Fear God, Save Babies (Proverbs 24.11-12)
While orphans, widows and abortion-vulnerable children are all “in distress” - and generally unwanted by society at large - the circumstances surrounding their distress are very different. It is one thing to provide food and shelter for people in need, and another thing entirely to intervene on the behalf of people who are about to be killed. Perhaps you wonder if the Bible actually mandates our involvement in the more extreme circumstances, whre the price of involvement is much higher, and the level of opposition is more, much more, significant. Here enteres Proverbs 24.11-12:
Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, “Behold we did not know this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will he not repay each man according to his work?”
Like almost all biblical proverbs, the text gives zero indication what kind of specific injustice, if any, the author has in mind. It serves as a general guidline for what God’s people are called to do in the face of violent injustice. If innocent human beings are in danger, God-fearing people are to come to their rescue.
