Does God "knit together" defective children in the womb?

Recently, as I taught from Psalm 139 on God "knitting me together" in a mother's womb, I was asked about how this applies to children who are conceived, develop in the womb, and are born with some kind of defect or deformity.  Does God knit together defective children?

One email put it like this:  I'm just wondering if you would answer the question about handicapped babies differently if given more time?  I thought I heard you say, "God does knit them that way (handicapped)..." and then you made the excellent point that these precious people - so born - cause us not to be so self-centered....If I had a handicapped child and had to live with that 24/7, I'm not sure I would be comforted by the thought that God knitted my child in my womb that way.  On the contrary, I would probably be angry with God for choosing that life for me. 

My response to this thoughtful email is below.  I wonder if you agree?

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Let me dare take up the important question you raised.  Namely...[Did I hear] you say, "God does knit them that way (handicapped)..." , and then you wondered if I would answer differently if I had more time to process the larger issues, and not be on-the-spot (so to speak).   Candidly, I did say this because I anticipated the question (as you know, most good teachers try to anticipate what questions may be asked when presenting any new idea or material.  I'm working at trying to be "good" at this, though I've a ways to go).

So, how could I give such a response to the question raised?  

First, I agree with your understanding that in a fallen world (spiritually and physically), disease and death seem to indiscriminately take its toll on everyone.  As Billy Graham once said, "The stats on death are pretty consistent.  One out of every one person dies."  And yes, it feels very random, with wild-card dice in the genetic pool compounded by all the unhealthy things we either breathe in or eat.  More broadly, good people tragically die (police officers die leaving a family of wife and kids while the drunk driver somehow lives) and committed-to-evil people seem to live longer than they deserve (cf. Psalm 73).  

But the question remains - is what happens in wombs actually "random"?  Again, it feels like it, but Scripture puts a different (and more truthful) frame around the creation of human life, according to Psalm 139.  No human life is random; God continues to create human embryos which bear His image and are the product of his hands' knitting.  Such a viewpoint is hugely out of step with present-day conventional wisdom, but then again (Isaiah 55:8-9) God dares to tell humanity that "My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts are higher than your thoughts."  Since (as I am convinced) Scripture is God-breathed and thus a very personal expression of truth as God sees it, no human life can be rightly seen as random.

Second, it seems to clearly follow from this that even as human beings are being "knitted" in a physically compromised universe (again, with compromised genetics, disease, etc.) by the hands of God, that He must be also involved in those children who are born with what we call "defects" or "deformities."   Admittedly, we shrink from this very idea.  We wonder, If God's hands are involved, and He is "good," why would He not do the corrective work needed so that every baby is born healthy?  

Should we take the view that He is NOT involved in the knitting together of deformed children--that His hands are not involved--we land in Rabbi Kushner territory, to wit, that God too is grieved when "bad things happen to good people," but He can't do anything about it.  With all due respect to Mr. Kushner, his approach is not only uncomforting, but it is remarkably unBiblical.

Biblically, at least in two other places, God takes responsibility for defects.  To Moses He declares, "Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord?"   Notice the language is not, "I permit this to happen to some (i.e., mutedness, blindness, deafness)," but rather "Who has made...who makes."  Active tense.  Sobering.

Also, you'll recall that one day the disciples wondered about a man who had been "born blind" (cf. John 9).  Their framework -- the CW -- was that someone had screwed up (i.e., "sinned" - that is sin and fallenness was the cause, and blindness was the divine punishment).  "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?"

Jesus rejects the two possible answers, and goes outside the box for the third.  "It was not that this man sinned, nor his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him," and then Jesus adds, "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming when no man can work."   As I read Jesus' response, I conclude Jesus saying, "My Father (God) so willed that his man suffer blindness for decades until this moment, so that God's works can be displayed in and through his life (and healing)."  Briefly put, God made him to be born blind.

Your tender empathy is well-placed.  If I had a handicapped child and had to live with that 24/7, I'm not sure I would be comforted by the thought that God knitted my child in my womb that way.  On the contrary, I would probably be angry with God for choosing that life for me.  

Surely, we all might struggle with, "Why did God give me/us this overwhelming challenge?  Surely He can't be in this" we might conclude.  Yet, for example, one of the couples in our church, whose daughter has been severely handicapped mentally and physically since birth, approached me after the morning service.  Once again they demonstrated that, as hard as it has been over the past 30 years, they've adopted God's sovereign hand in their experience.  "You were on target today, David," Kevin kindly said.   As difficult as struggling with a less-than-fully healthy child can be -- and I don't diminish the difficulty one iota -- there is a good sovereign God that has greater purposes for those who are knitted together in ways that are less than ideal.

