As we sit around our warm living-rooms this Christmas opening presents, reading letters from distant friends and relatives, and filling ourselves with all kinds of extravagant delicacies, let us be sure not to forget just how privileged we are. In a society now more than ever conditioned to embracing the culture of death, we must count ourselves fortunate to have survived.
When Pharaoh, king of Egypt realised that the enslaved nation of Israel was growing bigger and stronger, he employed two methods – one after the other, in an attempt to cut down on the Israelites’ population growth. Pharaoh said the the Hebrew midwives, When you do the duties of a midwife for the Hebrew women, and see them on the birthstools, if it is a son, then you shall kill him; but if it is a daughter, then she shall live.” The midwives trusted God however, and disobeyed Pharaoh, claiming that by the time they got to the women, their babies were already born. Pharaoh stepped up his assault on the people of God, with an evil command… “Every son who is born you shall cast into the river, and every daughter you shall save alive.” – Exodus 1:15-22
As we know, Moses escaped the fate of so many other baby boys at that time; he was adopted by the Princess of Egypt and later came to lead the people of God out of the land of bondage, and into the Promised Land.
Approximately 1,500 years later when Herod, king of Israel heard of the birth of Jesus Christ, he immediately ordered all boys aged two and under to be put to be killed. He hoped this way to be able to have Jesus killed and thereby destroy Christianity.
[King Herod] sent forth and put to death all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all its districts, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the wise men. Then was fulfilled what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
“A voice was heard in Ramah,
Lamentation, weeping, and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children,
Refusing to be comforted,
Because they are no more.”
– Matthew 2:16-18
Again, God ruled over this situation and baby Jesus was rushed off to Egypt until news came of the evil King Herod’s death, at which time Joseph, Mary and young Jesus moved back to Galilee.
And today in the country that our National Anthem declares is Our Free Land, more that fifty babies are being systematically murdered everyday. Worldwide, 120,000 unborn babies have their lives brutally cut short by the machine that is abortion. It will come as a surprise to most people, to hear that the abortion rate in Russia , for instance, is 60 abortions per 100 pregnancies. As in the past, so to in our time, it is widely acknowledged that abortion is wrong, that it does indeed take the life of an innocent child. However, this truth is forcibly ignored for the sake of convenience, and an end which is seen to justify the means – however awful or immoral.
Whether a baby is killed before it is born (abortion), during birth (partial-birth-abortion), or after birth (infanticide), it is unquestionably wrong. I struggle to even put these poor words together; how can my mind even begin to grasp the unbelievable horror of abortion? You can disagree with abortion, but to leave it at that is unthinkable. 2009 is just around the corner. I encourage you to make a New Years’ resolution to stand up for the helpless innocents , to do whatever is in your power to bring an end to this greatest injustice in the history of the world.
“The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.” – Albert Einstein
