Lessons On Life

 

“I wish I’d never been born!” I suppose most of us have felt like that at times in our lives when we were overwhelmed with discontent. One can hardly blame Job for his attitude. After all, he had lost all ten of his children, all of his wealth, and now he sits in excruciating pain due to the sores on his body and there is no relief in sight.

 

But in his very complaining about his lot, he affirms that life comes from God, AND that it begins at conception! In Job 3:2, we see that gender reveal parties are nothing new. Job 3:2 And Job spoke, and said: 3 "May the day perish on which I was born, And the night in which it was said, 'A male child is conceived.'

“It was said.” It was said by who? Who made the announcement that the gender of the child was already determined at conception? Did God make the announcement? The angels? We aren’t told and it really doesn’t matter. What matters is that Scripture affirms to us again that life begins at conception.

 

Oh, but there’s more to be learned from Job’s lament! Let’s pick it up in 3:11: Job 3:11 "Why did I not die at birth? Why did I not perish when I came from the womb? 12 Why did the knees receive me? Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?13 For now I would have lain still and been quiet, I would have been asleep; Then I would have been at rest 14 With kings and counselors of the earth, Who built ruins for themselves, 15 Or with princes who had gold, Who filled their houses with silver; 16 Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child, Like infants who never saw light? 17 There the wicked cease from troubling, And there the weary are at rest. 18 There the prisoners rest together; They do not hear the voice of the oppressor. 19 The small and great are there, And the servant is free from his master.

 

If life begins at conception, what happens to the eternal souls of the miscarried? Job’s understanding is that if he would’ve been miscarried, he would now be at rest! (v13,17,18) He would’ve been free from the troubling of the wicked oppressor (the devil (v17,18)

He would’ve been with kings and servants and all others in between who have received the grace of God. Yes, he would’ve been with the beggar Lazarus, whom Jesus described as being in the bosom of Abraham receiving eternal comfort! Lu 16:25 "But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented.

 

Of course, we no longer go to the bosom of Abraham upon our passing. Those saved by the grace of God are ushered to heaven by the angels and join Jesus and the thief on the cross and Lazarus in Paradise, again a place of eternal comfort and rest. Lu 16:22 "So it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom

 

May this portion of Job remind us again that life is created by God and it begins at conception, and let us take comfort for any child lost through miscarriage, trusting God and His grace for the souls of these children. And let us strive to keep the faith like David who suffered the loss of an infant child and he said in 2Sa 12:23 "But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me."

Hold these words in your heart. Make them as dear to you as your unborn child!