Of Vice and Virtue - “The Shedding of Innocent Blood” - Abortion: Prov.6:16-19
Today I am starting a once-a-month series of sermons entitled, “Of Vice and Virtue”. It is an expanded look at the traditional “seven deadly sins”. The series will include a look at (11) eleven “sins” which God hates, a modern manifestation of that sin and the opposite virtue to which we are called. This is not a series for the faint-of-heart or those whose Christianity is above getting soiled or only views life “through rose colored glasses”. It will necessitate a journey down the dark back alleyways of the worst sort of sinful behavior imaginable. We will glimpse the pain and horror of “man’s inhumanity to man” and stare into the naked face of evil. This is why I can only address these sins once a month, for they are heart-breaking and can easily lead us to despair. But as The Pulpit Commentary notes;
“(The rose colored) view of human nature that comes of a fastidious objection to look at the darker shades of character is not only false, but dangerous, since it tempts us to ignore our own failings and to neglect the duty of rebuking sin and of laboring to better the world. The physician must study pathology. The patient must allow his disease to be examined. We must therefore sometimes set ourselves to the unwelcome task of considering hateful things.” (Proverbs, pg. 142)
But, we will also balance the darkness by looking to the opposite virtues, the good and beneficent behavior to which we are called as followers of Christ. We will be encouraged to take the light of hope, which is “The Good News” and apply it, as a healing balm, to these sins and seek to deter their manifestations. I hope that each one of you will not only be informed but motivated to take action, whether it be prayer, letter writing, financial support or volunteering, but that each of us would do something.
The original “7 Deadly Sins” has their root in the Scriptures and chiefly came from this passage in Prov. 6: 16-19. Down through Church History other Scriptures such as Gal. 5: 19-21 were considered. A 4th Century monk, Ev-a-grius Pont-i-cus, may have been the first to draw up a list. The list was reworked a number of times and the final list included, “pride, greed, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony and sloth”. But I want to adhere to the Scriptures and look at these sins which God hates or considers an abomination.
Before looking at the specific sin, lets look at the context of the list. In context we need to go back to v.1. The chapter contains three warnings about three unwise and harmful types. Verses 1-5 speak of being ensnared in an unwise pledge, a promise you cannot keep. A modern twist would be being in excessive credit card debt. The advice, “Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter...”. Then, in v.6-11 we encounter an admonishment against being lazy. Then in v.12-15 we are introduced to “A scoundrel and villain”. The KJV translates these words as “naughty and wicked”. “Naughty” is far too mild, as we often apply this to a misbehaving child. Both Hebrew terms carry the idea of “worthless, nothingness and evil”. The verses then describe how this scoundrel uses his body, his mouth or speech, his eye, his feet and fingers, his heart, to cause harm and trouble. Then, in v. 16-19, we are told of how the LORD views such behavior, as abominations.
It is of interest to note that the first six sins are also related to body parts. And what this indicates is the complete depravity, the totality of this scoundrel whole person being involved in sin and evil.
The first deadly sin I wish to consider is found in Prov. 6: 17,
The Shedding of Innocent Blood.
The first thing we should note is in verse 16. “There are six things the LORD hates; seven that are detestable (abomination) to him.”
In one verse we have two words to describe the LORD’s reaction to such sins. He hates them and they are detestable or an abomination to Him. The Hebrew word translated detestable is the Bible’s strongest expression of hatred against wickedness.
“The shedding of innocent blood” means MURDER. It means a premeditated attack that results in death, in this case, of one who is innocent or innocent of a capital crime, not worthy of death.
In Scripture we find the shedding of innocent blood both among the heathen nations as well, at times, among the rebellious Jewish people. From the murder of Abel by Cain, to Zechariah, who was murdered between the altar and the sanctuary, to the death of Christ, to the martyrdom of Stephan and James, there is this shedding of innocent blood.
But such a crime is heinous to God. In Deuteronomy 19 where it speaks of the “Cities of Refuge”, places a man could run to for safety in the event he accidentally killed someone, it addresses this purpose this way in v. 10;
“Do this so that innocent blood will not be shed in your land...and so you will not be guilty of bloodshed.”
But then it goes on:
But if a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him, assaults and kills him and then flees to one of these cities, the elders of his town shall send for him, bring him back from the city, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. Show him no pity. You must purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, so that it may go well with you.”
God warns them that the guilt of shedding innocent blood must be purged or the land will suffer the consequences.
