CHAPTER 2

THE SORROW THAT BIRTHED THE SEED

From Ruth’s Travail to the Lineage of Christ

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed...” (Genesis 3:15 KJV)

“Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception...”  (Genesis 3:16 KJV)

The God who called Adam out of hiding also spoke a promise into a world damaged by sin. As we saw in the previous chapter, sorrow does not have the final word. In Genesis 3:15, before God speaks to the woman about sorrow, He speaks to the serpent about her seed. 

The consequences of the Fall would be painful, but God’s promise pointed beyond them towards redemption.

Christian tradition calls Genesis 3:15 the protoevangelium, or “first gospel”, reading the promise of the woman’s offspring as an anticipation of Christ’s victory over Satan.1 The story of promise unfolds through the families of Sarah, Rebekah and Leah, and later through Tamar, Rahab and Ruth to the house of David. Matthew’s Gospel traces the line through David to Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom Jesus Christ was born (Matthew 1:1–16).

When we arrive at Ruth, we encounter a woman whose story seems to carry the shadow of Genesis 3. She knows sorrow, death, widowhood, displacement and uncertainty. She knows what it means to leave the familiar, to labour in a field for survival and to wait for redemption. Ultimately, she knows what it means for God to bring life out of a place where death appeared to have won.

The Bible does not identify Ruth as the fulfilment of Genesis 3:16. Her story does, however, echo the themes we have encountered in Eden: sorrow touches human life, yet God’s promise continues through it. Read within the wider story of Scripture, Ruth’s bereavement, faithfulness and eventual motherhood help us see how redemption can unfold beyond what any one person understands.

Ruth teaches us that what begins in sorrow does not necessarily have to end there. Sometimes sorrow is the ground through which God carries a promise we cannot yet see.

When the House of Bread Is Empty

“Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land.”  (Ruth 1:1 KJV)

The Book of Ruth does not begin with a wedding. It begins with a famine.

Famine drives Elimelech’s family from Bethlehem to Moab. Bethlehem means “house of bread”, yet hunger forces the family to leave it.2 That irony may feel familiar when the place where we expected abundance becomes a place of need. A marriage may look different from what we prayed for, motherhood may bring unexpected struggles, or ministry may seem far removed from the hopes with which it began. Our own “house of bread” can feel empty.

In Moab, tragedy strikes. Elimelech dies, and Naomi’s two sons, who marry Ruth and Orpah, also die. The three women are left widowed, facing uncertain futures. Ruth’s story begins with bereavement, long before romance enters the narrative.

We often read Ruth with the ending already in view. We know about Boaz and Obed, and we can trace the family line forward to David and Jesus. Ruth faced her bereavement without that knowledge. Her faithfulness took shape while the future remained hidden. It is easier to celebrate faith when we know Ruth 4 than to practise it when we are living through the losses of Ruth 1.

Naomi’s grief is equally stark. “Call me not Naomi, call me Mara,” she says, “for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me” (Ruth 1:20). Naomi means “pleasant”; Mara means “bitter.” Her pain had become so deep that she wanted sorrow to rename her. In effect, she was saying, Do not call me by the name I carried before the pain. Call me by what happened to me.

Many women have done the same thing, if not publicly or legally, then inwardly. The private name becomes rejected, abandoned, betrayed, divorced, widowed, childless, unwanted, forgotten or not enough. The event becomes the identity, and sorrow becomes the name.

Yet the narrator continues to call her Naomi (Ruth 1:22). Her grief, bitterness and questions are acknowledged, but her request to be called Mara does not become the final account of who she is. The story will reveal more than she can see in this moment.

Naomi continues, “I went out full and the LORD hath brought me home again empty” (Ruth 1:21). Her sense of loss is understandable, yet Ruth stands beside her. Grief can make the presence of a remaining gift difficult to recognise. The narrative invites us to notice Ruth’s faithful companionship without minimising Naomi’s bereavement.

Naomi saw the graves behind her. She could not yet see the genealogy ahead of her.

