What does the Bible Say about Mothers Murdering Children?

 (Part Four in a Series on the Fifth Commandment)

by Pastor Paul Wolff

In this article:
What is happening?
How could such things happen?
What does the Bible say about murdering children?
Biblical Examples
What does this mean for the future?

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Mark 10:14

What is happening?

There is something happening now in our society which has rarely happened in the history of the world. It is certainly not unknown, or unprecedented, but in the history of civilization it is extraordinarily rare. It may be more well known among uncivilized (or under civilized) societies, but that it is happening in what was once a civilized, Christian nation, like the United States of America (and others), is heartbreaking. What is happening is that there seems to be a trend recently of mothers murdering their children in cold blood.

Recently there was a trial of a woman in the U.S. who confessed to strangling her three young children, but which ended in a mistrial. It should have been an easy conviction, as evidence showed that she planned the murder, and conspired to get her husband out of the house while she killed their children. After the trial it was revealed that eleven of the jurors wanted to acquit her of murder (likely by reason of insanity), but only one juror would not be persuaded nor bullied into joining that decision, but held fast that it was not beyond reasonable doubt that the mother was guilty of first degree murder. During the trial, groups of women organized public protests advocating that the mother should be excused for murdering her children. Since the mistrial was declared several more women have also killed their children in the following few weeks.

How could such things happen?

What is more sad than all of this, is that this is not at all surprising to anyone who has been paying attention! Over 20 years ago I observed that the leading cause of death in the United States was abortion – the murder of children. In 2002 (the latest year that information was available when I wrote the 2005 article) there were 1,300,000 abortions. Since 1973, when the Supreme Court illegally made abortion “legal” in all 50 states, there have been over one million abortions each year on average. This has continued, even after the Supreme Court overturned Roe vs. Wade. The problem with the Dobbs vs. Jackson was that the Supreme Court did not ensure that all unborn children of U.S. citizens were protected from murder.

What this means is that every year, for over 53 years, a million mothers have murdered their children. This does not mean that each of these million mothers are different people – many of them are repeat offenders. Also, not all of these murdering mothers are willing participants. It is well documented that a fair number of abortions are coerced by the fathers of the unfortunate children (boyfriends or husbands to the child’s mother). The Abortion Industry (as it is called) has repeatedly shown that it does not care about whether the women who seek their services are raped, abused, enslaved, or are otherwise molested, as long as they get paid. Nevertheless, what this shows is that there are tens of millions of women in the United States alone who have murdered their children. 

I must also recognize that not all of these women advocate for allowing abortion and infanticide. Many women have repented of this wickedness and found forgiveness in Jesus Christ, and others have also recognized that what they did was wrong, and should not be done. Yet, that probably still leaves tens of millions of women (and others) who refuse to repent and think that they have every right to murder their children, either before their birth or after. This happens because murder is such a horrible sin that, when someone commits murder they will go to great lengths to justify it to themselves. Since these people convince themselves that they had good reason for murder, they cannot admit to themselves or others that it was wrong – because to do so would be to admit that they are as wicked as other murderers, but murderous desires lead to murder, unless reversed by repentance and trust in God through Jesus Christ.

What does the Bible say about murdering children?

Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these." Mark 10:14

In Leviticus 18:21 God told the Israelites, “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.” I am sure that at the time the Israelites thought that this was one of the easiest commandments to keep. After all, what kind of a person would even consider killing their children, much less, offering their dead children to a false god like Molech? Such things are absolutely unthinkable for any godly person. The idol, Molech, was created to give parents a way to get rid of their children which would ease their guilty conscience (and maybe make some money for false priests during hard times). You can read an article I wrote here about how the ancient practice of child sacrifice corresponds to similar practices in our society. Yet, God knows the wickedness in our hearts more than we do, and when the tribe of Judah fell into the practice of child murder (after God had already destroyed the Kingdom of Israel for doing the same thing) God condemned them, saying, “They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35) This practice was a large part of the reason why God sent the Babylonians to conquer Judah, destroy Jerusalem, and take the survivors as slaves in exile to Babylon.

God also demonstrated that He values the lives of even the most humble people, though the world may think they are expendable. In Exodus 22:22-24 God says, “Do not take advantage of a widow or an orphan. If you do and they cry out to me, I will certainly hear their cry. My anger will be aroused, and I will kill you with the sword; your wives will become widows and your children fatherless.” The consequences of taking advantage of the lowest in society (whom some might consider “burdens”) was that God would raise up enemies against them who would kill the men so their wives would be widows, and their children orphans. 

