While engaging this past Sunday morning in the adult Bible study from the fourth chapter of the Apostle Paul’s Epistle to the Galatians regarding the allegory of Sarah and Hagar, our attention was turned to the events transpiring in Genesis 18 when Hagar, Sarah’s slave handmaiden from Egypt, was given to Abraham as his wife to help in procuring the promised heir for Abraham. I have read the Bible through from front to cover many times in my life, but it still never ceases to surprise me every so often. Such was the case last Sunday, for I saw something in it, something important, that previously had escaped my attention. In Genesis 18:10 and in Genesis 18:14, the Lord Himself says, “I will certainly return unto thee according to the time of life; and, lo, Sarah thy wife shall have a son,” and “Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the time appointed I will return unto thee, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” God was telling Abraham and Sarah that He was going to bless their union in their old age and give them the promised son they so longed to have.
So what is it about these two verses that so caught my attention? It is the fact that God said He was going to visit Sarah again “according to the time of life.” That is what is so key, and that was what was so eye opening, for the next time we see the Lord visiting Sarah is in Genesis 21:1-2: 1. And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. 2. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. God had told Abraham and Sarah that He would visit Sarah again “according to the time of life.” When we come to chapter 21, God answers and settles the question once and for all time as to when it is that life begins: It begins at the point of conception, “according to the time of life.”
In a day and age in which we live where information of all kinds is available to us with but a few, quick strokes from our computer’s keyboard, or through a click or two of our computer’s mouse, it is unfathomable that there would still be any confusion as to when life begins. And in spite of how far we have come in so many ways as a people, we are still living in the Dark Ages when it comes to abortion, and performing the most horrid, harsh and cruelly inflicted punishments imaginable that would have made our most bloodthirsty Medieval ancestors proud upon those who are the least and most innocent among us: The infant in its mother’s womb. Ripped limb from limb, or having its tiny skull crushed, or its little body burnt through the injection of a strong saline solution, this is the fate that awaits millions of the unborn each and every year. Yes, we have politicians and elected officials in the highest of offices who do not have the wisdom, the pay grade, as they say, to determine when life begins, and yet they support the slaughter of innocents through abortion in spite of their inability to know when life begins. Maybe it is time we as a people turned to the One Who is able to make that determination, since He already has. Let us all choose to follow the leadership of the One Whose knowledge and righteousness is above all pay grades, the One Who has already provided the answer: Life begins at the point of conception, “according to the time of life.”
So what is it about these two verses that so caught my attention? It is the fact that God said He was going to visit Sarah again “according to the time of life.” That is what is so key, and that was what was so eye opening, for the next time we see the Lord visiting Sarah is in Genesis 21:1-2: 1. And the Lord visited Sarah as He had said, and the Lord did unto Sarah as He had spoken. 2. For Sarah conceived, and bare Abraham a son in his old age, at the set time of which God had spoken to him. God had told Abraham and Sarah that He would visit Sarah again “according to the time of life.” When we come to chapter 21, God answers and settles the question once and for all time as to when it is that life begins: It begins at the point of conception, “according to the time of life.”
In a day and age in which we live where information of all kinds is available to us with but a few, quick strokes from our computer’s keyboard, or through a click or two of our computer’s mouse, it is unfathomable that there would still be any confusion as to when life begins. And in spite of how far we have come in so many ways as a people, we are still living in the Dark Ages when it comes to abortion, and performing the most horrid, harsh and cruelly inflicted punishments imaginable that would have made our most bloodthirsty Medieval ancestors proud upon those who are the least and most innocent among us: The infant in its mother’s womb. Ripped limb from limb, or having its tiny skull crushed, or its little body burnt through the injection of a strong saline solution, this is the fate that awaits millions of the unborn each and every year. Yes, we have politicians and elected officials in the highest of offices who do not have the wisdom, the pay grade, as they say, to determine when life begins, and yet they support the slaughter of innocents through abortion in spite of their inability to know when life begins. Maybe it is time we as a people turned to the One Who is able to make that determination, since He already has. Let us all choose to follow the leadership of the One Whose knowledge and righteousness is above all pay grades, the One Who has already provided the answer: Life begins at the point of conception, “according to the time of life.”
2 comments:
Amen
Thanks, Betty! I appreciate that!
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