“Unwanted” or unplanned children are not unplanned neither unwanted by God.
Why did God created us? What is ourpurpose?
- For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.
In God’s mind, the reason why He created us, was to walk in the good works. And it says, that God has ordained those good works. The question is, are these good works universal, and common, or there is a specificity for each individual? If individual, then it must follow that unwanted, or unplanned children were actually planned and wanted by God, since He had ordained a good works for them to walk in them.
Does God has a plan for each and every individual?
- For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
- I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
- My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
- Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Check out the AVS version:
- For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
- I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;
- My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
- Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.
Here it plainly states God’s intimate involvement in the formation of each individual. The psalmist speaks of God knowing and planning his life, indicating that God has specific intentions for every person.
- Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
This verse highlights that God not only creates each person but also knows them personally and assigns specific purposes to their lives. Jeremiah was set apart before his birth, showing that God’s plans extend to individual people.
- Listen, O isles, unto me; and hearken, ye people, from far; The LORD hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother hath he made mention of my name.
This passage further affirms that God calls individuals and assigns them specific purposes even before they are born, reinforcing the idea of individual purpose.
- But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
Paul’s calling as an apostle was part of God’s individual plan for him, even before he was born. This further supports the idea that God gives individual people specific purposes in life.
Individual purpose was assigned by God, not their parents
The individual purposes and plans God had assigned to the Paul, prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah, they were not assigned by their parents, rather they were assigned by God. These were the good works “which God hath before ordained that we (they) should walk in them” Ephesians 2:10
Jesus emphasizes that God’s attention to detail extends to even the smallest aspects of individual lives.
- Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.
- But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
- Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows.
If God cares so much about sparrows and the number of hairs on a person’s head, it demonstrates how individually involved God is with each human life.
What makes us think that God had not planned every individual life, and that our lives are just a result of chromosome mix?
”Unplanned” lineage of Jesus
We know with certainty, that God had planned the birth of His own begotten Son. The Bible gives a good deal of emphasis on Christ’s lineage. We read this in Matthew 1:1-17and Luke 3:23-38. In the Old Testament, there are stories preserved with the mentioned individuals.
Phares (Son of Judah and Tamar) - Genesis 38
The story of Phares is such that he was a child of Judah and Tamar, born out of a deceptive and culturally taboo relationship. Tamar was Judah’s daughter-in-law. After her husband (Judah’s son) died, Tamar disguised herself as a prostitute to purposely conceive an heir by Judah, because Judah refused to give her his youngest son in marriage as was the custom. Judah had sex with Tamar without knowing her identity.
Despite this morally complex and unplanned scenario, their child Phares became an ancestor of Jesus (Matthew 1:3). His birth was part of the divine lineage through which the Messiah would come. Phares might have been unplanned child in the eyes of Judah, but not in God’s eyes.
Does that means that God sanctioned the act of Tamar and Judah?
No. God’s will is shown in His law. Although at the time of Judah, they did not have Moses’ books, they have broken the following instructions:
- Levirate Marriage Duty - Deuteronomy 25:5-6
- Prohibition of Fornication and Adultery - Leviticus 19:29, Leviticus 20:10,
- Faithfulness to Promises - Numbers 30:2
The main point is that the existence of Phares and Zerah, was a result of God’s grace toward Judah and Tamar.
Boaz
Boaz is an interesting link within the Christ’s lineage. He was a son of Salmon, who married Rahab - a Canaanite woman living in Jericho who worked as a prostitute, who saved Israelite spies (Joshua 2, Matthew 1:5). So Boaz is grand-grand father of King David. Because Boaz had a child with Ruth, named Obed, and Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat King David. Ruth, Boaz’s wife, was a Moabite widow, and her marriage was unconventional by Israelite standards. As a foreigner, Ruth was considered an outsider to the covenant people of God. The union between Boaz and Ruth was arranged through an ancient law of levirate marriage (Ruth 4), and the relationship between Boaz (a wealthy Israelite) and Ruth (a poor foreign widow) would have been considered unlikely or unplanned.
Ruth’s story exemplifies how God can bring about His purposes through individuals who seem to be on the margins of society or whose situations seem unplanned or undesirable.
David and Bathsheba (Solomon’s birth) - 2 Samuel 11-12
Bathsheba was a wife of Uriah Hetite, one of the most devoted man to King David. David committed adultery sleeping with Bathsheba, and she conceived and she gave birth to Solomon. Solomon is in the lineage of Christ (Matthew 1:6). Solomon was not planned neither by king David, nor Bathsheba. But in God’s eyes, He prepared a special measure of His grace for David and Bathsheba, so God devised a plan with Solomon. We read the promise God gave about Solomon before his birth:
- Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.
- He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.
Solomon - out-of-the-wedlock child - was chosen by God to foretell Christ. Solomon’s throne of his kingdom over Israel was not for ever. But Christ’s was. Solomon did build the house for God, but so did Jesus. It was God’s purpose and grace to put this out-of-the-wedlock child as David’s successor on his throne.
- And of all my sons, (for the LORD hath given me many sons) he hath chosen Solomon my son to sit upon the throne of the kingdom of the LORD over Israel.
- And he said unto me, Solomon thy son, he shall build my house and my courts: for I have chosen him to be my son, and I will be his father.
In many ways David was a representation of Christ. So was Solomon.
- And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.
- He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.
The seed God was talking about here was His Son Jesus, represented by Solomon. Indeed out of David’s bowels did come (Matthew 1:6)
While there isn’t a verse that says Solomon was ordained “before birth” in the same language as other figures, 1 Chronicles 22:9-10 and 1 Chronicles 28:5-6 make it clear that God had chosen Solomon for a specific purpose before he was born. God’s promise to David about Solomon, his future reign, and his role in building the temple demonstrate that Solomon’s life was planned by God well in advance.
Thus, Solomon’s role as king and temple builder was not accidental but divinely ordained as part of God’s plan for Israel.
Conclusion
Every child, regardless of its origin and circumstances of its birth, in God’s eyes there is a purpose, behind. Every child in His divine eyes, is of equal value.
Lesson
Irrespective of origin and circumstances of people, we too should look at people in the same value as our Heavenly Father is looking at them.