This is an excerpt from an upcoming book, Hope in the Loss of a Baby: A Deeper Dive into what the Bible says about Miscarriage, Stillbirth, and Infant Death.
Babylonian
Babies
The worst aspect of all conflicts is that those
who had no voice in starting the fire are the very ones consumed by its flames.
~ Charles Spurgeon
We’ve seen from Jonah that God saved Ninevite babies alive along
with their parents, king, and city. And we’ve seen that Judean babies who were
murdered were guaranteed their part in the resurrection by verses like Jeremiah
31:15-17. But can we extrapolate these to all babies?
We could argue that those babies would inherit heaven
because of their repentance (in the case of Ninevah) or their covenant favor
(in the case of Judah). But where does that leave babies who were not given the
opportunity to repent or whose parents had willfully rebelled against the God
of heaven? Are they counted amongst the cursed whose father’s sins will be
visited on their children and their children’s children, to the third and the
fourth generation (Exodus 34:7)? Did they need to do something or have
something done for them to receive favor from God?
The Bible identifies several pagan nations whose babies were
murdered: Babylon (Isaiah 13:16), Thebes (Nahum 3:10, which implies the same
will happen to Assyria), Canaan (Deuteronomy 12:31, Psalm 106:35-39), and the
Moabites (2 Kings 3:27). We must recognize that these babies were purposefully
killed, rather than an unfortunately consequence of war. While it is all evil,
I think we would all agree that is one thing for a school to accidentally be
bombed or fields to be ransacked so that villages slowly starve and entirely
another for a soldier to pick up a tiny child by the ankles and dash them
against a rock.
Those who oppose the Bible often claim that Psalm 137 is a
command or concession from God to murder infants in this way. While I will show
that there is comfort in it, truly this is a hard Psalm:
Blessed shall he be who takes your
little ones and dashes them against the rock. ~ Psalm 137:9
How do we interpret impossible passages like that? Should
we, like C. S. Lewis, condemn the Psalmist, “The reaction to the Psalmist to
injury, though profoundly natural, is profoundly wrong”? Or should we explain
it away as descriptive rather than prescriptive? After all, it’s just
describing the event, not condoning it. Or do we deeply consider why it’s in
the Bible and pray that God would give us wisdom and hope through it all? The
Apostle Paul said,
All scripture is breathed out by
God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training
in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good
work. ~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17
Psalm 137 is part of scripture, and is therefore profitable
for a deeper consideration. A deeper consideration will help us know God
better, be able to reprove those in sin, and show the world a better way as we
seek to make Christ know and look more like him every day.
To understand this text and know what happened to these
babies, we need to know the context.
Lex Talionis
Psalm 137 is a lament of Judeans exiled in Babylon (also
known as Chaldea). The past tense of the Psalm implies that the exile is
nearing its end, though the Psalm works at any point during the exile. We
should note that Babylon fell very quickly and there was no indication of the
impending fall (Daniel 5:30). The Psalm recounts the long years of waiting, the
forced mirth (happiness) from their captors, their resistance to assimilation
(vv.5-6), and the pain for what they lost (vv.7-8).
The fall of Babylon had been prophesied over a century
earlier when Isaiah had declared, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon; and all the
carved images of her gods he has shattered to the ground” (Isaiah 21:9, see
also Isaiah 13:17-22, 47:1-3, Jeremiah 25:12-14, 51:1-26ff)! Babylon was God’s
chosen instrument to reprove Judah (Habakkuk 1:12, Jeremiah 51:20, 2 Chronicles
36:15-17).
While Judah desperately needed God’s reproof, the chosen
instrument of Babylon went beyond what was appointed and “furthered the
disaster” (Zechariah 1:14-15).
God speaks of his anger towards them most clearly with,
I was
angry with my people;
I profaned my heritage;
I gave them into your hand;
you showed them no mercy;
on the aged you made your yoke exceedingly heavy…
These
two things shall come to you
in a moment, on one day;
the loss of children and widowhood
shall come upon you in full measure… ~ Isaiah 47:6,9
God is punishing Babylon with the same measure by which they
punished Judah. The formal term for this is Lex Talionis, or “The Law of
Retaliation.” We love God’s justice in theory, but when it is fulfilled this
poignantly it often proves shocking. Part of understanding God’s grace is
knowing how fearsome his vengeance is. God has never overlooked even a single
sin, and while we are blessed to know that the wrath for our sins was poured
out on Jesus, we often don’t grasp how horrible that wrath was or how much we
deserved it. Sin requires punishment.
