God is the one who turns barrenness into fruitfulness, life and abundance, and this is what he gave to man at the very beginning (life and abundance). At the very beginning,g God changed the earth’s formlessness and void into light and order. He is a God who wants to bless us and turn our barrenness into abundance.

In the Bible, we encounter many women who were barren, but God miraculously blessed them, and they became fruitful. One of God’s blessings from the very beginning was to be fruitful and multiply. But it’s interesting that many women’s wombs were closed up by God himself. Do we fully understand why, no but we need to look and see what he is telling us from these accounts of barrenness turned fruitful.

Sarah (Genesis 11:30) was the first woman described as barren. Sarah was given the opportunity to have faith that God could provide the impossible, but that was not easy to do. She eventually takes it into her own hands and tries to help God with his blessing. And even though she did this and caused a lot of negative repercussions, God still blessed her as he said he would with her own baby at a very old age.

Rebekah (Genesis 25:21) was barren too, and Isaac, her husband, went to the Lord with it, and she became pregnant. And she was not just pregnant with one but two.

Rachel (Genesis 29:31), who was Jacob’s second wife, was also barren, and she, too, like Sarah, tried to help God to bless her. But even with this, God eventually blessed her with her own children.

Hannah (1 Samuel 1:5), too, was barren, and she went to the Lord about it and was rewarded greatly with several children, and her firstborn became a great prophet for God’s people.

Samson’s mom (Judges 13:2), too, was barren, but we see from the account that it was God who changed that for his own good.

Elizabeth (Luke 1:7) was barren, and God gave her a miracle, and she conceived. God changed this for good in that her son was John the Baptist, who ushered in the Messiah.

The last person I will mention is Mary. No, Mary was not barren, but in Mary’s case, you see God make a miracle out of nothing. He miraculously took a virgin girl and created a new life inside her, and this was the Messiah, the one who came to save us all.

So, what do I see in this? I see the importance of trusting God and going to God in times of lack and barrenness. We saw in many of these cases that God said he would bless them, but they had trouble believing this.  God is such a good God, and if we look at his track record, we will realize that he wants to bless us and give us abundance. And if we really believe this, we will trust him and wait. We need to trust Him for our blessing in his perfect timing.  And it’s comforting to know that we have a God who blesses us even when we mess up greatly and hurt others. This is grace, and we need to remember not to take it for granted.

He turns rivers into a desert,
    springs of water into thirsty ground,
³⁴ a fruitful land into a salty waste,
    because of the evil of its inhabitants.
³⁵ He turns a desert into pools of water,
    a parched land into springs of water. – Psalms 107:33-35

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Let them consider the steadfast love of the Lord. – Psalms 107:33-43