We should be aware that all that is going on does not escape the notice of God. In Deuteronomy 10:17-18 God tells His people, “The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing.” This was both a blessing and a curse (as these are frequently joined together in Holy Scripture). It was a blessing because God would protect His people if they fell on hard times or experienced disaster. It was a curse if the people disobeyed God and took advantage of the weak in society – then God would punish the wrongdoers. 

Biblical Examples

God tested Abraham, but did not let him kill his son. Yet, God did not spare His Son, but let Him be sacrificed  to save us from sin and death.

Abraham and Isaac
There are some examples in the Bible of the murder of children which can give us instruction. The first one is in Genesis 22 where God uncharacteristically tells Abraham to kill his son, Isaac, as a sacrifice to God. Abraham does not openly question God, but prepares to do as God commanded him to do. The New Testament book of Hebrews explains to us that, because God had already promised that Isaac would be the ancestor of a great nation and many kings, Abraham trusted that if he did as God commanded, God would raise his son from the dead so that Isaac could fulfill what God promised. Here we should note that God did not allow Abraham to kill Isaac, but called to him to stop when the knife was in his hand ready to do what God told him to do. 

This story is in contrast to its fulfillment in Jesus Christ. God would not allow Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac, but God offered His son, Jesus, as the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, and did not stop it from reaching its fulfillment. Isaac was likely an unwilling sacrifice (though he apparently did not fight Abraham, nor seem to hold any hard feelings against his father later in his life), but Jesus was the perfectly willing sacrifice. God did not force Jesus to sacrifice His life against His will, but made it clear in the Holy Scriptures that He wanted Jesus to freely offer His life in payment for the sins of the world, so that we may be forgiven and rescued from sin and death. Because Jesus loved God perfectly, He was willing to do what God wanted, and let sinful men put Him to death. In doing this, Jesus offered His innocent life to pay for the sins of the whole world, and God accepted His sacrifice, so that all who believe in Jesus have full forgiveness of all their sins, and full salvation through Him.

Pharaoh’s Command to Kill Baby Boys Before the Exodus
In Exodus 1, we are told that a Pharaoh in Egypt came to power who forgot about Joseph and why all the Israelites were living in Egypt, and saw them as a potential threat. He feared this, even though the descendants of Israel had been living in Egypt for 400 years, they had done nothing against their Egyptian hosts. The King first commanded the Egyptian midwives to kill the male Israelite babies they delivered, so that they would not grow up to be a military threat to Egypt. The midwives did not obey this command because they were in the business of delivering babies, not killing them. Only in the past 50 years or so have doctors and nurses become active agents of murder instead of healing. 

The oppression and murderous commands of the Pharaoh led the Israelites to cry out to God to send them a deliverer. God heard their prayers, and sent them Moses. When the Egyptian midwives failed to do as the Pharaoh decreed, he commanded all Israelite baby boys to be thrown into the Nile River to be drowned. Moses’ mother complied with the letter of the law by putting her baby in the river, but she placed him in an “ark” made of woven reeds, and waterproofed with tar or asphalt so it would float, and he would not be drowned. Pharaoh’s daughter found the “ark” and took pity on the child, and adopted him as her son, though she knew that he was from an Israelite family. Moses was the deliverer whom God sent to lead the Israelites out of Egypt toward the Promised land of Canaan, though he would not accomplish this until he was 80 years old.

The Tenth Plague in Egypt

God called Moses to lead the children of Israel out of slavery to the land He promised to give to Abraham

As a counterpoint to the Pharaoh’s command to kill the Israelite baby boys, when God sends the plagues on Egypt in Exodus 7-12, the tenth and final plague was that God killed all the firstborn of men and livestock in Egypt. However, God spared the firstborn of the Israelites by having them sacrifice a male lamb or goat without blemish and put the blood of the sacrifice on their doorposts so that God would pass over their homes when He came to kill the firstborn of Egypt. There was death in every household in Egypt that night, but none of the Israelites died because God accepted the lambs as substitutes for the firstborn of the people. This caused Pharaoh to send the Israelites out of Egypt, and was God’s main salvation event of the Old Testament. 

