Isaiah 59 - The Redeemer will come to Zion

The Redeemer came to Zion

Contextual Notes:

There is a major shift in Isaiah’s prophecy from judgment (chaps. 1-39) to comfort at chapter 40, and it culminates in chapter 53 with the revelation that the Suffering Servant is the same person as the one high and lifted up in Isaiah 6. Then at chapter 56 there is another shift to see how this Servant-Messiah has changed our future. Isaiah looks into the future and then back at the situation with God’s people on the ground, and he is disappointed with the sin he sees. Messiah’s kingdom is open to all (56:1-8) despite sin (56:9-57:13) through repentance where we find healing and peace (57:14-21). Mere religious activity is not true spirituality (58:1-5); it is about serving as the Servant does (58:6-10), which brings blessing and restoration (58:11-14). Now Isaiah tells the effect of sin in separation from God (59:1-8) and others (59:9-15a) and the Redeemer who comes to those to intercede for those who repent (59:15b-21).

Key Truth: Isaiah wrote Isaiah 59 to teach Israel that sin causes separation from God, wrecks relationships with others, but the Redeemer will come to those who repent.

Key Application: Today I want to show you what God’s Word says about sin and redemption.

Key Verse: Isaiah 59:20

Pray and Read:  Isaiah 59

Sermon Points:

1.   Sin causes separation (Isaiah 59:1-8)

2.   Rebellion wrecks relationships (Isaiah 59:9-15a)

3.   The Redeemer responds to repentance (Isaiah 59:15b-21)

Exposition:   Note well,

1.   SIN CAUSES SEPARATION (Isaiah 59:1-8)

a.   Sin separates us from God. In their misery, Israel thinks their situation is so helpless that the Lord has completely abandoned them (40:27, 49:14). But the Lord is ready to save with a miraculous arm (Deuteronomy 4:34; 5:15) and a listening ear (2 Chronicles 7:14-15).

b.   The problem is not God, but the sin of the people (59:2). Sin separates us from a relationship with God (Romans 6:23; 1 Peter 3:18).

c.   God will not hear the crooked and depraved words (59:3-4). And their hands are covered with blood and building spider web traps (59:3a, 5-6), and like the Garden, who ever eats these eggs will die (Genesis 3:1-5). Their feet rush into evil (59:7); they are not the feet that bring good news (52:7).

d.   APPLICATION:  “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, /And every city or household divided against itself will not stand.” (Matthew 12:25). In marriages, families, friendships, at the office, in school, churches, denominations, among ethnic groups, in cities, among nations, there is a weapon our enemy the devil uses against us called separation. Why is it so serious? Because the Lord himself said in the Word of God that a house divided against itself is sure to fall. Satan’s first act in the Garden was to separate him from God, separate Adam and Eve from each other, and later to separate brothers Cain and Abel. Separation is the opposite of the nature of God’s triune nature. The Trinity is a perfect example of community.

e.   Separation has always been one of Satan’s main strategies, divide and conquer. He hates marriages, families, friendships, churches, and every expression of love, kindness, and servanthood in Jesus’ name. He uses separation against mission teams, church staffs, ministries, and congregations. A profound picture of separation is found in 2 Timothy 3:1-5.

f.    The ultimate cure for separation is union in the Head, Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:1-6), abiding in the Vine (John 15:1-6), oneness in the Father’s family (John 17, 1 John 5:1) and fellowship in the Spirit (Philippians 2:1-5).

g.   So what do we do about it? We can see the consequences in our lives, our churches, and our nation from the left column above. First, renounce your own sins of separation and repent of them one by one. The effectiveness of this application depends on your repentance (Matthew 7:1-5). Don’t try in your own flesh to dismantle walls of separation with others. This is a spiritual battle, not against flesh and blood (Galatians 5:15; 1 Timothy 4:16; 1 Corinthians 10:3-6; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 6:12).

h.   Pray this way: “I acknowledge my pride and repent of it. I renounce the control of pride in my life. Father, work in me the humility of Jesus. Fill me with the fullness of your sweet Holy Spirit. I repent of self-centeredness, etc. going down the entire list above.