The Covenant Journey

Naomi gives Ruth permission to leave. Orpah kisses her and returns, but Scripture says, “Ruth clave unto her” (Ruth 1:14). Then comes one of Scripture’s most beautiful declarations of covenant loyalty: “Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for whither thou goest, I will go” (Ruth 1:16).

The Hebrew verb behind “intreat” is pāgaʿ, which in this context carries the sense of urging or pressing someone.3 Ruth is asking Naomi to stop urging her to turn back. She commits herself to Naomi’s journey, people and God, pledging a loyalty that reaches even to death.

Ruth has no promise of Boaz when she makes this decision. She chooses to accompany Naomi without knowing how her own future will unfold. Her loyalty gives us a picture of faithfulness that does not depend upon a guaranteed reward.

Faithfulness obeys before it knows the outcome.

Ruth’s decision concerns her mother-in-law, yet its example of freely chosen loyalty also speaks into marriage. Covenant invites us to ask, Can I remain faithful to God when obedience becomes costly? This truth must never be misused to command someone to remain in violence, coercive control or serious abuse. Ruth’s loyalty was not forced upon her. In ordinary disappointment and difficult seasons of marriage, her story encourages us to seek God and wise counsel before allowing present pain alone to determine a lasting decision.

There is a phrase worth carrying through the rest of this chapter:

Ruth travelled because she had already travailed.

By the time Ruth travelled from Moab to Bethlehem, she had already endured the death of her husband. Leaving her homeland and what was familiar, she entered Bethlehem as a foreign widow accompanying another widow. She could not see the royal lineage that would emerge from her story; she could only take the next step.

Elsewhere in Scripture, childbirth provides language for the emergence of new life. Isaiah speaks of Zion’s restoration: “as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:8). Paul describes his anguish for the Galatian believers when he writes, “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). These passages arise from different circumstances, but both use travail to describe painful labour connected with what God is bringing forth.

Suffering does not guarantee a particular outcome, but God can form perseverance, character and hope as we depend upon Him through it. Paul writes that “tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and experience, hope” (Romans 5:3–4). Ruth’s sorrow did not disappear at once. She continued to act faithfully while carrying it.

The Field of Providence

Ruth’s arrival in Bethlehem does not immediately resolve her hardship. She goes to work, asking Naomi, “Let me now go to the field, and glean ears of corn” (Ruth 2:2).

Having lost her husband and left her homeland, Ruth now gleans behind the harvesters, gathering grain to sustain herself and Naomi. Her labour recalls the toil introduced after the Fall (Genesis 3:17–19). The woman who will be named in Christ’s genealogy is, at this point, doing the ordinary work of survival.

Yet the field of labour becomes a place where providence unfolds. Ruth 2:3 says, “her hap was to light on a part of the field belonging unto Boaz”. The wording presents the encounter as an apparent chance occurrence. As the story develops, however, the reader begins to recognise how God’s provision emerges through ordinary circumstances.

The responsibilities that feel exhausting or insignificant may also be places where God forms us and provides for us. Ruth’s gleaning brought her into contact with Boaz, and his kindness helped sustain both women. The larger story grew through these ordinary acts of work, generosity and faithfulness. We can value the work before us even when we cannot yet see what will come of it.

When Ruth tells Naomi where she has worked, Naomi recognises Boaz’s relationship to the family: “The man is near of kin unto us, one of our next kinsmen” (Ruth 2:20). The Hebrew term gōʾēl refers to a family redeemer who could act on behalf of relatives in matters involving property and family interests.4 Later, when a nearer relative declines to redeem, Boaz publicly undertakes the responsibility and marries Ruth (Ruth 4:1–10). The story brings together concerns about land, inheritance and the continuation of the family name. Its legal background requires care, but its concern for vulnerable people is clear.

Boaz has both the family standing and the willingness to act for Ruth and Naomi. His role invites Christian readers to reflect on the wider biblical theme of redemption and on Christ as our Redeemer. The comparison helps us recognise that theme without turning every detail of Ruth’s story into an allegory.

