You Know It’s Getting Bad When…

Infanticide, Deuteronomy 28 and maternal nature

“Get me a sword,” the king said…”divide the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other.”

This was the bizarre, but surprisingly wise judgment that King Solomon made early in his reign. And it is a Bible story that I remember being mortified by as a child.

“Who would order such a thing?!”

But it was only a test, and Solomon was confident that everything would be alright in the end. You see, two prostitutes had come to his court begging for his ruling—the two women had been living in the same home, became pregnant and gave birth within days of one another. But one woman’s baby died in the night, and the claim was that she had switched her dead child for the other woman’s live one. In the daylight hours, that woman could now see that the breathless baby in her arms was not hers. But in the court of the king, it was just one woman’s word against the other.

King Solomon paused to consider, then requested the sword. He was banking on the reliability of the maternal nature—the true mother would protect her child at all costs. He was proven right. The lying woman seemed fine, “Sure, cut the child in half. That’s fair. Then neither of us will have a baby.” But the true mother, who would rather suffer loss than let her child be killed, called out, “No! Let the child live. She can have him!” Solomon had uncovered the true mother, and word of his wise judgment spread through the nation.

The 2023 tragic crime of a distressed American woman, Lindsay Clancy, recently filled the newsfeed of millions, flooding our algorithms with a jury’s attempt to to find a wise judgment. On September 4th, her court case ended in a mistrial, because the jurors could not unanimously agree—should Clancy be called to account for the premeditated murder of her three young children, or was she too deeply affected by postpartum psychosis that she should not be held fully responsible? It seemed that no one could concur on that, but I think almost everyone would agree—you know it’s getting bad when the mothers stop mothering.

The power of the maternal nature

The maternal nature is a force to be reckoned with. Throughout the animal kingdom, the mothers of a species are known for their sacrificial behaviour. They go without, they exhaust themselves, they put themselves in harm’s way to draw predators away from their nest or den. Bonding hormones flood the brains of each mother—oxytocin in mammals, isotocin in fish, mesotocin in birds, amphibians and reptiles— all designed to heighten the nurturing instincts, giving greater chances of survival for their young.

This last weekend I was chatting with a woman experiencing pregnancy for the first time, and she was expressing how miraculous the whole process has been for her. “How does my body just know what to do?!” Yes, miraculous, isn’t it? I remember giving birth to twins in my early twenties and though I was overwhelmed by all the changes, I felt awestruck by the way my body somehow “knew what to do”. ‍

We recognize the Lord God as the one with the brilliant mind and mighty hand behind this whole thing; we know these hormones are not an evolutionary coincidence. The maternal nature is a key part in God’s design for children, for the development of families and for humanity’s well-being. Women have the advantage of greater neurological connections between the left and right hemispheres of the brain, allowing emotional processing and reasoning to coincide, resulting in the phenomenon of “women’s intuition”. Mothers quickly and routinely scan environments, watching for threats. As the smaller of the sexes and the ones most often tasked with carrying for young, this alertness serves her well. When children scrape their knee or fight a fever, when teens are stressed about a situation at school, or when a young adult needs to feel anchored by the sense of home, they often the mother’s comfort that they are reaching for. Mothers are widely known for providing emotional regulation, practical care and training for the future. Of course, fathers are irreplaceable, but we certainly need mothers too, don’t we?

Can you imagine a world if all the mothers stopped mothering? It wouldn’t be a pretty sight.

The maternal nature is a key part in God’s design for children, for the development of families and for humanity’s well-being.

The good, bad and ugly of Deuteronomy 28

Deuteronomy 28 is a famous Old Testament chapter—known as the list of blessings and curses that God said would be present in a nation to the extent that they obeyed or disobeyed the laws of God. It took me a while to realize that these are not arbitrary punishments or rewards because God was pleased or displeased, but rather were more like the natural consequences for the populace’s choices (and spiritual consequences, because the natural and the spiritual are intrinsically linked). The law of God certainly is a moral law, but it is also the description of God’s design and the way things work. The way they were designed to thrive.

For instance, our 8 seater mini-van has a gasoline engine. It was made to be fuelled by gasoline. If I read the manual and saw the instruction “fuel with unleaded gasoline”, but chose to fuel instead with diesel, I would not be shocked that my engine ceased up and refused to operate. I would not say that the Honda corporation had punished me vindictively. They had warned me of what would happen if I violated the law.

