Life Verses 2: Job 31:13-15

Last week we looked at Proverbs 31:8-9 and the biblical mandate to defend those appointed to die.  This week, however, instead of analyzing a verse commanding us to do something, we will look at a troubled man’s declaration of God’s work in designing us from conception.  In defense of his moral uprightness, Job says the following to God:

If I have despised the cause of my male or female servant
When they complained against me,
What then shall I do when God rises up?
When He punishes, how shall I answer Him?
Did not He who made me in the womb make them?
Did not the same one fashion us in the womb?

Job 31:13-15

The context of this verse provides insight into what Job meant in this passage.  Verses 13 and 14 give Job’s defense—he had listened to his servants when they complained to him.  Why couldn’t God do the same for Job?  What Job reveals in verse 15 is his acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty over us before we were even born; he makes the point that humans are created equal because the same creator has designed each individual in the womb.  While not a direct command to defend the unborn like we saw in Proverbs, Job 31:13-15 is a reminder that all humans, both born and unborn, are fashioned in His image and therefore carry a certain intrinsic worth.

Furthermore, Job notes that human beings are God’s handiwork even before birth.  In one of his yearly sermons on the subject of abortion, Reverend John Piper said, “This is God at work doing what he alone can do creating a person in his own image; and to attack this little person being completed by God is to attack God.¹”   When God designs a new being, we as humans have no right to interfere with His process.

Come back next Saturday for another verse and brief commentary.

¹ “God at work in every womb” from http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Sermons/ByDate/2001/45_God_at_Work_in_Every_Womb/

Note: Our apologies for not making this post Saturday as promised.