Well, I've bent your ear longer than I have a right to.  If you're still reading, you deserve a DQ Blizzard of your choice!  But perhaps this helps clarify my answer.  

When Paul asked God 3 times to remove "this thorn in my flesh" which he described as a "messenger of Satan to buffet me," God answered him three times, "No...but my grace will be sufficient for you."  Paul then concludes, "If that is true, then I will rather boast in my weakness, that the power of God might be seen in this" (cf. 2 Corinthians 12).  Wow...again, not the CW we often hear.  But this is the framework God's Word puts around these things for us.

Thank you for asking about these things...I hope we can continue to interact on important ideas.

"Today, if you hear His Voice..." Psalm 95

Do you hear God's voice?

Sojourning through the Psalms in recent months--especially from Psalm 90 and forward--I've discovered some wonderful treasures.   Most of these I've tucked away in a leather-covered notebook received years ago from East-West Ministries.

The Scriptures often stun me, because they openly speak of  experiences considered normal, things today we don't normally experience.  Isn't that odd?

Why are we not experiencing what Scriptures describe as something to be expected?

GOD'S VOICE: then, and now

Hearing God's voice is one of those things.   Psalm 95, for example, after calling for songs for the Lord's ears coming from a posture of humble worship, exhorts, "Today, if you hear God's voice, do not harden your hearts [as your forefathers did]."

This song, prompted by the Spirit through the pen of an unnamed Israelite, was written hundreds of years after the incident it cites: the choice of heart-hardening by the congregation in the wilderness of Sin just after the exodus from Egypt.  Rescued from brutal slavery, God's people began complaining at God, charging Him with a lack of understanding about their situation and a lack of care (i.e., not enough water).   In fact, this happened twice, in Exodus 17 and again in Numbers 20.

Centuries later, the Psalmist urges his contemporaries to understand that (1) God continues to speak in a way that can be heard, and (2) as they hear God's voice, that a heart-hardening like that which was chosen by forefathers should not be chosen now.

This begs two questions today.  First, do we hear God's voice?  And second, when we do, how do we order the posture of our hearts?

Unless I'm getting this wrong, the first experience should be normal, and our response should be purposeful.

GOD'S LONGING:  then, and now

Over and over again, Scripture reveals a God who loves to speak and longs to be trusted.  One who will prove faithful when people hear and believe.

Centuries back (i.e., around B.C. 1450), most of God's people -- the people of His pasture -- heard the Voice but hardened the heart.  Psalm 95 remembers God's assessment:  they are a people that go astray in their hearts and thus, they have not known My ways (cf. Psalm 95:10).  Strikingly, God admits that "I loathed that generation" (of His people).

Whew!  God disgusted with an entire generation of His redeemed people, and as a consequence, He pledged out of His righteous wrath, "They shall not enter my rest" (i.e., the promised land of Canaan).

Are we too casual with God's voice today?  Are we listening for it?  Or are our hearts too astray to be attuned to a Divine communication, too disinterested in God's ways to be bothered?

The consequence, back then and perhaps today, is to not experience the promised rest of God which follows hearing, following, and obeying.

A PLEA

God is a communicator.  He speaks, and we have ears that can listen.  Remember the spiritually off-line hearts of the ancient Israelites.  Refuse to recapitulate their experience.

Today, if you hear His voice, sing to the Lord, bow down before your Maker and the Rock of your Salvation.    Head where He points you.  Enter His rest.

A Good Question - What exactly is ADULTERY?

Recently, in response to some O.T. Law teaching I did on a Sunday, this question came: What exactly is adultery?  [And] What is the line that should not be crossed before marriage?

This arose as I noted that God's righteousness, expressed in the Hebrew "Torah" (or Law) proscribed capital punishment for a number of offences, including adultery.  So, what are God's answers to these good questions?

ADULTERY - VIOLATING AN EXCLUSIVE COVENANT

Our English word "adultery" comes from a French word, avoutre, arise from the Latin verb adulterare, which means "to corrupt."  The verb "adulterate" means "to debase or make impure by adding inferior materials or elements."

