PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | Episode 28 – The Awe and Wonder of Life in the Womb, Part 5
Episode 28: The Awe and Wonder of Life in the Womb, Part 5
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
God calls the creating of the baby in the womb “marvelous” (Psalm 139:14). God uses many adjectives in His Word. We then look up the adjective in the Hebrew to understand the word and we get more adjectives! The full understanding of this Hebrew word means “extraordinary, wonderful, miraculous, astonishing,” and “difficult.” It is the revelation of God doing things beyond the bounds of human powers or expectations.” We discover where this word is used the first time in the Bible.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, dear ladies! I wonder what the weather is like where you are listening today, or tonight, all cuddled up in your bed. It's a very dull dismal day here in Tennessee. We're getting into winter, and it's very cold. But we could have a few lovely warm days yet before Christmas. Some of you, of course, you're enjoying summer, while we are enjoying winter.
Anyway, we're going to get on today, by continuing to talk about this amazing, awesome, incredible, astounding creation of the baby in the womb. This is our fifth session on this series, and I hope to finish it today, because next week, I've asked my daughter Pearl to come and be with us on the podcast, so I know you'll just want to be hearing her!
So, let's get on with it today. We are still in Psalm 139. We were talking last week about how God skillfully creates the baby in the womb. It's the picture of a needle-worker, stitching everything together. God uses beautiful picturesque language in His Word. It says that He creates the baby in the darkness, in the dark place of the womb. Of course, we understand that light and darkness are the same with God.
Another beautiful thing for us to remember is that because God is the One who began our lives, right at conception, God was there. Conception does not happen without God. God is in it all. Because He is there at the very beginning of our lives, we can trust Him that He is going to continue to work in our lives. He works in our lives, creating and preparing us to come forth into this world while we are in those months in the womb.
But He doesn't forget about us when we come into this world. No, God never forgets about you. The Bible says: “Can a woman forget her sucking child?” Well, the Bible says she may forget, “But I will not forget you, says the Lord. You are graven on the palms of my hands.” You can be comforted that God is still working in your life, of course, if you will let Him.
I love that Scripture in Philippians 1: 6: “Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” And so God began His work in you at conception. He's going to continue that work in you until the day that you meet Him face to face. You can trust Him, you can bring this promise before Him, you can say: “Thank You, Father, thank You that You are working in me today.” Because God's work, even in the womb, is not only physically, but it's inwardly.
We also are aware too that when a little baby is born into this world, he's still not completely and fully developed. His respiratory system is still not fully developed, and that's why it's so important to have skin-to-skin contact with the baby. It's better for your baby being next to you, even in bed at night, skin-to-skin, than lying in a bed on its own, because skin-to-skin contact helps to develop that respiratory system.
The eyes are not fully developed. They often continue developing, even up to three years. The brain is not fully developed at birth, either. Many scientists have said for years that the brain doesn't reach full maturity until about 25 years of age, although now we have newer scientists saying that they believe that the brain reaches full maturity at 13 years of age.
That's the thing with science; it keeps changing. Often, of course, as they have more incredible instruments and machinery to be able to find out more, their understanding becomes more knowledgeable. So, at the moment, there is a little fight, with scientists between “Okay, is it 25 years, or is it 13 years?”
I think I'll go with the 13 years, because that's a more modern scientific discovery. Also, I think that as our children come into those adolescent years, I believe it's the time for them to mature into adults, not to still act like little children. We know that the Israeli people have a bar mitzvah for their sons when they are 13. They are expected then to grow into maturity. So, I don't know for sure, but I think I'll go with the 13 years.
It's interesting that even though some of the physical parts of the body still continue to mature, of course, the whole body does as it grows! We don't look like the little baby we were when we were born. We're totally different now. We're growing all the time. That's the amazing thing about God's creation. It continues, and it's not only physically, but it's the inner workings as well.
You remember, how at the very beginning of this passage, it talks about how God possesses our reins. Our reins speak of our mind and heart and emotions, and the inner workings of who we are. God continues to work on our inner man. He wants to take us from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord (2 Corinthians 3;18). He wants to change us and mold us into the image of His Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).
He continues to work on us, yes, physically, but in us. Oh, trust Him to continue working in you! Ask Him to work in you, more and more every day.
10. God is the first Architect
Well, let's go on to the next Scripture, verse 16: “Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect.” The word for substance here is a different word from the one we've already read. We talked about substance, how it means our bones and our frame, and how God is creating the bones of the baby in the womb. But here it doesn't mean that. It's a totally different word.
The word is golem, and it means a “wrapped and formed mass, the embryo.” It comes from the root word, galam, meaning “to fold, to wrap together.” It's a picture of the baby in the womb, in the very early stages of the folded fetal position.
