Four barren women . . .

Aphrodisiacs, love potions, leeks and magical plants

All were used by women of ancient times, for to be barren was a shameful state leading men to seek other wives.

There are stories of four barren women that God used to cradle the Hebrew nation

And after a time of waiting upon the Lord, Sarah, 90 years old, not receiving the promise of a child, resorted to her own ways of conceiving . . .

And – Sarah – in despair

invited her handmade to lay with her husband, and Ishmael was born and Sarah became jealous.


Rebecka –

Rachel –


and Hannah –

All cried in sorrow with tears – receiving a child. For it was mapped in the stars, in dreams unfolding, only He is the giver of life in His timing!

And seeing Abraham in his puzzlement, God asked him “Is anything too hard for the Lord”

*Book of Genesis 18:14

The woman who laughed . . .

Years swiftly pass and her hope is not fulfilled

Now looking into the mirror Sarai’s face is marred with wrinkles, her bones waxing old and with her back bent, hobbling with a stick.

One night in the coolness of the evening, Abram fell asleep and was given a dream. God promised him a son and a great nation! In sharing this promise with his wife she laughed behind his back. For she was ninety and her husband was one hundred years old! But God did hear their prayer and Sarai gave birth to a son.

A cry in the night, a midwife quickly rushes to her side. With gnarled hands and a once sorrowful heart, her fingers are now entwined with a baby’s soft skin. Isaac was born, and now Abram’s name was changed to Abraham and Sarai’s name was changed to Sarah!

And Isaac’s descendants would fill the earth like the stars of the heavens!

The evening was sultry – the stars shone brightly . . .

With loving care Sarai’s maidens surround her, with perfumes and oils, smoothing her skin, placing sparkling pins and fasterners in her long flowing hair.

Her eyes filled with excitement, enhanced with purple eyelashes, then stepping into a gown of ivory and lace and sandals of silver. And finally dressed with a bracelet and necklace of gold!

And as her maidens slowly draw the beaded curtain aside with its tinkling bells, there is silence as she poses before Abram who she is promised to be betrothed, as he gently lifts her veil, taking his wife to his tent to bear his child!.

But Abram’s wife is barren and unable to bear his child!



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A little girl’s dream . . .

Often as a little girl looking down on a wedding to take place

She dreams of the day when she will become a bride. Enthralled with her beautiful jewels and dress, and her painted face, waiting for her groom to arrive.

Just as every girl dreams, for this is the custom in her land – to be married and have children is her deepest desire!




And then the dream to become a bride one day became true!

Sarai

And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years and he died

. . . and the descendants of Noah’s son . . . of the lineage of Shem bore many sons and daughters . . .Then Tera begot Abram and Abram took Sarai to be his wife! And Sarai was a woman of beauty!

Book of Genesis Chapter 11
Reference

And Abram was told to

go to a different

country.

And he and his family

departed as the LORD

had spoken!

And just as by faith, Noah built a ship not yet seen, of wood and pitch, so by faith Abram left his country, believing of one yet to come!

Tower of Confusion

The Great Catastrophic Event Has Come To A Close

And so an Epic of a created world of beauty

. . . Becomes a broken world of destruction and confusion. Paths of peace and serenity our parents once followed, are paths of pain and sorrow . . . And as Noah and his family stepped out of the ark of safety, the world they had known has now become the world they must go forth, begetting a people to inhabit the earth as God had spoken.

The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel 1563

The whole earth had one language and speech. As people began to multiply they journeyed from the east to a land of Shinar and they dwelt there. And they began to fear another flood saying “Let us make a tower whose top is in the heavens” But the Lord was not pleased and confused their language scattering them abroad.

Book of Genesis Chapter 11

A confounded language was spoken

With their vain attempt to disobey, when one requested a brick a hammer was given. A hammer was given for mortar and stone, a saw for a spade until in utter frustration they left their work undone. Confusion was spread abroad and men were left to their own ways to live, forgetting Noah’s pleadings. Just as it is today!

Happy Sabbath . . . on this seventh day of rest

The number 7 is a perfect number!

We have come through a busy week for Noah and his family.

For six days they labored to prepare for the great flood!

He and his sons called animals from mountains and hills

by 7’s and by 2’s . . .While the angels in heaven looked on.

Straw for the weaker animals and grain to be stored for

forty days of rain.

Hay for the stalls and flour and oil for bread. And baskets

of fruit.

Getting closer to the day when they would neither toil

nor work.

And on the 6th day for prayer for safety and care. For in 7 days

God will flood the earth. And on the 7th day they rested as

God had said!

And Grandfather Noah and his family shared this great story of rest

for all generations to come!

A view of Mt Ararat

For 40 days and nights . . .

They sailed the turbulent seas

THE GREAT DELUGE – PART THREE

‘And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days‘

Then God remembered Noah . . . and all the animals in the ark and made a wind to pass over the earth, and the rains were constrained . . . and the ark rested on the mountains of Ararat. Then he opened the window of the ark and sent out a raven . . . and also sent out a dove . . .

Genesis Chapter 8,9

And when she returned a second time the dove went into the ark with an olive leaf in her mouth, and Noah knew the waters had receded. Then God said “Go out of the ark, your family and every living creature . . . And He said “I will never destroy the earth with waters again – I do set My rainbow in the cloud and I remember my [promise] to you.”

While the earth remains

Seedtime and harvest

Cold and heat

Winter and summer and day and night shall not cease”

Genesis Chapter 8,9