Above Rubies Daily Encouragement Blogs
Through the weekly and daily devotionals you can be constantly encouraged in your great role of parenting, the highest career in the nation. You can also stay updated on what's happening with the Above Rubies ministry.
WHAT DO YOU CALL A PREGNANT MOMMY?
Yesterday I wrote a post about wombing, one way to describe being pregnant. I enjoyed all the comments and other different words that some of you use to describe pregnancy.
Many of the ladies say they like to say “with child” which is a biblical term. I agree with this too and thought I’d give you some of the Scriptures about being “with child.”
Ecclesiastes 11:5 talks about “how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child.” The Hebrew for “with child” in this passage is male and means “full, filling, fullness.” It is the picture of the womb filled with child. If this phrase was more popular, society would become aware of the truth that the baby is not a blob of tissue, but an actual human being growing and filling the womb—a human being that has the same DNA it will have when he or she is even 70 or plus years of age.
The Hebrew word hareh is also translated “with child.” This word is used for conception as well as the child growing in the womb. It’s the language of angels. When the angel of the Lord came to Hagar he said, “Behold thou art with child and shalt bear a son, and shalt call his name Ishmael” (Genesis 16:11).
In Genesis 21:2 the same word is used when it says: “Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age.” The Bible makes it clear that life begins at conception. This word is used for the moment of conception, the child growing in the womb, when the baby is “great” and ready to be born, and then coming into the world. A similar word, harah, is also used for both conception and being “with child.”
Here’s another thought-provoking point. Exodus 21:22 says: “If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so that her fruit depart from her . . .” “With child” is hareh. But what is the word for fruit? It is the Hebrew word yeled which means, “something born, a child, a young man.” That’s talking about a person who is alive and walking around. But God uses that word for the baby in the womb, confirming that the babe in the womb is just as much the person they will be when they are a child or even older.
Let’s go to the New Testament. Jesus speaks of Mary being “with child” when Jesus, the Son of God grew in her womb (Matthew 1:18, 23 and Luke 1:31) and it is used five other times. The Greek word brephos is also used of a babe in the womb as well as a child.
Don’t you think it is time we understood God’s truth rather than listening to human reasoning?
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Other hareh (“with child”) references: Genesis 38:24, 25; Exodus 21:22; Judges 13:5, 7; 1 Samuel 4:19; 2 Samuel 11:5; Isaiah 7:14; 26:7; Jeremiah 20:17; 31:8; Amos 1:13; and 2 Kings 8:12.
