Recent history includes two world wars that killed scores of millions of people. Hitler’s evil empire attempted to wipe out the Jewish people in the Holocaust. Despots have continued attempted genocide and barbaric cruelty in several nations. Let us pose these questions: What would our world look like if all human life were valued? What would become of death at the hands of murderers and warmongers? Would genocide be unheard of? Would slavery and human trafficking be nonexistent? Would pornography and prostitution and drug vending and kidnapping be abolished? After the Great Flood desribed in the book of Genesis, the Lord God commented that “every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21).

God has shown us a better way. Respect for life even extends to other creatures. Animal sacrifice included one purpose of atonement for our sins. As the wages of sin is death (Genesis 2:17; Romans 6:23), the penitent would offer the life of the innocent animal on the altar to pay for his sin. God accepted this offering and forgave the sin, but the life of the animal had to be respected by abstaining from consuming its lifeblood.

“For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” – Leviticus 17:11

The taking of another person’s life indicates contempt for God Himself, as the murderer effectively despises God’s creation, man, who is made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). We are God’s image bearers and have many unique abilities that set us apart:

• Reason and ingenuity
• Communication
• A sense and acknowledgment of eternity
• The capacity to worship our Creator
• Some limited creative power (but unlike God, we cannot create material out of nothing)
• Choice with regard to good and evil
• An eternal spirit
• The capacity for the fruits of the Holy Spirit to be manifest in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.

Murderers discard their relationship with mankind and their Creator by demonstrating the utmost contempt for others, as well as God Himself. Jesus described this attitude of heart as murderous from its core, which is expressed in human wrath and words of contempt. In fact, Jesus regarded such hateful words of contempt as the moral equivalent of murder (Matthew 5:21-22). The Apostle John wrote of this:

Anyone who hates a brother or sister is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life residing in him. — 1 John 3:15

For this reason we are commanded not to commit murder (Exodus 20:13), but to love one another (John 15:12). The act of kindness foils the evil tendencies, such as spiteful and hateful words tantamount to murder. As we nurture the good things of bearing God’s image, such kindness becomes apparent, even in how we greet one another (Matthew 5:47).

The punishment for murder varies, and in the United States its most drastic punishment comes after “capital murder,” defined as multiple killings, assassination, or murder combined with another major felony such as bank robbery, etc. These examples and the punishments vary from state to state, while some states have banned capital punishment. The Scripture gives one punishment, which is capital punishment — the execution of the murderer, also termed a life for a life. The rationale for biblical capital punishment is that we are made in the image of God, and the murderer is therefore accountable for the life of another by the forfeiture of his own life.

“Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made mankind.” – Genesis 9:6

However, is abortion murder? Perhaps legally abortion is not murder, but the laws of man and God’s word may not always agree. Now the arguments for and against abortion in the United States recently became quite heated after Roe v. Wade was overturned, with abortion regulation turned over to the states. The same arguments continue over so-called reproductive rights (an ironic misnomer) or the right to choose — the choice to kill the life within the mother’s womb. The attempt to justify abortion with semantics, referring to a fetus as a tissue mass and other euphemisms only serves to cloud the issue. This covers the fact of baby killing with a lie attempting to negate the reality of the infant’s death, which then strikes many women with remorse for a lifetime after the act. The word of God shows the Lord God’s attitude toward the fetus, the life of the unborn:

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. – Psalm 139:15-16

Two brief accounts in the Bible refer to babies (not fetal mass or tissue mass) in the womb. The first example actually calls the fetuses babies. Genesis 25 relates the pregnancy of Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, who was suffering from twins in her womb (Jacob and Esau) who were jostling each other so much that she inquired of the Lord what was happening. His answer came with authority:

“Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” – Genesis 25:23

The seminal account of Jacob and Esau became the archetype of God’s sovereign choice that at times chose the dominance and blessing of the younger over the older offspring, which rings true in Hebrew and Jewish history in the lives of Jacob, Joseph, Gideon, and David. More important in this current discussion, the account of Rebekah’s twins tells us that God cares for children in the womb and foresees their future.

The second account of the child in the womb comes through the testimony of Jeremiah, who was called by God to be His prophet in the book of Jeremiah, chapter 1. God said to Jeremiah, “Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you; before you were born I set you apart” (Jeremiah 1:5).

I cannot help but wonder if our nation will be held accountable for some 63 million lives taken for the sake of convenience or the “right to choose.” Violence is condemned, and continuous and unabated violence brought about God’s judgment of humanity by the Great Flood. The next judgment will come by fire, according to 2 Peter 3:3-7,11. The prophet John the Baptizer emphasized this in Matthew 3:11 and Luke 3:16, when he said Jesus “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.” Baptism of the Holy Spirit we receive as believers in Christ; the fire of judgment those receive who are unbelievers. Jesus’ winnowing fork will gather up the wheat (the faithful) for His barn, and reserve the chaff (the wicked) to be burned with “unquenchable fire” (Matthew 3:12; Luke 3:17). Judgment is coming for those who take human life lightly, including devaluing the helpless in the womb for the sake of one’s convenience. The question for the guilty must be this: What will you do about it?

Repent, says the Lord. Confess before the Holy God and He will lift you up. Your confession, repentance, and faith helps you receive God’s gift, your salvation. Nothing you did in the past cannot be cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus, whose atonement is available to all who come to Him. By the mercy and grace of God through your receiving His Son, you may become a son or daughter of our Lord God (John 1:12).