Give Me Children Or I Die!

“When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she envied her sister. She said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I shall die!’” 

—Genesis 30:1

God made us to produce—both physically and spiritually. But, as we all know, for whatever reason, some have had difficulty conceiving children physically, which can be very difficult for a couple—especially for a woman. And while in modern society it is a tremendous burden, in the ancient world it was even more so. In the Ancient Near East, a woman’s primary purpose was to produce and raise children. For a woman not to be able to have a child was a source of great grief (1 Samuel 1:7), considered a curse (2 Samuel 6:23), or judgment (Genesis 30:2). Sometimes it resulted in women doing some very difficult things in order for them to procure children (Genesis 16:1-5; 30:14-18). The desire for a woman to have children is innate—planted by God. However, there are other reasons why God has allowed a woman to be barren—it may be that He desires the family to adopt and set those without families into homes of godly, loving parents. Or it may be something else altogether that God will still yet show them. Whatever the reason it is, God does so in order that He might be glorified. We don’t know why God allows some to have children and others to not, but He does what is best and we rest in the truth that He knows and understands far better than we ever will.

In today’s passage, we see the desperation of Rachel, Jacob’s second wife. Her desire for children was so great that she would rather die than go childless, a prayer that undoubtedly many barren women can relate to and appropriate as their own. However, my focus is not on physical children. I am not a woman, nor am I without children. No, my focus on this passage relates more to spiritual children.

John Knox (1514-1572) was a greater Scottish clergyman and leader in the Protestant Reformation in Scotland. At a time when Protestants were being persecuted and killed by Catholics, he poured his heart out to the Lord for Scotland, praying, “Give me Scotland, or I die!” God answered his prayer and Scotland was transformed. Knox’s prayer is an echo of Rachel’s words to Jacob, “Give me children, or I shall die!” Knox cried out for spiritual children just as Rachel cried out for physical ones.

For those who are reading this and are asking God for physical children, please keep calling out to God. But for those of us, who may have physical children but not spiritual children, please cry out just as intensely. I long to see men and women, boys and girls, and those from different faiths come to know the Lord of glory—to be saved by believing and trusting in Jesus Christ and what He has done. I don’t want to see people come to be a part of Christian culture, listening to certain music, visiting certain Christian establishments or anything like that. None of those things makes someone a Christian, no more than going to watch a professional football game makes one a professional athlete. I may wear the team’s paraphernalia, but that doesn’t mean I am a player. I don’t care about getting them to change their behavior either. It’s not the behavior that gets changed, but the heart. I want them to know Christ and once they do, God, by His Spirit working in them and through His Word begins to transform them from the inside out.

There are several elements to seeing a person transformed by the Gospel of Christ. It first involves intercessory prayer and God opening the doors to share the Word (Colossians 4:3). It also involves God the Father drawing them to Himself (John 6:44) and granting repentance (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25). We have been given the task of “making disciples” and it is through the vehicle of preaching that faith is given (Romans 10:14, 17; Titus 1:3). God will make sure that His Word does not return void (Isaiah 55:11), as it finds fertile soil (Matthew 13:8, 23), because He has promised that there are many who are ready to receive the Gospel (John 4:35).

Sometimes, however, God allows us to go through a period of spiritual infertility—where we are kept from making disciples because God seeks to kindle in us a greater desire for this amazing task. This greater desire will enable us to be more like Him. Or perhaps God has closed the door on our evangelistic endeavors because of disobedience or pride issues in our life.

Whatever the case may be, I pray that our desires for spiritual children will rival that of Rachel’s desire for physical children. I pray that we might be able to say, “Give me spiritual children, or I die!” We were made to tell others about who Jesus is, but so often our fears come in the way of our faith. But, as God stokes the fire of evangelism within us, may our hearts overflow in prayer for lost souls, and may our tongues be on fire to tell others about Jesus! This world is passing away, and our lives are but a breath. God desires to use us to bring others to the saving knowledge of who He is, in order that we might together proclaim His excellences, joyously in heaven. I pray that your prayer life might becoming a raging fire of prayer for the lost—as your desires are stoked by the poker of the Holy Spirit of God. May God use each one of us to pray and plead for our friends, family and foes, that they come to know Jesus as Savior and Lord for His glory and our joy. Amen.