Boaz acts as a relative, while Christ enters our humanity: “the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Boaz’s willingness to accept responsibility gives us a limited human picture of the costly love displayed fully in Christ, who gives Himself to redeem His people. As we follow Ruth’s story, our attention is drawn towards the greater redemption at the heart of the gospel.

Beneath His Wings

Before Ruth found Boaz, she found God.

Boaz says to her, “The LORD recompense thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the LORD God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to trust” (Ruth 2:12). His words recognise that Ruth has already sought refuge in God before she becomes Boaz’s wife.

That truth is essential for every woman reading this book. Your husband cannot be your God. He cannot carry the weight of your identity, heal every wound, satisfy every longing or guarantee that you will never feel lonely. There is a place beneath the wings of God where your soul must learn to dwell. Psalm 91:4 says, “He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust.”

As Chapter 1 reminded us, we belong first to Christ. A woman who seeks her deepest security in God can receive her husband’s love with gratitude while recognising its human limits. Respect and affection can flourish when a spouse is not expected to occupy the place that belongs to God alone.

Ruth eventually lay at the feet of Boaz, but her soul had already come under the wings of God.

From Sorrow to Conception

When we reach Ruth 4, Boaz marries Ruth. Scripture records, “So Boaz took Ruth, and she was his wife: and when he went in unto her, the LORD gave her conception, and she bare a son” (Ruth 4:13). The narrator specifically attributes conception to the Lord’s gift.

Genesis 3:16 placed sorrow and conception beside one another. Ruth’s story brings those themes into view again as the widow who entered Bethlehem grieving becomes the mother of Obed. Her personal story of loss is now part of a family history that Scripture will trace towards Christ.

This does not mean that every bereavement will be followed by remarriage. It does not mean that every infertile woman will physically conceive or that every sorrow will end according to the timetable we desire. Ruth is not a formula for getting what we want from God. Her story is a testimony that God’s redemptive purposes can be operating in circumstances that look empty to us.

One of the book’s most beautiful scenes occurs after Ruth gives birth: “And Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse unto it” (Ruth 4:16). Remember Naomi’s earlier words: I went out full. The Lord has brought me home again empty. Now the woman who called herself empty is holding a child. The women around her announce, “There is a son born to Naomi” (Ruth 4:17).

The book is showing us a restoration larger than Ruth’s individual happiness. God is restoring a household, a family line and hope itself, while preparing history for something neither Ruth nor Naomi could fully see.

Sometimes God’s answer is larger than the person who prayed the prayer.

The child is named Obed, and Scripture immediately moves the reader forward: “He is the father of Jesse, the father of David” (Ruth 4:17). Suddenly we understand that this was never merely a love story. It was a kingdom story.

Ruth’s journey with Naomi, her gleaning and her marriage to Boaz belong to a story whose significance reaches beyond her immediate circumstances. The narrative carries these ordinary events forward into the ancestry of David.

Matthew opens the New Testament with the genealogy: “And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth” (Matthew 1:5). The genealogy culminates in “Jesus, who is called Christ” (Matthew 1:16).

There it is: the Seed.

We must maintain the theological distinction carefully. Obed himself is not the promised “seed of the woman” in its ultimate Christian fulfilment, nor does Ruth 4 claim that Ruth directly fulfils Genesis 3:15. Ruth does, however, enter the providential genealogical line through which Jesus Christ comes. The widow from Moab becomes an ancestor of David and, according to Matthew’s genealogy, of Christ Himself. What looked like one woman’s private sorrow was connected to a redemptive story far larger than she could see.

The Serpent Saw Sorrow; God Saw Seed

Return once more to Eden. Genesis 3:15 speaks of seed; Genesis 3:16 speaks of sorrow. The enemy would bruise, the woman would travail, but God would bring redemption. That rhythm reverberates throughout Scripture. Sarah endured barrenness before Isaac. Rebekah experienced barrenness before Jacob and Esau. Rachel cried, “Give me children, or else I die,” before Joseph. Hannah wept before Samuel. Elizabeth lived with barrenness before John. Mary faced the costly mystery of bearing the Christ. Ruth walked through widowhood before Obed.