It is a lex talionis—the law of
retaliation. The destruction of Babylon must be to her what her destruction was
to Jerusalem: she had utterly broken down the walls of Jerusalem, and burned
the houses; and so shall hers be broken down and burned. She had slain their
infants without mercy, and so shall her infants be served. ~ Matthew Henry
You might recognize the cadence from the Law of Moses when
it says, “If there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye,
tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound,
stripe for stripe” (Exodus 21:23-25, compare Leviticus 24:19-20, Deuteronomy
19:21). The law was strict that life, limb, and eyesight was valuable and that
taking it required payment.
The original legislation was given in order to limit retribution. Left to himself, man’s tendency is always to demand far more than an eye for an eye. If someone knocks out a man’s tooth, that man wants to kill him…the lex talionis was introduced by God though Moses in order to keep that terrible spirit of uncontrolled vengeance in check. ~ Martin Lloyd Jones
As shocking as the destruction of Babylon and its babies is,
what is more shocking is that this is not more prevalent. Sin brings forth
death, and Babylon’s greatest danger was not the Mede-Persian empire than was
used by God to conquer it; it was God’s justice and wrath pointed at his
enemies. Truly God is angry with the wicked every day, if a man does not
repent, God will whet his sword; he has bent and readied his bow (Psalm
7:11-12). The wicked shall return to Sheol, all the nations that forget God
(Psalm 9:17).
So if Babylon is being punished for their sins, and we
rejoice in that (Psalm 58:10-11, Nahum 3:19), then how can it be said that the
Medes are blessed for the same action? Here we need to spend a little time
parsing the sentence. It does not say that they are blessed for dashing
Babylon’s babies against the rock. It says they are blessed. God has appointed
them as the chosen instrument to punish Babylon. It does not say that they have
full immunity for how they treat Babylon, in fact they will be held accountable
for their same actions.
Though God can bring light out of
darkness, and turn the greatest calamities of his people into their greatest
gain, yet that does not lessen the guilt of those that are the instruments of
their trouble. ~ Matthew Henry
The Lex Talionis is entirely fair, but there is no blessing
in it. Babylon wickedly murdered Judah’s babies. Now the Medes and the Persians
are going to do the same to Babylon’s babies. Later someone (Greece) will have
to do the same to the Mede-Persian babies. And so on, and so on, and so on.
There is no grace or love or forgiveness in Lex Talionis, despite how fair it
is. We don’t want fair, we want grace, we want love and blessing in spite of
our sin.
It is fitting then that Jesus does not do away with Lex
Talionis, but fulfills it and introduces a better way,
Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished… You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, ‘Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. ~ Matthew 5:17-18,38-42
Jesus died to perfectly fulfill this blessing. He brought
goodness and love when we brought evil and wickedness. He fulfilled the
requirements of Lex Talionis in his own body on the cross. We sinned against heaven;
Jesus paid the cost. We crucified God’s own Son and yet he does not require
retribution from us, he gives us life and life abundantly (John 10:10). Our
debt was paid on the cross, our sins against God were perfectly atoned for. The
war between heaven and earth was settled when Christ made peace by the blood of
his cross (Colossians 1:20). The law that required bloodshed has been satisfied
by the blood of Christ (Ephesians 2:13, Hebrews 9:22).
Instead of fearing the death that was required in
retribution we can now say, “Where sin increases, grace abounds all the more.”
Today we would say that he is blessed who takes the gospel
to Babylon, who adopts her orphans, who loves them not as an enemy, but as a
friend. It is such a better way than Lex Talionis, but it’s only possible
because Christ died to bring about that better way. After Elisabeth Elliot’s
husband Jim, and Rachel Saint’s brother Nate were brutally murdered by Waorani
warriors in Ecuador, they went to the very tribe that had perpetuated so much
grief and harm to their family. Yet they did not go with guns and death, they went
with love and medicine and hope and eternal life through the power of the
gospel and won many to Christ and inspired a generation in love and
forgiveness.
Love knows no limits to its
endurance, no end to its trust, no fading to its hope; it can outlast anything.
