That Which Was Precious

 

THAT WHICH WAS PRECIOUS

About 840 B.C. the ancient city of Carthage was founded on the North Eastern Tip of Africa. It began as a humble village and grew till it was a major rival to Rome in the Mediterranean Sea area. Their famous general, Hannibal, nearly destroyed the Roman Empire at one point.
Some years ago, there was an archeological dig done in a “graveyard” holding sacrifices the city had made to their gods. It was a mixture of animals... and children.

Because these were secular archeologists, they expected Carthaginian religion had “evolved” from a barbaric system - where initially children were sacrificed, to a more civilized culture where they offered up animals. These experts were surprised to find that it was the other way around. Animals first then children. Based on that finding, they speculated that, when Carthage was first founded, animals were plentiful and children more precious. But as the city grew, animals became more valuable… and their children were expendable. Their animals were more precious than their children.

Down through the ages, that which is precious has always been more valuable. In our culture, for example, freedom from commitment has become such a prized and precious commodity that abortion on demand has become a battleground. A survey in 2020 found that the majority of abortions were performed because most essentially said “I don’t want this child”. Of those interviewed, only 12% said the abortion was because of “health related” issues, but those responses are somewhat dubious because they were based on self-diagnosis rather than necessarily a medically advised conclusion.

In the days of ancient Rome, abortion of the unborn, and allowing the newly born to die of exposure was a common practice. Young lives in that era were of little value and disposable. One letter from those days said: “if (good fortune to you!) you give birth, if it is a boy, let it live; if it is a girl, expose it.” But when Christianity took hold in Rome, that changed.

The Bible speaks of the unborn as precious:
“For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 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. 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)
And Jeremiah wrote: “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 1:5).