16:21 hath sorrow. This universal experience of travail and sorrow by a woman delivering a child (and even pictured in the animal world—see note on Psalm 22:6) has resulted from the primeval curse pronounced when the first woman rejected God’s Word (Genesis 3:16). Nevertheless, this suffering brings a new life into the world, and this is always an occasion for joy. Jesus here uses this common experience as an example of what God is doing with His whole creation, and what He Himself was accomplishing for His followers as He proceeded toward the cross. He would “see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied” (Isaiah 53:11). He, “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). Furthermore, His travail will deliver a new world! “The [creation] itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now” (Romans 8:21-22).