Childbearing, God’s Blessing, and the Restoration of Israel

Those who have ever attempted to find out what the Bible says about abortion know that it is never specifically mentioned. As true as this may be, since pregnancy and childbirth are presented as a blessing, it becomes quite clear that any person attempting to shape his or her life around the Bible should find abortion (the deliberate ending of a pregnancy) to be both immoral and unthinkable. Starting as early as Genesis 1, God’s blessing and pregnancy/childbearing are put together. After creating humans in his image, the very first thing God does is bless them and command them to “be fruitful and multiply.”

This idea of childbearing as a blessing is continued throughout the Bible (see Gen 49:25-26; Ex 23:26; Deut 7:13-14; Ps 127:3). One often overlooked way the Bible demonstrates the blessing of childbearing is its connection to the promised restoration of Israel. Then end of Deuteronomy lays out a simple outline of Israel’s history. Before Israel entered the Promised Land, Moses promised the people blessing if they obeyed and curse if they disobeyed. The blessing included a successful and long stay in the land, in which woman would have fruitful wombs (Deut 28:4, 11). The curse included difficulty in land, in which woman have unfruitful wombs and even be forced to eat their own children (Deut 28:18, 53-57). The curse also included an eventual removal from the land by a foreign nation. In chapter 30, Moses foretold that both the blessing and the curse would come upon Israel (Deut 30:1) – the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings spell out how Israel occupied by the Promised Land but was eventually taken away into exile by a foreign nation, namely Babylon. However, also in Deuteronomy 30, Moses promised that if Israel returned to he Lord with all their heart and soul, God would once again restore them to the land and bless them. Again, this blessing included fruitful wombs (Deut 30:9, 16).

When Israel was in exile in Babylon, the Prophets spoke about this promised return. In Isaiah 54:1-3, Isaiah prophecies, “’Sing, O barren one, who did not bear; break forth into singing and cry aloud, who have not been in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of her who is married,’ says the Lord. ‘Enlarge the place of your tents, and let the curtains of your habitations be stretched out; do not hold back; lengthen your cords and strengthen your stakes. For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left, and your offspring will possess the nations and will people the desolate cities.’” In other words, Isaiah speaks for the restoration of Israel in terms of a great reversal within the womb, from barrenness to fruitfulness and many offspring. In Jeremiah 31:15-17, Jeremiah prophecies, “Thus says the Lord: ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, for they are no more.’ Thus says the Lord: ‘Keep your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears, for there is a reward for your work, declares the Lord, and they shall come back from the land of the enemy. There is hope for the future declares the Lord, and your children shall come back to their own children.’” In other words, Jeremiah speaks of the restoration of Israel as a reversal from childlessness to a land full of children. Finally, in Ezekiel 36, Ezekiel is told to prophecy to the mountains of Israel, which were empty and desolate at the time. He prophesies in Ezek 36:9-11, “Behold, I am with you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be tilled and sown. And I will multiply people on you, the whole house of Israel on it. The cities shall be inhabited and the waste places rebuilt. And I will multiply on you man and beast, and they shall multiply and be fruitful.” The chapter ends with: “Thus says the Lord: This also I will let the house of Israel ask me to do for them: to increase their people like a flock. Like a flock for sacrifices, like the flock at Jerusalem during her appointed feasts, so all the waste cities will be filled with flocks of people. Then they will know that I am the Lord.” In other words, Ezekiel speaks of the restoration of Israel as a reversal, from and empty land to one of man and beast inhabiting the land, while being fruitful and multiplying (which is language similar to that of Genesis 1).

Whether or not these passages are to be interpreted literally or metaphorically, Israel’s return from exile is presented in language of reversal from curse to blessing. And while this blessing includes many things, one prominent way Israel will experience promised blessed is through abundant childbearing. If childbearing is so powerfully associated with blessing, it is difficult to see how someone trying to be faithful to the Bible could think that terminating a pregnancy is in any way good.