Confronting Abortion (2 Kings 16:2–3)

Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord his God, as his father David had done, but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.
—2 Kings 16:2–3

Wow, this is talking about Ahaz here, who continued the spiritual decline among God’s people here in 2 Kings. And he took things to a whole other level here, burning his son as an offering, sacrificing his son according to the despicable practices of the nations. And we read this, and we think, I can’t fathom that. Someone sacrificing, burning their son as an offering? How evil and wicked is that?

2 Kings 16:2–3 reminds us to confront evil with love and courage.

And I want to be careful because this is not a one-to-one correlation. At the same time, for those who live in my country, in the United States, we live in a country where over 1 million children this year will have their lives taken from them in the womb of their mothers, will have their lives sacrificed on the altar of, well, so many different things. Regardless, these children’s lives will be sacrificed. And those 1 million children join approximately 72 million other children in other countries around the world whose lives will be taken in the womb this year alone.

This is rampant evil and wickedness. And there’s so much we could talk about here that contributes to this that we need to talk about and need to address. But first and foremost, as God’s people, whom God has called to do justice for children in the womb and the moms who carry them and their dads, we must work and labor in so many different ways from so many different directions to love children in the womb and the moms who carry them and the dads in this picture.

A Prayer for Unborn Children

So I just want to lead us to pray. God, have mercy on us for all the evil and wickedness that we’ve become accustomed to in our world and that even some professing Christians advocate for. God, have mercy. We pray for your mercy on children in wombs right now, on their moms and their dads. And God, we pray that you’d help us as your people to work for them, to work for all of their good, and to work to save lives and to support moms and dads and to share your love in this fallen, evil world full of wickedness where so many children are so vulnerable and so many children have their lives being sacrificed today. God, have mercy and help us as your church to work sacrificially to care for vulnerable children.

God, we pray for a day when abortion is unthinkable in our countries. We pray for that, and we pray you help us to live toward that end, to care for children and their parents, to do foster care, to adopt, to come alongside birth parents.

And help us to do all this in the name of Jesus, with the love and care and mercy of Jesus. Amen.