The Seed of the Woman: Narratives That Point to JesusНамуна

In a section full of lineages, we meet a woman introduced to us as barren and childless (Gen. 11:30). Sarai was the wife of Abram, a descendant of the covenant line. Like many women, she would have entered marriage in anticipation of children. Sadly, for Sarai, the years passed without pregnancy. Family and neighbors perhaps ended their questions about children as they came to realize the truth: Sarai was a barren woman.

Scripture chronicles the journey of Abram and Sarai with numerous stories. We have 13 chapters between their introduction in Genesis 11 and Sarai’s death in Genesis 23, a span of 62 years. As we will see, the stories told within these years paint the picture of a new kind of “Adam and Eve” who also prove weak, and the God who declares weak sinners righteous by faith.

It begins in Genesis 12:1–3 with the call of Abram, in which God promised to make Abram a “great nation,” a covenant people for his own possession. He would extend his blessings to all the families of the earth through the Seed produced from this nation. Unbeknownst to Abram, God’s work to cancel the effects of the curse had begun and God was using this childless man in his great plan of redemption.

What thoughts crept into Sarai’s mind as she pondered this news? Did she wonder how a man without a descendant would become an entire nation? Did God’s amazing promise grow fresh expectation in her heart? Would she at last know the joy of motherhood? Or would God increase Abram without Sarai? Was there fear instead of hope?

Sarai speaks in Genesis 16:2 (the first time we hear a woman since Eve), and here we witness Sarai’s inability to reconcile God’s promise to Abram with her own barrenness. Like Eve, who took and gave something forbidden to her husband, Sarai took and gave her maidservant Hagar to Abram as her surrogate. And like Adam, Abram listened to the voice of his wife (Gen. 3:17; 16:2).

Thirteen years later, God changed ninety-nine-year- old Abram’s name to Abraham and eighty-nine-year-old Sarai’s name to Sarah. And for the first time since their now twenty-four-year journey began, Sarah was directly mentioned in God’s promise to Abraham: “I will give you a son by her, and she shall become nations; kings of people shall come from her” (Gen. 17:15–21). Sarah’s womb would produce life. The idea to her was laughable, she was worn out and her husband was old (Gen. 18:12–14). But nothing is too hard for the Lord.

Within a year, Sarah conceived Isaac. His name means “laughter.” God turned the source of Sarah’s laughter from cynicism to joy (Gen. 21:6–7). And her laughter reminds us that God’s gift of children is never given because of our works, but by his grace. Human reproduction, like spiritual regeneration, is ultimately the merciful work of the living God. And every child born to the descendants of rebellious Adam and Eve is evidence of God’s unmerited mercy.

A weak, yet believing, woman is useful to God. Her faith appears small at times, but we are saved by the object of our faith and not by the size of it. In Sarah, we see that God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. The woman introduced to us as barren gives birth to the son of promise. From her womb comes a great nation and eventually the Seed who would crush the serpent and trade our curses for his blessings.