VALUES – God values all human life.

EZEKIEL 16:20-21; 23:36-39; Psalm 139:13-16

MEMORY VERSE: PSALM 139: 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

Values shape our priorities. We invest time, energy, money, and other resources into what we value. Our values also shape how we interact with others. For example, if we value our jobs or the tasks more than the people with whom we work, our interactions with others may become cold and calculated. We see them as objects – not as people. The Bible teaches that God values all human life; therefore, we should as well.

THE CONTEXT (EZEKIEL 16; 23: PSALM 139)

Ezekiel 16 describes God’s grace to an unfaithful Jerusalem. God had set His love on His people from the beginning (Ezek. 16:1-5). He established a covenant with them and generously provided for them (16:6-14). However, God’s people took His blessings and used them to worship idols (16:15-19). They even sacrificed their children to pagan gods and entered into evil partnerships with other nations (16:20-34). God told them He would bring judgment on them, and those nations and practices they had valued eventually would bring them down (16:35-43). Both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah had committed folly (16:44-52). Nevertheless, God would restore His people one day, and in that day, they would feel gratitude to God but shame for their sinful actions (16:53-63).

Ezekiel 23 described God’s judgment against Samaria and Jerusalem, the capitals of Israel and Judah. Ezekiel compared Samaria to a woman named Oholah and Jerusalem to a woman named Oholibah. God said both women belong to Him (23:1-4). But Oholah acted unfaithfully toward the Lord and placed her faith in the Assyrians instead (23:5-10). Tragically, the Assyrians brought destruction on Samaria and the nation of Israel. Oholibah saw all this yet acted even more wickedly than her sister (23:11-21). Therefore, God said He would humble Jerusalem and Judah and bring the nations in which she had trusted against her (23:22-35). God told Ezekiel to declare to Oholah and Oholibah their sins (23:36-49). God would humble both nations and show them the extent of their evil, and when that happened, they would know He was the Lord.

David reflected on God’s awesome power in Psalm 139. 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 (139:7012), 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).

David asked that God would judge the wicked and protect him from such people (139:19-22). He closed the psalm by asking God’s intervention in his own life (129:23-24). He wanted God to help him remain true to Him and to lead David along the path God had determined for his life.

WRONGDOING IS JUSTIFIED (EZEK. 16:20-21)

20 "'And you took your sons and daughters whom you bore to me and sacrificed them as food to the idols. Was your prostitution not enough?

21 You slaughtered my children and sacrificed them to the idols.

When the people turned their back on Him, they also disregarded His word, choosing instead to adopt their neighbors’ pagan worship practices. The Lord vividly described the people’s wicked use of their own children in pagan sacrifice. The expression “your sons and daughter you bore to me” stressed the fact that these precious children first belonged to the Lord. He had enabled the mothers to conceive them, and He had brought them to birth. Children are a special blessing from God, as both King Solomon and Jesus affirmed (Ps. 127:3; Mark 10:14-16).

God’s people should have loved and treasured the children God gave them. Rather, God charged, they “sacrificed them as food to the idols”. 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.

The Lord asked His people a sarcastic question: “Was you prostitution not enough?”

The prophet Jeremiah assured God’s people the thought of such evil had never entered God’s mind (Jer. 7:31).

The prophets condemned social injustice, particularly when the strong oppressed the weak. Isaiah focused on widows and orphans – two elements of society who often suffered because they lacked people to advocate for them (Isa. 1:17). The strong oppressed the weak, and rulers accepted bribes and perverted justice (Isa. 1:23). Many people today do not value children - God does. We will be better people when we take care of those God values.

CALLOUSNESS BECOMES THE NORM (Ezek. 23:36-39)

36 The LORD said to me: "Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then confront them with their detestable practices,

37 for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them.

38 They have also done this to me: At that same time they defiled my sanctuary and desecrated my Sabbaths.

39 On the very day they sacrificed their children to their idols, they entered my sanctuary and desecrated it. That is what they did in my house.

Physical adultery occurred within marriage relationships, but spiritual adultery occurred as the people forsook the Lord to worship Baal and other gods of the people of the land.

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.