It is, in fact, the one thing that stands when all else has fallen. ~ Elisabeth
Elliot
I have not come to take vengeance
for the blood of my brother. I have come only to tell you of God’s Son, who
died so that we might not die forever. ~ Rachel Saint
The Children of God’s Enemies
Now that we’ve considered why Psalm 137 could say that the
Medes were blessed in their retribution, let’s ask a much more important
question. What happened to those babies who died such a brutal death?
Jeremiah was a witness to the atrocities of the Babylonians.
He was forbidden to have a wife or children because of the horrible disasters
coming upon the land of Judah (Jeremiah 16:1-9). This was a partial fulfillment
of Isaiah 13:16, “Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes;
their houses will be plundered and their wives ravished.” I mention this
because the exact thing that happened to these Judean babies was what was going
to happen to the Babylonian babies.
Were the sins of the Babylonians more grievous than that of
the Judeans? No, we’ve seen from the chapter on Babies in Heaven that we have
all gone astray. We’ve seen in the chapter on Rachel’s Weeping that the Judean
babies were safe in heaven waiting for the Resurrection and the Life.
There are some in Christendom that would say that an
unbaptized baby won’t be saved. There are others who believe that only the
children of the elect or children of the covenant will be saved. I see nothing
of the sort in the way the Bible is written, rather I would agree with
Spurgeon:
We ground our conviction about infant salvation very much upon the goodness of the nature of God. We say that the opposite doctrine that some infants perish and are lost, is altogether repugnant to the idea which we have of him whose name is Love. ~ Charles Haddon Spurgeon
If Abijah could be saved, then what is different about
Babylon? Didn’t they live in an almost identical situation?
He lived in a wicked home, under a
wicked father, in a wicked court… Yet in him was found ‘some good thing toward
the Lord.’ ~ J. C. Ryle
It wasn’t that the nation was so reprobate or lost that God
could not find favor on the littlest ones who were perishing through no fault
of their own. After all, God says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have
mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Romans 9:15).
Judah was as sinful as Babylon, indeed sometimes the supposed godly nation
shocks the world with its sin (compare 1 Corinthians 5:1), yet we are confident
that Judean babies who died are secure in waiting for the resurrection.
In America the estimate is that seventy-million babies have
been murdered through Abortion since 1973. The vast majority of these babies
were murdered by evil men and families that had no fear of God before their
eyes. We can’t change God’s plans just by believing differently, but if it
requires a faithful parent or country to earn God’s favor, then millions of
babies died without hope.
If God doesn’t punish America,
he’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. ~ Ruth Bell Graham
But grace and mercy don’t depend on human will or exertion,
but on God, who has mercy (Romans 9:16). Peter, when speaking to Romans,
declared the gospel openly that God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34).
Paul tells us that in Christ there is “not Greek and Jew, circumcised and
uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all and in all”
(Colossians 3:11). This is possible because in heaven we will sing to Jesus,
“For you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every
tribe and language and people and nation” (Revelation 5:9).
Even Babylonians? Even Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar will be
there and a whole host of tiny Babylonian babies.
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| Jesus wants the rose! |
We might look at the biblical data
and conclude that when God takes the life of a little one, it is actually an
act of mercy keeping that child from being hardened by a life of exposure to
evil and a life of deliberate rebellion against God. ~ John MacArthur
Why Not Do Evil that Good May Come?
There is a natural question that arises from this biblical
conclusion. It is an exceedingly hard question, but it must be asked because
chances are you’ve already wondered it yourself.
If babies who are aborted, dashed against the rock, or
killed in war are guaranteed heaven, when why are we fighting to keep them
alive so they can grow up?
If a Babylonian baby survived the Mede invasion to rebel
against God, then that person would face God in his wrath, rather than in his
mercy. If an American baby is saved from abortion to grow up in poverty and
addiction and to arrive in hell after a life of sorrow and destruction, then
why fight for their life at all?
There are three main reasons. God’s law, the ends do not
justify the means, and to make Christ known.
God’s Law
God could not be more clear, “You shall not murder” (Exodus
20:13). In another place it says God hates the hands that shed innocent blood
(Proverbs 6:16-17).
The Bible tells us plainly,
Open your mouth for the
mute,
for the rights of all who are destitute.
Open your mouth, judge righteously,
defend the rights of the poor and needy. ~
Proverbs 31:8-9
And,
Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. ~ Proverbs 24:11
We cannot put ourselves in the place of God and ignore his
commands just because we think good will come about. And we miss the work that
God is doing in us through the ministry of plucking life from the fire.