i.    Ask the Lord to establish His Kingdom rule in your relationships. Ask the Holy Spirit to overcome and restore hearts. Sow restoration by steps of obedience: praise, prayer, restitution, confirming your love, affirmation, faith, rejoicing, patient endurance, etc. as the Lord leads you.

j.    How do we pray for a group such as your extended family or your church? Identify where separation is operating. Confess to the Lord the sin against unity that is happening. Ask the Lord to turn hearts to you, to replace separation with the grace of the Lord. Ask him to reign over your family or church. Ask him to root out, expose, and remove roots of separation among us. Don’t be surprised when ugly things come out or acting out happens. That is exposure and rooting out happening. Ask the Lord for specific acts of obedience that you can do in keeping with repentance, and do whatever he says.

2.   REBELLION WRECKS RELATIONSHIPS (Isaiah 59:9-15a)

a.   The people are in sin but cannot free themselves from it (59:9-15a). Paul understood this (Romans 7:19), and deliverance in Jesus alone (Romans 7:24-25).

b.   1:16 – Wash yourselves, clean yourselves: Keil & Deilitzsch: There is a difference between the two synonyms (to wash one's self, to clean one's self), the first refers to the one great act of repentance on the part of a man who is turning to God, the second to the daily repentance of one who has so turned (James 4:8).

c.   We see both sermon points 1 & 2 in Jesus’ statement of the greatest commandments (Mark 12:30; Matthew 22:37; Luke 10:27) quoting Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:34

d.   ILLUSTRATION: Every day I hear about broken relationships, hurt feelings, angry people, limping marriages. Why? Every time the source can be traced to sin. Every time.

e.   APPLICATION: Here’s the remedy for rebellion. First, Isaiah says you must wash yourselves, that is, you must renounce the sins that you have become accustomed to. Whatever it is, whether anger and passion or discontent and envy, or lewdness and impurity, or laziness and idleness, or covetousness, or conceit and vanity, or skepticism, or infidelity, or unbelieving fears, whatever they may be. So first we must repent, turn away from our sin, renounce it, and walk away from it.

f.    Second, you must receive the grace and hope of the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and Lord. Christianity is not about moralism, doing things right. It is about Jesus, the Holy One of Israel who makes you right. He makes you righteous. He and only He will cleanse your crimson, sin-stained soul and make it white as snow.

3.   THE REDEEMER RESPONDS TO REPENTANCE (Isaiah 59:15b-21)

a.   With no justice, the Lord intervenes (59:15b-16), punishing his enemies (v. 17b-19) and saving those who repent (59:17a, 20-21).

b.   The Messiah condemns and saves (50:8-11)

c.   Cf. 59:17 and Ephesians 6:13-17.

d.   Justice & Righteousness: Tzedeq & Mishpat – This combination tag for the Messiah throughout Isaiah is found here three times and identifies the Messiah here with the same person in various places across the prophecy (1:27; 5:7, 16; 9:7; 11:4; 16:5; 26:7-9; 32:16; 33:5; 42:4, 6; 56:1-2; 59:9, 14-16). At 59:9, our sins have made justice and righteousness far from us. By 59:14, our sins have driven justice and righteousness behind us so that it is at a great distance. At 59:15-16, the Lord takes notice and becomes the Intercessor to bring justice and righteousness to us, becoming our Intercessors (59:16), our Warrior (59:17-19), our Redeemer (59:20), and our Covenanter (59:21).

e.   REPENTANCE – Repentance is the foundation of spiritual warfare. Repentance is about obedience. Repentance and humility are the precursors to victory in spiritual warfare. When Daniel repented on behalf of his nation, an angel appeared to him and revealed the spiritual battle over the Jews in Persia (Daniel 9: 20-21). Repentance opens the door to victory in spiritual warfare.

f.    When we come to Jesus repenting of our sin, he immediately forgives us and saves us (Romans 8:2). Then the work of making us Christ-like begins. That process is called sanctification, growing in holiness. If we will not let God deal with our own sins, iniquities, rebellion, transgressions, whether they are ignorant or willful, we cannot be victorious in warfare. God wants us to make no covenant to tolerate His enemies (Judges 2:2-3), a zero-tolerance for secret strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:5).

