Chapter 18: Myth—Abortion Doesn’t Matter

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Myth—Abortion Doesn’t Matter

Rachel was distressed that Leah was having children and that she was

not. That is when she told Jacob that if he [Jacob] didn’t give her children she would die. Jacob’s angry response was, “Do you think that I am God?”

“When Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, she

envied her sister; and she said to Jacob, ‘Give me children, or I shall die!’ Jacob became very angry with Rachel and said, ‘Am I in the place of God, who has withheld from you the fruit of the womb?’ ” Genesis 30:1-2 NRSV

There wasn’t a fertility clinic to attend or artificial insemination to obtain and certainly no doctor’s selective reduction practice to limit the quantity of naturally occurring fetuses in the womb. God was in control and only His gift of life was needed. This was obtained through earnest prayer

and a sincere heart. Yes, women actually prayed to God to have children and even today many continue with this practice.

The issue of incest comes into play when Jacob’s descendant Judah

[one of Leah’s sons] unwittingly has sex with his pledged daughter in law who tricks him. This is a very interesting story that unfolds in Genesis 38 and is worthy of your careful study.

Judah took [selected] a wife named Tamar for his firstborn son Er. But Er was wicked in the sight of God who soon killed him. Judah’s second son Onan was then required by tradition to take Tamar as his own wife providing his brother with an heir. Assuming Tamar could conceive, that

child would then become Er’s descendant. Onan knew this fact and rather than provide semen for Tamar to conceive, he “spilled it on the ground.”

“But since Onan knew that the offspring would not be his,

he spilled his semen on the ground whenever he went in to his brother’s wife, so that he would not give offspring to his brother.” Genesis 38:9 NRSV

The fact that he would not honor his brother with an heir angered God who then also killed him.