If we look at 2 Kings 24 we read of the LORD’S punishment on Judah. The Babylonians Aramean and Moabites are sent to destroy Judah. Then in v.3 it reads;
Surely these things happened to Judah according to the Lord’s command, in order to remove them from His presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all he had done, including the shedding of innocent blood. For he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the lord was not willing to forgive.
What more dreadful declaration can there be than to hear, “The Lord was not willing to forgive!” In other words, that crime was to be punished, there would be no way to avoid it.
Ps. 106 is a recounting of the history of Israel detailing its transgressions and rebellion against God. Let me read to you v.34-40: (READ)
It is almost inconceivable to read v. 37-38 as being ascribed to God’s people! They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons, the gods of the nations, Moloch, Baal, and Chemosh. They shed the innocent blood of their children and the land was desecrated by their blood. Can we fault God with being angry with them? That He abhorred his inheritance? His punishment of having them conquered seems almost mild.
Can we think of anything more horrible than child sacrifice? Ancient literature records the details;
“There stands in the midst a bronze statue of Kronos, its hands extended over a bronze pan, the flames which engulf the child. When the flames fall upon the body, the limbs contract and the open mouth seems almost to be laughing until the contracted body slips quietly into the furnace. Thus it is that the ‘grin’ is known as ‘sardonic laughter’, since they die laughing.”
Another writes;
“The whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums so that the cries of the wailing should not reach the ears of the people.”
It makes me sick just to read that.
But perhaps you are questioning the relevance of all this gloom and horror. So let me go on to my next point and bridge from to our present day and this evil of “shedding of innocent blood”.
The shedding of innocent blood today: One word - Abortion.
Worldwide there are approximately 42 million abortions per year!1 That’s about 115,000 per day! That’s over 4700 and hour. In our own country it’s about 3700 per day or about 150 babies an hour. Think about it, during our time here in service, worldwide 4700 babies were killed, 150 in our own country, that’s nearly 3 babies every minute!
Of those women who profess religion, 37% are Protestant, 31% Catholic, and 1% Jewish. The rate among those identifying themselves as “Born-again evangelical” is 18%. That means this hour nearly 850 babies were aborted by born-again mothers.
It is said that 1% of abortions are the result of rape or incest. 6% because of potentially dangerous health conditions to mother or child. And 93% of abortion are for social reasons, the child is unwanted or inconvenient.
Nearly half of the women who have abortions will have two or more and choose to use abortion as their only means of birth control.
All abortions are horrific, mutilating murders. Some methods are;
First trimester abortion is often by Suction.
“The abortionist first paralyzes the cervical muscles. He then inserts a hollow plastic tube, which has a knife-like edge on the tip, into the uterus. The suction tears the baby’s body into pieces. The suction is 29 time more powerful than a home vacuum.”
Second trimester, although not used much today, ‘salt poisoning abortions” were common in the 70’s and 80’s. A large needle is inserted through the abdominal wall of the mother into the amniotic sac. A concentrated salt solution is then injected. The baby breathes and swallows it, is poisoned, the skin is burned, he struggles, and convulses. It takes over an hour to kill the baby.
Because of the danger to the mothers the D&E method largely replaced the salt. In it a pliers-like instrument is used because the baby’s bones are calcified. There is no anesthetic for the baby. The abortionist inserts the instrument up into the uterus and grabs a leg or any body part, and, twisting, tears it from the baby’s body. This is repeated again and again. The spine must be snapped and the skull crushed.
And in third semester abortions we have the “partial-birth abortion”. Like a breech delivery the entire baby is delivered except the head. Then a scissor is jammed into the base of the skull. A tube is inserted and the brian sucked out. Then the dead infant is “delivered”.
How gruesome. Too many people, especially young people have no idea of what really happens in these abortions. They are hidden. You will not see an abortion on TV. The pro-death people don’t want you to know or see. So as young mothers lie on the abortion beds with piped in elevator music, I ask,
How far have we really come from burning children to Moloch?
Having considered the deadly sin of “the shedding of innocent blood” and its current manifestation in legalized abortion, we know want to consider our call to the opposite virtue.
The Opposite of the shedding of blood: Be Pro-life.
I found it interesting that when I went on line to find the antonym or the word MURDER, there was none. The closest they offered was “BLOODLESS”. But how appropriate is that to our discussion today. As God’s people we should be “bloodless”, being totally free from the shedding of innocent blood. Why? Because Scripture demands it. Let me give you three reasons;
1st. Reason demands it.