Ruth Bell Graham, who grew up in China under the medical
mission of her father Nelson Bell, would often find abandoned babies, usually
girls, dying far from anyone. From the book, A Doctor in the Land of the
Lion: The Biography of Dr. Nelson Bell of China, we have this impossible
scene,
The girls could never grow
accustomed to the sight of baby girls abandoned along the canal banks and on
the levees. More than once Ruth or Rosa would come running home, carrying a
tiny bundle of rags containing a half-frozen, abandoned baby girl they had
found by the side of the path, pleading through their tears, ‘Look, Daddy,
can’t we save this one? Please, Daddy, don’t let it die!’
Ruth would later say that hearing the cries and seeing
babies dead from hypothermia, starvation, or animal attack permanently shaped
her understanding of human depravity and the desperate need for the sanctity of
life and Christian compassion in a pagan land. Though many of those babies did
die, many were kept alive, and Ruth went on to shine the light of Christ for
many years in China and America. She knew there was no mercy in the early death
of those precious baby girls.
When an abortionist kills a baby,
or an ancient army dashes infants against stones, they are not acting as
ministers of mercy sending souls to paradise—they are committing brutal,
unmitigated murder. That God in his infinite, overflowing grace intercepts that
tragedy and ushers that little soul into His presence does not sanitize the
act; it magnifies God’s ability to triumph over human atrocity. ~ John
MacArthur
So beloved, your call in God’s sovereignty is not to ensure
as many people go to heaven as possible. It is to be found faithful in your
stewardship. Go and have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching
them out of the fire; to others show mercy with fear, hating even the garment
stained by the flesh (Jude 23). Let it do for you like it did for Ruth, “To see
the misery of a people without Christ—it tore away any illusions you might have
about human nature. It made you realize early what the world was like without
the gospel.”
The Ends Do Not Justify the Means
Joseph did not excuse his brothers for how they treated him,
despite the fact that “God meant it for good, to bring it about that many
people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Genesis 50:20). Instead, he
said plainly, “You meant evil against me.” It was only by the grace of God that
his brothers did not face the devastating consequences of their sins and that
God kept them and their families alive.
Even what is meant for good can bring about horrendous
results. I was in London some years after the War on Terror found its way to
Iraq. Iraqi protestors held signs showing slaughtered infants and babies with
horrendous birth defects that they declared were linked to Depleted Uranium and
other war-borne chemicals. It was a shocking revelation that a war fought with
precision weapons and clear intelligence reports could rain such destruction on
the littlest and most innocent of Iraqis.
General Douglas MacArthur—who did so much to stop warmongers—later
lamented,
War contains no elements for the
regeneration of mankind. Its destructiveness has torn apart both victor and
vanquished, leaving behind orphaned children, destroyed generations, and ruined
lands.
Even just wars that were meant to ease suffering and save lives
wrought horror upon horror upon the world. Despite the good that was done, the sins
of the individual will require an account. John Calvin captured this distinction
when he wrote, “The wickedness of men is not excused because God turns it to a
good end. For the action of men must be judged by their own purpose, and not by
the secret counsel of God.”
It is tempting to think that to send a Babylonian baby
straight to heaven through murder would be a mercy. But God has clearly ordained
both the end and the means. But to do so would require us deciding who lives
and who dies. And it would require us to sin in light of God’s clear commands. Love
and mercy must be our weapons—not violence and destruction—as we seek to spread
life and light in the world.
The duty of the Christian is plain
and unmistakable: we are to love life, protect life, and stand between the
oppressor and the oppressed. To look upon the destruction of the helpless and
say, ‘It is well, for they go to a better place,’ is not faith; it is
callousness disguised as theology. The Christian heart weeps where Christ wept,
and resists cruelty wherever it lifts its head. ~ J. C. Ryle
In this we protect the innocent, make Christ known, and hope
that all will come to know that “while we were still sinners, Christ died for
us” (Romans 5:8).
