Sanctity of Life Sunday 2022

On January 22, 1984, President Ronald Reagan issued a presidential proclamation designating the third Sunday of January as National Sanctity of Human Life Day. Lifeway has helped maintain that commitment but publishing lessons with that theme every year since. Lesson plans for major Christian holiday are often themed but they more often do not attempt to stay within the quarterly’s over all bible book focus. This past Christmas lesson was from Matthew, even though our all the other lessons in the book stays within Ezekiel and Daniel. Although the lessons are all biblically grounded sometimes the presentation of the theme can appear a bit forced.

Our week 7 lesson passages come from Ezekiel 16 and 23, and then a key passage for our sanctity of life theme from Psalm 139. Both of the Ezekiel passages are before the final fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians at the beginning of Chapter 24 so their focus is more on the sinfulness and unfaithfulness of the people of Israel both in the city and those already exiled. We will look at these passages first and a few others to contrast the views of the people presented and God’s view of children.

Generations before Ezekiel and his fellow kinsmen were exiled, the second King of Israel penned the lesson’s passage from Psalm 139. Reflecting on the wonders that he had seen God do he also understood there were equally powerful things God had done before David was born from the time of creation up until he was conceived. Such realizations help us see how significantly we are valued in the eyes of God even when we are not acting exactly according to His Word.

We will explore these verses and several other Scriptures in order to present our sanctity of life topic, with an attempt to understand of the whole counsel of God from His Word. Hopefully we will see how much value God puts on human life, from the very young to elderly and all ages in between.

Explore the Text

Ezekiel 16:20–21 ESV

And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

Ezekiel 16 describes the wickedness God’s people displayed. He had created them and given them all they needed; yet, they turned their backs on Him and worshiped idols. When they turned their back on Him, they also disregarded His word, choosing instead to adopt their neighbors’ pagan worship practices. [LifeWay Adults (2021). Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide - ESV - Winter 2022. LifeWay Press.]

Psalm 127:3 tells us that children are a gift or “heritage” from God. But as with all gifts they can be misused. In verse 20 of our passage the sons and daughters are described as “yours” even though they came from God for His purposes and were “borne” because of His provision. The qualifier speaks more to the mentality of the parents seeing the children as their possessions instead of as the gifts that they were. Whenever we become ungrateful or dehumanize others and view them as commodities, we are more likely to treat them with sinful attitudes, which in turn creates a downward spiral to more abusive attitudes and actions as the heart grows colder and farther away from God.

God’s people should have loved and treasured the children God gave them. Rather, God charged, they sacrificed to them to be devoured. Pagan worship often involved leaving food and drink in front of an idol as a present for the god. However, God’s people were taking their own children and “feeding” them to the gods through human sacrifice. [LifeWay Adults (2021). Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide - ESV - Winter 2022. LifeWay Press.]

Continuing with the unfaithful bride analogy in Chapter 16, the Lord through the prophet asks the people a rhetorical question in an attempt to correct their view of their children. Notice now they are “my children” that have been not only sacrificed but now are “slaughtered”. You give gifts and offerings as a form of worship and in sacrifice to show what you are willing to let go for the benefit of another. Tawdry meat used only for bait or consumption is slaughtered. Not only were the people contemptuously abusing their children but in doing so they expressly disobeyed God’s commands against child sacrifice and disregard his commands to cherish, nurture and teach them His ways.

One of the laws given to the Hebrew people before they conquered the promise lands was not to worship the gods of those being deposed, which included child sacrifice. (Lev 18:21, Deut 18:10). Not only does God not want children offered to other gods, but He especially does not want them offered to Himself (Deut 12:31). We see this earlier in history when God stopped Abraham from offering Isaac in sacrifice (Gen 22:10-12). Such harmful actions toward children are in direct opposition to the nurturing principles found throughout Scripture not only towards children but to all humans and even extends to livestock in some cases (1Tim 5:18).