The Hebrew concept of "adultery" is very similar.  It means to debase and violate the intimacy and commitment of an exclusive relationship by either "unfaithfulness" to it or "intruding into it."  This violation of an exclusive relationship, defined by the promises of a covenant, was identified as heinous, sinful, a violation both of the holiness of God's character and of the holiness of the relationship. God hates when something exclusive, pure, promised and life-giving is violated by introducing what is impure, inferior, and debasing.  Like all sin, adultery destroys the life of what is good and holy.

This is why "adultery" is the term used by the Spirit in Scripture to describe idolatry, the worship of other gods other than the One True God.  God made people (in His image) for a love and worship relationship.  Thus we are not to love nor worship what is made, but rather only the Uncreated One who made all things.  GotQuestions.org explains

The Old Testament often referred to Israel’s idolatry as a wanton woman who went “whoring after” other gods (Exodus 34:15–16; Leviticus 17:7; Ezekiel 6:9, KJV). Further, the entire book of Hosea likens the relationship between God and Israel to the marriage of the prophet Hosea and his adulterous wife, Gomer. Their marriage was a picture of the sin and unfaithfulness of Israel which, time after time, left her true husband (God) to commit spiritual adultery with other gods.

"Adultery" also describes actions which violate an exclusive, love-covenant relationship between a male/husband and a female/wife.  When someone pledged to exclusively love, in the marriage covenant, his/her partner, to pursue the love-benefits of that covenant-relationship OUTSIDE of that relationship is to commit adultery, and this can be done emotionally (one's affections) and physically (one's sexuality).

God created the one man-one woman for-life marriage covenant relationship for the purpose of creating life and nurturing an exclusive one-ness (i.e., "one flesh" relationship).  To violate this is to destroy it and to dishonor God.

Jesus taught that to lust after another woman in one's heart (apart from the physical act) was to commit adultery.

Indeed, God's holiness and word requires that all sexual experience and pleasure be a celebration within the marriage covenant, and of the exclusive marriage relationship.

FORNICATION - SEXUAL PRACTICE and PLEASURE OUTSIDE OF MARRIAGE

The Biblical word "fornication" is actually a distinct term from the word "adultery."  Fornication is seeking and having the experience of sexual pleasure before and/or outside of the marriage relationship.  It comes from the Greek word porneia, from which we get the English "pornography."

While it may appear remarkably "out of step" with today's widespread sexual practice, the experience of sexual union and pleasure was designed by God for three distinct reasons.  First, to celebrate the exclusive marriage covenant.  Second, to create a one-flesh bond between a husband and wife.  And third, to provide a means for a couple to "be fruitful and multiply," having children who reflect God's image and walk with Him in the world.  Sexual experience, by God's definition, should not happen outside the marriage covenant relationship.  When it does, God considers it to be sexual sinning.

Soberingly, and without apology, God maintains through Scriptural revelation this moral standard.  Passages like 1 Corinthians 6:9-20, Ephesians 5:3-11, 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8, and Hebrews 13:4 are crystal clear - God will judge the "fornicatious" and "adulterous."

FINALLY - THE QUESTION: Is there a line before marriage?

Perhaps the clearest passage is 1 Thessalonians 4:1-8.  Before marriage or between marriages, one believer should not "defraud" another believer in how one uses his/her body sexually.  Sexuality is to be controlled in holiness and with the help of the Spirit of God.  "Each one of you must know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God."  We are not merely to get our cues from unredeemed culture practices, as "normal" as they are argued to be.

This means that before the marriage covenant is made (i.e., before marriage), we must not stimulate one another sexually nor engage in sexual pleasure UNTIL the exclusive marriage covenant is made (i.e., marriage vows).  Genesis 2 sets the steps.  God made the woman for the man, brought her to the man.  The man recognizes God has made the woman for him, and pledges himself to her.  Then, and only then, do they become "one-flesh."

Here is where the godly leadership of the male is key.  No young man should ever ask the woman he is seeking to marry to dishonor God through pre-marriage sexuality with him.  He should set the pace.  He should give leadership, saying to her, "Let's do this God's way.  And I promise, in my pre-marriage relationship with you, not to lead you into fornication, nor will I ever, once we are married, adulterate my exclusive love relationship with you."

Out of step with today's sexual practices?  Without question.  Holy, and honoring to God, and life-giving to a life-long marriage?  Again, without question.

In our day and age, only the enabling power of the Holy Spirit can bring about our holy obedience in sexual practice.

GIVE ME UNDERSTANDING - Psalm 119:169-176 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth-TAW) - #22 Final Reflection

Perplexity.  We are perplexed.  Are we not?