To Make Christ Known
Tim Tebow came into the world through grave danger because
of a serious illness his mother had contracted. A doctor insisted he be aborted
to save his mother’s life. His parents chose life and he has since shone the
light of Christ throughout the world and is actively rescuing children out of
despair. He gave this account of how God is using him,
It’s funny how God brings things full circle. In the same country where a doctor told my mom to abort me because I had no future, God allowed us years later to build a hospital that heals children who have been told they have no hope. You never know what God can do with a life if you just give that life a chance. ~ Tim Tebow
God brings hope out of hopelessness. In the Hebrew we were
“Lo-Ammi”, not his people, and “Lo-Ruhama”, without mercy. But after Christ
gets ahold of us, he says,
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. ~ 1 Peter 2:9-10
In God’s secret will, certainly there are thousands, if not
millions, of Babylonian descendants who have worshipped Christ and done great
things for his holy nation. Many of our Iraqi, Kurdish, Persian/Iranian,
Aramean/Syrian, and Arabic brothers and sisters in Christ today are publishing
his peace to the world; if the DNA technology were better, I’m sure they could
trace their lineage straight back to Babylon. Take a moment to pray for their
faithfulness and ministries and thank God that he has preserved them on the
earth.
To kill a Tim Tebow in the womb—or any other person created
in the image of God—would be a horrible sin. Not only would you be
extinguishing a life before it started, but you would be quenching every bit of
potential for good that God had planned from them. A redeemed saint brings
forth fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some one-hundred, but all who
abide in Christ and him in them will bear much fruit (John 15:5).
Would you rob God of a soldier in
His army, a voice in His choir, a laborer in His vineyard, under the wicked
plea that the child might otherwise perish? We do not preserve the life of a
child merely that he may escape hell; we preserve him that he may know the
Lord, walk in holiness, show forth the praises of Him who called us out of
darkness, and bring honor to the name of Jesus upon the earth. ~ Charles
Spurgeon
Benjamin Franklin knew the destruction that war and conflict
brought, and declared that he would rather see children “saved to serve their
country instead of being slaughtered in its pride.” If it’s better for children
to live to serve their country, how much better is it for them to live to serve
the cause of Christ and win an eternal inheritance?
But the ultimate answer in why we don’t do evil so that good
may come comes from the golden rule, the clear command of Christ.
Do Unto Others
The Babylonians knew it was wrong to murder Judean babies.
They also knew it was wrong when the Medes and the Persians would do likewise
to their babies. Notice that the Jews were not the ones dashing these babies
against the rock. When Amaziah had the opportunity to do likewise to his Ammonite
and Moabite enemies, he did not, and his reasoning was because it was against
God’s law.
He did not put their children to death, according to what is written in the Law, in the Book of Moses, where the Lord commanded “Fathers shall not die because of their children, nor children die because of their fathers, but each one shall die for his own sin.” ~ 2 Chronicles 25:4
The Babylonians and the Mede-Persians did not have this
clear command from Deuteronomy 24:16, but they certainly knew that it was wrong
to murder babies. The whole law is summed up in this one phrase, “You shall
love your neighbor as yourself” (Romans 13:9, Galatians 5:14, James 2:8). In
knowing that the death of their own babies at the hands of an enemy nation was
so vile, they should have treated their neighbors as themselves. They proved
what Paul said about the conscience:
They show that the work of the law
is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and
their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when,
according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus. ~ Romans
2:15-16
Whose Children?
Conscience comes from two Greek words which mean with-knowledge.
Sinners cannot make the excuse that they didn’t know it was wrong. Perhaps a
soldier tries to say, “I was just following orders.” Their conscience accuses
them with that twinge of guilt. For this reason God will not acquit the wicked
who kill the innocent (Exodus 23:7).
And he does something more amazing than just punish those
that murder children. He rescues those children and calls them his own.
And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your whorings so small a matter that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them? ~ Ezekiel 16:20-21 (emphasis mine)
This adds a dimension to when Job said, “The Lord gave and
the Lord has taken away” (Job 1:21). He has revoked their ownership of these
children.
Parents are but trustees for God;
their children are his property, and they are accountable to him for them. What
an aggravated wickedness was it, then, to take the children that were born unto
God and make them meat for the devil! ~ Matthew Henry
God calls believers “his” in multiple places, all possible
because the Son of God “loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20).
Yes, he loved the world, yes, he loves the church, yes, he loves all who call
upon his name. But he loved each specific saint specifically, and gave himself
for each individual saint individually. Among these are babies from every
nation, tribe, people, and tongue.
