Should This Matter?

I hate it (and I mean HATE IT) when I hear fake ‘Christians’ say that the Bible isn’t against abortion. I really hate it (and I mean HATE IT) when these fake ‘Christians’ promote abortion as God’s work which is actually happening right now! This line of thinking is satanic and couldn’t be farther from the truth! They try to say as long as it is before birth, abortion is not murder and ok. Of course, there are plenty of passages that I can point you to to combat this satanic stance, but I have found another one and I think it gives a new perspective on God’s loathing of abortion. I have a few articles on my blog about the evil of abortion so please take a look at those as well if this topic interests you (and it should interest all Christians – it is a genocide occurring right at our doorstep!).

Ezekiel 16 is such a cool chapter. Due to its graphic language and need for extensive historical context, this chapter is often overlooked and not preached upon. I have never seen this passage before until I came across it during my personal Bible study through the book of Ezekiel. Within this chapter is a beautiful message about children that competes with what our culture tries to tell us today. Our culture says: “children are a burden” and “children will hold you back”. But here God says: “children are a blessing!”

Here is a quick synopsis of Ezekiel 16 as well as some historical context:

God uses an allegory to describe Jerusalem (Israel). Jerusalem is like a baby girl left to die in the wilderness, not cared for or even washed of her blood. But a benefactor (God) sees her and says “Live” (vs. 6). Her rescuer not only saves her life, but causes her to grow and mature. Once she is grown, he betrothed her and enters into a covenant with her. He cleans her and anoints her with oil. Now that she is his, he clothes her as a queen with every fine covering possible. He decks her with jewels and gold and silver. He provides the finest food to eat. Her beauty became known among the nations around her. But, unfortunately, this queen did not stay true to her husband/rescuer. She began to trust in the beauty and things that her husband had given her. She prostitutes herself to the idols of the surrounding nations. She took all of the gifts bestowed upon her by her husband and gave them to her lovers (idols). Her clothes, wealth, embroidered work, food, and even her children are offered to these idols. She commits fornication with the surrounding nations: Egypt, Assyria, and Chaldea. Instead of receiving gifts from her lover as most harlots do, she gives away her gifts to her lovers to acquire more of them. As a result of her actions, Israel is to be punished like an adulterous woman. God will allow all of her lovers to see her fall and destroy her. Only then will God’s fury rest.

Thanks to God’s grace and mercy as well as Abraham’s faith, God promised that through Abraham’s seed would grow a great nation and that nation would be His people. There was a land promised to this people. As promised, the seed of Abraham (Israel) grew and ended up living in Egypt. Over time however, Egypt enslaved the Israel and abused her. God heard her cries and miraculously rescued her from Egypt. After leaving Egypt, God provided Israel with His law at Mount Sinai. He required that they follow ONLY God and stayed far away from the idolatry of Egypt and the idolatry they would eventually encounter in the promised land: Canaan. Despite agreeing to follow God only, Israel struggled with idolatry almost immediately after leaving Egypt and continued to do especially after entering the promised land. Despite the fact that God required Israel to destroy all idolatry with the nations that they conquered, the people did not obey and before long that idolatry began to infiltrate Israel on a massive scale. The people didn’t just practice idolatry in their own homes but even did so in God’s temple with kings and priests participating. God sent prophets to warn the people to stop the idolatry or judgement would come but that did not deter the people. Eventually, the judgment God had promised for so long was now come due. Babylon was going to destroy Jerusalem, the temple, and the people. At this point, Ezekiel is a priest and prophet living among captives in Babylon. He was taken captive during a previous siege of Jerusalem. His prophecies so far in the book have focused on the fact that regardless of what the false prophets promised, Jerusalem was going to fall to Babylon as punishment for the iniquity of Judah. Sure enough, a few short years after this, Jerusalem does fall to Babylon in a horrible siege where many are killed or taken captive and the city and temple of God is completely destroyed. It will take 70 years to pass before a remnant will return to the ruined Jerusalem to rebuild the temple and city. This remnant learns from the judgment that Judah faced and returns as a repentant people.

Comparing the historical context and the allegory of this chapter, we can see how Israel is the child/woman of Ezekiel 16. She was the helpless nation left to die as slaves in Egypt. She was rescued by God and entered into a covenant with God at Mount Sinai. God carried her through the wilderness defeating her enemies in the promised land and established her in Jerusalem! By the time Solomon was king, her wealth was renowned with many visiting Solomon to see his wisdom and wealth. But after rising so high, Israel falls. Instead of staying true to the God who cared for her and brought her to her current state, she turned to the gods of other nations. Not only did she worship those gods, which is bad enough, she even took the gifts that God had given her and used those to worship her idols!