The tenth plague and Passover showed how God would save all people by the coming of the Messiah, or Christ. Jesus would be the substitute who would die for the sins of the whole world, so that everyone who believes in Him would be rescued from sin and death, just as the Israelites in Moses’ day believed in God and did as He directed. Here we see God’s justice. As Egypt’s Pharaoh tried to subdue God’s people by killing their children, God came to rescue His people. The Pharaoh of 80 years later, suffered defeat and the loss of his firstborn son in the plague, along with every household in Egypt. God showed that He has mercy on His people, and, although He is patient (wanting all sinners to come to repentance and be saved), He is not unwilling to bring vengeance on those who persist in evil. When God does act in this way He is always just and right in His actions. When it seems He is slow to act, it is not because He is uncaring, or unable to do anything, but it is because He is patient and merciful.

Prayer for Vengeance in Psalm 137
The Psalmist’s lament in Psalm 137 is a difficult one for many people, because in this Psalm, the writer is praying that God would bring retribution on the Babylonians for their conquest of Judah, the destruction of Jerusalem, and the many thousands of people killed in that war. Though God had enabled the Babylonians to do this, they did not acknowledge God, nor do it for God’s glory, but did it for their own glory. The Psalm ends with the writer praying that God would bless those who take the Babylonian children and “dashes them against a rock.” (Psalm 137:9) It sounds cruel, but those taken into captivity likely had witnessed the Babylonians doing just that to their children, and the Psalmist is only asking for similar justice to be done – no worse than what was done to them. God answered their prayer later when the Persians conquered Babylon, and God moved the Persian king to let the people of Judah return and rebuild Jerusalem. God did this so that His promises to Abraham, Jacob (Israel), and David would be fulfilled, and the Messiah would come from their descendants in the land that God had set aside for it to happen there. 

Jesus loves the little children

Herod’s murder of infants in Bethlehem
We see another tragic mass murder of infants in Matthew 2 when King Herod heard about a sign proclaiming the birth of a future king in Judah. Though the child was less than two years old, Herod was so paranoid that he ordered soldiers to kill all the children in the Bethlehem area under two years old. This story parallels closely the story of Moses and the Exodus from 1,500 years earlier. Also, as the person of Jesus is a greater savior than Moses, so also is the salvation won by Jesus greater than the freedom to which Moses led the people of Israel. Christ’s salvation is for all people who trust in the true God for salvation, not just one small nation on earth. 

What does this mean for the future?

In Biblical history, when there is a mass casualty event involving children, it is often associated with God’s judgment against idolatry, wickedness, and violence. Such things only happen in times of great apostasy and rebellion against God, because a godly society would treasure and protect their children, and such things would not happen. Such tragedies as: abortion, infanticide, mutilation and abuse of children for the sake of sexual fantasies, and more, all show us that we live in an era of great apostasy and wickedness. This calls for likewise great repentance and a swift punishment of all who carry out and support such evil. 

If Christians are unable to address and correct the evil, then God will find someone else to do it. However, as Judah was apostate in the times of the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah, and God empowered the pagan Babylonians to carry out His justice, we see that the cure may be worse than the disease – though God does work everything out for good for those who love and trust in Him above all things. If Western Christian nations cannot turn back to Christ, and bring to justice those who murder and mutilate children, then God could very well empower Islamic Jihadists to conquer and enslave Western nations and bring a temporal order. The “cure worse than the disease” in this is that Islamic Jihadists in the past two centuries have adopted a Marxist Gnosticism which is much more radical than many eras of past Islamic conquests.

There have been times in history when Christians have lived with a fair bit of autonomy under Islamic rule. However, much of radicalized Islam these days is much more extreme. Although a conquering Islam would bring a semblance of order in what is now a chaotic world, and would forbid societal evils such as sexual perversion, general infanticide, abortion, and several other plagues endemic to Western Marxist Liberal Progressivism, such a government would harshly persecute Christianity and all other religions. It would also enslave all women and girls under strict Sharia submissive rules, and mandate universal general conversion to the false religion of Islam, with severe penalties for all who refuse to submit. 

The Holy Family is an image of God’s relationship with His people.

Such a future is not necessarily imminent. No one knows except God, alone. Such things are likely to happen in the very last days before Christ’s return, however. These days may not be those days. It could be that a general repentance and return to Christ may mean that several generations may still live under God’s grace, and many more will be added to the number of blessed Christians who find salvation in Jesus Christ. Either way, now is the time for repentance and prayer, trusting in Jesus alone for our forgiveness and salvation. 

