Articles
The Analogy of Childbirth
Have you ever seen a video of a man getting zapped by a labor belt? A labor belt simulates the pains a woman experiences in labor by administering an electric jolt to the abdomen. It is quite comical to see macho guys who think that labor isn’t a big deal brought to their knees and begging for the shock treatment to stop. I have vicariously experienced labor pains by watching Melanie go through it four times, and I would never minimize the trauma that childbirth inflicts upon a woman. Kudos to all mothers who are willing to endure such a grueling process.
And why is human childbirth so excruciating? The Bible answers this in its earliest pages. After Eve succumbed to Satan’s temptation and then enticed Adam to join her in sin, God altered the process of labor: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring for the children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Gn 3:16). For many animals, giving birth is not the ordeal it is with humans.
But given such passages as 1 Tim 2:11-15, it would seem that God wants women to remember the significance of their role in giving life as opposed to compromising it – as in the case of Eve. Matthew Henry comments: “Sin brought sorrow into the world; it was this that made the world a vale of tears, brought showers of trouble upon our heads, and opened springs of sorrows in our hearts, and so deluged the world: had we known no guilt, we should have known no grief. The pains of child-bearing … are the effect of sin; every pang and every groan of the travailing woman speak aloud the fatal consequences of sin” (A Commentary on the Whole Bible, Vol. 1, p 31). Childbirth is an intermingling of anxiety and joy, and surely every expectant mother experiences both emotions as the time draws near.
But it is also a reminder of what unmitigated joy bringing a new life into the world might have been if not for sin, for the pain of childbirth is analogous to the corrupted state of nature itself: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. And not only they, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:20-23). Thus nature is personified and pictured as in labor, “pained” by the corruption, hostility and abuse of sin that has compromised it even as godly men living upon it are discovering and serving God.
Another analogy of labor pains is found in Isa 26:16-18 where Israel laments its futility: “Lord, in trouble they have visited You, they poured out a prayer when Your chastening was upon them. As a woman with child is in pain and cries out in her pangs, when she draws near the time of her delivery, so have we been in Your sight, O Lord. We have been with child, we have been in pain; we have, as it were, brought forth wind; we have not accomplished any deliverance in the earth, nor have the inhabitants of the world fallen.” Israel had turned to idols and fallen into sin worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah (Isa 1:10-15; cf. Jer 23:14; Ezk 16:44-52). Now, as the nation crumbles under Assyrian aggression, they cry out to God in panic and dread, but the true components of faith and trust are missing. For all their efforts (labor pains), they have merely brought forth wind.
Likewise in the proclamation against Babylon, the citizens who thought they dwelt safely in an impregnable city would suddenly face their demise: “Wail, for the day of the Lord is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty. Therefore all hands will be limp, every man’s heart will melt, and they will be afraid. Pangs and sorrows will take hold of them; they will be in pain as a woman in childbirth; they will be amazed at one another; their faces will be like flames” (Isa 13:6-8). No nation is safe when the wrath of God is poured out.
The theme of “sorrow turned to joy” is lifted from the physical experience of childbirth to describe what will happen among His disciples when Jesus is wrenched from them and killed: “Most assuredly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; and you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, has sorrow because her hour has come; but as soon as she has given birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. Therefore you now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and your joy no one will take from you” (Jn 16:20-22).
Because we are so familiar with the story and insulated by 2,000 years of historical distance, it is hard to fathom how utterly devastated the disciples were after Jesus’ brutal execution. They were in hiding, fearing the same fate from the Jewish authorities. They were crushed and despondent as their friend, teacher and Lord had been unjustly murdered. They were confused and adrift, momentarily amnesic over Jesus’ assurance that they would see Him again. But equally hard to understand is the joy that gradually began to dawn as the resurrection testimony began to trickle in. And then … there He was, in their very midst! (Jn 20:19). We all know the joy of seeing a loved one after a long separation, but there is nothing in the human experience that would adequately replicate the spiritual rejuvenation following Jesus' resurrection. Childbirth, Jesus said, comes the closest.
There is even an echo of this theme in Isaiah’s unique passage of the suffering Servant: “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He has put Him to grief. When You make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hand. He shall see the travail of His soul, and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide Him a portion with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the strong, because He poured out His soul unto death, and He was numbered with the transgressors, and He bore the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors” (Isa 53:10-12). Only in great pain and anguish of soul was salvation given birth.
This seems to be the pattern of life: the prerequisite of joy is sorrow; pleasure is preceded by pain; suffering gives way to success. Sin is not overcome without a price, paid both by Jesus on the cross and by us as we seek each day to tame our passions and constantly seek the grace of God.
