Uprooted Trees, Infertile Women
Uprooted Trees, Infertile Women
One of the unifying themes of Scripture is that people are portrayed as fruit trees. The connections between fruit trees and humans begin in the opening accounts of Genesis 1-3. But the theme doesn’t stop there. The biblical authors utilize this connection over and over again.
But often the connection goes underground and remains unseen. Clues are given, but even those clues are difficult to pick up.
Here’s an example of a hard-to-find clue:
There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to root up. Ecclesiastes 3:1-3
Typical of Hebrew poetry, the author uses repetition with variation. He connects humans and trees by way of comparison and repetition. That’s easy to observe. Just as humans are born (due to the planting of a seed), so also trees are born by the planting of a seed. Humans die and trees are rooted up—the death of a fruit bearing tree, disconnected from the life-giving soil.
But what it difficult to spot in the English translation is an important connection between fruit trees and people. The Hebrew word to “root up” or “to pluck” is עֲקֹ֥ור. But when this same Hebrew word is used as an adjective, it means “to be barren, to be infertile.” So, when a woman is called barren or infertile, she is portrayed literally as “uprooted” like a tree, her roots disconnected from the life-giving soil. Here’s an example:
Now Sarai was barren (עֲקָרָ֑ה); she had no children. Genesis 11:30[1]
See the connection between people and fruit trees? Sarai was literally, “uprooted,” infertile, unable to bear the fruit of children. Fruit trees can be uprooted, no longer able to produce fruit and so also women can be uprooted, infertile, unable to bear children, unable to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). This connection is intentional and continues one of the unifying themes of Scripture: human beings are portrayed as fruit trees.
But I would be remiss if I failed to add a note about the astonishing redemptive work of God. Both Sarai, wife of Abraham, and Elizabeth, wife of Zechariah (Luke 1), were old and advanced in years, barren, uprooted like a fruit tree, as good as dead in terms of the reproductive cycle.
Yet, in answer to prayer, God replanted the roots of both of these aged women. Sarai (Sarah) gave birth to Isaac in her old age and Elizabeth gave birth to John the Baptist when she also was advanced in years. They bore fruit like trees in their old age. Aged women, though once uprooted, can be replanted to bear fruit. Astonishing.
Yet, I’ve never seen an old fruit tree, once uprooted by wind and storm, replanted to once again produce fruit. That scenario seems impossible. It goes against what we expect to see. This is why the birth of Isaac to aged Sarah and John the Baptist to aged Elizabeth is so astonishing, so miraculous. But these two examples prepare us for the ultimate birth. Even more astonishing is the birth of Jesus to a virgin, birth without a human seed. It was Elizabeth herself who understood the thematic connection of fruit trees with human birth. To pregnant Mary she loudly exclaimed:
Blessed are you among[2] women and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Luke 1:42
Thank you for reading.
[1] cf., Rebekah, Genesis 25:21; Rachel, 29:31; Hannah, 1 Samuel 1:5; Elizabeth, Luke 1:7.
[2] Observe: Elizabeth did not say, “blessed are you above women,” but “among women.”