detailed answers, and in those instances where the answers remain hidden or unclear, at least in hope of some wisdom for the journey…
Abraham & Sarah (Genesis 11-21)
According to the Bible, Sarah (wife of Abraham) was barren until the age of 90, but God had promised her and Abraham a son, and that their descendants would be as many as the stars in the skies. Sounds amazing, right? It’s the kind of word from God that every childless couple longs to receive! Especially when that promise comes with an angelic appearance.
But Sarah was hardly the picture of faith. In fact, she laughed in disbelief at God’s promise. (At that age, wouldn’t you be laughing too?). That promised son Isaac is eventually born to them, but they wait for a further 25 years for that child to appear. Can you even begin to imagine those 25 long years of waiting, hoping, longing and disappointment? God did we really hear you right? How many times must they have doubted what God had said?
I think this might be one of the most commonly cited examples of infertility in the entire Bible, and it’s often used as an example of how God is always faithful to keep His promises to us, even when the answer is slow to appear.
But for me, perhaps the more encouraging thing to notice is that the answer doesn’t come along because of Abraham and Sarah’s faithfulness or unshakeable trust in the Lord in their waiting. Like many of us, they doubt, they waiver, they become impatient for God to act, they try to rush God’s timings, and at one point they even take matters into their own hands (with some pretty disastrous results). But even in the face of all of their unfaithfulness, God is still absolutely faithful to them.
This story offers a reassuring reminder for couples who are struggling to conceive that their situation isn’t of their own spiritual making, which clearly highlights clearly that infertility is not a punishment from God, and that children are not a reward for our unshakeable obedience or faithfulness to God either. So let’s just take all that pressure off…
2. Isaac & Rebekah (Genesis 24- 27)
Abraham’s son Isaac and his wife Rebekah also struggled with infertility, and it was a situation which went of for 20 years, before they eventually conceived and gave birth to twins named Jacob and Esau.
Unfortunately those twenty years of waiting, struggle and wrestling with God in prayer are not really expanded on in any detail at all in this passage. Instead, they are just summed up in a single verse which says this: “Isaac prayed to God on behalf of his wife, because she was childless. God answered his prayer, and his wife Rebecca became pregnant.”
So what can we actually take away from this passage? Arguably not a lot, except from the fact that Isaac cried out to God in prayer on behalf of his wife. And presumably this was not a ‘once and done’ kind of praying - considering the timespan was twenty years! It’s perhaps a good reminder that it’s worth sticking at prayer for healing - even when answers don’t seem to come quickly.
Another useful teaching point that jumps out from this story is the incredible power of a prayerful, faithful and supportive spouse. It’s worth remembering that in Isaac’s cultural context, it was common for all of the blame and responsibility for infertility to be put upon a wife, and that this was usually experienced as a huge burden and source of shame by the woman. Culturally, it would have been very acceptable for Isaac to divorce his wife and to cast her aside entirely due to her inability to produce him a child. But to his credit, Isaac doesn’t do that. Instead he continues to love her and cry out to God on behalf of his wife, according to this passage.
3. Jacob & Rachel (Genesis 29)
In contrast to Rebekah, Rachel’s infertility struggles are described in much more detail in Genesis 29-31 - and in fact, it really becomes the defining part of her whole identity and story.
At one point, she even cries out to Jacob, “Give me children, or I'll die”. A little dramatic perhaps, but haven’t many of us who have carried the weight of sorrow over infertility for a long time felt that way at moments too? I actually really love the inclusion of this detail, because her story seems to validate the sheer weight of hopelessness, heartbreak and desperation that can feel so relentless and all-consuming at times.
Her story also gives voice to the painful experience of watching other women carry and birth children when you can’t, in the form of Leah’s part of the story. Leah is Jacob’s other wife (polygamy was commonly practiced in their culture), and in the turbulent relationship between these two wives you can see all kinds of relatable emotions such as anger, bitter and jealousy played out.
