Sadly, we live in a world where murder is easy and once executed there are no repercussions. Are you shocked at me saying this?
Have you ever thought about abortion … that tools designed to do away with unwanted (largely) babies? If you hit worldometers.info you will see at least two abortions happening in the world every second. When I hit it, the meter was at 31,597,062 for this year to date. Quite staggering! As you are aware, abortion is a fancy and deceptive term used within countries where a pregnancy is seen as a foetus and not a human life. That is what man says:
Termination of pregnancy is when a woman decides to end her pregnancy by medical means before the full term. The woman must be under 13 weeks pregnant to end the pregnancy without giving reasons. If she is between 13 and 20 weeks pregnant, the pregnancy may be terminated only under specific conditions. If she is more than 20 weeks pregnant, it will be done only if her or the foetus’ life is in danger or there are likely to be serious birth defects.
https://www.gov.za/services/birth/terminate-pregnancy
God says about a pregnancy, irrespective of the length thereof:
Ps 51:5 Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.
The Psalmist tell us that he was a sinner from the moment of conception. This means that from the moment of conception he was human because only a human can be a sinner! At conception there is a soul! Have you ever thought about it like that? Then the Psalmist also says:
Ps 139:13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 16 your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.
Wow! God took the father’s sperm and the mother’s egg and used these to create a human life that is “fearfully and wonderfully made” by God! Yet some want to end a pregnancy because they do not want to be burdened with a child or another child. (Certainly there are a few exceptions where the mother’s health might be in danger).
Maybe you are astounded that I start the Daily Note in this way … well, many woman can’t fall pregnant. They yearn and cry and pray … and they remain barren! Join me in following this thread today.
1) Abraham became the father of Isaac. And Abraham became the father of Isaac and circumcised him eight days after his birth. Later Isaac became the father of Jacob, and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs. We need to dig a little to see what we can find behind this verse!
Ge 11:29 Abram and Nahor both married. The name of Abram’s wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor’s wife was Milcah; she was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no children.
Skipping forward some 25 years, we read:
Ge 21:1 Now the LORD was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did for Sarah what he had promised. 2 Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. 3 Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. 4 When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. 5 Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.
Sarah was almost 90 when she fell pregnant with Isaac. Yes this was a divine miracle. Remember … the Messiah would come from Abraham. Then we find Abraham’s son’s wife Rebekah was also barren.
Ge 25:21 Isaac prayed to the LORD on behalf of his wife, because she was barren. The LORD answered his prayer, and his wife Rebekah became pregnant.
Again, remember this was the blood line to Messiah, yet the point is so many women are unable to fall pregnant whilst others resort to murdering children they don’t want to raise.
2) Although a checkered story … Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs.
(1) The Book of Genesis is an interesting read although part of God’s Word. It contains many juicy stories filled with conspiracy, deceit, lies, cheating … wait, real life stories! In it we read of Jacob, Isaac’s son who cheated his brother out of his birthright and inheritance. With the help of his mother he flees to uncle Laban and after working for him for years gets to marry one of his daughters … not the one he asked for and needed to work another period for the other daughter. Each had a handmaid given by their father. These became concubines to Jacob. Apart from one daughter, he had twelve sons between these four women.
(2) These twelve become known as the Patriarchs. The word comes from two words … patria meaning “a family” and archo meaning “to rule”. Initially in a strict sense, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are the Patriarchs. In a looser sense it includes Jacob’s twelve sons. These were the heads of the twelve tribes of Israel and were seen in the following generations to be the fore-fathers or leaders of the Nation of Israel.
3) Everyone at fault.
Ac 7:9 “Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt. But God was with him 10 and rescued him from all his troubles.”
Although it was God’s plan to use Joseph greatly in the development and building up of the nation, he had issues as did his father resulting in the other eleven brothers being moved to jealousy as some translations have it. The actual emotion here is “burning with jealousy”. Although it is a lengthy read, Genesis 12 to 50 deals with the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Jacob’s twelve sons with Joseph going ahead to Egypt and his father and brothers following. In the Joseph narrative you will see the reasons for this burning with jealousy. His brothers tried to murder him but God saved him “from the dead”, raising him up to be the Prime Minister of Egypt. In this foreign land they grew into a great nation. Joseph says to his brothers:
Gn 50:20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
We need to return to Joseph and his brothers tomorrow. For today though, within your family and amongst your close friends, is there jealousy to the point that you or another could cause serious harm? God’s people live in love and harmony.
Father, thank You for grace enabling love for all Your people. Amen.