2nd. God created us and we bear His image.
3rd. Scripture condemns murder.
First, reason demands it. You know I have often said that this is the greatest country in the world, and I believe that. But I don’t agree with everything it does. This year is the 70th anniversary of the film, The Wizard of Oz, and they say if it were filmed today and Dorothy was surrounded by the brainless, heartless and cowardly, it would be filmed in Congress! When it comes to this issue, I believe that is all too true. Then there is our Supreme Court.
Many people wrongly believe that in the 1973 Roe vs Wade decision the Supreme Court determined when life begins. They did not. This is what they said:
“We need not resolve the difficult question of when life begins. When those trained in the respective disciplines of medicine, philosophy, and theology are unable to arrive at a consensus, the judiciary, at this point in the development of man’s knowledge, is not in a position to speculate as to an answer.”
In the same year, 1973 Congress passed the Endangered Species Act protecting animals facing extinction. To date there are at least 10 laws protecting over 1200 species of animals ranging from the giant panda to the bald eagle. The list includes nests and EGGS of the bald and golden eagle. Apparently the government is able to determine that a bald eagle egg is an eagle even before it hatches, yet it can’t determine that a baby in the womb is a human person!
No consensus about when life begins? Look at the Hippocratic Oath, which nearly every doctor pledges. From the original Greek, which states, “I will not give a woman a(n) instrument (pessary) to cause an abortion”, to the modern day reworking which states, “I will neither prescribe nor administer a lethal dose of medicine to any patient even if asked nor counsel any such thing, nor perform, (having) the utmost respect for every human life from fertilization to natural death and reject abortion that deliberately takes a unique human life.”
Dr. Hymie Gordon, professor of medical genetics at Mayo Clinic said, “Theologians and philosophers may go on to debate the meaning of life or purpose of life, but it is an established fact that all life, including human life, begins at the moment of conception.”
That sounds like a definite consensus of opinion among the medical community if you ask me. Then as for the theologians, consider the following statements from the these world faiths;
Islam, The European Council for Fatwa and Research: “Indeed, abortion is forbidden in Islam whether it be in the earlier stages of pregnancy or otherwise. The extent of sin incurred varies according to the stage of pregnancy... When the pregnancy reaches 120 days abortion becomes totally forbidden and is deemed a form of murder...”
Traditional Buddhism; “Buddhism believes in rebirth and teaches that individual human life begins at conception. The new being...is therefore as entitled to the same moral respect as an adult human being.”
The Catholic Church, Pope John Paul’s, Evangelium vitae states;
“ I repeat the condemnation in the name of the whole Church...Whatever is opposed to life itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or self-willed destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person...are infamies indeed.” And Mother Teresa said, “If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill each other? Any country that accepts abortion is not teaching its people to love, but to use any violence to get what they want.”
The Southern Baptist Convention of 1993 resolved, “That we affirm the biblical prohibition on the taking of unborn human life except to save the life of the mother...”
One of the earliest Christian documents, the first Century “Didache” contains this statement, “Thou shall not murder a child by abortion.”
So where is this lack of consensus? Consensus means “general agreement” and those quotes sound like general agreement to me.
If a hunter heard a rustle in the bushes but could not see what it was, is he justified in shooting? Of course not. But the Supreme Court decision really says yes he is because we don’t know what is there!? Even in football, when there is a controversial play and they go to the replay the verdict is often, “Due to insufficient evidence, the ruling on the field stands as called.” But the Supreme Court says, “In spite of insufficient evidence the ruling prohibiting abortion is overturned!? This flies in the face of all reason.
I could go on all day here but I’ll limit myself. Consider these facts, the original founder of Planned Parenthood ( then called, American Birth Control League) Margaret Sanger, (1883-1966) made the following statements regarding abortion and eugenics:
“ The most merciful thing that a large family does to one of its infant members is to kill it.”
However, the Bible says, “Children are a gift from the Lord.”
Sanger started the infamous “Negro Project calling blacks, “human weeds”. Her idea was to recruit good looking, articulate blacks, preferably ministers to push her agenda among the Negro community and sugar coat her project as a benefit to them and said, “ We do not want word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population.” Is her ideals succeeding? Consider: A few years ago, 17,000 aborted babies were discovered in a dumpster in San Francisco. Nearly, 15,000 were black. More blacks have died from abortion than AIDS, Crime, Accident, Cancer, and heart disease COMBINED!
