Man performs a feat of "science" and records it as a "record" of man's achievement. God performs a miracle far outstripping man's achievement, but man would neither remember nor acknowledge it.

A recent (newspaper) columnist reported on the news of a "63-year-old (woman) conceiving a child". Such a feat had put this woman, named Arceli Keh, in "the Guiness Book of Records... as the World's Oldest Mom" (E. Goodman, (Portland, Maine) Press Herald, May 2 (1997)).

But, actually, this woman did not conceive the child. "Arceli is not the genetic mother", the columnist noted. Rather, a younger woman's egg, fertilized by Arceli's husband, had been planted in this 63-year-old woman's womb. Seemingly all of the media have repeatedly referred to this woman as "the oldest woman on record to conceive and bear a child."

Correction: There is another woman on record who actually holds the "record" (as it were).

ANOTHER'S EGG

And the similarity to Arceli Keh is rather amusing as well.

In the record of the Scriptures, Sarah ---wife of Abraham--- was similarly anxious to have a child born of her husband. In Genesis 16:1-3, Sarah, at the age of 75 (calculated by Genesis 17:17 and 16:16, less nine months), gave to her husband his second wife Hagar to bear a child.

This was, similarly, also the "egg of another woman" being fertilized by her own husband. And thereby was Ishmael born ---when Abraham was 86 years old. (Genesis 16:15-16.)

But Ishmael was not the promised son of God's plan. (It was, of course, still God's plan; for it provided the "allegory" of Galatians 4:19-31.) Consequently, Abraham's body would thereafter "become dead" to plant seed. (Romans 4:19, Genesis 17:17.)

This is because it was Isaac, not Ishmael, who was the son of promise. (Genesis 21:1-3.)

RE-VITALIZED

So, at the fulfillment of that promise, God performed a miracle, re-vitalizing the nearly 100-year-old Abraham (Genesis 17:17) to once again be able to plant seed.

The record of Romans 4:19, Hebrews 11:11-12, and Genesis 18:11 show that the bodies of Abraham and Sarah, prior to the conception of Isaac, were "past age", being "dead" to plant seed and conceive. But with the conception of Isaac, God had re-vitalized Abraham to be able to plant seed again.

Accordingly realizing this, Abraham thereafter wasted no time utilizing the benefits of God's miracle upon his previously-"dead" body. As long as that miracle would last, Abraham would not waste it: the record of Genesis 25:1-4 shows that Abraham had six more sons by his third wife, Keturah (out of whom Moses' Zipporah would descend, per Exodus 18:1-2 (not to be confused with the non-Abrahamic, Hamitic Cushite/Ethiopian of Numbers 12:1).)

CONCEIVED

And that miracle of God was two-fold, also opening up Sarah's "past age" womb to conceive. By God, "Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised" ---Hebrews 11:11.

While the present-day Arceli Keh, at 63 years old, bore a child "conceived" of another woman's egg fertilized by her husband, Sarah had actually conceived.

By God's miracle, not only did Sarah actually conceive, but she, truly, was "The Oldest Woman on Record to Conceive" a child.

The record of Genesis 17:17,19 and 21:1-3 show that when she bore Isaac, the promised son of God's plan, Sarah was 90 years old.

© June 4, 1997, The Standard Bearer
P.O. Box 765, O.O.B., ME 04064

<--Previous    Next-->