[Note: This is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the Portland congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, June 29, 2024.]

Good afternoon and happy Sabbath to you all. When I was preparing for a recent teen Bible study on God’s calling of children, I came across a familiar passage that is probably known to most of you that I would like to begin with today. Let us turn to Jeremiah 1:4-5. Jeremiah 1:4-5 tells us: “Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.”” [pause] This passage, short as it is, gives us many possible implications to follow. We can ponder the importance of there being some aspect of our personality, our character, our strengths and weaknesses, being knowable from the womb. We may speculate on the means that these things may be known, through our DNA or epigenetics or through the human nature and spirit in man that are present within us from conception. We may reflect on the implications that having personhood from our conception in the womb has on how the unborn are to be treated by others, and by the law. I do not wish to explore these implications today, but instead to leave them open for future thinking and discussion. What I would like to do today is to explore a question that we perhaps do not often consider in relationship to this verse: what is the difference between being known by God from the womb, as Jeremiah was, and knowing God from the womb?

One of the patterns that we see in the book of Genesis is that of unborn children struggling with each other in the womb for divine favor and blessings. At least twice in the first book of the Bible we are presented with twins competing with each other in the womb, with the fate of nations hanging on the outcomes of such struggles. Let us turn to the first such example in Genesis 25:19-26. In Genesis 25:19-26, we are presented with the example of Esau and Jacob and their struggle for dominance that began in the womb. Genesis 25:19-26 reads: “This is the genealogy of Isaac, Abraham’s son. Abraham begot Isaac. Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah as wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padan Aram, the sister of Laban the Syrian. Now Isaac pleaded with the Lord for his wife, because she was barren; and the Lord granted his plea, and Rebekah his wife conceived. But the children struggled together within her; and she said, “If all is well, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. And the Lord said to her: “Two nations are in your womb, two peoples shall be separated from your body; one people shall be stronger than the other, And the older shall serve the younger.” So when her days were fulfilled for her to give birth, indeed there were twins in her womb. And the first came out red. He was like a hairy garment all over; so they called his name Esau. Afterward his brother came out, and his hand took hold of Esau’s heel; so his name was called Jacob. Isaac was sixty years old when she bore them.”

We can see from this passage that God did indeed know Esau and Jacob from the womb. Yet even though God knew them from the beginning, they did not know Him from the beginning, and this was the cause of a great deal of conflict between them, conflict that started from the womb, continued when Jacob grabbed his brother’s heel, and continued not only throughout all of their lives but has continued between the descendants of Esau and Jacob down to the present day. Nations are still competing and fighting with each other because of two brothers who struggled for the same inheritance. Upon the fate of infant children the fate of nations and empires has hung. Personal nature can become a part of national cultures, and be passed down, as it has between Esau and Jacob, for thousands of years. This is a terrifying thought to many of us, I would imagine, to reflect on how enduring culture can be, and how it can be formed even at the very beginning of our lives, before we draw breath. While it is obvious that God was working with Esau and Jacob, it is equally obvious that they did not know Him and it would be a long time before Jacob’s grasping nature would be turned to the good, to a persistence in holding on to what was right and a principled refusal to give up.

We find a similar though less dramatic example in Genesis 38:27-30. Here we have the birth of twins Pharez and Zarah to Tamar for Judah. Genesis 38:27-30 reads: “Now it came to pass, at the time for giving birth, that behold, twins were in her womb. And so it was, when she was giving birth, that the one put out his hand; and the midwife took a scarlet thread and bound it on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” Then it happened, as he drew back his hand, that his brother came out unexpectedly; and she said, “How did you break through? This breach be upon you!” Therefore his name was called Perez. Afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand. And his name was called Zerah.” Here we see the same sort of pattern we saw before, though less competitively. Two twins duel to be the oldest, and the twin that seems to be less favored ends up becoming the winner and becomes ancestor of David and later Jesus Christ. That is not to say that Zarah did poorly for himself; if the Zarahite line is not very well-known in biblical times, historical sources reveal that this line has been well-represented in European royal lines, at least. -Once again, though, we have a situation where God knows what is going on in the womb and He shapes events to happen as He wills them to be with very long-term goals in mind.

So far we have seen what it is like for God to know us as human beings before we were born. What it is like to know God before we were born though? As it happens, we have at least one example of this, and as we might expect, it occurs in the Gospels. Let us now turn to our final scripture today, Luke 1:39-45. Luke 1:39-45 reads: “Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.  And it happened, when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, that the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit.  Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!  But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?  For indeed, as soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.  Blessed is she who believed, for there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the Lord.””

Let us see how different this account is than the two we have already read where God knew the competitive nature of twins fighting in the womb. For one, we see no rivalry at all here between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ, nor between their mothers. Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth and rather than giving a blessing, she finds herself receiving a blessing as Elizabeth has been blessed by the Holy Spirit with encouragement to give to her relative. John the Baptist rejoices that Jesus Christ is near, again, not competing over a spot of predominance within the Kingdom of God, but rather rejoicing that Jesus is near. This is an attitude to cultivate, an attitude of joy, of encouragement, of praise.

What does this mean for us, specifically, though? We can have a variety of attitudes and responses to the knowledge that God knows our innermost nature and has known it from before we were formed in the womb. Perhaps we may be encouraged that God knows our nature and how to best deal with it, perhaps we may be frightened, or even terrified, that God knows us so deeply inside and has from the very beginning. When we look at the behavior of the squabbling twins we find in the book of Genesis, though, being known by God seems to be little encouragement on the part of people to behave kindly and generously towards others. In that regard, it is far better for us to know God and to act according to His laws and His ways, if we want to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. In a way, though, we are all unborn children awaiting our birth into eternal life as sons and daughters of God. God knows us deeply; He knows our strengths and our weaknesses, He knows our talents and abilities, as well as what we must overcome. Let us resolve to know Him and not only be known by Him.