g.   The strongest opponent you will ever wrestle is not the devil. It is yourself. As long as you harbor sin, you hold on to strongholds, footholds, and strangleholds that the enemy has in your life (Romans 8:6-8). Every war is won by taking ground the enemy formerly occupied. We cannot take ground from the devil if the devil has ground in us (Ephesians 4: 27; John 14:30). We must crucify the deeds of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21; Romans 13:12, 14). We must agree with God by confession, repentance, and forgiveness and fall out of agreement with the thief, destroyer, and death.

h.   ILLUSTRATION: Family Covenant over the generations. The Word of God in their mouths, the opposite of 59:3-5. In our Upward Basketball and Cheerleading program, the children are memorizing Scripture, but that responsibility lies with you as parents. Are you reading the Bible stories to your children and grandchildren? Are you helping them memorize Scripture? Are you teaching them that they need to repent of their sins and give their lives to Christ in order to be saved? That’s not the preacher’s job. That’s your responsibility.

Invitation:

Strongholds in the Church: Prayerlessness, Greed

The Holy Spirit must lay bare the strongholds in our churches. There are false ideas, false thought patterns, habitual sin patterns, deception or other things behind the corporate sins we see in the Body of believers (2 Corinthians 10:3-5). We are not talking about personality flaws or differences of opinion. We are talking about destructive forces that seek to derail a church’s mission and direction. 

We sometimes pray for those who experience bombings or other physical attacks of persecution on local churches in other places, but lust for power, control and manipulation, jealousy, and legalism from within has done more damage using “Jesus’ Name” than any bombing of a church.

When God reveals strongholds in our church, what do we do? We follow the pattern of Ezra 9, Nehemiah 9, and Daniel 9. We publicly identify with and confess the corporate sins. When Daniel, Nehemiah, and Ezra offered humility, brokenness, and repentance, God affirmed His mercy and love. 

God hasn’t changed. Repentance is a key to spiritual warfare.

1. Prayerlessness. The depth and intensity of our corporate prayer life as a church is the measure of how dependent we are on God. A proud, independent, self-sufficient spirit in a church is the root of prayerlessness (1 Samuel 12:23). 

When we are talented, capable, smart, well-staffed, well-funded, and organized, we usually operate in the power of what we can do – that is called the FLESH – we don’t need God. We don't know how bad off we really are (Revelation 3:17).Listen to what a church prays about or doesn’t pray about tougher to see what it thinks is really important. Prayerlessness equals powerlessness (Ezekiel 22:30; 13:5).

 2. Greed. Call it what you want: ambition to succeed, desire for a position, materialism, love of money, Mammon, or greed. God calls it idolatry when His church bows to these gods of the world (Colossians 3:5-6). Symptoms of greed are jealousy, envy, selfishness, competition, and territorial protection (James 3:14-16).

The real Rebel Yell

Continue to the second part on the video below.

Psalm 139 Fearfully and Wonderfully Made

Ultrasound: Smiling baby in womb

Opening Thought: Today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday across the Southern Baptist Convention and other churches across our nation.  On January 22, 1973, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in Roe v. Wade, finding that a “right to privacy” it had earlier discovered in the Constitution was “broad enough to encompass” a right to abortion adopting a trimester scheme of pregnancy.Issued on the same day, Doe v. Bolton defined “health” to mean “all factors” that affect the woman, including “physical, emotional, psychological, familial, and the woman’s age.” 

Since that ruling, there have over 53 million abortions, the population of a mid-sized country. It would rank 24^th among national populations, a number greater than the nations of South Africa, South Korea, or Spain.[1] For those born since 1973, for every ten people born, three more have been aborted. 

There are more than 140,000 second and third trimester abortions each year. Every year more American children die from abortions than have died from every war in which America has participated combined.

Contextual notes:

David wrote Psalm 139 to express God’s omniscience (vv. 1-6), omnipresence (vv. 7-12), and omnipotence (vv. 13-18), and therefore His overthrow of the wicked (vv. 19-22) and His examination and leadership of David’s life (vv. 23-24). This is a psalm about intimacy and the intimate relationship of the Lord can have with each individual (vv. 1-18) in the midst of the evil in the world (vv. 19-22), even the evil of his own heart (vv. 23-24).

Key Truth: David wrote Psalm 139 to teach Israel that the Lord is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent.

