"Rescue those who are being taken away to death; hold back those who are stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, 'Behold, we did not know this,' does not He who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not He who keeps watch over your soul know it, and will He not repay man according to his work?"
- Proverbs 24:11-12
During World War II, the Dutch woman Corrie ten Boom followed this admonition, when she hid Jewish refugees in her house during the Nazi Holocaust. She obeyed this Proverb literally, and was herself imprisoned by the Nazis. Her own sister perished in the death camp.
In our own time, the American holocaust is the extermination of the unborn. Randall Terry founded the pro-life organization Operation Rescue, and took its name expressly from this text, though not without controversy. Personally, I believe that a Christian can accept the obligation of this text, while not also condoning all the strategies of Operation Rescue.
Of course, that brings up an additional question: if Proverbs 24:11 doesn't justify the tactics of Operation Rescue, what does it require? Too many Christians are satisfied saying that they don't agree with Operation Rescue, then don't do anything else instead. Christian, what are you doing to rescue the unborn? When God sifts the answers of your heart, will He be as satisfied with your answer as you are? Our passage warns against the self-satisfied heart of the man who hides his eyes from his own complacency. Do you believe that the screams of the unborn children will be silenced, if you simply sing a little louder?
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