Consider the questions that tend to confound us...

• why do eastern radical fundamentalists so passionately hate the west?
• how do you explain the unswerving popularity of a presidential candidate who has broken every sane rule of campaigning?
• why does racism persist?
• where does selfishness come from?
• why do the good die young, while those who promote evil flourish?
• why can't we eliminate disease, and even death?
• how could the incredible beauty, order, and irreducible complexity of life come (as some insist) from blind, unguided chance?
• why do I do the things I don't want to do, and fail to do the very things I want to do?
• how is it that even with every possible encouragement toward that which is good, my heart still wanders off into that which is bad?

There are more questions, of course.  You likely have your own list.  Our own ponderings come up short.  The perplexity persists.

Let my cry come before you, O Lord;

give me understanding according to Your word.

Let my plea come before You,

deliver me according to Your word.

My lips will pour forth praise,

for You teach me Your statutes.

My tongue will sing of Your word,

for all Your commandments are right.

Let Your hand be ready to help me,

for I have chosen Your precepts.

I long for Your salvation, O Lord,

and Your law is my delight.

Let my soul live and praise You,

and let Your rules help me.

I have gone astray like a lost sheep;

Seek Your servant, for I do not forget Your commandments.

I don't have all the answers; if you've read this blog before, you know that well.  Neither did the author of these final verses of Psalm 119.  

But, he knew where to find the best answers.  At least 9 times in 8 verses, he resets his lens on God's Word, the Lord's statutes, His commandments, precepts, rules.  UNDERSTANDING comes from a diet of deliberation of the ideas, words, concepts, commandments that proceed from the mouth of God.  Every word, Jesus said, when feasted on brings living.  Nurtures life.

Answers to the list of questions above can be found in God's Word, along with truth about how He alone rescues us from the present age and readies us for the life to come.

May you join me in this heart cry, and in a daily diet that attends it -- "Give me understanding according to Your Word."

Selah.

The GREAT SPOIL of GREAT PEACE - Psalm 119:162-168 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth-SIN & SHIN) #21

Should your every day living be attended by peace, you are indeed in a season of blessing.

The living of so many today is not.  A verse in the hymn "Just As I Am" (alway sung at the close of the crusade meetings of Billy Graham) admits that those coming to Christ  walk toward him with "fightings within and fears without."

The inner world of so many in our day is fraught with anxiousness, fright, restlessness, and the worst, loneliness.   Too many, having been nurtured by dysfunctional and spiritually rootless parents, have not been endowed with a center which assures them of who they are, nor of a God who has created them and loves them and has good plans for them.  Our hearts are starving for meaning and direction, and so often not able to settle down.

The world around us does little to soothe our souls.  The culture of our politics is driven by the anger of unsatisfied demands.  Inequity has (we feel) lanced our lives too.  Someone else is to blame for my current, inadequate lot in life.  Everywhere you turn, something wrong is trumpeted.  Some group unhappy.  People are displaced, starving, sick.  Some religion is ready to execute its god's judgment on your way of life.

Granted, painting a picture of doom should have its balancing limits.  Still, people's hearts are hungry for something more.  Love that lasts.  Centeredness that provides a lifelong vector.  Reasons for the next day that are more than simply the quest for yet another set of toys.

Peace.

Princes persecute me without cause

but my heart stands in awe of Your words.

I rejoice at Your word

like one who finds great spoil.

I hate and abhor falsehood,

but I love Your law.

Seven times a day I praise You

for Your righteous rules.

Great peace have those who love Your law;

nothing can make them stumble

I hope for Your salvation, O Lord,

and I do Your commandments.

My soul keeps Your testimonies;

I love them exceedingly.

I keep Your precepts and testimonies,

for all my ways are before You.

Throughout this extended Psalm, the writer does acknowledge that trouble has found him.  People in power have made him a target, for no good reason.  Surrounding are persistent expressions of what is wrong, what is false.  Each day owns substantive challenges.

But there is a great peace which attends his life.  He is in awe, not of his trouble nor his challenges, but of His God and at His God's stabilizing words  Words which provide sufficient help to prevent stumbling over the uneven experiences of living in a tough world.   

Great love for God and His word bring about a calm in the midst of a cultural and societal whirlwind.  This pilgrim loves what His Lord says and does what His Lord directs.  The ways of his days are before his Lord.    His lips have found the habit of rhythmic praise.

