Birth (out of) Control

Birth (out of) Control

Rick Walker

The room is bright. There is a controlled chaos within its confines. A nurse is shouting, “Blow! Blow! Blow!” A female friend is somewhere between panic and fainting while holding the expectant mom’s hand. She, however, is doing all she can as the doctor’s well-modulated voice says, “Everything is looking good.” Then he looks over the sheet at the mom and asks, “Well, do you want this baby or not? If not, I need to know now so I can take care of this situation.” Situation??? It’s a “birth” not a “situation,” isn’t it?

In the law of Moses, God says, “If men who are fighting hit a pregnant woman and she gives birth prematurely but there is no serious injury [to the child], the offender must be fined by whatever the husband demands, and the court allows. But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life…,” Exodus 21:22-23. Notice, God considers a child born prematurely to be a “life”! Yet as we will see, He considers a child to be alive long before birth.

To Jeremiah God said, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you…,” Jeremiah 1:5. Clearly God considered Jeremiah to be a “person” before his birth. But Job takes us all the way back! By inspiration he says, “Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night which said, ‘A boy is conceived,’” Job 3:3. Notice that at conception, a person’s gender is already established!

Now scientists use terms like; zygote, blastocyst, embryo, and fetus to describe the stages of development of a child in utero. We do the same thing with words like; baby, toddler, adolescent, teenager, etc., for the stages of development outside the womb. A child in its mother’s womb is not an adult. But if allowed to grow they will become one. Hiding the life of a child behind scientific terms does not change the fact a person is growing and developing inside its mother. From the moment of conception life begins and from that point forward a person is beginning to grow!

Currently several states in our country are deciding on whether or not to allow our opening paragraph to become a reality (indeed, there are some states in which it is already occurring). If this is how we as a nation deal with the most innocent and vulnerable amongst us, how will

God deal with us?!

“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you,” Matthew 7:2.