Keep this in mind when you read the warnings and rewards laid out in Deuteronomy 28. In verses 1-14, we read God’s assurance of all the good that would surround the Israelites, “If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God.”

They would be blessed in the city, blessed in the country. Their children would be blessed, their crops and livestock would be blessed. They would be blessed coming in and blessed going out. They would have victory over their enemies. The LORD would send rain, and establish his people in places of influence among the other nations. They would be healthy, prosperous and strong.

Then, skim down a little further and in verses 15-68, there is a vivid description of all the ways things would begin to go wrong in their nation if the people of Israel broke covenant by forsaking God’s law and running after other gods and what they stood for. We‘ve spoken often about the worship systems of Israel’s neighbours. This was not about harmless little stone idols that people could offer bowls of fruit to. Rather, the gods of the Canaanites—particularly Baal, Ashterah and Molech—were worshipped with public, polygamous sexual practices up on the high places and ritual child sacrifice that was meant to evoke the blessings of gods of prosperity. And it was diametrically opposed to the design God had in mind for the gift of sexual expression between a man and woman who were in covenant with one another. This worship system over-emphasized the sexual component of human design and objectified sons and daughters alike. These systems of worship, perpetuated by demonic forces (Psalm 106:37), began to reshape the cultures of anyone who worshipped them. Sexual appetites were purposely left ungoverned. “Do what feels good” was the motto of the day. Innocent blood was spilled. Trauma was soon the name of the game. Marriages crumbled. Families were destabilized. Ultimately, the nation was destabilized.

These systems of worship, perpetuated by demonic forces, began to reshape the cultures of anyone who worshipped them. Sexual appetites were purposely left ungoverned. “Do what feels good” was the motto of the day. Innocent blood was spilled. Trauma was soon the name of the game. Marriages crumbled. Families were destabilized. Ultimately, The nation was destabilized.

Deuteronomy 28 was the prophetic proclamation of what that destabilization looked like. There would be economic trouble, plagues and disease, severe mental illness, and societal chaos. Verse 28 says it this way, “You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.” Next there would be political instability. Enemy armies would invade and battles would rage on. The sieges would lead to famine and such intense suffering that citizens would begin to starve. Here is where things get really bad—verses 54-57 specifically explains that the dire situation within the nation would lead to mothers and fathers resorting to cannibalism. Listen to this bizarre warning:

“The most gentle and sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities.”

I suspect you’ve never heard anyone preach out of that passage on a Sunday morning, hey? Interestingly, God instructed the leaders of Israel to read this passage out loud, in all of its severity, to the Israelite community once every seven years. So that they would know the multi-faceted blessings that came with obedience to God, and they’d also have a fair warning of the consequences of forsaking God’s law.

The desperate mothers of Samaria

We can read of another domestic dispute that took place less than one hundred years after King Solomon’s wise judgment for the two mothers. In the Old Testament, 2 Kings tells us that Israel had veered from following God’s law and was actively engaged in worshipping Baal, Ashterah and Molech. The prophets Elijah and Elisha had come with multiple warnings, reminding the Israelites of the consequences if they refused to turn from their wickedness, but to no avail. Things began falling apart, and 2 Kings 6 explains that the region and city of Samaria was now under siege from the Syrians. It was lasting so long that the people in the city were getting desperate. One day, King Jehoram was out walking along the wall and a woman called up to him:

“Help, my lord, O king!”…

Then the king said to her, “What is troubling you?”

And she answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.’ So we boiled my son, and ate him. And I said to her on the next day, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him’; but she has hidden her son.”

Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he tore his clothes; and as he passed by on the wall, the people looked, and there underneath he had sackcloth on his body.” (2 Kings 6:26-30)

The king didn’t have an answer. Unfortunately he also didn’t have the humility of heart to recognize that this was the progression of brokenness predicted in Deuteronomy 28. But he was grieved nonetheless.