God continues His denouncement of the people’s improper attitudes of worship and living through the prophet Ezekiel in our next passage. This time through an allegory of two promiscuous women representing Samaria and Jerusalem.

Ezekiel 23:36–39 ESV

The Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. With their idols they have committed adultery, and they have even offered up to them for food the children whom they had borne to me. Moreover, this they have done to me: they have defiled my sanctuary on the same day and profaned my Sabbaths. For when they had slaughtered their children in sacrifice to their idols, on the same day they came into my sanctuary to profane it. And behold, this is what they did in my house.

In verse 37 alone, God listed four sins. First, He said they have committed adultery. Second, God affirmed that blood is on their hands. This idea of bloodshed often designates murder of the helpless (Isa. 1:15). In this context, the focus was on the children they sacrificed. Third, with their idols they have committed adultery. Physical adultery occurred within marriage relationships, but spiritual adultery occurred as the people forsook the Lord to worship Baal and other gods of the peoples of the land. Fourth, God lamented that they have even offered up … the children whom they had borne to me. The people’s children belonged first to the Lord, but they sacrificed them to other gods. The burned flesh of their children became food for the idols they served, and God hated it.

As God’s people sinned against Him in smaller ways, they gradually became calloused to sin and began to sin against Him in greater ways. We must guard ourselves against compromising God’s laws with regard to smaller issues, lest we become calloused and move on to greater sins.

[LifeWay Adults (2021). Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide - ESV - Winter 2022. LifeWay Press.]

All of these sins were against God, He states that in the beginning of verse 38. Not only were the people defiling themselves, but this led to them defiling other parts of God’s holy places and practices. It is unclear whether the “same day” refers to a literal day, but regardless the people’s callous attitude toward God and His ways was blatant enough that God knew in their heart they could do it on the same literal day. As our sin toward God grows, our care for Him or His people diminishes as well, and we will treat His people and His creation with more and more contempt.

This disrespect of God’s way was not always the normal for the people of God. Back in Egypt when they were in bondage to Pharoah the midwives were more afraid of God’s wrath than the kings and would not obey the command to kill the newborn sons (Exodus 1:16–17). The people in Ezekiel’s day had forgotten what these midwives knew, the taking of a life was murder. They did not want “blood on their hands” in the eyes of God, but their ancestors would think nothing of it and even willing kill their own children. One of the “Ten Words” expressly forbids murder in any form, Exo 20:13 ““You shall not murder.” Although this act is against another person, it is equally if not more so a sin against God.

Life is so precious in God’s eyes that He even enacted laws to help prevent accidental deaths. Deut 22:8

Deuteronomy 22:8 ESV

“When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, that you may not bring the guilt of blood upon your house, if anyone should fall from it.

Protecting your neighbors from harm places great value upon their lives. We are to protect not only those who cannot protect themselves like children and the unborn, but also people from the fallen effects of sin which allows for “accidents” to occur. Sin leads to death, sometimes indirectly. We cherish human life by helping protect from the effects of sin and “unplanned” events of a fallen world. God knew that not everyone would accept that accidents happen, and some may see the death of a loved one as an intentional act when it was not, this is part of the reason He enacted the “cities of refuge”.

Numbers 35:11–12 ESV

then you shall select cities to be cities of refuge for you, that the manslayer who kills any person without intent may flee there. The cities shall be for you a refuge from the avenger, that the manslayer may not die until he stands before the congregation for judgment.

God protects not only those who are not guilty but through these cities allows even those may be guilty of murder not to be killed before being proven guilty through a trial. Places of asylum spaced throughout the kingdom instead having to go to sanctuary and grasping the horns of the altar made it easier to prevent another life being taken.

Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (Cities of Refuge)

The OT reveals the importance and sacredness of human life by its laws regarding the taking of life. The reason for distributing the cities of refuge throughout Israel on both sides of the Jordan was so that a city was easily accessible to a person responsible for an accidental homicide. The establishment of the cities of refuge served a humanitarian purpose by transforming a case of homicide from a private feud between two families to a judicial matter settled by a group of elders.

