Lindsey GardnerINTRODUCTION
The conservative Christian cause emerged victorious on many levels this week. But one of the most important principles of warfare is to not get lost in the fog of victory and give way to gathering spoil before the enemy is entirely scattered. God has kindly given us a tailwind for advancing Biblical justice and truth in the civic sphere. The enemies of God have made it plain that they will not renounce or retreat from the need to heartlessly destroy the unborn. Victory is not permission to set down your weapons. Rather, it is the best opportunity to press our advantage.
THE TEXT
Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.
Isaiah 49:15
SUMMARY OF THE TEXT
Isaiah foretold the various exiles that were approaching both Israel and Judah for their rebellion and idolatry. When the just calamities arrived, Zion would be tempted to ask whether God had forgotten them. To answer this, Isaiah, by the Spirit’s inspiration, gives one of the most tender statements of God’s mercy which is found in Scripture. God summons to mind the image of a nursing mother tenderly cherishing the son of her womb. God points at that and asks a question. Could a mother treat the child which was knit in her womb with disdainful indifference? Could a nursing mother forget to kiss those sweet cheeks, or to nurture the vulnerable life of her infant?
The picture of a woman nurturing her child is a true picture. It is feminine glory. To mar that image is to mar femininity itself. Nevertheless, there have always been horrific instances of women who neglect, abandon, or even slay their young child (Cf. Deu. 28:56-57). Such mothers may vandalize this painting, but the Painter of that image, which is the Truth behind that image, will not and cannot mar it. God declares to Zion that He will not forget her.
The consequences for our sin may cause us to think God has forsaken and forgotten us. But the wonder of the Gospel is found in this incomprehensible mercy of God. He will not forget. He has graven the name of His people upon the palms of His hand. The Gospel, as presented here in Isaiah, requires a true portrait of maternal and feminine glory. For that image is a shadow of the true mercy found in the heart of God the Father towards the Church.
THE HORROR WE DON’T ABHOR
Therefore, the horror of abortion which we have culturally tolerated is an affront to the very Gospel. It is not a long and involved argument to show from Scripture that human life begins at conception in the womb of the mother. Jeremiah was set apart by the Lord from the womb (Jer. 1:5). Moses’ Law applied lex talionis for the crime of striking a woman and causing her to miscarry (Ex. 21:22-25). In both the story of Jacob & Esau doing jiujitsu in Rebekah’s womb, along with the story of John the Baptist leaping at the voice of Mary, who was already pregnant with Jesus, we see undeniable evidence that life begins in the womb. Not only that but significant theological categories are established in these stories. Many Psalms praise the providential hand of God knitting us together within our mother’s womb, and being our covenant God from our conception. The incarnation of Christ in Mary’s womb requires us to affirm that the union of God with human flesh took place at the holy conception.
But our nation has insisted that the authoritative Word need not shape how we think about life in the womb. We have chosen instead to draw an arbitrary line the sand for when life is viable according to the expertise of the all-wise and never fallible physician. For instance, Arizona passed a constitutional amendment enshrining the right of every individual to abort their child before “fetal viability” which they define this way: “Fetal viability” means the point in pregnancy when, in the good faith judgment of a treating health care professional and based on the particular facts of the case, there is a significant likelihood of the fetus’s sustained survival outside the uterus without the application of extraordinary medical measures.
The white lab coats of the medical industry have become the robes of a priestly class. It is by their omens and priestcraft that it can be discerned when a child must be sacrificed to the gods. Our nation has refused the Word of God and has submitted to the word of health care professionals.
THE TENDER MERCIES OF THE WICKED
The abomination that is abortion demonstrates that truth of Proverbs 12:10 that the tendermercies of the wicked are cruel. When God made an image of Himself He made man with righteousness, knowledge, spiritual life, and authority. Genesis teaches that image is displayed in both male and female, not male alone. This is because in the union of husband and wife there is the possibility of the conception of more image bearers. The womb of the woman is where those image bearers are seemingly brought out of nothingness into being.
The wicked feign compassion for women’s rights. Yet their mercy is as a tender as a bludgeon. Their compassion is as soft as a brick to the back of the head. They have persuaded an entire generation of women to despise the glory of bearing in their wombs a being which will exist forever. A being whose purpose is to hymn God’s praise for everlasting days, dwelling in the joy of God’s joyful life and light. The progressives and squishy conservatives have deluded themselves into thinking that women can determine to snuff out such a life without any eternal consequence or guilt. Mothers are told they can crush that skull, dismember that body, poison it with saline, turn it away through a blockade of pills and not bear any guilt or shame.
We might stand astonished at the tales of gruesome horror from ages and cultures in the past like Nineveh or the Aztecs. But we daily erect a ziggurat of unborn babies throughout our nation. And we have the deluded pride to proclaim that it is health care for women. That’s like a little boy throwing a baseball through his parent’s living room window and then claiming to be a home renovator. The health of a woman is found in honoring God with her feminine glory, and in that alone. This is worship. Offering up our bodies as living sacrifices. This is faith. For the Christian, bearing godly seed (Mal. 2:15) is an act of faith that this world will be remade and will be filled with a countless multitude of redeemed men and women.
A WORD TO OUR NATION
So, to God’s people, do not despise the feminine glory of a mother nurturing her child from conception. For this is to cherish the greater glory of God’s everlasting mercy to His people.
To the State and Federal Government, the Word of Christ demands that you end this atrocity speedily. Christ, by His Word, commands that you unsheathe the sword of justice against this grievous injustice.
Nationally, we have sinned grievously. The various calamities which have visited us are the result of our stubbornness. Yet God points to a picture of a nurturing mother and says His tender-mercy is like that, only greater and higher and further.