Latest / Pastor John Piper's answers / A Better Hope for the Childless

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A Better Hope for the Childless · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: I don't know about you and your life, but right
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  Speaker 1: now mine is full of couples who are struggling with
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  Speaker 1: miscarriages or with infertility like I've never seen before. It's
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  Speaker 1: a common problem, it's a heavy burden, and yet we
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  Speaker 1: find hope in scripture for such sorrowing couples. And we
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  Speaker 1: find it in Isaiah fifty six, and listeners to the
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  Speaker 1: podcast might immediately know this is a chapter we return
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  Speaker 1: to a lot when it comes to lifelong singleness and
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  Speaker 1: on infertility specifically Isaiah fifty six, verses four and five.
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  Speaker 1: We read this text today in the Navigator's Bibble reading plan,
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  Speaker 1: so it's a good day to take on this question
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  Speaker 1: from a woman who cannot have children herself and who
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  Speaker 1: often ministers to other women in the same situation. Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: as you're prompting years ago, I have connected Isaiah fifty
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  Speaker 1: six to infertility, but I would love for you to
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  Speaker 1: focus more time and attention on it, specifically for couples
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  Speaker 1: who are unable to have children at all. How should
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  Speaker 1: we understand this promise for eunuchs in light of today's
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  Speaker 1: struggle with infertility and childlessness. How does God's declaration that
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  Speaker 1: he will give them a better name than sons and daughters.
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  Speaker 1: Speak to those who long for children but who are
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  Speaker 1: unable to conceive. What does his passage reveal about God's
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  Speaker 1: perspective on family and legacy? Additionally, how can we apply
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  Speaker 1: these verses practically to our understanding of God's faithfulness and provision.
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  Speaker 1: Does this passage suggest that a fruitful life in God's
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  Speaker 1: kingdom can look very different from the cultural expectations of
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  Speaker 1: having children, And how we can encourage those who are
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  Speaker 1: grieving the inability to have children. I greatly appreciate your
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  Speaker 1: insight into these verses and how they might speak to
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  Speaker 1: those who are experiencing heartache or disappointment in their desire
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  Speaker 1: for children. Thank you for your thoughtful guidance.
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  Speaker 2: It is a very very precious thing to hear the
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  Speaker 2: all wives, all good, all powerful creator of the universe
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  Speaker 2: say to you personally, no good thing do I withhold
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  Speaker 2: from those who walk up rightly? So maybe four to eleven,
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  Speaker 2: Or I pursue you relentlessly with goodness and mercy all
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  Speaker 2: your days Psalm twenty three six. Or I cause every
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  Speaker 2: circumstance in your life to work for your good Romans
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  Speaker 2: eight twenty eight. Knowing all the while that he also
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  Speaker 2: said in Psalm seventy one twenty, I have made you
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  Speaker 2: see many troubles and calamities. It is a precious thing
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  Speaker 2: to hear God say and to know it deep in
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  Speaker 2: your soul. I am good, I am wise, I am strong.
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  Speaker 2: Nothing happens to you, my child, but what I plan
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  Speaker 2: for your good? That is a precious word from God.
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  Speaker 2: But it is even more precious when God picks out
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  Speaker 2: a specific peculiar trouble or calamity that he brought into
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  Speaker 2: our lives and then tells us again specifically this very
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  Speaker 2: truth as it relates to that trouble, and our friend
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  Speaker 2: who's experiencing infertility has directed our attention to one of
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  Speaker 2: those precious specific words of God, namely a word about childlessness.
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  Speaker 2: So here's what Isaiah fifty six three to five says, specifically,
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  Speaker 2: not just generally, specifically to that issue. Let not the
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  Speaker 2: eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree. For thus
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  Speaker 2: says the Lord to the eunuchs, who keep myself abbats,
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  Speaker 2: and who choose the things that please me and hold
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  Speaker 2: fast to my covenant, I will give in my house
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  Speaker 2: and within my walls a monument and a name better
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  Speaker 2: than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting
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  Speaker 2: name that shall not be cut off. Now, the immediate
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  Speaker 2: meaning of eunuch in this text is a man who
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  Speaker 2: is unable to father children. He may have been forced
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  Speaker 2: to be a eunuch by castration, or there may have
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  Speaker 2: been some natural or accidental reason that he couldn't father children.
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  Speaker 2: In any case, the point is there were two painful
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  Speaker 2: consequences connected with being a eunuch under the law in
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  Speaker 2: the Old Testament. One was that he was excluded from
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  Speaker 2: the lord's assembly from the Lord's house Deuteronomy twenty three one.
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  Speaker 2: The others that he could not raise up offspring to
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  Speaker 2: continue his name. This is doubly bleak. He was cut
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  Speaker 2: off from the sense of communion with God with his people,
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  Speaker 2: and his legacy was cut off from any future among men.
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  Speaker 2: I think it is legitimate to apply this text to
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  Speaker 2: both men and women in our day who are infertile
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  Speaker 2: and who are believers in Christ. I think it's legitimate
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  Speaker 2: to say that in Christ, all the promises of God,
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  Speaker 2: including these verses, are yes. Second Corinthians one, All the
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  Speaker 2: promises yes in Christ, and to say that not only
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  Speaker 2: are they yes for those in Christ but also the
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  Speaker 2: blessings promised in the Old test are wonderfully exceeded in Christ.
