Immanuel in the Creation of Each Person

slave girls so they could have children again, for the LORD had closed up every womb in Abimelech's household because of Abraham's wife Sarah. (Genesis 20:17, 18)

God would carry out his punishment in the reproductive capabilities of Abimelech. Obviously this would have been a greater dishonor and punishment than instant death. It would have left Abimelech virtually childless with no heir to his throne and no lineage of descendants. In Canaanite culture, rife with fertility gods and practices, the threat of being childless was a great dishonor and shame. Immanuel again is intimately involved in the conception of each human!

Sarah's daughter-in-law was also barren. Moses relates to us the story of Rebekah:
Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant. Genesis 25:21

And Rebekah could, pardon the pun, conceivably give comfort and advice to her daughter-in-law, Rachel, who was also barren:
When the LORD saw that Leah was not loved, he opened her womb, but Rachel was barren. Genesis 29:31

A common denominator in these women is that they are related-not just through marriage, but through blood. Remember Sarai and Abram were half-brother-half-sister. Abraham sent his servant to find a suitable wife for Isaac from his homeland. The maiden chosen by God was a cousin to Abraham and Sarah! And Rachel? She was Rebekah's niece! Was Leah likewise barren, but God had mercy on her because she was in a loveless marriage? It's hard to say. But Moses makes clear that God was in control of Jacob's procreation.

Many of us are aware of the great strength of Samson or his exploits with Delilah, the affair that brought him down. Were you aware that Samson was also the product of a miracle of Jahweh? In Judges 13 we are introduced to Samson's parents:
Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, so the LORD delivered them into the hands of the Philistines for forty years. A certain man of Zorah, named Manoah, from the clan of the Danites, had a wife who was sterile and remained childless. The angel of the LORD appeared to her and said,:
"You are sterile and childless, but you are going to conceive and have a son. Now see to it that you drink no wine or other fermented drink and that you do not eat anything unclean, because you will conceive and give birth

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