PERSONAL STUDY AND TEACHING IN JEREMIAH – PART 2 – IS ABORTION SOLELY THE MOTHER’S CHOICE?
PART 2 – Jeremiah 1:4-8
CHAPTER 1
{{Jeremiah 1:4-5 Now the word of the LORD came to me saying, “BEFORE I FORMED YOU IN THE WOMB I KNEW YOU, and before you were born I consecrated you. I have appointed you a PROPHET TO THE NATIONS.”}}
[A]. KNOWN BEFORE CONCEPTION
Is this fact or fantasy? The general idea of the world is that it is fantasy, for it is considered that the “thing” that is conceived has no connection at all with reality until born, especially in the first few months of pregnancy. That is why abortionists are so militant about termination because it is not considered that a conceived piece of matter in the uterus has any identity or form. In fact some think there is no need to call a foetus a human being until born. One argument from abortionists is that the foetus is legally human after birth and not before. The unborn child has no rights. It can’t speak out for itself. Governments give the unborn no dignified rights and therefore they are expendable.
In Psalm 31 when David said, “My times are in Your hands,” ({{Psalm 31:15 My times are in Your hand. Deliver me from the hand of my enemies, and from those who persecute me.”}} ), he was more speaking of his immediate circumstances when he was being hunted like a wild animal by Saul and his enemies, but he know God was faithful to him. However David knew it went way beyond that for he also wrote this – {{Psalm 139:7-12 WHERE CAN I GO FROM YOUR SPIRIT OR WHERE CAN I FLEE FROM YOUR PRESENCE? If I ascend to heaven, You are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn; If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me and Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me and the light around me will be night,” even the darkness is not dark to You and the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.}} Those verses teach that God’s presence is always with His own children. His Holy Spirit is with us in every circumstance and in every place. God’s presence in a special way has to be with the unborn child of God; indeed, every child, and God means that in what He told Jeremiah.
Because God is always with us, then it is also true that we were known to God even BEFORE conception. That is quite a revolutionary thought. Consider what David wrote here. {{Psalm 139:13-16 “You formed my inward parts. YOU WOVE ME IN MY MOTHER’S WOMB. I will give thanks to You for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from You when I was made in secret and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. YOUR EYES HAVE SEEN MY UNFORMED SUBSTANCE and in Your book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.}}
Each one of us who are Christians, was known and consecrated to God BEFORE conception. God knew you before conception and right through to the present. In my simple way of thinking, this leaves no room for abortion. Terms are used like “aborting the foetus”, “a termination”, “a termination of pregnancy” “the choice of the mother alone”, but never a term like “killing the early human being”. I asked a question at the start of this about abortion solely being the mother’s choice. The answer to that is that it is not the mother’s choice. It is no one’s choice except in exceptional medical circumstances, because abortion is not of God in any way. It belongs to the Molech thinking and their abortion clinics. No decision must be made because abortion is the murder of the defenceless unborn.
God is so clear on the matter that he has placed His involvement in conception many times in the bible, and very specifically in the cases of David and Jeremiah. You will note in verses 4 and 5 that God uses the pronoun “I” 4 times. He is closely involved. There is no way a Christian could ever support the principle or practice of abortion. It is NOT Christian and neither are you if you support abortion. In a passage in Job – {{Job 31:13-15 “If I have despised the claim of my male or female slaves when they filed a complaint against me, What then could I do when God arises, and when He calls me to account, what will I answer Him? “Did not HE WHO MADE ME IN THE WOMB make him, and THE SAME ONE FASHION US IN THE WOMB?”}} – we have the reminder that the work in the womb is God’s work. The created life in the womb is all of God, and therefore not of man to destroy, for in doing so, man shall be accountable.
[B]. WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US AS CHRISTIANS REGARDING THE MATTER OF ABORTION?
*** We must reject the notion that the conceived foetus has no rights.
*** We must reject the idea that the cellular beginning of human life is therefore disposable under the name of termination. God is the Creator and abortion rejects the creation of God.
*** The destruction of innocent life in the bible is murder unless authorised by God.
*** The Christian position is considered to be an extremist view, illogical, and confrontational to feminists, abortionists, humanists, and legislators. Christians work on the declared authority and absolutes of God. Abortionists reject that stand.
*** Abortion doctors in abortion clinics are mass murderers and I believe included in the list in Revelation 9:21, murder being one of the four reasons suggested in that verse for the great wrath of God that is coming on the earth after the Rapture of the Church.
*** The Lord Jesus Christ was conceived through the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. That incarnation began with conception. That is the place where all life begins and God tags it right at the very start. So must we.
*** In the case of John the Baptist, Zacharias was told that the unborn child would be filled with the Holy Spirit while in Elizabeth’s womb. {{Luke 1:15 “He will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine or liquor and HE WILL BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT WHILE YET IN HIS MOTHER’S WOMB.”}}
*** In Jeremiah 1 verse 5 we read “formed”, “consecrated”, “appointed”. That was all ordained for Jeremiah even before he was formed; before he was conceived. So it is the case for us as well. We are dealing with an eternal God here.