Her known racism earned her an invitation to speak at a KKK meeting in 1929 from which many more meetings followed.
Planned Parenthood’s ideals are based upon her teachings. You think that would be reason enough to reject abortion.
In addition to all this, middle-of-the-road as well as honest liberals questioned the legality of the Supreme Court‘ decision. Liberal Constitutional Professor John Hart Ely wrote in the Yale Law Journal, “What is frightening about Roe is that this super-protected right IS NOT inferable from the language of the Constitution...” And Professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard wrote: “One of the most curious things about Roe is that, behind its own verbal smokescreen, the substantive judgement on which it rests is nowhere to be found.”
In view of this evidence, and so much more that cannot be covered in this sermon, REASON DEMANDS WE OPPOSE ABORTION!
Secondly, as if reason were not enough, we are to be Pro-life,
God created us and we bear His image!
Gen. 1: 26-27 states; “Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness...v.27, So God created man in His own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”
Every person is created by God and bears His image. That fact alone should communicate that every person has worth, every life is of value. Whether you are in a personal relationship to Christ, a born-again evangelical or a Jew or Muslim or Buddhist or atheist, you have value because you bear your Creator’s image and likeness (even if you deny it).
Consider this picture I am holding. Obviously it was drawn by a child. How much would you pay for it? Would you give me $1000? Ok, how about $ 100? No, maybe $10? Would it make a difference if I told you the artist is my granddaughter? I doubt it. It means more to me than you for sure. But what if I held up an original Rembrandt? or Picasso? You would probably jump to pay just a $1000. Why? Because of whom the creator is that’s why. The artist gives value to his creation. If that is so, then how much value should we place upon one another, created by God in His image? Indeed, we are priceless! And just as you would take extraordinary steps to preserve that Rembrandt, we should take steps to preserve all life because all life is of value.
In Psalm 139:13-16 we have a beautiful word picture of God’s creation:
For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 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, your eyes saw my unformed body.
God is active, not passive, in the birth of each person. Poetically words such as “knit” and “woven” express this idea. But David does not hesitate to identify “himself” as the person, not a piece of tissue, being “woven”.
In Job 10: 10-12 it reads,
“Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese, clothe me with skin and flesh and knit me together with bones and sinews? You gave me life...
Then, in Jer. 1:5 we read,
“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you...” God knew Jeremiah before He formed him in the womb, while that may point to his foreknowledge, it means He formed him in the womb.
And later in the same book, while Jeremiah is in a deep depression, as a number of Prophets were, and “cursed the day they were born” (which is not supporting abortion as some claim), he says,
“For you did not kill me in the womb, with my mother as my grave.”
Even though Jeremiah was destined for a difficult life (as all prophets were) God did not “abort” him. Each life has a God given purpose which each must seek no matter how humble. Our Lord is a Lord of life and choosing life is right.
And finally, we should be Pro-life,
Because Scripture prohibits murder.
The deliberate taking of an innocent life is murder. No matter what that life may look like, along the continuum of human life, from conception through old age to death, the taking of life at any point is murder.
Starting with Cain and Abel and God’s pronouncement, “What have you done! Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. Now you are under a curse...” Gen.4:10-11a
And with God’s covenant with Noah He declares,
“Whosoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” Gen. 9:6
And of course we have the 6th commandment: “You shall not murder”. Ex.20:13
If James warns us;
With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father , and with it we curse men, who have been made in God’s likeness...My brothers, this should not be.” (Ja.3:9).
If we should not even curse one another because we bear His image, how much more the prohibition on killing and destroying one another! And know that there will be consequences to “shedding innocent blood”, either in this life or the one to come.
We must oppose abortion because,
Reason demands it.
Because we are made in the image and likeness of God.
Because scripture condemns murder.
We need to take action. In addition to prayer for our leaders, you need to write them or call them. You need to use your vote for pro-life candidates. You can financially support pro-life groups or volunteer. We must do something and do it now. But we should NEVER turn to violence.
One closing thought today. Perhaps you are a woman here today who has had an abortion. I want you to know that if you turn in repentance to God, He will forgive you as He forgave David of the murder of Uriah. He is willing to restore you and wash you clean. He stands with arms open wide waiting for you. So I encourage you to turn to Him today.