The world seems hell-bent on destruction, and Christians should not get caught up in the chaos – neither in going along with the world’s apostasy, nor in reaction against it. Jesus Christ is Lord of all, and He has already won the victory. We dare not panic, lest we lose sight of Jesus Christ and His salvation. All that is left is for history to play out as it must. As for Christian believers, we should continue steadfast in the True Faith, no matter what else is going on in the world, as we await our salvation in confident, patient trust that Jesus will rescue us from all harm and evil, and that all things will work out to the glory of God – our savior and redeemer.

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Articles in this series:

You Shall Not Murder

The True God Cannot Murder

The Opposite of Murder

Related Articles:
Why Does God Condemn Unbelievers to Hell?
A Biblical Argument for Self Defense
Anger
Why Christians Condemn Abortion but Support the Death Penalty
The Good Samaritan
Is it Easier to Heal, or to Forgive?
Christ Has Done All Things Well
The Promise of Christ in Water And Light
Modern Molechianism
“Let His Blood be on Us and on Our Children”
The Passion of Christ
The Slaughter of the Innocents
Friends and Murderers
The Promise of the Rainbow
The True Story of a Terrorist Turned Christian
The Morality of War
Rejecting the Survival Instinct
The Leading Cause of Death in America

 

The Widow’s Mite

by Pastor Paul Wolff

Jesus is the Good Samaritan who rescued the man considered His "enemy"

Jesus taught, “Watch out for the teachers of the law. They like to walk around in flowing robes and be greeted in the marketplaces, and have the most important seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at banquets. They devour widows’ houses and for a show make lengthy prayers. Such men will be punished most severely.” (Mark 12:38-40)

Jesus warns us to beware of those who love worldly honor. Yet, who doesn’t love worldly honor? We all want people to like us and admire us. But the world doesn’t always treasure what God considers righteousness, and even when it does, those who seek praise make a pretense of righteousness and the public can be fooled.

St. John writes, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world – the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does – comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.” (1 John 2:15-17) People are sinful and their desires are sinful. Worldly people will seek to corrupt you (if they haven’t already) in order that you will be more willing to go along with their sinful desires. At the very best, if you seek the world’s favor, they will only give it to you as long as they can get something in return. When you have nothing more to give, then the world will abandon you. There is no salvation in seeking the world’s favor and praise.


That is why James (4:4) writes, “Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.” But understand that it is not as if God feels slighted or offended because you prefer someone else to Him. God loves you and wants you to be saved from your sins. If you seek other gods you are rejecting your only hope of salvation and will be lost.

Though the devil offered Jesus the riches of the world, He would not be diverted from His saving work

To illustrate this, Jesus watched the people putting money in the offering box. He noticed many rich people put in large sums of money. Jesus does not condemn them for this. It is not a sin to give large amounts of money to support the church – if God has so blessed you with wealth. The church needs money for maintenance, repair, salaries and the like. This is a good work. It is necessary for the spread of the Gospel. “Faith comes by hearing the Gospel.” How can anyone be saved if they don’t hear the message? So it is good to support the church with your tithes.

It is only a sin if you have the wrong attitude when making your offering, such as using your wealth to buy influence and control in the church. You might say, “I paid my dues, now I get to say how things are run around here.” That attitude forgets that neither the church nor your wealth belong to you – they belong to God. It is also a sin if you think your gift gets you closer to God, or makes God see you more favorably. God’s favor cannot be bought by giving to Him what belongs to Him anyway. Do you really think God will be impressed? Repent of this.

On the other hand, it is also a sin if you give all you have to the church and have nothing left for your family. It is a service to God to provide for the needs of your family. Though this, too, can be taken too far if you use your family as an excuse to get out of your obligations to the church. If you spoil your children by giving them every wicked thing they ask for, while the church is in decay and the staff is underpaid. That does no one any good – neither the church, nor your children.

Yet, instead of rebuking others for one reason or another, Jesus notices this one poor widow who put two pennies into the offering. Those who loved worldly honor and praise hardly noticed this poor widow. She could do nothing for them. Others probably didn’t take much notice of her either, but Jesus did.

Neither Mark, nor Jesus, give us her life story except to note that she is a widow, and, as such, she probably had no one to care for except herself. She apparently had no possessions to her name except those two pennies. In a way it would have made little difference to her if she spent those pennies on herself or gave it to the church. She might have been able to buy a meager amount of food for a small meal, but then she would soon have nothing again. Yet, she wanted to give her money to support the church. 

