These are plain statements by God about how He works and yet man does not see it with his naked (physical) eye. An interesting facet of motherhood in the Old Testament is its focus on God’s role in sending children to earth. Consider the following examples:
“For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech” (Gen. 20:18).
“And when the Lord saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb” (Gen. 29:31).
“The Lord gave her [Ruth] conception” (Ruth 4:13).
“But the Lord had shut up her [Hannah’s] womb” (1 Sam. 1:5).
Each of these statements illustrates that God was involved in the timing of childbirth, and people in the Old Testament recognized this. When “the Lord . . . had closed the wombs of the house of Abimelech, Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children” (Gen. 20:18, 17).
Similarly, “Isaac intreated the Lord for his wife, because she was barren: and the Lord was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived” (Gen. 25:21).
At one point it appears that Jacob felt Rachel was blaming him for their lack of children. When she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die,” Jacob responded, “Am I in God’s stead, who hath withheld from thee the fruit of the womb” (Gen. 30:1–2)?
We have no Scripture to tell us whether Anna had ever given birth to children; all we know is that she had lived with a husband for seven years and had been widowed approximately eighty-four years (Luke 2:36-38). Was the Lord pleased with Anna? She was a prophetess (Luke 2:36; Acts 2:18), and she was blessed by God to see Christ. She served God with prayers and fasting in the Temple day in and day out (Luke 2:37). When she saw Jesus and his parents, her prayer of thanksgiving to God was for the Christ child. Luke 2:38 tells us that Anna spoke of the Christ child to all them that looked for redemption in Jerusalem. What a blessing the Lord gave to Anna in her old age!
These examples contrast with what is often taught in today’s world. Many in modern society do not acknowledge God’s role in the timing of birth and choose not to include Him in their decisions about childbearing.
–Beth Johnson