The psalmist is here trying to describe that. It's so difficult to describe it in words. It's amazing, because the psalmist who wrote these words had never seen an ultrasound. He had no idea of what everything looks like in the womb. Yet God was supernaturally . . . he was writing by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, seeing perhaps far more than we even understand today.
It says here: “Thine eyes did see . . . ” Yes, God saw us, right from the very beginning, just as that little embryo. Did you know that God even saw us beyond that? He saw us even before we were conceived. That's the teaching of the Word of God. He saw us, His eyes beheld us, even before we were conceived. Isn't that amazing?
You see, God is a great Architect. No architect suddenly builds a building. “OK, let build this amazing, wonderful building!” Making all this incredible design. No, he first sits down at his drawing board. He uses his imagination and his skills to create a whole new design, something no one else has ever built before. So he makes the plans.
God does this too. He was the first Architect. Of course, He was the Designer of who we are today. Male and female, and the way He created the male and the way He created the female. All God's works are perfect! Over and over again, the Scripture says the works of God are perfect. They were planned in the eternal realm.
But not only did He plan the way He would create man and woman, but He had a special design, a special unique design for every new human being. You are different from everyone else in the world. I am different from everyone else in the world. My, I'm so glad there's only one of me! It would be not so good to have too many of me around! But isn't God so good? Every single person who has ever been born in this world is unique and different.
In Jeremiah 1:5 see a picture of this. God was speaking to Jeremiah, and He said: “Before I formed thee in the womb . . .” Did you notice that first word? Before? Before? “Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee.” Isn't that amazing? God knew Jeremiah before he was even conceived. God knew you before you were even conceived. God knew each one of your precious children before they were conceived. Our God is Omniscient. He is all-knowing.
Sometimes, precious ladies, we need to take time to contemplate on the character of our God, and Who He is. We dare not take Him for granted. We dare not bring Him down to our level. There is a Scripture that says, and God is speaking, and He says: “And you thought that I was altogether like one of you? I will rebuke you, the Lord says” (Psalm 50:21). How often are we guilty of doing this?
Because we're so human, we tend to bring God down to our level. No, He is God, He is the Omniscient God, the All-Knowing. He knows your thoughts that you haven't yet thought, the thoughts you will think in the next hour and the next day and the next week. He knows them before you even think them. This is our God. He knew Jeremiah before he was born. And He knows us, each one of us, before we were born.
Let's look at it a little more personally and notice all the pronouns. I'll read it to you again, this same Scripture, from the New English translation: “Before I formed you . . . ” God is speaking personally to Jeremiah. Now Jeremiah is no longer in the womb. He's no longer a little baby. He's no longer a child. He's grown up! God is speaking to a grown-up person, and He says in Jeremiah 1:4, 5: “Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Before I formed you (yes, I'm speaking to you, Jeremiah! Before I formed you) in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.” In those two little Scriptures, we have SIX times God speaks to Jeremiah, using the pronoun “you.”
Yes, Jeremiah was Jeremiah, right when he was conceived. He was the same person. That was when his DNA was put together, when the 23 chromosomes of his father, and the 23 chromosomes of his mother came together. That became Jeremiah. That was his DNA, and that would be on his fingerprints. No one will ever have that DNA again. That was him from conception. It's the same.
I was me when I was conceived. Same person. You were you when you were conceived. Same person.
Let’s have a look a little more at that Scripture, shall we? In Jeremiah . . . because it's an amazing Scripture. We'll look at some of the words. The first thing it says is: “I formed you.” “I formed you.” Now, that's the same word that we have in Psalm 139: 16. This special passage we're looking at, in this Scripture, God says that He fashions us. He's talking about the little embryo in the womb, at the very beginning of conception and growing in the womb.
He says: “I fashioned this little baby.” Here it says, “I formed,” but it's the same Hebrew word It's yatsar. If you want to know a little bit more, it's number 3335 in the Strong's Concordance. This is what it means, “to squeeze into shape, to mold into a form as a potter molds the shape, and molds it into a beautiful form, to fashion, to make, and to have purpose.” That's the meaning of this word. Same word in verse 16 here in Psalm 139 is the same word here in Jeremiah 1:5.
When I find a word in the Scriptures, I love to find the other Scriptures where the same word is used. When you do that, you get a greater understanding of that word. Now I won't give you all the Scriptures, because there are loads of Scriptures in the Bible with this yatsar word in it. But can I give you just a few?
Zechariah 12:1: “The Lord, which stretchest forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth” . . . that's the word, “formeth,” “fashioneth,” the word yatsar. “the Spirit of man within him.” Oh ladies! Isn't that a powerful Scripture? Because here God is saying that He not only forms the physical frame, and bones and sinews and organs and vessels of the body, but He's the One Who forms the spirit of the man, the mind, and the heart, and the soul, the inner workings, the conscience, that God-consciousness. God forms that as well.