I will make my dwelling among them
and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. ~ 2
Corinthians 6:16
Nephilim Babies
If Babylonian, Moabite, and Assyrian babies who die go to
heaven, then what of Nephilim babies who die? Had I not been asked this
question during the writing of this book I don’t know that I would have even
thought about it. But it is worth a brief consideration since the question does
touch on our topic.
Let’s start with a definition: The most prominent theory on
the Nephilim (also known as the Anakim and Rephaim) is that they are a hybrid
race of half-man, half-fallen-angel (see Genesis 6:1-4) defined by their
extreme stature and strength (Numbers 13:33). Their appearance in history was
the final straw that triggered the flood (Genesis 6:5-6). There is no
indication that any Nephilim ever sought God’s favor or forgiveness (2 Peter
2:4); rather, they are constantly seen as at war with the people of God until
they were ultimately eradicated by David and his men (1 Chronicles 20:4-8). If
there will be people from every nation, tribe, and tongue in heaven worshipping
Jesus (Revelation 7:9), then I believe we’d have to say Rephaim, Anakim, and
Nephilim are not men because there is no indication they’ll be there.
This question is worth considering because if a Babylonian
baby dies—who otherwise would have grown up to defile himself and war against
heaven—then God’s favor will welcome him into heaven as his own son. What
happens then if a Nephilim baby dies? Will this half-man, half-demon inherit
heaven on the same principle?
First, there is no indication in the Bible (or any other
ancient book) that a Nephilim baby ever died. This isn’t just an oversight; it
appears purposeful. In the context of the destruction of Og, the Rephaim king
of Bashan, Moses specifically says that when they destroyed the neighboring
human kingdom of Heshbon, they devoted to destruction, “every city; men, women,
and children” (Deuteronomy 3:6). Yet of the Rephaim dead it only says “people”
(which I would translate “kin”) and that they left “no survivor” with no
mention of children (Deuteronomy 3:3). Was this God’s providence that there
were no Nephilim babies at the time of their defeat? Did Nephilim grow up
faster than humans? I don’t believe there is a clear answer, but if Moses had
eradicated giant babies, he would not have been shy to tell us.
Second, assuming this view of the Nephilim is correct, then
they are wearing human bodies but have demon souls. In this case there is no
redemption available, as it is only human babies who die that are saved by the
blood of Christ. Remember, “it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the
offspring of Abraham” (Hebrews 2:16). A fallen angel, even a baby Nephilim,
would have no hope of redemption.
Third, and this is largely speculation, but if the thief
comes only to steal, kill, and destroy (John 10:10), the devil is prowling
around seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8), and Satan does not war against
his own kingdom (Luke 11:17-18), then he would not be actively seeking to
destroy his own demons even as babies, especially while there are so many human
babies created in the image of God for him to devour (Revelation 12:4-5). Never
forget that Satan hates all human babies.
While it first appears as a complicated question without a
clear answer, I can say with reasonable certainty that there will be no Nephilim
babies in heaven because they never died as infants, they have no redeemer, and
their place is prepared with Satan in hell (Matthew 25:41).
Then he will say to those on his
left, “Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil
and his angels.” ~ Matthew 25:41
Here’s a question I bet you’ve never thought of: Is Goliath
in hell as a man or as a demon? Here’s the definitive answer,
What is that to you? You follow
me. ~ Jesus
Conclusion
The murder of Babylonian babies is wrong on every level. The
murder of any baby is wrong. Despite the evil of it, God is able to bring life
and salvation from the actions of men. Those babies, who would have grown up to
reject God, war against his kingdom, and face the eternal consequences were
instantly and mercifully ushered into the kingdom without end.
We can take solace in this, that God is obeying his own
command to care for the poor and the needy. His love is perfect and his ways
are right.
Our duty is to love the innocent and care for the needy, to
do everything within our power to take the gospel of peace to a lost and dying
world. The temptation is to step back so these littles ones can go to heaven as
soon as possible. But our commission is to speak up for them, to seek to save
their lives, and to teach them the words of eternal life.
If you need motivation to preach the gospel of peace to a war-torn
world, look no further than these little ones being taken away to death.
If they perish, know that they perish not with the title of
Babylonian or Assyrian or American or belonging to any other earthly nation,
but belonging to God.
Until the Prince of Peace reigns, the weak and the young will continue to bear the bitterest fruit of man’s ambition. ~ J. C. Ryle
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