Again, here is my fairly literal translation of these verses:
13Because You formed my inmost being and wove me together in the womb of my mother.
14I will praise You upon because I am distinguished [by] feared things. Your doings [are] amazed things and my soul knows [that] greatly.
15My skeleton was not hidden from You when I was made in secret, [when] I was intricately woven in [the] depths of [the] earth.
16Your eyes saw my embryo and upon Your book all of them were written; days were formed and not one among them.
As a follow-up to my last blog, there’s another thing about these verses that I think is interesting and thought provoking.
Matthew Henry said, “My parents were only the instruments of it … [Consider that it is] a great marvel, a great miracle we might call it, but it is done in the ordinary course of nature.” He’s right. This is one of those places where the immediate miraculous workings of God mysteriously and obviously intersect with what appears to be a completely natural process. By observation alone, one would conclude that conception is an entirely natural process. One could, like a Deist of old, propose that conception is a process that the Lord set in place and since then it “just happens” and neither requires nor involves divine intervention.
But the verses before us clearly contradict such a notion. Verse 13 clearly states, “…You formed my inmost being and wove me together in the womb of my mother.” I underline the “You” because it is emphatic in the Hebrew. But with or without my underline, the truth remains that God Himself is intimately involved in the conception of every single human being. Though millions of babies may be conceived in any given day, yet every one of them is a specific and deliberate creation of God.
This fact would have enormous implications for those conceived in, shall we say, less than ideal circumstances – babies conceived during rapes, or conceived perhaps in girls much too young to be mothers, or by couples who might see it as an “unwanted” pregnancy. Regardless of the circumstances producing a conception, that child is a unique and deliberate creation of the Great Artist.
But back to Matthew Henry’s thought, consider that, on the other hand, it is, in a sense, completely a natural process. Is it a miracle or is it natural? The answer is of course, “Yes.” It is both. Unexplainably yet totally both. Perhaps my faith shows through here, but, as a parent, I have no trouble seeing both. My children are all obviously the product of their father and mother. We see so much of us in them, so much even of our families back several generations. Yet each one came out of the womb an absolutely individual creation. They are clearly their own person. So much the same and yet so much totally unique. A miracle seen clearly in what is a completely natural process.
My suggestion would be that this is of course true of all of life. We’re back to the “Sovereignty vs. Responsibility” debate. Is God totally sovereign or am I totally responsible? Yes. Yes to both.
I read recently that, once given rifles, some American Indians actually became excellent shots with them. However, in battle they were known to be lousy shots. The reason proposed was because “magic” was such an important part of the American Indian’s thinking. Much of the war dances and other activities in which they engaged ahead of battle was for the purpose of improving their “magic.” If their magic was strong, they would do great exploits in battle. So they would go into battle counting on their magic. That being the case, they didn’t need to aim carefully. They thought their “magic” would guide the bullet to their enemy. The actual result was simply that they became characteristically lousy shots in battle.
In depending on “magic” they were less careful of their own efforts. I would suggest this is something we as Christians should be aware of. I suspect that it is easy to say we “trust God” and then not really try as hard as we should. Of course it is also easy to forget God and think it’s all on us. But, again, is it God or us? Yes.
Somehow, in every endeavor, we must strive to do our very best, to use all the faculties God has given us, while at the same time trusting God to be at work even in and through those efforts to accomplish His good purpose.
When a child is conceived, is it God or us? Yes. No matter what we do, is it God or us? Yes.
“O the depths of the riches of the wisdom of God.”
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