When we analyze the gifts that God gave Israel in Ezekiel 16 we get this list:

1. Garments

2. Wealth (jewels/gold/silver)

3. Broidered garments

4. Food (meat/oil/flour/honey)

5. Children (prospered into a kingdom)

What I find particularly interesting is that the gifts that God gave to Israel are the very same gifts that she is described as giving to her idols to worship them:

1. Garments – she would decorate the high places with them

2. Wealth – she used these to make graven images

3. Broidered garments – she used these to decorate her graven images

4. Food – she offered these to the idols

5. Children – she offered her children to the idols

So the obvious truth is that everything we have is from God. So when we offer anything to our idols in our life (whatever those idols may be), whether it be our time or money etc., we are taking God’s gifts and giving them to our idol. Israel did this and guess what? She was destroyed because of it. This by itself is a great lesson for us to remember in our daily lives. But what caught my eye was the gift of children.

We currently live in a culture where children are seen as a burden. They are a burden for the mother, the taxpayer, and society. People who have “too many” children are considered strange and inconsiderate of society. Even those of us who have and love our children fall into this line of thinking. We complain about our kids and the time they require. We hope to not have another one or can’t wait for them to get out of the house. More often than not, I hear parents COMPLAIN about their kids rather than speak excitedly about them. In truth, it is easy to fall into his habit. Kids require a lot of hard work, time, love, attention, money, and effort! But as Christians, we need to fight the temptation to follow in the footsteps of the world. God does not view children as a burden! He sees them only as a blessing!

Ezekiel 16:20-21

Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of they whoredoms a small matter, that thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

Many people don’t realize it, but Israel participated in child sacrifice! Israel would generally practice it in the valley of Hinnom which was just outside of Jerusalem (also called Tophet in the Old Testament). After the remnant’s return from the exile in Babylon, the valley was turned into the garbage dump referred to Gehenna in the New Testament where Jesus used it as an illustration of hell. When the Bible uses the phrase “pass through the fire” (and it is used many times in the Old Testament), it is referring to the practice of burning children alive to the god Canaanite gods Molech or Chemosh.

God had warned Israel not to participate in the worship of other gods over and over in the law. He even specifically warns against participating in child sacrifice to Molech in Leviticus 18:21. But sadly, despite all the warnings given by God and the prophets sent by God, Israel followed after the gods of the surrounding nations and incorporated their practices into the worship of Jehovah. Even Solomon participated in incorporating the worship of Molech into Israel (1 Kings 11:1-8). And as this chapter in Ezekiel describes, the worship of these other gods eventually required the people of Israel to give all of the gifts that god had given them to those gods culminating in their own children.

As Christians, we are surrounded by a culture that is literally feeding children to their god: sexual freedom. They happily sacrifice their children to this god and continue on with their lives with a ‘prcedure’ they call abortion. Sadly, the church has been infiltrated with this idolatry just as Israel was! It is not unheard of for “churches” (I place this in quotes because these are not part of the real church of God) to at best not address the issue of abortion and at worst SUPPORT it! They pretend to care about the needs of the pregnant women. But as Christians, how can you forget about the blessings of the children growing inside of them?

Ezekiel 16 shows us that we need to view children as what they are: blessings. God issues them to us as an investment for HIM. They are how His people multiply. So when we kill our children, we are killing God’s blessings. We are feeding them to our idol. Note how God says in verses 20-21 “whom thou hast borne unto me” and “thou has slain my children”. The children we bear are not ours! They belong to God. Our society seems to think they are just our property and can be eliminated like we throw out old clothing. But the Bible says this is not the case. We are to give these children back to God.

How do we do that?

We raise our children to love God. We teach them to obey God. We encourage them to become sons and daughters of God’s kingdom. We hope that they will spread the Gospel and grow God’s kingdom.

This takes time. This takes investment. This takes effort. This is not easy! That is why the world hates it. This is how God earns more praise and glory. This is how God’s kingdom grows. That is why Satan hates it!

God hates abortion just as He hates child sacrifice. It find it shocking how often I have to explain this to so-called ‘Christians’! God’s view on children differs greatly from our culture’s view and the Bible is clear about this! If you really read your Bible, there is no other way to walk away thinking about abortion.

Ezekiel 16 is very clear about what happens to Israel for her idolatry and child sacrifice. She is to be destroyed as the adulterous woman that she is. And that is exactly what happened. She is destroyed by Babylon with many killed and some taken captive for 70 years. The same fate awaits us! We are headed for the path of destruction. We can follow our idolatry, but it will lead to our sad fate. I for one will not follow in Israel’s footsteps. I will not walk to destruction but to salvation! We must place God FIRST in our lives and everything else will fall into place. Children will no longer be a burden but a blessing that God has given to us and one we can use to worship Him! So, instead of complaining, I exhort us to look at our children and see their potential to serve God. Instead of being selfish, I exhort us to take our time and energy and focus that on to growing our children in the knowledge of God!

Some additional verses to consider:

Psalm 127:3-5: Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.

Matthew 18:5-6: And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me. But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea.

Deuteronomy 6:6-7: And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: and thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou lies down, and when thou risest up.

Psalm 139:14-16: I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

Additional verses condemning child sacrifice: Ezekiel 20:26,31 & 23:37-39, Jeremiah 2:34-35 & 7:30-32 & 19:2-6,11 & 32:35 & 49:1-6, Isaiah 30:33 (+ many more!)