For the next few posts, I'm going to focus on some of the unanswered questions from last week's Q&A on Genesis. For context, listen to last week's sermon, Origin of Humanity, on iTunes. Comment back if you have more questions.
- HT
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Q: Biblically, how do you view the choice of how many kids to have by married couples? Keep multiplying until bodies are unable? Or limit the number?
A: The Bible doesn’t give us any direction on this. I think you just need to go with your gut. Children are a blessing from the Lord and the Scripture says, “Blessed is the man who has a quiver full of children.” (Psalm 127:3-4) In our family, we’re about to have our third child and who knows, we might have four or five. Or we may just stop at three. Pray with your spouse and God will give you direction. The Bible tells us to be fruitful and multiply, but God doesn’t give us a quota. If you have one kid, that’s fruitful. If you have ten kids that’s hella fruitful.
Q: If we are to be fruitful, than why does God allow miscarriage?
A: First of all, if this has happened to you, as I know it has happened to many women in our community, I grieve with you. I can’t imagine the pain you’re experiencing and have experienced. What is interesting is that many holy women of the Bible were unable to have children. The Bible is filled with couples calling out to God to give them children. And sometimes God did and other times He did not. I’m not sure why God allows miscarriage. But, I am sure that things like miscarriage are a result of the fall and the effects of sin on humanity. You must remember that there is no passage of scripture indicating that your miscarriage was a direct result of your personal sin. Just as the starving child in Africa is not suffering for his own personal sin, he’s suffering because of the sins of humanity and as a result of the fall. We should turn our anger to sin and not to God. God is good and always does what is right. Even when it doesn’t seem like the best choice to us, we can never put ourselves in the position where we—as creatures—think that we are wiser and more righteous than the Creator. Often when people are angry with God, it is because they assume that God has done them wrong, which is a form of self-righteousness because we are saying we are more righteous than God. So, when it comes to horrible things like miscarriage, we must know that God grieves with us in our pain. Scripture says that God keeps every one of our tears in His bottle (Psalm 56:8). This means that God is collecting our tears because they are precious to Him. If miscarriage is a result of the fall and sin in the world, then we must remember that our Savior came to take away sin by entering into our pain and suffering as we do. God, in the midst of our pain, brought redemption. It’s possible that redemption for you would be to try for another child. It’s possible that redemption for you would be to adopt a child, saving the child from living without parents just as Jesus saved you from living without a heavenly Father.
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