We must never create a cruel formula suggesting that every woman’s suffering guarantees a particular earthly outcome. The point is larger: God is able to make sorrow serve redemption rather than allowing sorrow to write the final chapter.

Jesus Himself uses this imagery to prepare His disciples for sorrow and coming joy: “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come,” He says, “but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world” (John 16:21). His death would bring grief, but His resurrection would transform it. The promise rests upon His victory, even when our own circumstances remain unresolved.

The gospel itself carries the rhythm of sorrow, travail, death, waiting and life.

When You Are Still Living in Ruth 1

Perhaps you are reading this and thinking, I am still living through Ruth 1. The situation has not changed. Communication with your husband may remain strained, finances may be tight, prayer may seem unanswered, or a child may be wandering. You understand the ending of Ruth’s story, but you cannot yet see the way forward in your own.

Ruth has something important to tell you:

Do not confuse the chapter you are in with the ending of the story.

Ruth could not arrange the future that lay beyond her journey, but she could accompany Naomi and gather the grain they needed. Her example directs us towards the faithful action available today.

In marriage, that means recognising both our responsibilities and our limits. We cannot control a spouse or force repentance, but we can speak truth, examine our own conduct and seek wise help. We can bring resentment before God, practise what love requires and entrust the outcomes we cannot determine to Him.

When circumstances involve abuse, violence, coercion or danger, faithfulness to God may include seeking safety, wise pastoral counsel, professional assistance and appropriate legal protection. Endurance should never become another word for enabling evil.

Ruth’s story moves from bereavement through provision and redemption towards new life. Naomi’s emptiness is answered through the love of her daughter-in-law and the birth of Obed. The closing genealogy then carries the reader towards Jesse and David, preparing us to recognise the wider significance that Matthew later reveals.

The narrative shows the lasting significance of Ruth’s loyalty without inviting us to speculate about what would have happened had she turned back. She could not see the generations ahead. Her declaration in the present was clear: “thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Do Not Waste Your Travail

Some sorrows follow our own choices, others arise from what people do to us, and still others come because we live in a fallen world. We cannot simply choose away their effects, but we can ask God to help us respond. As we pray, seek truth and receive support, we can learn to distinguish what must be released from what must be faithfully carried.

Ruth had lost her husband, yet she chose to trust Naomi’s God. Naomi had lost her sons, yet the story reveals that God’s provision had not ended. Neither woman could see the future that would unfold.

Genesis introduced the woman, sorrow, the seed and the enemy. Ruth shows us a woman walking through sorrow while God quietly preserves a line of redemption. Matthew finally shows us where that line leads: Jesus Christ.

The enemy wanted humanity destroyed; God promised a Seed. Sin brought sorrow; God brought redemption. Death entered the world; Christ came to conquer death.

Our obedience can have consequences beyond what we presently see. Children may learn faithfulness through what they observe at home, and later generations may benefit when repentance interrupts a destructive pattern. Prayer, forgiveness and the decision to seek healing can shape a household over time. Ruth’s story reminds us that a life’s significance may reach far beyond the circumstances in which it is lived.

Woman of God, bring your sorrow honestly before Him. Make room for grief, name the truth and seek help to confront what needs attention. As He gives wisdom, release what must be released and remain faithful to what He calls you to carry. Through it all, seek refuge beneath His wings.

You may still be grieving in Moab, taking a difficult step towards Bethlehem or tending the ordinary responsibilities of your field. You do not need to know how every circumstance will resolve before you can turn to God. Ruth’s story invites us to trust His redemptive purposes while taking the faithful step before us.

Its encouragement is clear:

Sorrow may be part of the story, but sorrow does not get to write the ending.

In Eden, God spoke of the Seed before He spoke of sorrow. Ruth’s story directs our hope towards the fulfilment of that promise in Christ. The worksheet that follows invites you to bring your own sorrow before God, seek His refuge and consider the faithful response available today.