I also really love the fact that although Rachel does go onto have a child with Jacob eventually, there is absolutely no biblical evidence that Rachel had any personal role to play in the turning of her own fortunes. We aren’t told that she ever prays or cries out to God in the midst of her struggles, but even so, the passage says that God “opened her womb”. (Gen 30:22).
I also want to make important aside on verses like this which refer to God ‘opening’ and ‘closing’ people’s wombs, as it can almost seem to imply that God is directly blocking a pregnancy from happening which suggests that God causes infertility. And as I have already described above, I don’t think this is theologically true as I don’t think this condition (or any other illness or brokenness in the body) comes from God.
Rather, I think this kind of phrasing really just reflects the huge sense of mystery and lack of medical understanding that existed in the ancient world about the process of conception, which often led people to believe that infertility was a spiritual rather than physical issue - where as we would obviously think very differently about this today.
4. Elkanah & Hannah (1 Samuel 1)
If I’m honest, this is a story of infertility that I’ve always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with in the Bible. On the one hand I really love the way that Hannah pours out her emotions at the temple and how she doesn’t shy away from her grief and disappointment before God. Hers is such a great example of honest lamenting and emotional abandon, that Eli the priest who encounters her initially thinks that she is drunk. What great reassurance this offers that we don’t have to put on a spiritual performance or hide our grief from God.
But on the other hand, it’s also a scripture that can be used to imply an overly simplistic cause and effect answer to infertility; pray and conceive. At the end of their encounter, Eli prays a simple prayer of blessing over Hannah saying, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant you what you have asked of him” and then just a few verses later we are told that “In the course of time, Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, “Because I asked the Lord for him.”
But as many of us know painfully well, it isn’t always this simple. And then sometimes when prayer doesn’t yield a rapid result, the fault can then be laid with the couple. Perhaps they don’t have enough faith, or they simply need to pray harder, or more honestly and fevently? The must be doing something wrong…
But of course, this cause and effect reading is an over simplification, as we aren’t actually told the time lapse that occurs between that day at the temple and Hannah’s giving birth to Samuel, but presumably it wasn’t as instant thing. Often we miss or overlook that little phrase, ‘in the course of time’ which almost certainly would have covered many months, and could well have spanned many years. But one thing is for certain, there were no daily ovulation strips, early pregnancy indicator sticks or first trimester scans available in Hannah’s world that would have given her an instant positive!
As well as the reminder that sometimes the answer requires time and patience, Hannah’s story also highlights how God reordered her priorities and her faith in that place of her lament and crying out to God in her pain.She has so desperately prayed and longed for this child, and loves him as only a mother can, yet once he is born she doesn’t hold onto him tightly or treat him as her possession to own, but sees Him as the Lord’s, and dedicates his life back to God through offering him into service at the temple.
What an incredible challenge to every single mother, or mother in waiting! Do we see a child as ‘ours’ to have and possess, or as something that belongs to God and that He simply entrusts us with and calls us to steward for a season?
5. Unnamed wife of Manoah, mother of Samson (Judges 13-16)
This nameless wife of Manoah is described as ‘childless in Judges 13, until an angel appears to her and tells her that she is going to become pregnant and give birth to a son, Samson. In this unusual angelic visitation, she is also told that his head is never to be touched by a razor because the boy is to be dedicated to God from the womb, and that He will take a lead in delivering Israel from the hands of their Philistine enemies.
But when she tells her husband Manoah all this, his response is to pray to God to return the angel to him to tell him again. It’s almost like he needs to hear and see it first hand in order to fully believe - which is something I can understand! It’s hard to get your hopes back up again, after infertility has dashed them over so many years. Again, such a helpful reassurance that parenthood is not bestowed on a previously infertile couple as a reward for their unshakeable or unquestioning faith…
The passage also says that he seeks more clarity and detail about exactly how they are to raise this promised son. He wants to make sure that he knows exactly what is expected of him, and seems anxious to get everything exactly right! What a beautifully human response. If this really is God’s plan, I don’t want to mess it up…
It’s also a wonderful reminder that this gift of parenthood which is being bestowed upon them after all these years is not primarily about meeting their own longing or needs for a child. In fact, this parenthood is really not about them at all. Manoah’s wife is never even mentioned by her name. Instead, the focus is all about their being chosen by God to steward the future call of God upon their son, Samson.