He knew it was bad because the mothers stopped mothering. The reality was of course, that child sacrifice had been in the land long before this tragic event. Mothers and fathers had already been killing their children in exchange for an illusive promise of prosperity for decades. Rather than viewing each baby as a blessing and gift from God, they had bought the lie that children were dispensable—a consumable product. The God-given order for family, where mothers and fathers would sacrifice for the sake of their young, had been flipped on its head. Now children were being sacrificed for the sake of their parent.

The God-given order for family, where mothers and fathers would sacrifice for the sake of their young, had been flipped on its head. Now children were being sacrificed for the sake of their parent.

It’s not safe here: the impact of chronic stress on mothers

I recently learned something new about the teeter-totter reality of two specific hormones within a woman’s body; it is the wrestle between oxytocin and cortisol. Oxytocin is the bonding hormone previously mentioned, the one responsible for the sense of closeness that a woman can feel with her baby when she is breastfeeding, with loved ones from rich conversation and with her partner from a fulfilling sexual experience. Cortisol is the hormone most people know as the “stress hormone”, responsible for the fight-or-flight reflexes. Of course, we need cortisol in order to adequately respond to and overcome challenges, but chronically high cortisol will do a number on a woman’s system in many ways, and will hinder her body’s ability to experience the benefits of oxytocin.

This is not just true in humans, but in other mammal species as well. Studies have found that when the mother of species is under persistent threat (or even perceived danger) they are more likely to kill their offspring. It is like they panic. They forsake their natural instincts and begin looking out only for themselves.

Let me clarify quickly that I am not saying that humans are just another animal, with their behaviours inevitably linked to their environments and hormonal responses. We are far more than animals, yet people are behaving animalistically. Men and women alike must still be held responsible for their decisions—we cannot forsake justice. But we must look at the larger picture and begin to address the systemic brokenness. Cultures are intrinsically unsafe when sexual expression is elevated to the highest human experience and the value of a human life is degraded. The women of our nations do not feel safe. They are under pressure to protect themselves, perform and achieve, and provide for themselves. But we find studies are reporting record-high levels of anxiety and depression with persistent thoughts of self-harm and suicidal ideation.

Cultures are intrinsically unsafe when sexual expression is elevated to the highest human experience and the value of a human life is degraded.

Let’s return to the original question: Should Clancy be called to account for the premeditated murder of her three young children, or was she too deeply affected by postpartum psychosis that she should not be held fully responsible? Perhaps the answer is yes to both. Yes, we must enforce justice because murder is murder. But also, this case is indicative of a deeper, systemic issue. For the last sixty years, women around the world have been clamouring for the right to kill their children in utero. “My body, my right!” they chant in the streets. And the little ones suffer, offered once again on the altar of demonically inspired systems of worship. The worship of sex, the worship of self, the worship of comfort, ease and prosperity. The argument has become about matters of viability: if the baby in the womb couldn’t make it on its own and is reliant on an unwilling host, it doesn’t need to be protected by the law. The reductio ad absurdum—the reduction to the greatest absurdity— would be that infanticide is also reasonable.

Something has gone terribly wrong. The problem is bigger than we suspected, and we need a solution bigger than the courthouses can provide.

Our nations need the healing hand of God.

A promise of national-level restoration

What can the people of God do when the foundations of civility are shaken? Though God did not desire it, He knew the reality that humanity’s sinful nature would lead to chaos and devastation. Though the promises of Deuteronomy 28 are sobering, we can remember another promise that God made to His people found in 2 Chronicles 7:14:

"If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land.”

What does this look like for us as the people of God? First, we need to take an honest look at what is happening in our land, and instead of ignoring it or obsessing over it (or arguing about it online), we turn our face to our Lord and grieve with a humility of heart. You may not have eloquent prayers, but you let the sadness move you to intercession. Then, in that same posture of humility, you welcome the convicting work of the Holy Spirit to search your heart, to do inventory of your life choices. Where have you excused idolatry? Where have you participated with the worship systems of “surrounding nations” the way the Israelites once did? Where have you devalued human life or exalted sexual experiences above their rightful place? Let the Lord purify your own life from uncleanliness, and then continue to bring your petitions and prayers before the court of heaven.

God makes us a promise—He will hear our prayers. He will come and restore us. Yes, He will bind up broken-hearted, shame-ridden individuals. He will draw us close and teach us a new way to live. He will forgive our deepest sins. Oh, dear reader, He will surely do it for you. And He will do it for our land.