Key Application: Today I want to show you what God’s Word says about being the Lord who is pro-life.

Key Verse: Psalm 139:13-16

Pray and Read:  Psalm 139

Sermon Points:

1.   The Lord knows everything about you. (Psalm 139:1-6)

2.   The Lord is present everywhere about you. (Psalm 139:7-12)

3.   The Lord is in charge in every way about you. (Psalm 139:13-24)

Exposition:

1.   THE LORD KNOWS EVERYTHING ABOUT YOU (Psalm 139:1-6)

a.   Every detail of our lives is known to the Lord, every fleeting thought and unspoken word. Nothing is kept back from the Lord who is close by, protectively covering us with His hand (Exodus 33:22). What a wonder! It is beyond comprehension!

b.   APPLICATION: The Lord knows you and me and he still loves us! What a reason to be thankful and happy and praise him. If he knows you and loves you, why can’t you love you?

2.   THE LORD IS PRESENT EVERYWHERE ABOUT YOU (139:7-12)

a.   Now David develops his thought in verse 5 – God’s omnipresence. It would be no good trying to run away from God. He can hide nothing from the Lord, not even himself. God’s hand will always be there to guide him wherever he went.

b.   ILLUSTRATION: Old Negro spiritual, “Can’t hide, sinner, can’t hide.”

c.   APPLICATION: God can always find you for His purposes. You are never too far from him that he cannot lift you up and set you in a right place. You are never so far gone that he cannot rescue you and give you new life. Won’t you trust him?

3.   THE LORD IS IN CHARGE IN EVERY WAY ABOUT YOU (Psalm 139:13-24)

a.   He is in charge of your formation (v. 13-18). He is in charge of your opposition (v. 19-22). He is in charge of your direction (v. 23-24).

b.   Isaiah 49:1 - 1 Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations: Before I was born the LORD called me; from my birth he has made mention of my name; Job 10:8-12 - 8 "Your hands shaped me and made me. Will you now turn and destroy me? 9 Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again? 10 Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, 11 clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? 12 You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in your providence watched over my spirit.). David gives God credit for the formation of his unborn embryo as God’s personal activity. Our constitution, our career is already written down in God’s ledger of human destiny (Psalm 56:8; 69:28)

c.   The KJV of Psalm 139:13 reads:  “For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.”  God’s making of the “reins” (kidneys) – the seat of emotions, meaning mind, soul, will, spirit, body. Even this phrase points to value of each human life – No matter the circumstance, God was intimately involved.

d.   ILLUSTRATION: Did you know the literal meaning of the word fetus – means “child”? Genesis 25:22-24: baby sons jostled, struggled, combat in womb of Rebekah (same word as “smashing skulls” (Judges 9:53; Psalm 74:14): “²²But the children inside her struggled with each other, and she said, "Why is this happening to me?" So she went to inquire of the LORD.  ²³And the LORD said to her: Two nations are in your womb; two people will come from you and be separated. One people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger. ²⁴When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb.”  The fetuses in her womb were human beings. Pieces of flesh tissue do not fight, are not willful, do not have personality.

e.   ILLUSTRATION: Some people, even mistakenly shout, “You cannot legislate morality!” Really? So there shouldn’t be laws against immoral murder? There shouldn’t be laws against immoral behavior toward children? Likewise, Roe v. Wade legislated morality. But making what is moral legal is nothing new. Did you know that the ancient legal Code of Hammurabi (Law 209) forbids the taking of an unborn child’s life?  Did you know that the fourth century B.C. Hippocratic Oath, an oath that new doctors used to take, has a line which reads, “I swear I will not give a woman an abortion.”[2]

f.    139:14  (KJV) I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

g.   Value of person, of life. Praise God for your existence and gift of life. Genesis 9:6 -- ⁶"Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man; Amos 1:13 -- ¹³This is what the LORD says: "For three sins of Ammon, even for four, I will not turn back [my wrath]. Because he ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead  in order to extend his borders”

h.   Harrison Hickman, pollster for National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League: “Probably nothing has been as damaging to our cause as the advances in technology which have allowed pictures of the developing fetus, because people now talk about the fetus in much different terms than they did fifteen [now 20] years ago. They talk about it as a human being, which is not something that I have an easy answer on how to cure.”

