How Women in the Bible responded to Barrenness

This is an odd title and odd topic, and certainly one I would not think up. God spoke this to me  through his word this morning, and it is a message to all Christians, barren or not. God often uses circumstance to show us what we truly are This is just a brief list, and I don't think it is a complete one. I may go into this more later: 

 Sarah – Resignation, Unbelief, (Blame God?) , Disappointment in God

Paraphrase:Its too late, I’m too old…. I think God wants to use someone else… like Hagar my maid (see Genesis 16) Genesis 16:2 “See now, the LORD has restrained me from bearing children. Please, go in to my maid; perhaps I shall obtain children by her.”

What Sarah got right was that it was God who withheld her from bearing chidlren. She reacted, however, in unbelief.

Rebekah – Not mentioned in Bible,  Isaac to cried out to God for her.  (see Genesis 25)

Rachel – Envious of Leah, who had many children.  “Give me children, or else I die!”(See Genesis 30)  Note that she doesn’t mention God, or see God’s will working. She died in the birth of her second son, Benjamin. Genesis 31 points to the fact that she probably still was worshipping idols.

Hannah (1 Samuel  1) Hannah was a woman used by God. Out of her great sorrow and anguish she cried out to God for her heart’s desire, a son (See Ps Susan’s book). Then she vowed to God, that she would give her son back to Him. I heard somewhere, along this line, that Hannah got into such a depth of prayer that she saw God’s will, and God’s purpose, then her need for a son fell into place, or something like that. How painful that must have been for her to surrender.  Ps Susan always says, “Lord, make me willing to be made willing”. She weaned herself of the child, and not knowing whether she would have any more, gave that child back to Him, only seeing him once a year. What a woman. What an example of faith and sacrifice. Her son, Samuel, would grow up to be such a man in Israel that there was peace in the land all his days. What a man. May God make us into watchman and intercessors that will add value to the land. May God wean us of all distractions and things that are not His

Michal – Was barren because she despised her husband David for worshipping the Lord, accusing him. See Wiersbe’s Bible Commentary. (1 Samuel 25)

Elisabeth – resignation, reproached among people, was not bitter. Elisabeth and Zacharias seemed pretty resigned to the fact they would have no children. (Luke 1 and 3). I like to think they both loved the Lord and served Him, and He blessed them and used them both to prophesy and to fufill prophecy. Elisabeth was "filled the Holy Spirit"

Additional things to think about: Numbers 5

¹¹ And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, ¹² “Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘If any man’s wife goes astray and behaves unfaithfully toward him, ¹³ and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and it is concealed that she has defiled herself, and there was no witness against her, nor was she caught— ¹⁴ if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, who has defiled herself; or if the spirit of jealousy comes upon him and he becomes jealous of his wife, although she has not defiled herself— ¹⁵ then the man shall bring his wife to the priest. He shall bring the offering required for her, one-tenth of an ephah of barley meal; he shall pour no oil on it and put no frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering of jealousy, an offering for remembering, for bringing iniquity to remembrance. ¹⁶ ‘And the priest shall bring her near, and set her before the LORD.¹⁷ The priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel, and take some of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle and put itinto the water. ¹⁸ Then the priest shall stand the woman before the LORD, uncover the woman’s head, and put the offering for remembering in her hands, which is the grain offering of jealousy. And the priest shall have in his hand the bitter water that brings a curse. ¹⁹ And the priest shall put her under oath, and say to the woman, “If no man has lain with you, and if you have not gone astray to uncleanness while under your husband’s authority, be free from this bitter water that brings a curse. ²⁰ But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority, and if you have defiled yourself and some man other than your husband has lain with you”— ²¹ then the priest shall put the woman under the oath of the curse, and he shall say to the woman—“the LORD make you a curse and an oath among your people, when the LORD makes your thigh rot and your belly swell; ²² and may this water that causes the curse go into your stomach, and makeyour belly swell and your thigh rot.” 
Then the woman shall say, “Amen, so be it.” ²³ ‘Then the priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall scrape them off into the bitter water. ²⁴ And he shall make the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and the water that brings the curse shall enter her to become bitter.²⁵ Then the priest shall take the grain offering of jealousy from the woman’s hand, shall wave the offering before the LORD, and bring it to the altar; ²⁶ and the priest shall take a handful of the offering, as its memorial portion, burn it on the altar, and afterward make the woman drink the water. ²⁷ When he has made her drink the water, then it shall be, if she has defiled herself and behaved unfaithfully toward her husband, that the water that brings a curse will enter her and become bitter, and her belly will swell, her thigh will rot, and the woman will become a curse among her people. ²⁸ But if the woman has not defiled herself, and is clean, then she shall be free and may conceive children. ²⁹ ‘This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, while under her husband’s authority,goes astray and defiles herself, ³⁰ or when the spirit of jealousy comes upon a man, and he becomes jealous of his wife; then he shall stand the woman before the LORD, and the priest shall execute all this law upon her. ³¹ Then the man shall be free from iniquity, but that woman shall bear her guilt.’”