Jeremiah was reminded of his origins, and what a blessing that was to him for it meant that God was with him and knew him (even though Jeremiah had no consciousness of it before conception) - knew him long before he was even conceived. Truly his times were in God’s hands and we have to say, from eternity past. Does not that make us very special in God’s sight? We indeed are known by God and chosen in Him. In the case of Jeremiah, he was consecrated before birth to be a prophet to the nations. That makes Jeremiah very special, and his mission, special, but the same has to be said of every prophet and his ministry. The same is true of us and our mission and ministry, so how careful we have to be as ambassadors of the King of the Ages.
Jeremiah was told he would be a prophet to the nations and that was rare because the prophet was God’s voice to His own people. The prophecy of Jeremiah is so wide ranging. It is a delightful prophecy.
I knew of a young lady put out of church fellowship and shunned almost forever for becoming pregnant. That was in the 1960s. This is another issue dealing with morality, very rigid in those days, but the conceived child was sort of considered as evil as the mother, and usually removed or adopted out. In the eyes of apparently good, Christian folk, the child was lessened in value, not if you asked them, but in attitude and behaviour. Today many of these young females have secret abortions. The abortion pill has made it so easy. Maybe it should be called “the murder pill”. One moral issue is compounded by another, but by a far more serious one. That woman needed support and love, not rejection.
We live in an age when all God’s absolutes are being turned on their heads - murder of unborn children; sexual licentiousness; adoption of homosexuality as correct and wholesome; creation replaced by evolution, which is the basis for humanism. We are made in the image of God, yet that image is ruined by drugs, and many countries have drugs legalised. Queensland is a disgrace in this regard. Even many Christians are into drugs – called recreational, but they alter the mind and allow the evil, demonic forces to gain control. Our minds must be under the control of the Holy Spirit, not opened up by drugs or alcohol to dark, satanic forces. We are known by God. Honour God in all manner of holy living.
[C]. DESPISE NOT THE YOUNG CHRISTIAN IN GOD’S WORK – THE LORD IS THE EQUIPPER!
{{Jeremiah 1:6-8 Then I said, “Alas, Lord GOD. Behold, I do not know how to speak because I am a youth,” but the LORD said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am a youth,’ because everywhere I send you, you shall go, and all that I command you, you shall speak. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD.”}}
Initial Reluctance to Accept God’s Call. This is so reminiscent of Moses. In the case of Moses God told him quite forthrightly in {{Exodus 3:10 “Therefore, come now and I will send you to Pharaoh so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”}} Then Moses reasoned a series of conditions with God because he did not really want to go. Usually when a human being expresses unwillingness, there is an underlying reason, and in Moses’ case it was the killing of the Egyptian and his flight from Egypt. He was scared. These conditions were in the form of questions but they basically meant, “I don’t want to do this.”
Usually God’s commands test our resolve and courage and faith in Him. They are testing periods. To obey may mean hardship and opposition and persecution. Most Christians shy away from that and like to live contented lives as pew-warmers and socialising individuals in a church group. The first objection Moses brought was, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the sons of Israel out of Egypt?” He proposed that he was too inadequate for the task, but God had seen to it that he was well prepared having ensured that he was brought up in Pharaoh’s household.
The second objection comes in the form of ignorance of his own people – {{Exodus 3:13 Then Moses said to God, “Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I shall say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you.’ Now they may say to me, ‘What is His name?’ What shall I say to them?”}} This particular objection of Moses resulted in one of the greatest verses of Scripture – {{Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM” and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’”}}. The Lord spoke to Moses with many great promises but it was not enough to overcome his excuses. The third objection was based on fear of rejection from his own people – {{Exodus 4:1 Then Moses answered and said, “What if they will not believe me, or listen to what I say for they may say, ‘The LORD has not appeared to you.’”}} No one likes the possibility of rejection and it is a very real fear. Some young men find it hard to begin a friendship with a girl for fear she will reject him. One may not make application for something or a position in case it is rejected. Moses had that fear and only miracles from God could overcome it. The fourth objection was a statement that was a greater excuse than any of the others – {{Exodus 4:10 Then Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant, for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.”}}. Even after that Moses wanted God to send someone else, even after all the assurances God had been giving him. If God appoints and sends He always sends with assurances and promises and these we must hold on to. He equips for the task.
We know our inadequacies and these defeat us. We use our weakness as a prop. We are prone to look at the failings and the negatives but find it hard to trust the promises of God. God proved Himself over and over again to Moses but still he was reluctant. Jeremiah was a young man and the task was daunting. Living for Christ in this sinful world is daunting, especially for teens and young people where public image is deemed so important. The Lord never sends where He has not planned or asks unless He has gone before. Note in the passage – “I am with you” and He has put His words in our mouths. Jeremiah was assured by the Lord that He would deliver him. When God told him not to say that he was a youth, He was telling Jeremiah that it mattered not if he was a child or a youth or an old man; what was true was that when God has commanded it, He remains faithful to the task He sets His servants.
Jeremiah was told not to be afraid. Fear is one of our greatest hurdles in being faithful for God for we are afraid what people might say or think. Fear will cause the man of iron to become a man of jelly. Fear closes our mouths and stops our tongues. The prophet was told not to be afraid of the enemy found among the priests and royal household, though those places were not specifically mentioned, but they were the cause of fear, for even those places could not harm him, as God promised to be his deliverer. It must be very assuring to know that God has placed his words in the mouths of His sent ones as Jeremiah was told.
