Children, our idolatry, and the plague on frogs

This is really good, I think.  From Phil Ryken

"In the Egyptian pantheon, the frog-goddess Heqet was the spouse of
the creator-god Khnum. The Egyptians believed that Khnum fashioned
human bodies on his potter’s wheel, and then Heqet breathed into them the
breath of life. She was the agent of life-giving power and also the symbol
of fertility.
The Egyptians relied on Heqet for two things in particular. One was to
control the frog population by protecting crocodiles, the frog’s natural predators.
Obviously, when Egypt was overrun (or overhopped!) with frogs,
Heqet was humiliated. This plague proved that she was powerless to resist
the mighty strength of the Lord.Heqet’s other responsibility was to assist women in childbirth. Since she
was the spirit who breathed life into the body, women turned to her for help
when they were in the pains of labor. This suggests that there may be a connection
between the second plague and Pharaoh’s sin against the Hebrew
midwives. Remember that the book of Exodus began with attempted infanticide.
In his effort to exterminate the Israelites, Pharaoh commanded the
Hebrew midwives to kill Israel’s baby boys (Exod. 1:15, 16). When his evil
plan failed, he ordered the infants to be thrown into the Nile (Exod. 1:22).
Given that background, it seems significant that God’s first two plagues
struck blows against the gods of Egypt’s river and the goddess of Egypt’s
midwives. It was a matter of strict justice: God was punishing the Egyptians
for their sins. The very river that Pharaoh used as an instrument of genocide
was turned to blood, and the first goddess to be humiliated was the one
who governed labor and delivery. There was a connection between Pharaoh’s
crime and God’s punishment.
What is equally important is the connection between Egypt’s gods and
our own postmodern deities. Our method for studying Exodus is practical,
and one of the most practical ways to study the plagues is to recognize that
we are tempted to serve the same idols. The question to ask about the second
plague is this: In what ways are we tempted to worship Heqet?
To answer this question, we have to understand why the Egyptians
worshiped Heqet in the first place. It was because they desperately wanted
to gain control over childbirth. In the days of modern medical care it is easy
to forget how dangerous it is to give birth — dangerous not only for the baby,
but also for the mother. For most of human history, in most parts of the world,
childbirth has been a potentially life-threatening experience. When an
Egyptian woman went into labor, fearing both for her own life and for the life
of her newborn child, her only comfort was to cry out to Heqet for the breath
of life.
Childbirth is a spiritual matter, and the issues that surround it are among
the most difficult spiritual issues most women ever face. Many single women
long to share their love with a child. Some married women are unable to have
children. Others lose children through miscarriage. Then there are all the
anxieties that come with actually conceiving, bearing, and delivering a child.
Surely the most difficult thing of all is to give birth, only to lose the child.
These sufferings all find their ultimate cause in humanity’s fall into sin.
God said to Eve, “I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain
you will give birth to children” (Gen. 3:16a). This curse refers not only to the
physical act of childbirth, but to all the losses and frustrations that are associated
with it.
In times of discouragement it is tempting to turn to Heqet. Some couples
make a sacrifice to the goddess of fertility by getting an abortion. When there
are questions about how the fetus is developing, as there often are, they
submit to the pressure to terminate the pregnancy. Other couples abuse various
forms of birth control. While it is sometimes appropriate to regulate
when a woman gives birth, birth control should never be used as a way of
avoiding God’s command to be fruitful and multiply. Eventually some couples
will use the knowledge of the human genome to produce designer children
whose genetic material is altered to prevent certain diseases or even to
guarantee certain attributes or abilities. Others make the quest for a child an
idolatrous obsession. This is not to say that some forms of fertility treatment,
including various forms of medication, are un-Biblical. Nor is it to
say that Christian parents should not pursue adoption, which is a beautiful
picture of God’s love for his lost children. But it is to say that couples should
not place their supreme confidence in some course of treatment or in some
adoption agency, but in God himself, for he alone is the giver of life. The
birth of a child is not a human project but a divine gift from a sovereign Lord.
One reason not to trust in Heqet is that she does not have the power to
comfort her worshipers. Only the true and living God is able to bring healing
to the deepest hurts in a woman’s heart. Some of the most courageous
women I know have lost children before, during, or shortly after childbirth.
In the bitter pain of their suffering, there were times when they were tempted
to turn away from God. But in the end they were drawn closer to God as
they experienced his mercy for their sorrow.
I think of my own mother-in-law, Elaine Maxwell, who lost her only son
the day after he was born. During her pregnancy she was exposed to rubella;
so Jack was born with a hole in his heart. It was the kind of loss that a
mother never forgets, which probably explains why, when she walked into
an art show twenty-five years later and saw a sculpture of a perfect baby
boy, she burst into tears. It brought back the memory of such grief that she
had to leave the exhibition. But when she returned she noticed that the baby
was resting in two strong hands and that the sculpture bore the title, “In the
Hands of God.” Since this is where she had left her son — in God’s hands
— the sculpture is now displayed in her home.
It can take a long time to accept the will of God, and usually it takes even
longer to understand it. Sometimes a woman never fully comprehends why
everything surrounding childbirth brings such suffering. But the only way
to experience true healing for life’s deepest hurts is to place them in the hands
of God. Those who worship Heqet will never experience the comfort God
gives to everyone who trusts in him."