i.     139:15-16 –unformed body – God has planned each person’s life before conception. Frame – skeletal form; woven together – like a beautiful tapestry, each thread in place and woven expertly, with great care. Depths of earth – ref. to Adam’s creation, same for each person. Before God formed him in the womb, He knew him (Jeremiah 1:5 - 5 "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.")

j.    ILLUSTRATION: Water can be found in several familiar forms: as liquid, as a solid (ice), and as a gas (steam). But in every form, the essence of H₂O is still there. It is water, no matter its form. Some, like Bill O’Reilly, say that a fertilized egg is a potential human being. So when does the potential human become a human? What form must it take to become a human being? Or perhaps like water, once an egg is fertilized, there is a particular genetic and molecular structure that is uniquely human. Its form may be a single cell, but its essence is human. But if we go with the potential human idea, at what point does one become human?

                     i.    Day 1 – fertilization, all human chromosomes present, unique life begins.

                    ii.    Day 6 – implantation in womb.

                  iii.    Day 22 – heart begins to beat with baby’s own blood.

                  iv.    Week 5 – eyes, legs, hands begin to develop.

                   v.    Week 6 – brain waves detectable, mouth, lips present, fingers forming.

                  vi.    Week 7 – eyelids, toes form, nose distinct, baby kicking and swimming.

                vii.    Week 8 – all organs in place, bones, fingerprints begin to form.

               viii.    Weeks 9 & 10 – teeth begin to form, fingernails develop, baby can turn head, frown.

                  ix.    Week 11 – baby can grasp objects placed in hand, all organs functioning, fingerprints complete, skeletal structure, nerves, circulation.

                   x.    Week 12 – baby can experience pain, has nerves, spinal cord, thalamus.

                  xi.    Week 17 – baby can have dream (REM) sleep.

                xii.    Week 20 – earliest a partial birth abortion performed.

k.   ILLUSTRATION: Unborn children have memories, according to a 2009 study from The Netherlands. Researchers at two medical centers found unborn babies at 30 weeks gestation show short-term memory. By the time the unborn children reach 34 weeks of development, they “are able to store information and retrieve it four weeks later,” The Washington Times reported. The children adjusted to the vibrations and sounds to the extent they would no longer respond, according to the report. That process is called “habituation.” “It seems like every day we find out marvelous new things about the development of unborn children,” said Randall O’Bannon, director of education and research for the National Right to Life Educational Trust Fund, The Times reported. “We hope that this latest information helps people realize more clearly that the unborn are members of the human family with amazing capabilities and capacities like these built in from the moment of conception.”[3]

l.     Luke 1:41, 44 – John had the anointing of Holy Spirit upon him in womb. (41When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.)[4]

 

m. ILLUSTRATION: We saw some significant things happen in the mid-term election, and with this 112th Congress there is good news. The 2010 mid-term election was record-breaking for conservative Christian turnout, and voters carried their values with them when they voted. 13 of the 16 new freshman US Senators – or 81% – are pro-life. 81 of the 97 new Freshmen U. S. House Members – or 84% – are pro-life. In fact, this election produced a net gain of 52 pro-life seats in the House, resulting in the most pro-life U. S. House since the Court legalized abortion in Roe v. Wade in 1973. Congressman Chris Smith (R-NJ), co-chair of the House Pro-Life Caucus, announced that “January will mark the beginning of the arguably most pro-life House ever.” ²⁴ And the increasingly diverse conservatives -- two new blacks, six new Latinos, and 9 new females are all pro-life; and the addition of these new women increases by 60% the number of pro-life women in the U. S. House. Furthermore, more than 30 states are pushing a personhood amendment to their state constitutions.[5]

n.   APPLICATION: As voters, we have to remember that this election was not an event – it was only a single step in a lifelong process of involvement and civic engagement, requiring us not only to be involved in every election but also always to carry our conservative religious, moral, and constitutional values with us as we vote (and we must also stay actively involved between elections). So let’s stay engaged and finish the job, no matter what happens or how long it takes.

