Sanctity Of Life Sunday Exodus 1__1-22

Sanctity of Life Sunday Exodus 1__1-22

There is a connection between Racial Harmony and Interracial Marriage and Abortion and our understanding of Christ.

When interracial marriage is rejected, it is often because the reproductive effect of it is offensive to the dominant race. That is, for example, the children of marriages between white and African American or white and Asian or white and any other ethnic group are not white enough. As soon as we say it like this, we can begin to see the connection between abortion and the racism implicit in this attitude to interracial marriage.

If non-whiteness is viewed as an undesirable outcome of an interracial marriage, could it be that this view may also express itself in the use of abortion to reduce the prevalence of non-whiteness in a dominantly white culture?

Closely related to the racial implications of abortion are the gender implications. And I don’t simply mean that the issue revolves around a woman’s right over her own body—as we are often told. I mean that millions of abortions around the world are done for sex selection. Female babies in the womb are systematically destroyed because male babies are preferred. This is a fact of death in many cultures.

Millions of Abortions Around the World Are the Outworking of Sexism and Racism

By “outworking” I mean that these abortions have roots in racism and sexism, and the fruit is what racists and sexists would want—namely, fewer blacks (as in the United States) and fewer girls (as in India and China).

“Sexism is an explicit or implicit belief or practice that qualitatively distinguishes or values one sex over the other.” This doesn’t mean that there are no differences between the sexes. Nor does it mean that these differences are insignificant. They are very significant! It means that the differences are valuable, and when all the differences are added up on each side of the male and female ledger, the quality-sum and value-sum at the bottom of the ledger is the same for male and female.

It is equally precious to have a girl baby as to have a boy baby. Male personhood and female personhood are equally sinful and equally valuable in God’s sight. Both, when redeemed equally, reflect the worth of God equally.

Traditionally in cultures the roles that women and men play in society have varied a great deal, and I do not presume to be wise enough to know all the ways in which the roles should work out in every corner of the world in every age.

My aim today is to expose the evil of abortion and there are many in the way it hurts women, and hurts babies, and hurts men, and hurts society, and dishonors our Lord and Creator. In the light of Scripture—the light of Jesus Christ’s teaching I wish to show how millions of abortions around the world are the outworking of racism and sexism.

The Four Increasingly Radical Measures in Exodus 1:1-22 amply illustrate what I’ve said. In Exodus 1:1-22 it is written that the dominant ethnic group, the Egyptians, take four increasingly radical steps to eliminate the threat of another ethnic group, Israel.

Notice the threat in verses 8-9: “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who did not know Joseph. 9 And he said to his people, ‘Behold, the people of Israel are too many and too mighty for us.’” Israel was different. They were not Egyptians. They didn’t really belong. They were ethnically and culturally and religiously alien to the Egyptians. And they were growing. That’s the threat.

Now follow the four increasingly radical measures the king of Egypt took to eliminate this threat. Evidently they did not feel free to just outright kill the whole people as Hitler attempted in the last century. The threat could be nullified more indirectly. How?

First, the Egyptians enslaved the Hebrews.. Exodus 1:1-12. “Therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens. They built for Pharaoh store cities, Pithom and Raamses. 12 But the more they were oppressed, the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad. And the Egyptians were in dread of the people of Israel.” Measure one was not working.

Second, they intensified the slavery and became more ruthless and harsh. Exodus 1:13-14. “So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves 14 and made their lives bitter with hard service, in mortar and brick, and in all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves.” Evidently this was not sufficient to weaken the people. So they turned to measure number three.

Third, the king instructed the midwives to kill the baby boys at birth. Exodus 1:15-16. “Then the king of Egypt said to the Hebrew midwives, one of whom was named Shiphrah and the other Puah, 16 ‘When you serve as midwife to the Hebrew women and see them on the birthstool, if it is a son, you shall kill him, but if it is a daughter, she shall live.’” The aim here is to emasculate the people. Minimize the male and master the nation. Again it didn’t work, because the midwives refused to kill the boy babies. So the king moved from subtle, clinical infanticide to open, public infanticide.