Chapter 2 Worksheet

From Sorrow to Seed

Read Before Beginning

Read Ruth chapters 1–4 slowly before completing this worksheet. Do not read only looking for Boaz. Look for God. Underline every moment when circumstances change even though God does not visibly announce what He is doing. Then pray:

“Lord, show me where You may be working even when I cannot see You.”

1. Name Your Moab

What loss or disappointment has most affected your present season?

Has that sorrow changed the way you see God?

□ Yes
□ No
□ I am unsure

Explain:

2. Has Sorrow Renamed You?

Naomi said, “Call me Mara.” Which name have you secretly given yourself because of what happened to you?

□ Rejected
□ Abandoned
□ Unlovable
□ Failure
□ Divorced
□ Betrayed
□ Forgotten
□ Childless
□ Not enough
□ Too old
□ Damaged
□ Other: __________________________________________

What does God call you in Christ?

Find one Scripture supporting that identity:

3. What Are You Tempted to Leave?

Ruth was given the opportunity to return. Are you considering abandoning something primarily because you are presently hurting? Is it something God is asking you to release, or something pain is telling you to abandon? What wise counsel have you sought?

4.  Your “Entreat Me Not” Declaration

Complete Ruth’s declaration personally:

Where God leads me, I will ________________________________________.

When I cannot see the outcome, I will ______________________________.

When sorrow speaks, I will remember _______________________________.

The God I choose to trust is ______________________________________.

5. What Field Are You Gleaning In?

What ordinary responsibility presently feels insignificant or exhausting?

□ Marriage
□ Parenting
□ Work
□ Caring for family
□ Prayer
□ Ministry
□ Healing or recovery
□ Financial rebuilding
□ Education
□ Other: __________________________________________

How could faithfulness in this “field” be forming your character?

6. Are You Beneath His Wings?

Read Ruth 2:12 and Psalm 91:1–4. Where have you been expecting your husband—or another human being—to provide something only God can ultimately provide?

□ Identity
□ Security
□ Worth
□ Complete emotional fulfilment
□ Healing
□ Purpose
□ Peace
□ Other: __________________________________________

Pray:

“Father, I release ______________________________ from having to be my source of ______________________________. Teach me to find this first in You.”

7. What Is Your Travail Producing?

My present sorrow is making me more:

□ Bitter
□ Prayerful
□ Controlling
□ Compassionate
□ Fearful
□ Patient
□ Angry
□ Dependent upon God
□ Withdrawn
□ Honest
□ Hopeful
□ Other: __________________________________________

What fruit do you want God to produce through this season?

8. What Can Only God Do?

Write three things you cannot control:

1. 

2. 

3. 

Now write three things you can faithfully do:

1. 

2. 

3. 

Pray over both lists.

9. From Ruth to Jesus

Complete the line:

Ruth → Obed → Jesse → David → ______________________________

Read Matthew 1:1–16. What does Ruth’s inclusion in Christ’s genealogy teach you about God’s ability to use unlikely people and painful circumstances?

Generational Reflection

Ruth’s decision affected generations she would never meet. What do you want your children, grandchildren or spiritual children to inherit from your life—not merely as possessions, money or property, but spiritually?

□ Faithfulness
□ Prayer
□ Covenant
□ Forgiveness
□ Courage
□ Purity
□ Perseverance
□ Truth
□ Compassion
□ Love for Scripture
□ Trust in God

Write a short statement:

“The cycle that will stop with me is...”

“The godly legacy I want to begin or continue is...”

The Ruth Declaration

Read aloud:

I will not allow sorrow to rename me. I will not mistake Chapter 1 for the end of my story. I will travel when God says travel, glean when God says work and wait when God says wait. I will release what He tells me to release and remain faithful to what He tells me to carry.

I will not make another human being my saviour. I choose to dwell beneath the wings of Almighty God. I cannot see every generation that may be affected by my obedience, but I trust the God who can.

My sorrow will not become my god. My bitterness will not become my identity. My pain will not be permitted to silence God’s Word. I belong to God, and I trust the Redeemer with the chapters I cannot yet see.

Prayer

Father,

I bring You my Moab. I bring You the graves, disappointments, unanswered questions and places where I have felt empty.