God often provides more than we need in order that we may share with others in need

Why would she do this? Jesus doesn’t elaborate, but we can assume that this woman had great faith. She may have been almost completely destitute, but she was just grateful to be a child of God so that when she got two pennies she wanted to give them to God in thankfulness for His forgiveness and salvation, and trusting that God would see her need and provide what she needed.

God did see her and I trust that He gave her all she needed. She might never have gotten rich, but God certainly provided for her needs. We all would do well to emulate the faith of this woman.

I’m sure many sermons have been preached on this topic that said, “Be like her or else. Amen.” But if I stopped here I would be doing you a great disservice. If the only thing you get out of this Bible story is that you should strive to be like the poor widow, then you are likely to be condemned by that message.  If the lesson you take away from this is to try to emulate the widow because her actions are somehow more holy – then that would only lead you to become like the scribes who do their good works to receive something in return. 

You are most likely not like the widow in her faithfulness, but take heart – she wasn’t like that either. Well, she was, but not perfectly – not her whole life. It might have taken her losing husband and children and all her possessions for her to learn to trust in God enough to give her last two pennies in faith. She surely had many failures and sins along the way, as have you. But she wasn’t saved by her faith, nor by the large percentage of her meager possessions given to God on this one particular day. She was saved by Jesus.

You are not saved from sin and death by what you do. After you are dead, what can you do to bring yourself back to life? You can only be saved by Jesus. But then, in showing this poor widow’s offering, Jesus is teaching about what He, Himself, has done for you – not about what you should do for Him.

What made the widow special was that she gave everything she had out of love for Christ and His salvation. Now, it could have been made easier by the fact that her entire estate only included two pennies (mites), but most sinners would still put their trust in those two pennies to save them until they were gone, and then they might look to God out of desperation. Though even then, some people still would not look to God to save them even if they had nothing else to put their trust in. Jesus taught that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Though even poor people can make an idol out of what little they have – even two pennies. Yet, this woman’s offering didn’t save her. It wasn’t even her love and trust that saved her. If that was all she had, then it would surely be a case of: “too little – too late.” What saved her was Jesus. 

Though Christ was rich, for your sake he became poor so that by His poverty, you may become rich.

In His essence, Jesus was not poor. Jesus is the eternal God. He created all things. Everything that exists belongs to Him. Nothing that you own or treasure so much really belongs to you. It all belongs to God. It is only by God’s gracious kindness that you have use of your possessions for a little while. We come into this world naked, and naked we shall depart. Yet, although Jesus is the creator and owner of all things, He gave up everything to pay for your sins so that you might have everything. Jesus came down from the glory of heaven to be conceived and born of the virgin Mary. He spent His first night out of the womb laying in a manger. He lived a humble life as the son of a carpenter, and in obedience to God and all His laws. Then He offered up His life as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of the world. Jesus let sinful men nail His hands and His feet to the cross, and they shouted all kinds of blasphemous insults and lies at Him while He was suffering, and then he died. Jesus gave up everything – including His life – to pay the price for your sin. “The wages of sin is death.” (Romans 6:23) “The soul that sins shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:4 & 18:20) Yet, God, Himself, in the person of Jesus, died in your place, so that you could have life forever more. Jesus gave up everything so that He could give you a share in the riches of His heavenly Kingdom.

It is because Jesus has done this that you can have the same love for God that the poor widow did in Mark 12. It is also because Jesus has done this for you that whenever you realize you frequently fall short of this ideal of faith and obedience, that you can turn to Christ in repentance and trust that He will forgive you all your sins and provide for all your needs. Since Christ has given all He had to rescue you from your sin and redeem you to be His children, you can be sure He will provide for all your needs – and then some. You may be rich, or you may never be rich, but in Christ you have the inheritance of God’s heavenly kingdom, which is worth far more than all the riches of the world.

Do not put your trust in yourself or in your riches or in your goodness. All these things will pass away, and none of them can save you. Put your trust in Jesus, who, though He was rich, became poor, so that through His poverty you might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9) Jesus has done everything necessary to save you from your sins and give you everlasting life. Trust in Jesus to save you. Let everything else go – it is all temporary anyway. Jesus, and His salvation is forever, and it is a sure thing. Jesus has paid for it all and has given it to you as a gift. Rejoice! Christ is your salvation.