6. A Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4)
Perhaps the littlest known infertility story in the Bible is this one of an unnamed, married woman from the village of Shunem who is simply described as wealthy and hospitable. The prophet Elisha regularly travels through their village, she offers him meals and eventually prepares a room for him to stay in at her home whenever he is passing by, recognising that he is a man of God.
Eventually Elisha decides that he wants to repay her generosity, and asks his servant Gehazi, what he could do to help the woman in return for all her kindness. After Gehazi mentions that she was childless not by choice, Elisha then called the woman and told her she would have a son by that time the following year.
Her response? Although she didn’t laugh like Sarah, it wasn’t exactly a picture of faith either. She responds by saying ‘Don’t lie to me’. In other words, someone who she recognises to be a great man of God has just spoken a promise over her, but she has shut the idea down, by saying ‘I don’t believe you’ directly to his face!
Even so, the following year the prophecy is fulfilled and she does have a son. But that’s not the end of the story, as several years later, the child became unwell and died. In response, she rushes out to find Elisha and asks him to come and heal her son - and incredibly he does. The child is revived and brought back to life. Her great faith here (or maybe its just great desperation?) is rewarded with another miracle being outworked in her motherhood journey. Her declaration, several times in this story was ‘It is well’ - even when it was clearly not all well.
But I find it interesting that an unshakeable faith is not her first response in this story. What came first in her story, long before that kind of unshakeable faith was evident, and long before God had proven himself faithful to her, was simply her availability. She made herself available to serve others and to be used by God, even in spite of her personal sadness and continued longing for a child.
It is so easy to turn inwards and to become bitter or closed off towards others when we are left disappointed by life’s circumstances, but this woman refuses to let her own suffering dominate her story or disqualify her from the purposes of God. She chooses to serve Elisha’s ministry with an incredible, open-hearted generosity - even in spite of her pain. And I think it’s perhaps this heart posture, more than anything else which really makes the difference in her life.
7. Zechariah and Elisabeth (Luke 1)
Elizabeth’s story is found in the first chapter of Luke at the start of the Christmas story, where we are told that she is the wife of a priest named Zechariah and that they were unable to have a child and were both very old. The passage also says that “they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statutes of the Lord” which again busts the idea that infertility is a curse or punishment from God. It can happen to anyone - even holy men like Zechariah.
Elizabeth’s pregnancy is first announced by the angel Gabriel who appears to her husband, Zechariah while he’s serving in the temple . And again, Zechariah is hardly the picture of unwaivering faith (a surprisingly common theme!). In fact, such is his unbelieving response, that he is told he will not speak again until after the baby is born. Meanwhile, Elizabeth responds with joyful anticipation and expectation, and is moved to worship God.
Of course, Elizabeth goes onto have her child who grows up to become John the Baptist, cousin to Jesus, and the one who is called to prepares the way for Jesus’ ministry on earth. He is the first person to recognise and announce Him as the Messiah. So Elizabeth receives the fulfilment of her desire for a child, but again this is a child with a very specific and important calling…
Final thoughts…
So yes, each one of these women who experienced infertility in the Bible were healed and eventually became parents. But still, what about all those today, who don’t? I think in summary that when considering these individual women’s stories, it’s really important to remember that their stories are not ours, their cultural experiences is not ours, their spiritual callings are not ours, and that their direct genealogy in the of line Jesus is not ours either.
But even so, their God is the exact same God that we worship today.
A God who is still for life, and family, and human flourishing.
A God who still cares about our grief, and pain and suffering.
A God who still promises to heal, restore and redeem all that is broken in our lives.
He’s still working all things for good, and working all things towards his one glorious, ultimate end.
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