As much as we might find various forms of “toxic masculinity” in the animal kingdom, a good candidate for “toxic femininity” is the ostrich. This giant bird cares little for her young. She leaves them to be trampled on. God directs Job to wonder at such unnatural heartlessness. And yet, for the past 48 years in the world of men, the United States, among other nations, has summoned powerful forces to make women just like them. No matter what name you call it — “choice,” “women’s rights,” “reproductive freedom” — abortion fashions women into ostriches. Notice the tragic resemblance.
When God looks down at America, does he see a land where ostriches roam?
In Scripture, the presence of ostriches in the land signifies desolation. Their presence in the Prophets is a sign of a barren, uninhabited land: “Wild beasts shall dwell with hyenas in Babylon, and ostriches shall dwell in her. She shall never again have people, nor be inhabited for all generations” (Jeremiah 50:39).
More specifically, the ostrich becomes an emblem for a desert land leveled by judgment. God describes what Edom will be after he visits it with his vengeance: “Thorns shall grow over its strongholds, nettles and thistles in its fortresses. It shall be the haunt of jackals, an abode for ostriches” (Isaiah 34:13; see also Isaiah 13:19–22). Where the ostrich dwells, few men do.
Though the United States does show signs of living under the wrath of God (Romans 1:18–32), ours resembles a land of ostriches due to a different feature of this bird: she is a cruel mother. We live in a land that supports, funds, and legalizes parental cruelty, and calls it a human right. And to normalize it, some, with billion-dollar originations backing them, defend, protest, and even shout their “right” for a mother to become like an ostrich.
Toxic Femininity
The sufferings of Job on the cosmic stage are well-documented for us in the book bearing his name. Toward the end, when God confronts Job with divine thunder and calls him to account (Job 38:3; 40:7), God tours the brilliance of his creation to ask Job where he was when all these were formed. Pausing at the ostrich, the Creator says,
The wings of the ostrich wave proudly,
but are they the pinions and plumage of love?
For she leaves her eggs to the earth
and lets them be warmed on the ground,
forgetting that a foot may crush them
and that the wild beast may trample them.
She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers;
though her labor be in vain, yet she has no fear,
because God has made her forget wisdom
and given her no share in understanding.
When she rouses herself to flee,
she laughs at the horse and his rider. (Job 39:13–18)
As much as we might find various forms of “toxic masculinity” in the animal kingdom, a good candidate for “toxic femininity” is the ostrich. This giant bird cares little for her young. She leaves them to be trampled on. God directs Job to wonder at such unnatural heartlessness. And yet, for the past 48 years in the world of men, the United States, among other nations, has summoned powerful forces to make women just like them. No matter what name you call it — “choice,” “women’s rights,” “reproductive freedom” — abortion fashions women into ostriches. Notice the tragic resemblance.
Mothers Who Trample Eggs
Unlike the she-bear, whose jealous love is known for mauling anything and everything that endangers her cubs (Proverbs 17:12; Hosea 13:8), the neglectful bird digs a hole and throws her eggs in it, leaving them during the day completely unprotected. “She leaves her eggs to the earth and lets them be warmed on the ground, forgetting that a foot may crush them and that the wild beast may trample them” (Job 39:14–15).
She takes no pains, like other birds, to provide shelter and seclusion. Rather, she plops them on the ground, where any wild beast or human traveler may come by and trample them, or predators take them for a meal.
The leaders of the abortion industry in our land are not content for a woman to merely leave her children exposed — like the ancient Romans who left their babies to perish slowly in the streets. No, they would have her pay for a wild beast to crush them. They don’t afford Moses the chance to even float downstream to an improbable rescue, or leave him in the streets of Rome for a Christian to save. They invite her to hand him to Pharaoh directly and pay for the “services.”
Mothers Who Can’t Recognize Their Young
God created women to be nurturing to their children. They are naturally affectionate and sacrificial with their babies. Even before children are born, mothers give their bodies as a home for them to live in. Then mothers go through incredible pains to bring them into the world, feed them with their own bodies, and watch over them with a special eye of affection and provision the rest of their days. It is a privilege to watch this heavenly flower unfold.
Deprived of that God-given affection between mother and child, “She deals cruelly with her young, as if they were not hers” (Job 39:16). Where is the impulse to care for her young? They simply lie in the hole, strangers to her. “Even jackals offer the breast; they nurse their young; but the daughter of my people has become cruel, like the ostriches in the wilderness” (Lamentations 4:3).
