The Day You Were Born

 

Do you ever think much about the day you were born? Do you ever think about the moment you were conceived? If you are like me, you don’t really think about those things. But do you know that there is a whole chapter in the Bible devoted to it, telling us how God thinks about it?

Most people are familiar with the following verses: 

13 

For you created my inmost being;

    you knit me together in my mother’s womb.

14 

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

    your works are wonderful,

    I know that full well.

15 

My frame was not hidden from you

    when I was made in the secret place,

    when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.

16 

Your eyes saw my unformed body;

    all the days ordained for me were written in your book

    before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139:13-16

The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

 

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations."

Jeremiah 1:4-5

Listen to me, you islands;

    hear this, you distant nations:

Before I was born the Lord called me;

    from my mother’s womb he has spoken my name.

 

He made my mouth like a sharpened sword,

    in the shadow of his hand he hid me;

he made me into a polished arrow

    and concealed me in his quiver.

Isaiah 49:1-2

 

These verses speak of the careful attention that God uses when creating us. They speak of predestination and God working His will to create His servants. But they don't talk about how God feels about us. That comes in Job chapter 3. 

"Wait a minute," you may say, "The title my Bible has for Job chapter 3 is 'Job Curses the Day He Was Born', or 'Job Laments His Birth'." My NKJV Bible titles it "Job Deplores His Birth". How can the words of a depressed man tell us how God feels about us? Well, it all depends on how you read it. Let me show you...

Verses 3-5 say: 

“May the day perish on which I was born,
And the night in which it was said,
‘A male child is conceived.’
May that day be darkness;
May God above not seek it,
Nor the light shine upon it.
May darkness and the shadow of death claim it;
May a cloud settle on it;
May the blackness of the day terrify it.

Sad words, right? But don't miss what is hidden in the middle there. It says that God seeks out the night we are conceived. Others versions use the words care about, regard, or remember in the place of seek. The picture it paints is that our conception matters to God. He lets light shine upon it, as though it is a very good thing. 

Verses 6-10: 

As for that night, may darkness seize it;
May it not rejoice among the days of the year,
May it not come into the number of the months.
Oh, may that night be barren!
May no joyful shout come into it!
May those curse it who curse the day,
Those who are ready to arouse Leviathan.
May the stars of its morning be dark;
May it look for light, but have none,
And not see the dawning of the day;
Because it did not shut up the doors of my mother’s womb,
Nor hide sorrow from my eyes.

These verses are Job asking for the opposite of what really happens. When we look at it this way, we can see that the day of our creation is celebrated. It's full of joy and blessing. It even sounds like the heavens celebrate it with light. The mention of light and dark here reminds me of the light and dark in Genisis 1.

The rest of Job's lament goes as follows (v.11-26): 

“Why did I not die at birth?
Why did I not perish when I came from the womb?
Why did the knees receive me?
Or why the breasts, that I should nurse?
For now I would have lain still and been quiet,
I would have been asleep;
Then I would have been at rest
With kings and counselors of the earth,
Who built ruins for themselves,
Or with princes who had gold,
Who filled their houses with silver;
Or why was I not hidden like a stillborn child,
Like infants who never saw light?
There the wicked cease from troubling,
And there the weary are at rest.
There the prisoners rest together;
They do not hear the voice of the oppressor.
The small and great are there,
And the servant is free from his master.

“Why is light given to him who is in misery,
And life to the bitter of soul,
Who long for death, but it does not come,
And search for it more than hidden treasures;
Who rejoice exceedingly,
And are glad when they can find the grave?
Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden,
And whom God has hedged in?
For my sighing comes before I eat,
And my groanings pour out like water.
For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me,
And what I dreaded has happened to me.
I am not at ease, nor am I quiet;
I have no rest, for trouble comes.”

 I think these are questions that we all ask when we are going through hard times. Job was really going through a doozy, and, since Job seemed to think that God's feelings for him depended on his conduct, it's no wonder that he was asking these questions. But he kind of answered his own questions when he laments that God sought out the night he was conceived. 

He exists because God wanted him to. 

Like David and Jeremiah and Isaiah, and you and me and your neighbor, we all exist because God wants us to. He foresaw who we would be, the good, bad, and the ugly, and decided to create us anyway. With great care, with purpose and intent, and He remembers (regards, cares about, seeks) that moment of our creation and celebrates it with joy and light.

You may think I am putting too much meaning into this chapter, maybe I am, but since there are other verses in the Bible that back me up, I'm going to take what it is telling me and run with it. 

You were created with a purpose and God delights in you. Remember that!

Love, Lee