Taking of another’s life will not only usurp God’s plan for that life, it treats Him and His image bearers with contempt. Immediately after the flood as Noah and his family were directed not to use the animals for food at that time so that they too could “multiply and fill the earth”, God had a special directive about the shedding of blood.

Genesis 9:6 (ESV)

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed, for God made man in his own image.

Taking a life is therefore linked to violently removing God’s image from the world. We do not need less of God in this world. God had just finished destroying the world because of sin when He declared this. We look at the world today and wonder how much worse can it get? Apparently, it is not as bad as it was in Noah’s time. God determined in that day that only 8 people would survive. As God, He has that right and only He has the right to determine when a people, nation, or individual’s life it to end.

Job 14:5 (ESV)

Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,

Once those days are completed, then we stand before Him.

Hebrews 9:27 ESV

And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

God chooses when we are to die and to take a life before that time is to make ourselves equal to or even above God in our hearts and minds. Thankfully He is longsuffering and knows us better than ourselves. He knows when and chooses the time for our death. He knows and chooses the time for our birth and has known us before we even were born.

Psalm 139:13–16 (ESV)

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Although David did not always follow God closely, in his heart he always revered God.

The Lord knew him through and through, and understood intimately everything about him (Ps. 139:1-6). The thought of such truths staggered David’s imagination. He affirmed that God’s presence extended throughout the universe (139:7-12), and God was present with David. The Lord’s care for David even extended to the womb of David’s mother, where God had formed him (139:13-16). [LifeWay Adults (2021). Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide - ESV - Winter 2022. LifeWay Press.]

Look at the verbs that God inspired David to write down about how He puts a child together inside the mother: formed, knitted, wonderfully made, and intricately woven. These are not words you use to describe a scientific process. These are personally interactive, tenderly involved action words. We have a blanket that was given to us after Rose was born (She turns 19 on Monday). It is not big enough for her now, but it covered her and kept her warm as a baby. The lady who made it told us that she prayed for Rose, with every knot and weaving of the blanket. It is a precious treasure to us but not as special as the one it covered. If this kind woman put that much love and intent into an “intricately woven” blanket, how much more would the Creator of the Universe put into a being that is to carry His likeness?

Yes, there is a documented scientific process of gestation and growth for an embryo to fetus to baby, but this does not negate nor diminish the guiding and intentional will of God in the process. The process will not start without His sovereign will. David’s realization of being know before birth is echoed and confirmed by another prophet a contemporary of Ezekiel.

Jeremiah 1:5 (ESV)

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”

Jeremiah may not have known God until he was a mature man, but God knew, chose, and planned his life before it had even started. Scripture records several instances of God telling people or parents about children that had not even been conceived yet. (Genesis 18:10, Judges 13:3–4, 1 Kings 13:2, 2 Kings 4:16–17). The most familiar to us other than Jesus himself is probably his cousin, John.

Luke 1:13–15 ESV

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John. And you will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth, for he will be great before the Lord. And he must not drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.

Although a Nazirite vow is usually taken by one dedicating themselves to God for special service, God had John’s mother start the child’s separation unto Himself while still within her womb. Even though John was only just conceived, God saw him as the prophet he was to be and began using him to declare the coming of His Son even before birth. John was already God’s image bearer and gospel harbinger.

Repeatedly in Scripture we can read of how God knew and cared for children still in the womb. (Psa 22:9, Psa 119:73, Isa 46:3-4, Isa 49:1, Isa 49:5). God considers the unborn already a human life and made a law of punishment equal to that of murder of an adult if a pregnant women’s child is prematurely delivered because of violence (Ex 21:22-25). The prophet Amos was commanded pronounce judgement against Ammonites because of their intentional killing of pregnant women just to expand their borders (Am 1:13).