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  Speaker 2: There's more, there's better, because the Old Testament prophets did
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  Speaker 2: not yet know Christ. They didn't know him, they didn't
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  Speaker 2: know the Messiah, son of God. But now our fellowship
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  Speaker 2: with Christ attends every one of the promises. So every
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  Speaker 2: promise gets a booster, it gets a vast increase of
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  Speaker 2: significance because not only are they all bought by Jesus,
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  Speaker 2: they're all accompanied by Jesus, and we enjoy fellowship with
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  Speaker 2: Him in every fulfillment of every promise. So yes, this
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  Speaker 2: text is a gift. It's a promise to the Christian
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  Speaker 2: man or woman who is not able to bear or
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  Speaker 2: father children. I think there are at least three implications
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  Speaker 2: of this text for those who are called to live
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  Speaker 2: with the sorrow and the disappointment of not being able
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  Speaker 2: to give birth or beget children. First, in verse five,
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  Speaker 2: it says, I will give in my house and within
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  Speaker 2: my walls a monument and a name to the believing
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  Speaker 2: eunuchs the childs. And the reason in my house and
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  Speaker 2: within my walls is important is because of that Old
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  Speaker 2: Testament exclusion from the house of God.
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  Speaker 1: Here we have a.
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  Speaker 2: Reversal of what the law held out. Temporarily, you will
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  Speaker 2: not be excluded from the family, from the house of God,
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  Speaker 2: from the presence of the Living God. And the New
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  Speaker 2: Testament carries this promise to an almost unbelievable height when
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  Speaker 2: it says that we will not only be in the
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  Speaker 2: house of God, but we will be the house, the
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  Speaker 2: household of God. We will be the children of God
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  Speaker 2: in the house of God. In other words, the Bible
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  Speaker 2: reminds us that being unable to bear or father children
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  Speaker 2: is not a punishment or a curse. Since Christ is
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  Speaker 2: born our punishment, born, our curse become our curse. Rather,
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  Speaker 2: God says, not only are you not cursed, you are adopted.
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  Speaker 2: You are in the walls, you are in the house,
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  Speaker 2: you are in the family. There is no severing of
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  Speaker 2: me from my childless children. That's number one. Number two,
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  Speaker 2: Verse five says, I will give you a monument and
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  Speaker 2: a name better than sons and daughters. I will give
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  Speaker 2: them an ever lasting name that shall not be cut off.
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  Speaker 2: It may be true that your last name will not
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  Speaker 2: be perpetuated on earth. That kind of legacy may be
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  Speaker 2: withheld from you. But Revelation three twelve says God will
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  Speaker 2: give you his own name, which is better than the
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  Speaker 2: name Piper or any other name that you could possibly
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  Speaker 2: think of, infinitely better than any name on earth. Jesus said,
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  Speaker 2: there will be no marriage or giving in marriage in heaven,
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  Speaker 2: and I think by implication there will be no parenting
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  Speaker 2: and no comparing of genealogical legacies. There will be one
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  Speaker 2: great legacy, one great name, the name of God, the
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  Speaker 2: name of Jesus. We will his children and bear his name,
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  Speaker 2: and his name, and our adoption and our inheritance will
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  Speaker 2: be a monument better than sons and daughters, infinitely better. Lastly,
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  Speaker 2: number three, verse three says, let not the eunuch say, behold,
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  Speaker 2: I am a dry tree. In other words, this text
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  Speaker 2: is not only concerned with the objective reality that in
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  Speaker 2: Christ there is a better name and a better legacy
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  Speaker 2: for Christians than sons and daughters. This text is also
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  Speaker 2: concerned with how we think about ourselves, how we feel
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  Speaker 2: about ourselves in this regard, how we speak about ourselves
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  Speaker 2: in this regard. Let not the infertile Christians say I
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  Speaker 2: am a dry tree. Don't say that, why, because you're
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  Speaker 2: not You're not a dry tree. You're a green tree,
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  Speaker 2: a fruitful tree. Do you know how many of the
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  Speaker 2: trees in some one who delight in the law of
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  Speaker 2: the Lord day of night, how many of those trees
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  Speaker 2: have been infertile? Tens of thousands, maybe millions. He is
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  Speaker 2: like a tree. She is like a tree planted by
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  Speaker 2: streams of water that yields its fruit. Yes, it yields
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  Speaker 2: its fruit in its season. Its leaf does not wither.
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  Speaker 2: In all that he does, in all that she does,
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  Speaker 2: he she prospers some one verse three. Do not say
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  Speaker 2: I am a dry tree. Say rather, I am a
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  Speaker 2: green tree, a planting of the Lord besides streams of
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  Speaker 2: truth and grace, And my life is going to bear
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  Speaker 2: eternal fruit.
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  Speaker 1: One great legacy. Yeah, thank you, Best John. Isaiah fifty
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  Speaker 1: six four and five is one of those texts that
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  Speaker 1: comes up in the podcast, applied to infertility as you
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  Speaker 1: heard here, and it applies to lifelong singleness too. If
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  Speaker 1: you want to see the fuller scope of how important
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  Speaker 1: Isaiah fifty six versus four and five is pastorally, see
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  Speaker 1: the asbestra John book on page one ninety three. Applied
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  Speaker 1: to both sorrows, infertility and lifelong singleness. One of those
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  Speaker 1: essential texts you want in hand when you need it yourself,
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  Speaker 1: or when the time is right, when you can minister
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  Speaker 1: its truth to others. Thank you Bestor John, and thanks
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  Speaker 1: for joining us today. If you have a question to
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  Speaker 1: ask Pastor John, find a link to email us and
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  Speaker 1: find our complete episode archive at the same place. Askpastor
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  Speaker 1: John dot com. We get a lot of really good,
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  Speaker 1: tough questions about Christian hedonism, and that's true. Next time,
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky. We'll see you on Thursday for that