o.   139:17-18 – The evidence of the enormity and incomprehensibility of God’s mind and thoughts are overwhelming to David. (Psalm 40:5 -- 5 Many, O LORD my God, / are the wonders you have done. / The things you planned for us / no one can recount to you; / were I to speak and tell of them, /   they would be too many to declare.; Romans 11:33-36 -- 33Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!  34"Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?"  35"Who has ever given to God, that God should repay him?" 36For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen)

 p.   139:19-22 – Those of us who have seen evil and the destruction of human life can see that God must judge the wicked.

q.   ILLUSTRATION: In Exodus 1:7, 15: Pharaoh ordered partial birth abortion of all Hebrew boys.  Midwives lied to the government, were disobedient to law of the land, and God rewarded them. In contrast, Pharaoh’s youth ended up on the bottom of the Red Sea.

Margaret Sanger

r.    ILLUSTRATION: Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood, opened the first birth control clinic in 1916, and declared in her book, Pivot of Civilization, that we must reduce the number of blacks and Hispanics in this country: “We are paying for and even submitting to the dictates of an ever increasing, unceasingly spawning class of human beings who never should have been born at all . . . “ This endless breeding is the “dead weight of human waste,” including the poor, blind, deaf, mute, epileptic, “feeble-minded,” mentally ill, diseased, prisoners, prostitutes, and alcoholics.  Today Planned Parenthood claims as their core clientele “young women, low-income women, and women of color.”

s.    Margaret Sanger: “All of our problems are the result of overbreeding among the working class.” Her clinic’s goal was “weeding out the unfit” and “preventing the birth of defectives.”

t.    Margaret Sanger, in a letter in 1939 to Clarence Gamble, a partner in her plan to promote birth control and abortions in the black community."We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We do not want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population, and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

u.   Sanger is part of a group of colleagues that span from Darwin to Hitler. Did you know that the full title of Darwin’s book is, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

v.   ILLUSTRATION: But there are life issues on the other end of the life spectrum too, with the elderly. In July 2010, President Obama's recess appointment of Dr. Donald Berwick, a controversial advocate for health-care rationing demonstrates how committed he is to socialized medicine and makes life "more dangerous" for elderly Americans, Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land said. "To put Dr. Berwick in charge of administering $500 billion in cuts to Medicare just as the baby boomers begin to access that system is like putting the most ravenous fox in complete charge of the hen house," Land said. "Dr. Berwick's appointment should be headlined: 'Medical rationing is here.' He is the No. 1 advocate for rationing care to the elderly and to the terminally ill as cost-saving measures. Life just got more dangerous for every American over 65."[6]

w.  139:23-24: David also realizes that the same tendencies to sin dwell in him as well. He asks God to show him where he is wrong and lead him in the everlasting way of eternal life.

x.   APPLICATION: While we stand against the anti-life, racist, and wicked ideas of these people, we also realize that this same kind of sin lives in us, and we must repent of our sin, asking the Lord to make us more Christlike.

Invitation:

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[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_population

[2] ILLUSTRATION: One much mistranslated passage that pro-abortionists is Exodus 21:22 in which they read that an abortion can take place if there is fear of injury to the woman. In Exodus 21:22ff – the phrase in question is, “but there is no serious injury”; “but there is no catastrophe” Hebrew: ason (cf. Genesis 42:4, 38; 44:29 are the only other occurrences of word, concerning fears about the son Benjamin, every instance refers to death of young child. Some read it as harm to mother, but every other use is of death of child. Rachel died in childbirth, but there is no use of ason “catastrophe.”  V. 22 “children (pl. masc.) came out of her.” The writer is referring to Ex 21:4, same form as v. 22, means whether male or female, same value for sons and daughters.  Numbers 35, an unintentional murder could be fined even if the child born healthy.

[3] http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=30946 . “The results were based on a study conducted on 100 women and their unborn children. Scientists gave the women a series of buzzes on their stomachs for one second each with a “fetal vibroacoustic stimulator” at five points during the final eight weeks of pregnancy, according to the July 16 report. They used ultrasound imaging to measure “fetal learning” patterns, particularly through the baby’s eye, mouth and body movements.”

[4] Abortion for incest, rape?  Genesis 19:36-38: sons of Lot and his daughters – see what they became.

[5] http://genebrooks.blogspot.com/2011/01/new-congress.html

[6] http://www.bpnews.net/BPnews.asp?ID=33302