The people thought they became holy if they merely entered the temple area; instead, their unclean lives defiled the temple (Jer. 7:3-4; Hag. 2:11-14). The people continued their pagan ways even as they worshiped God in Jerusalem at the temple. Also, they even erected their pagan statues to other gods and worshiped them in God’s very own temple (Ezek. 8). They became hardened to the truth and disregarded God’s holiness. Their worship became so perverted that God’s presence and glory lifted up and abandoned the temple (Ezek. 10).

Also they were not honoring the Sabbath day as God had commanded (Ex. 20:8-11). The Sabbath was given by God as a day of rest and blessing. The prophet Amos, who prophesied in the eight century BC, described how God’s people saw the Sabbath as a burden. They couldn’t wait for it to end so they could resume cheating people (Amos 8:4-6). Over time, people can become calloused to sin and no longer revere God. Little sins lead to bigger sins, and people’s consciences become dull as they live however they please. We need to submit to God’s Word as our standard for life.

GOD’S TRUTH REVEALED (PSALM 139:13-16)

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.

David reflected on his growth inside his mother’s womb, saying to God: “For you created my inmost being”. The Lord had first claim on David’s life, for He had created him. The Hebrew word translated “inmost being” can refer to the kidneys. In the Hebrew mindset the kidneys designated the place of emotion and affection within the body. The word translated “knit me together” stresses God’s perfect care for David’s unformed body.

The formation of a new person in the womb is God’s sacred work. Abortion is wrong because it interrupts the creation process – the process that begins at conception. It devalues the life God has created.

God’s creation of life carries the ideal of awe and wonder in the Hebrew. Even David’s limited knowledge of how God made him staggered his imagination. The Lord had made no one else exactly like David. Each person is unique. Modern technology now can document the amazing growth of babies within their mother’s womb and enables us to see life there as never before. God gives each child distinctive qualities, while abortion destroys the child before the world can see and benefit from those qualities.

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.

God saw and cared for David when he was made in the secret place, the womb. The Hebrew word translated “formed” occurs elsewhere in Scripture where it describes weaving of multi-covered cloth for the tabernacle (Ex. 26:36; 27:16). What a beautiful picture of God’s creative handiwork in the womb. Everything that God forms is beautiful and wonderful. We just don’t have the intellect or knowledge to fully appreciate the wonder and awe of his creation.

David did not speak as a scientist, but he certainly had seen newborn babies. Modern science has uncovered many more details regarding the gestation period of a human being. At conception, the foundation of a child’s physical characteristics, intelligence, and personality are established. After only twenty-one days, the baby’s heart beats regularly, and the foundation of the brain, spinal cord, and nervous system already are established. After thirty-five days, the fingers can be discerned on the baby’s hands. At forty days, the brain waves appear. At three months, hair begins to grow on the baby’s head. At five months the baby weighs about a pound, is about twelve inches long, and responds to loud, startling noise. He or she only needs nourishment, warmth, and a secure place to grow. Tragically, abortion interrupts this process and ends a helpless life God has begun.

God already saw David’s life as a completed work. David’s days were planned before a single one of them began. God used similar language when he called Jeremiah to be his prophet. He chose Jeremiah before He formed him in the womb and set him apart before his birth (Jer. 1:5). God saw David’s life and purpose from beginning to end before David was born. A thousand years later, the apostle Paul would affirm that David served God’s purpose in his own generation (Acts 13:36). Likewise, God has a plan for each one of us. Abortion stops God’s perfect design from coming to fruition.

Based on statistics from the National Right to Life organization, over sixty million abortions have been performed since 1973, when the United States Supreme Court legalized abortion on demand. At the same time, child abuse continued to plague our nation. Children suffer emotional, physical, and sexual abuse – abuse that often leaves deep wounds. Some people even advocate euthanasia for elderly people who, in the eyes of some, have no value to society. However, God’s word makes clear that all human life is precious.

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 make biblical choices when the time comes. We can urge married couples to remain faithful to one another and 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 churches or live in our neighborhood. At the same time, we also must deal compassionately with those who have failed in one or more of these areas. Many need to hear God’s message of forgiveness, redemption, and restoration.