Forgive me where sorrow has renamed me. Forgive me where pain has spoken louder than Your promises. Like Ruth, teach me to say, “Thy God shall be my God.”

When I cannot see Boaz, help me remain faithful. When all I can see is a field, teach me to glean. When I cannot see the future, teach me to obey in the present. When I am tired, cover me beneath Your wings.

Redeem what can be redeemed. Heal what must be healed. Expose what must be confronted. Give me courage to establish boundaries where they are necessary and grace to forgive where forgiveness is required.

Do not allow my sorrow to become bitterness. Turn my travail into prayer, my pain into wisdom, my wounds into compassion and my experience into testimony. If there are generations connected to my obedience that I will never see, let them inherit something holy because I chose You.

Thank You that the serpent does not have the final word. Thank You that sorrow does not have the final word. Thank You that death does not have the final word.

Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, has the final word.

In Jesus’ name,

Amen.

Notes and References

1. Protoevangelium means “first gospel”. Christian tradition has read Genesis 3:15 as an anticipation of Christ’s ultimate victory over the serpent. The New Testament supplies the wider framework for this reading; see Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 12:9–11. The connections drawn between Genesis and Ruth in this chapter are theological reflections, rather than claims that Ruth directly fulfils Genesis 3:15–16.

2. Bethlehem (Bêt Leḥem) is commonly understood as “house of bread” or “house of food”. See Francis Brown, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907), s.v. בֵּית לֶחֶם. The famine in Ruth 1:1 creates the literary irony discussed in the chapter.

3. The verb translated “intreat” in Ruth 1:16 is פָּגַע (pāgaʿ). In this context, Ruth asks Naomi not to urge her to leave. See Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon, s.v. פָּגַע; Ruth 1:16–18.

4. The term גֹּאֵל (gōʾēl, redeemer or kinsman) is derived from the verb גָּאַל (gāʾal, redeem or act as kinsman). See Brown, Driver and Briggs, Hebrew and English Lexicon, s.v. גָּאַל. Ruth brings together concerns about land, inheritance and family continuity. For discussion of the legal background, see Robert L. Hubbard Jr., The Book of Ruth, New International Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988); Daniel I. Block, Ruth: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible, Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015). Compare Ruth 4:1–10; Leviticus 25:25–34; Deuteronomy 25:5–10.

5. Ruth 2:12 describes Ruth as having sought refuge beneath the wings of the LORD God of Israel. Related imagery appears in Psalm 17:8; 36:7; 57:1; 61:4; 91:4.

6. Ruth 4:13 attributes Ruth’s conception to the Lord’s gift. The narrative connects Obed to Jesse and David in Ruth 4:17, 21–22.

7. Matthew 1:5 names Ruth as the mother of Obed, who fathers Jesse; Matthew 1:6 names Jesse as David’s father. The genealogy proceeds through the Davidic line to Joseph, identified as Mary’s husband, and culminates in Jesus Christ (Matthew 1:16).

Selected Bibliography for Further Study

Block, Daniel I. Ruth: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015.

Brown, Francis, S. R. Driver and Charles A. Briggs. A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1907.

Hubbard, Robert L., Jr. The Book of Ruth. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1988.

Sakenfeld, Katharine Doob. Ruth. Interpretation: A Bible Commentary for Teaching and Preaching. Louisville: John Knox Press, 1999.

Thomas, Gary. Sacred Marriage: What If God Designed Marriage to Make Us Holy More Than to Make Us Happy? Revised edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2015.

Primary Scriptures for Further Study

Genesis 3:15–19; Genesis 12:1–3; Genesis 38; Leviticus 25:25–34; Deuteronomy 25:5–10; Ruth 1–4; Psalm 17:8; Psalm 57:1; Psalm 61:4; Psalm 91:1–4; Isaiah 54:1; Isaiah 66:7–9; Matthew 1:1–16; John 1:14; John 16:20–22; Romans 5:1–5; Romans 8:18–28; Romans 16:20; Galatians 4:19; Hebrews 2:14–15; 1 John 3:8.