Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights the afflicted and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)
It is a tendency born out of our natural self-centeredness. If not careful, we tend to make decisions based merely on how it will help us—advance our cause or comfort. We do this as individuals and we can do it as nations.
Tragically, the most vulnerable are those who cannot defend themselves, such as children. The most helpless, as we have discovered, are the unborn. In 2019, over 850,000 babies were aborted in the United States and somewhere between 40 and 50 million worldwide. That equates to 125,000 babies every single day.
OUR SELF-ABSORBED RATIONALE
No nation has been this pagan and cruel and survived. We have found a way to rationalize this in our own minds. “It’s in the best interest of the mother” is our usual excuse. But there is nowhere else in human relationships that such a horrific answer would stand. “Well, my parents are old and it’s hard for me to take care of them, so I’ll kill them so it won’t inconvenience me.” We shudder at such logic, yet it is identical to our thinking regarding the killing of defenseless babies in the womb.
Another sad justification is the idea that the baby is not really a life. It's why the word "fetus" is used by some, never "child." The baby is never spoken of as "one made in the image of God." Or, "my new son or grandson," or, the "child who will grow to adulthood and make a massive influence in the lives of those around them." Such descriptions would move this sin from the impersonal to the personal.
The foundation of all of these excuses if that we want to be God. Sometimes even unconciously, we decide that we are wiser than God and we usurp His throne. We were never meant to take that authority from His hands. And the results are always disastrous.
OUR HOPE
Thankfully there are millions across America that are obeying this verse in Proverbs 31—a chapter that also praises the virtues of godly women. People by the millions are rising up to defend the rights of the unborn. In recent years the number of abortions has decreased. But we should not cease until we have completely eradicated this scourge from our land.
Until then, we must “open our mouths for the mute and for the rights of all the unfortunate.” To fail to do so would ignore one of our most important tasks.
Father, forgive us for justifying such sin in our midst. And forgive us for our silence. Help us open our mouths and never cease until this wrong is corrected. And Lord, move the hearts of millions in our land to see this for what it really is and help us repent.