Awesome...

GIVE ME LIFE! Psalm 119:153-160 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth - RESH) #20

Sarah Groves' best album, in my view, is one entitled Conversations.  In one song from the collection, she sings about an aging friend, a widow, who "just turned 84" and confessing to Sarah that she's "afraid of dying."  Her husband passed years before, and though they had been married decades, (Sarah sings) "when he passed away, she still had more to say."  :-)

There was more life to share.

The song tenderly speaks of our longing to live.  Twice in these 8 verses, the Psalmist cries to God, "Give me life...!"  Affliction, persecutors, adversaries are pressing in hard.  People who disregard God and His testimonies.  Still, they have leverage to make our lives feel less than fully alive.

We all long to experience life in its fullness.  Whether it be  through relational opponents or physical decline,  we hate when our living is being robbed.

IS THERE LIFE AHEAD?

I too have a friend who is dying.  After yet another sojourn to the University of Iowa Medical Center, hopeful of another round of life-extending treatment, he and his wife were told no treatment would be successful nor helpful.  My dear friend is now at the marvelous local Hospice House.  Somehow he's preparing to exit.

Is this the end of life, or is there life ahead?

Look on my affliction and deliver me,

for I do not forget Your law.

Plead my cause and redeem me;

give me life according to Your promise!

Salvation is far from the wicked,

for they do not seek Your statutes.

Great is Your mercy, O Lord;

give me life according to Your rules.

Many are my persecutors and my adversaries,

but I do not swerve from Your testimonies.

I look at the faithless with disgust,

because they do not keep Your commands.

Consider how I love Your precepts!

Give me life according to Your steadfast love.

The sum of Your word is truth,

and every one of Your righteous rules endures forever.

The verse writer understands that life uniquely comes from God.  It comes from  honoring God's word, cherishing it, deriving one's perspective and hope from it.  From "keeping" God's commands.  Believing them.  Counting on His promise, His statutes, His testimonies.

One of the  Lord's best "testimonies"  about life comes from the lips of the Lord's Son. "I am the resurrection and the life.  Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.  And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:26, ESV).

There is a life which comes to us from God that will never experience the thievery our present lives experience.  It comes uniquely from God.  The Lord to whom the Psalmist sang 3 millennia ago.  From the Son who died for us so that we who believe should never taste death.

Life in Him today.  Life from Him in unhindered fullness tomorrow.

"The same of Your word (thankfully!!!) is truth."

BEFORE DAWN - I CALL Psalm 119:145-152 (God's Alphabet Song of Truth-QOPH) #19

I rise before dawn and cry for help;

I hope in Your words

There's something special about getting up before everyone else does, before the chaos of the day begins, and coming face to face with the One who holds your breath in His hands.

With my whole heart I cry, answer me O Lord

I will keep Your statutes.

Apparently, Jesus himself did this, more often than his disciples perhaps noticed.  One morning, he was ahead of the day, praying, and his disciples came hunting.  "Everyone is looking for you!" they said.  But His Father had already given him the agenda.  "Lets get to the next towns," (Mark 1:38).  "They need to hear the good news as well."

My eyes are awake before the watches of the night

that I may meditate on Your promise.

It's a good thing to read Scripture before you lay your head down on the pillow.  Last-of-the-day thoughts can become nocturnal meditations.  I find myself awakened sometimes in the middle of the night with something of value having happened while asleep.  Something gelled.  Insight was granted by the Spirit.  A fresh understanding offered.

Hear my voice according to Your steadfast love;

O Lord, according to your justice give me life.

We know that somewhere in our day, we'll face some injustice, great or small.  Bothersome nonetheless.  Someone is likely to mistreat another.  Self-serving decisions will sting.  Someone will not be held accountable.  Rather than complain, we bring those things to the Lord.  We replace hurt with thanksgiving.  Our life comes from Him, not others.  Nor from the expectation that life will be fair.

But You are near, O Lord,

and all your commandments are true

Long have I known from Your testimonies

that You have founded them forever.

In the morning, we can remember that God will not leave us today.  That God's commandments can pilot our way through a maze of challenges.  Our enemy has tactics and methods he'll throw at us, but the timeless testimonies of God about what is right and wrong, true and false, wise and unwise, provide escapes to the paths of life.  

Early, before dawn, ahead of the crowd.  That's the time to set your compass again on True North.  To give voice to your questions and challenges.  To embrace your Father's agenda for the day.

Before dawn...