Sunday, January 22, 2006

The Sanctity of Life Psalm 139

On this day in 1973, the United States Supreme Court issued its 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 then, there have nearly 50 million abortions. 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. Source

Text: Psalm 139:13-16 (NIV)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.

Context:
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).


God creates each person and her/his inmost being (139:13)

Points to value of each human life –No matter the circumstance, God was intimately involved. 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): “Gen 25:22 But 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. Gen 25:23 And 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. Gen 25:24 When her time came to give birth, there were indeed twins in her womb.” Fetuses in her womb were human beings. Pieces of flesh tissue do not fight, are not willful, do not have personality.
Roe v. Wade legislated morality.
Torah often compared with Law Code of Hammurabi which forbids the taking of an unborn child’s life. (See Law 209
Hippocratic Oath 4th Century BC – “I swear I will not give a woman an abortion.”

Exodus 21:22ff – “but there is no serious injury”; “but there is no catastrophe” Heb. ason (cf. Gen 42:4, 38; 44:29 only other occurrences of word, concerning fears about 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 no use of “catastrophe.” V. 22 “children (pl. masc.) came out of her.” Writer referring to Ex 21:4, same form as v. 22, means whether male or female, same value for sons and daughters. Num 35, an unintentional murder could be fined even if the child born healthy.
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."

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.
God’s expert design of each person causes praise (139:14)
KJV: Psa 139:14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
Value of person, of life. Praise God for your existence and gift of life.Genesis 9:6; Amos 1:13; Psalm 40:5; Romans 11:33-36

God oversees each person’s minute development (139:15).
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.

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 years ago. They talk about it as a human being, which is not something that I have an easy answer on how to cure.”
Day 1 – fertilization, all human chromosomes present, unique life begins. Day 6 – implantation in womb. Day 22 – heart begins to beat with baby’s own blood. Week 5 – eyes, legs, hands begin to develop. Week 6 – brain waves detectable, mouth, lips present, fingers forming. Week 7 – eyelids, toes form, nose distinct, baby kicking and swimming. Week 8 – all organs in place, bones, fingerprints begin to form. Weeks 9 & 10 – teeth begin to form, fingernails develop, baby can turn head, frown. Week 11 – baby can grasp objects placed in hand, all organs functioning, fingerprints complete, skeletal structure, nerves, circulation. Week 12 – baby can experience pain, has nerves, spinal cord, thalamus. Week 17 – baby can have dream (REM) sleep. Week 20 – earliest a partial birth abortion performed.
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. Pharaoh’s youth ended up on the bottom of the Red Sea.
Luke 1:41, 44 – John had anointing of Holy Spirit upon him in womb.
Luke 1:41 -- 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.
God has planned each person’s life before conception (139:16)
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.”

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.”

Full title of Darwin’s book, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life.

Abortion for incest, rape? Genesis 19:36-38: sons of Lot and his daughters – see what they became.
Application:
If you have been involved in an abortion, there is hope. Jesus forgives. The curse of murder and death can be removed.

As Christians we must ever stand for the sanctity of life.

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