What do you do when you return home to a crying wife? I needed to do some shopping and Jenny stayed at home. I walked into the kitchen, unpacked my purchases, then walked into the bedroom and Jenny was really crying. I feel I can handle quite a bit, but when my wife is in tears it is extremely difficult to handle. After hugging her for a while, she stabilised and said that she just heard on the radio that a little boy was killed. This is in the face of a pregnant woman who was murdered and hanged and many other murders over the past little while in our country.
When you hear of such brutality … boys and girls raped and murdered, women and grannies raped and murdered … does it affect you at all? Does it drive you to weep like Jenny? Without negating the seriousness of this repetitive barbaric crime, if it makes you weep, why does it make you weep? Is it because of the death or because of the crime or because parents or families have lost a loved one … or all the above?
A word used lately is femicide or feminicide. This is a sex-based hate crime term, broadly defined as “the intentional killing of females (women or girls) because they are females”. Another term used is gender-based violence (GBV). Both women and men experience gender-based violence, but the majority of victims are women and girls. The major types of this violence includes physical, sexual, verbal, emotional, and psychological abuse, threats, coercion, and economic or educational deprivation.
Some suggest that since the implementation of lockdown and again more recently, since the reopening of the bottle stores, femicide or GBV have spiked. I really don’t know about that, but I do know that we tend to look for an excuse or a reason to attach blame to a “reason” and avoid the real problem. That is, avoid calling the problem by its real name! Just let me add quickly that although this is a huge problem in our country, it is also a real issue throughout the world. We tend to hear more of our news and bad stories than we do of other countries. Most people do not like to call rebellion “rebellion” and sin, “sin” … but let’s hear what God says:
Ro 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Here we see that God has made Himself known by revealing His “invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature’’. There is no excuse for anyone to deny God and His reign over His creation. Yet, because He is rejected “wrath” is being revealed! God continues:
Ro 1:21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
It is remarkable that people, even educated people, reject God. Once God is cast out of one’s life, futility and foolishness darkens the heart to His holiness and righteous expectations. Now see what God does to those who refuse Him and persist in their wickedness:
Ro 1:24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
He gives them over to do the unthinkable! This alarmingly results firstly in sexual immorality and progresses to degrading their bodies with one another! And even though the Creator is forever praised … they become idolaters.
Right here in the first chapter of Romans from verse 18 to 25 (and you could read the rest of the chapter for better context) we see that stubborn rebellion against God leads to the continual progression in wickedness … to the point of no return … with God’s wrath ready to be administered! Now you are able to see that whatever man might label things like femicide or gender-based violence–or whatever we might attribute these wicked crimes to, whether lockdown or the opening of bottle stores–God in His Word calls these things godlessness and wickedness. The suppression of His truth is the rejection of God and is evil and sin. If Jenny wept for the innocent and helpless because life is ended short and because of the extreme pain of brutal suffering … imagine the terrible heart sore of the family! But here is the thing … our anger for such wickedness needs to be righteous anger, and even though this might be hard to swallow, we ought to cry for those who are so wicked, for their destiny is continual wrath for all eternity! No believer wants anyone in hell because hell is forever pain!
Dear God, we pray for the bereaved parents and families of those who have suffered under such evil sin. Help them through their bereavement and provide for their needs. Lord, please send a revival to your church so that once again the Gospel might be preached under the power of the Spirit to reach the hardest of hearts. O Lord, please turn the tide in our country, holding back evil people who do such horrendous criminal things that affect families for life. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.