The Old Testament is full of stories dealing with issues of man's relationship with the Supreme Creator of the Universe. It is a hard concept to try to understand a world so much unlike our own, because of the existence of a much more "down to Earth" God. This is a world in which God talks to people, gives orders directly, and takes on human like characteristics. In these books, God judges on an almost immediate basis; he punishes people right after their sins and rewards those who appease him with little delay, showing a direct correlation of cause and effect. Still, reading the Bible from an objective point of view, understanding the reasoning behind God's actions is still an extremely hard task to undertake. God appears inconsistent by our standards, so sometimes we can only touch on the surface of the reasoning behind some of his actions using verses from the rest of the Bible as possible explanations for this seemingly strange behavior.

One of the harder concepts to grasp is Gods actions regarding the Matriarchs, the mothers who, in turn, will spawn the entire Jewish nation. God makes it so the Matriarchs, meaning Sarah, Rebecca, Leah, and Rachel, all seem to start out unable

It seems as though God wants to be coerced into letting the Matriarchs be able to fulfill their wish to have children. This is not a unique situation where God seems to want something from man. Obviously, according to the Bible, he set up the world with rules for people to abide by and certain actions that humans can perform can appease him. In the story of Sodom, we see that God's verdict was persuaded to change by Abraham's prayer (18:22-32). It seems be the power of prayer is how humans can influence God's divine plan. On the other hand, it may have been God's divine plan to come up with a situation were humans remember him and pray to him for their own sake.

God's first commandment to "be fruitful and multiply" meant that the world should be populated, but the reason he made the Matriarchs barren was because he wanted them to work hard in order to fulfill this commandment and to appreciate the awesome power he was giving them. Things in life that are worked for are always more appreciated. This rule can be applied here, God wanted his Matriarchs to be the way they were so they would appreciate what an important role they all played. He wanted their prayers, their dedication, and their recognition in order to mold them in to the grateful and caring mothers of the Patriarchs. This is the only way God decided he could conceive the nation that would be fit to receive his ultimate gift to the world, the Bible.

God is always the third partner in these relationships. In fact, is asserted early on that in all conception there needs to be divine intervention. In Chapter 4 Verse 1 Eve recognizes, "I have produced a man with the help of the lord". Throughout the rest of Genesis almost every time a woman gives birth for the first time the Bible states that it was necessary for God to "remember" them. All of the Matriarch's recognize his role in the conception process. They repeatedly attribute their barrenness to God and when Rachel does not, Jacob becomes angry with her and says, "Am I in the place of God, who has withheld the fruits of the womb" (30:2).

"And God blessed them, and God s

Some common words found in the essay are:
Leah Rachel, Earth God, God Matriarchs, God God, Rebecca God, Sometimes God, God Rebecca, Sodom God's, Rachel Jacob, God Obviously, fruitful multiply, divine plan, god matriarchs appreciate, fruitful multiply fill, cause effect, sacrifice son, god's divine, matriarchs appreciate, god tells, 162 303, god's divine plan, appreciate awesome power, god matriarchs, test abraham,
Approximate Word count = 1423
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)