You see, this is the wonder, the awe, of God creating a life in the womb! It's not just physical! It's spiritual as well. God begins that in the womb, and here we have it in proof. It is God that fashions the spirit of man within him.
Let's read Isaiah 44:24: “Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and He that formed thee,” there's the word! “formed thee from the womb.” Do you notice how God loves using the word “womb”? It's a word that God loves. “I am the Lord that maketh all things; that stretcheth forth the heavens alone; that spreadeth abroad the earth by itself.”
Now, here in this Scripture, we see that the formation and fashioning of the baby in the womb is likened to the creating of the world. That's how awesome it is.
Let me take you to a few more Scriptures. These Scriptures talk about God being the Potter. It's the same word again, ladies. See, that's the exciting thing of finding out what the Hebrew word is, because when you find that word out, and you find all the other places where it is used in the Scripture, you find that so many different words are used.
Now we've just already seen it used as “fashioned,” it means “formed,” and now we're going to read some verses about how it's translated “potter,” and other different words. So let's go!
Isaiah 29:16: “Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay . . . ” that's the word, yatsar! “for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?”
Here God is challenging us. This is a challenge to us as women. I often hear women complaining about being a woman, complaining about their womanly cycles, complaining even about their womb. In fact, there are many women, they don't even want their womb to function. In fact, they go to great lengths to make sure it can't function. They make sure they cannot conceive. And yet here, God challenges us, and says, “Do you not understand the way I made you?”
Now, you know many potters. But God is THE Potter. He is the first Potter. He is the original Potter. In fact, God is the First in everything, ladies. He was the first architect, He was the first home builder, the One Who created the Garden of Eden, the first home, which is a prototype of all homes to come.
He was the first clothes designer. He is the One Who, after Adam and Eve had sinned . . . what did they do? Oh, they found some fig leaves and put it around them. But that didn't clothe them. God had to come and God had to kill an animal and shed blood. Then He made clothes that completely covered them from the shoulder down, because that's what the Hebrew says. It was a full covering.
Now I believe that those clothes were not just some skin hanging around their backs. Have you seen pictures of Adam and Eve going out of the Garden? They've got sort of a sheepskin or some kind of bearskin just hanging around their shoulders.
Oh goodness me, ladies. Oh, our God, the Creator of the world, the Creator, the awesome Designer of the baby in the womb, He doesn't give just a bit of a sheepskin or bearskin or cow skin to throw over your shoulders. I am sure that the clothing that Adam and Eve wore would have been the most beautiful leather design that you could have ever behold.
I mean, sometimes we see clothes made out of leather, but they would not have a patch on that design that God created out of those skins. They would have been beautiful and amazing and incredible.
So, God was the first real estate Agent. He was the first Embroiderer. We could just go on and on.
He was also the first Potter. He said, “I am the Potter. I am the One Who designed your body. And you don't want to accept it? Do you think you know better than Me?”
Then we go to Isaiah 45:9-10: “Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! (same word, yatsar, the one who forms and fashions, the One Who is the Potter) Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, (same Hebrew word) What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands? Woe unto him that saith unto his father, What begettest thou? or to the woman, What hast thou brought forth?”
So God challenges us when we complain, when we reject the way God created us, the way He created our female bodies. Precious ladies, the most basic, the most knowledgeable, the most reasonable thing we can do is embrace and accept the way our Potter, our Maker, our Designer, created us. He is the Creator. He knows what He is doing.
Now we read Isaiah 64:8: “But now, O Lord, Thou art our Father; we are the clay, and Thou our Potter; and we all are the work of Thy Hand.”
Psalm 100: 3: “Know ye not that the LORD He is God: it is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves;” In the margin of my Bible it says, for the words “not we ourselves,” it says, “His we are.” We belong to Him. He was our Creator, and we belong to Him. We found that out at the very beginning of this passage in Psalm 139, if you have been listening to this series. If not, I encourage you to go back. This is number five in the series. Go back to the very beginning.
And we found that the first thing that God says about creating the baby in the womb is that God possessed us. That means He owns us. He is the Owner because He is the Creator. HIS WE ARE. We belong to Him.
Psalm 119:73: “Thy hands have made me and fashioned me.:” And so we get all these beautiful Scriptures, just some of them I've given to you, of how God forms and fashions us.
Back to Jeremiah 1:5: God not only fashioned him, He says that God knew him. Knew him before he was born! Ladies, how can a mother abort a child in her womb that God already knows? A child that God knew before it was conceived? This is a child that is in God's heart.
Number three. God sanctified him! In the womb! The word is qadesh. It means to be set apart as a holy vessel, purified, dedicated, and consecrated. This is where God . . .
