The words of Job’s friend millennia ago are just as relevant for today’s South Africa.

A stupid man will get understanding when a wild donkey’s colt is born a man! (Job 11:12)

This statement was an ancient absurdity—akin to our modern-day “that’ll happen when hell freezes over.” A dimwit won’t become wise any more than a wild donkey can bear a human child. Donkeys are lowly beasts. Humans are image-bearers. Only a cretin could miss that, right?

Consider South Africa. In 2011 alone, over 77,000 babies were killed legally. The numbers would be dramatically higher if illegal abortions could be tallied. A woman in South Africa needs no reason whatsoever to get an abortion provided she is less than three months pregnant. Abortions for women five months pregnant are nearly just as easy. Signs litter nearly every South African town promoting “quick”, “easy”, “cheap”, “painless” abortions.

In South Africa, murdering babies is easy. Killing donkeys is more difficult. Recently in our area, four men were detained by authorities, incarcerated, held without bail and prosecuted. What was their crime? They made the apparently inexcusable decision to transport four-dozen donkeys in less than humane conditions. Kill a baby, tell the tale. Beat a donkey, go to jail.

If you are still not convinced such thinking is twisted, I would implore you to read the story of American Gianna Jessen. Thirty-nine years ago she miraculously survived a saline abortion. She was burned alive in her mother’s womb for 18 hours but endured not only the poison, but the doctor who typically strangled the babies that lived. As a result, Cerebral Palsy is one of the marks she bears for the Lord Jesus.

Every sentence of her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee thunders like an ancient prophet. Consider these five statements:

1. “Cerebral palsy is a great gift to me.”
2. “I forgive my biological mother” (who did not want her inside or outside the womb).
3. “How many children have died, and been dismembered, and their parts sold, for our ego, our convenience, and our promiscuity?”
4. “Planned Parenthood uses deception, the manipulation of language and slogans, such as ‘a woman’s right to choose,’ to achieve their monetary aims.”
5. “[Men], you are made for greatness, not passivity. You were born to defend women and children. Not use and abandon us, nor sit idly by while you know we are being harmed. I am asking you to be brave.”

If “insanity” is the best word to describe the pro-animal, anti-infant spirit in South Africa today, “beautiful”, “wise”, and “courageous” must be the terms we use to designate women like Gianna Jessen. The whole gospel is in her speech: Jesus Christ, forgiveness, God’s sovereignty, the wages of sin, repentance.

Zophar was right. Only a stupid man would think a donkey could birth a human. What is more absurd? Those who protect the beasts and kill the babes. If the men in this nation do not rise up to protect their women–both infants and adults–the blood will not only mark the doctor’s hands. It will stain ours as well.