God's Best For Godly Families

“Unless the LORD builds the house,

those who build it labor in vain.

Unless the LORD watches over the city,

the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early

and go late to rest,

eating the bread of anxious toil;

for he gives to his beloved sleep.

“Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD,

the fruit of the womb a reward.

Like arrows in the hand of a warrior

are the children of one’s youth.

Blessed is the man

who fills his quiver with them!

He shall not be put to shame

when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.” [1]

Before engaging our minds with the text, permit me to state the genesis behind this particular message. The third Sunday of January is the day set aside as Right to Life Sunday. It was January 22, 1973 when seven justices of the United States Supreme Court discovered a “right to privacy” situated within penumbra and emanations of the Constitution of that great nation. Specifically, Harry Blackman wrote of said “right to privacy” as emanations of Penumbra of the Constitution, of the Fourth Amendment, of the First Amendment and of the Ninth Amendment.

In concert with thousands of churches and with tens of thousands of worshippers of God who gives life, on the third Sunday of January each year, remembering the multiplied deaths that have occurred as result of this creation of a novel and disastrous right, I have endeavoured to bring a message addressing the biblical position of esteeming life. Though I do not expect through preaching of God’s estimate of life, or through reminding you that God is the giver of life, that the world will come to repentance and turn from its continuing plunge into moral chaos, I do expect that I will equip you with knowledge of the will of the Holy One. I am intent on equipping you to make wise choices to the praise and glory of the True and Living God.

The concept for a “Sanctity of Human Life Sunday” has focused in particular on the need to seek protection for the unborn. In those nations which share in the British legal heritage, to say nothing of nations that have benefitted from the enlightenment, it was virtually unimaginable that it would ever become necessary to seek protection for the unborn prior to the advent of the feminist movement of the late twentieth century. Before that misanthropy movement had become entrenched in the lives of bitter, self-centred members of the distaff gender, the unborn were virtually universally assured protection by force of law as well as social custom.

When the movement of misery identified as the feminist movement arose, there was the unceasing assertion that a woman had the right to do with her body what she would. As with all lies which are ultimately incorporated into the social fabric, and the dames of desolation would employ the methods of Goebbels to insure that their lie became part of the social fabric of western culture, there is superficially an element of truth to the claim. So that none misunderstand, I assert that a woman does have control over her own body. She can say “No!” before consenting to intercourse. She can say “No!” when approached by a man asking her to engage in immorality. She can control her life, and control her body; but she has no “right” to kill her child when once life has been created in her womb. Only if the child she carries is hers may she make such a determination. Before assuming that the unborn belong to that woman carrying a child, we need to ask what God has to say on the subject.

Life, whether in the earliest stages of development, as in the womb, or whether nearing the final days of this present state, is to be valued and honoured. No Christian, knowledgeable of the Word and the will of God, can ever approve of devaluing life. Life in the womb is to be protected; yet, we have killed millions of unborn people under the guise of personal freedom. Life in the closing days of our being is to be honoured and protected; yet, we debate whether to encourage and advance the concept of euthanasia. Life, though held tenuously by those who are ill and debilitated, is to be preserved; though an increasing number of advocates argue for the right to take life when they decide to do so. Nevertheless, life is precious.

Thus it is that on this day we turn our thoughts to children—God’s gift to those in whom He delights. Children are a heritage from the LORD; the fruit of the womb a divine reward. Such sentiments seem strange in this present day. The idea that a family should include many children seems, not merely quaint, but positively reactionary. Many progressive thinkers applaud Chinese planners that penalise couples that have more than one child. Yet, the world is increasingly impoverished because there are no new families to provide governments with the moneys required to continue providing the benefits expected in this brave new world.