God expects us to respect and cherish life not only of the unborn and children, but even adults especially into the later years.

Proverbs 23:22 (ESV)

Listen to your father who gave you life, and do not despise your mother when she is old.

The word translated as “listen” is translated other places in Scripture as hear, obey, and understand. This is not a casual auditory acknowledgement; this is an active listening through which one shows honor and respect. Paul in his first letter to Timothy also encourages respectful attitudes for the different age groups.

1 Timothy 5:1–2 ESV

Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, younger women as sisters, in all purity.

A few verses later, God inspires special care for widows to be observed.

1 Timothy 5:4 ESV

But if a widow has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show godliness to their own household and to make some return to their parents, for this is pleasing in the sight of God.

“Pleasing in the sight of God”, isn’t that what we should be striving for? We please Him by loving what He loves caring for those that He cares for. The ultimate example of concern and care for the older saints comes from Christ himself, who while hanging on the cross used some of his last breaths to make sure his earthly mother was taken care of after his physical body was dead. (John 19:26-27).

We honor God when we obey His command and love His people (1John 5:2-3). When we love and care for His image bearers, we show our love to Him. God made, formed, intricately wove us together in His image (Gen 1:27) but He did not stop caring for us after that. He is constantly, actively, putting our best options for life before us. Jesus in the midst of his Sermon the Mount challenges our tendency to think that God does not care and look after us all the time.

Matthew 6:25–26 ESV

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

The question is rhetorical, but the principle is not. God values our lives, all human lives. We are special to Him because we have a literal part of Himself with us. “Breathed” into us by Him at the beginning.

Genesis 2:7 ESV

then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

But even before He did this and made us a special part of His creation, our eternal place in His presence was secured in His heart through the sacrifice of His Son (Eph 1:4, Rev 13:8). Christ died for all humans; antenatal, children, adults, and elderly to be forgiven and have eternal life. Any act against such cherished and loved individuals is a sin against the God who created them, died for them, and indwells them until His appointed time.

Apply the Text

In my research for today’s lesson, I came across a quote from John Calvin.

300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation Atrocious to Destroy a Fetus in the Womb

The fetus, though enclosed in the womb of its mother, is already a human being, and it is almost a monstrous crime to rob it of the life which it has not yet begun to enjoy. If it seems more horrible to kill a man in his own house than in a field, because a man’s house is his place of most secure refuge, it ought surely to be deemed more atrocious to destroy a fetus in the womb before it has come to light.

What struck me to most about this was not the language or the acts being talked about but the fact that John Calvin was writing about abortion in 1500’s. I guess it shouldn’t surprise me since mankind has been killing each other since the first family left Eden, but I had not really considered how long believers have been fighting against this particular form of sin.

The Teacher’s Bible Commentary (Ezek. 23:1–49)

Secular forces are constantly seeking to undermine Christian convictions. When one breaks relationship with God and turns to those whose ideals are not compatible with the ethical righteousness of God’s character, moral deterioration soon takes place. It is not necessary, however, to enter into alliances of any kind with non-Christians in order to influence them. The wise Christian will “keep his distance” from moral impurity but, at the same time, he will seek to “build bridges” to the individual in an effort to lead him to the forgiveness that is in Christ.

Most believers recognize the need to take a stand for the sanctity of human life, and we have many ways to do that. We can teach our students biblical principles about love, sex, and dating so they can and want to make biblical choices when the time comes. We can urge married couples to remain faithful to one another and to value the children God gives them. We can affirm the value of the elderly by honoring our parents and others of their age who attend our church or live in our neighborhoods. At the same time, we also must deal compassionately with those who have failed in one or more of these areas. Many may need to hear God’s message of forgiveness and restoration.

[LifeWay Adults (2021). Explore the Bible: Adult Leader Guide - ESV - Winter 2022. LifeWay Press.]

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