What's our time? Oh, 30 minutes? Well, I'll have to start wrapping up, won't I? OK, God sanctifies him, and He also appointed his destiny. God appointed the destiny of Jeremiah, not when he was 12 years old, not when he was 25 years old, but when he was in the womb! In the womb, I appointed you to be a prophet to the nations! Amen!
Yes, isn't that wonderful? Oh, here's another one. I must read you this. Isaiah 49:1: “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 is actually a Messianic Scripture regarding Jesus. But isn't it amazing, that even in this Messianic Scripture, that God is not ashamed to use these words, to use the words “womb,” and “mother,” because these words are so precious to God.
Now, let's get to this next point in this Scripture. Not only is He fashioning the baby, but He says that while we were in the womb, that He wrote everything about us, about the way He created us, about every member of our physical body, and also our inner workings too, as we've been finding out, and our destiny.
He wrote them all in a book! Yes, God has books, lots of books. Actually, that's another study that I want to do; all the different kinds of books that God has. But one of the books He has, maybe He's got hundreds and thousands and millions of books of these, of how He's writing about every little thing about us, in the womb, and our destiny.
Now that word, “book,” let me see, because somewhere I have got what it means. Yes, it's cefer, or however you pronounce it in Hebrew (say-fer). It means “writing.” It means “a book, a letter, a scroll, or a scribe.” So God is also a Scribe. He was the first Scribe. He was the First of everything.
We also see, oh yes, so after the psalmist has been writing all these amazing, amazing descriptions, how God creates the baby in the womb before we were even conceived, He goes on to say in verse 17: “How precious also are Thy thoughts unto me, O God. How great is the sum of them. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand. When I awake, I am still with Thee.”
After the psalmist has described His incredible, miraculous workings in the womb, and we have been five weeks talking about them, he goes on to say, oh, I just can hardly take them in. I mean, they are just more than I can ever imagine, because they don't just finish in the womb. They start there in the womb and God continues His workings with us every day.
Now, I would like to finish with revealing something to you from this beautiful psalm (Palm 139). I hope you'll read the whole psalm over again, because it's so wonderful. In this psalm, we see beautiful aspects of the character of God. We see His Omniscience. That's His all-knowingness. God knows everything. We see that in verses one to six. I won't read it all, perhaps just a little bit here. Yes, “Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.“ That's a bit challenging, isn't it, with some of the words we say sometimes.
Wow. He says: “Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.” Also, we see His Omniscience in the passage we have been learning about the creating of the baby.
Then we see the Omnipresence of God revealed in this psalm. In verses seven to twelve, the psalmist says that it doesn't matter where I go. I can't even get away from Your presence. “If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there.” There is nowhere I can go where God is not, because He is Omnipresent. Oh, it's so incredible.
Then we see His Omnipotence, that is His all-powerfulness. We learned so much of that in verses 13 to 16, of His creation of the baby in the womb. In this creation, we see His Omniscience, and His Omnipotence.
Then we see Him as the Omnibenevolent God, the God Who is all good, and all loving, when David says: “How precious are your thoughts to me, and how great is the sum of them,” and so on.
We also see His Omnisapience, that's His all-wisdom. God is all wisdom. He is the only One Who has all wisdom. We know some people who can be very wise, but they only have an aspect of wisdom. It's only God who has all wisdom.
Romans 16:27: “To the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ forever. Amen.” It's only in Christ that I have all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. They are all in Him. We see His wisdom as we have been studying this beautiful passage of Psalm 139 and the creation of the baby.
Therefore, ladies, I love that, don't you? We see one, two, three, four, five, of the omni descriptions of our wonderful God in this psalm.
Well, time has gone, and I trust you have been blessed. If you haven't got to hear all the sessions, we've done five sessions on this passage, go back and listen to them all. You will be so blessed.
Let me pray.
“Dear Father, I thank You so much for Your incredible creation, that You are the One Who fashioned us and formed us in the womb. We thank You, Oh God, that Your workings in our lives do not stop at the womb, but You continue to work in us. You have promised to continue working in us, and we can be confident that You will do this until the day of Jesus Christ.
I pray, Father, that You will move and work in every heart and soul and mind of every precious mother and daughter listening to this podcast, that we will all be those who are soft and sensitive and open to listen to Your voice, to be open to Your workings in our lives. Lord, we know that sometimes Your workings are not easy, because You have to deal with us. You have to speak to us, You have to correct us. It's not always easy. But we thank You that, Lord, as we receive this from You, You bring us into a larger place. You grow us, and we grow and learn. I pray that You will help us to all grow into the image of Christ, for that is Your ultimate plan for our lives.
We thank You, Father, and I bless every mother, every wife, every daughter who is listening now. In the precious Name of Jesus. Amen.”