It's easy to read a chapter forbidding child sacrifice and think it isn't relevant to modern life. Even with the horrors we see in the nightly news, we don't often hear of people sacrificing a child to a pagan god. It's also easy to equate this with the modern practice of abortion, but there is more to this passage than an indictment of abortion.
When we think about the root of what these child sacrifices were, and why God forbade them, it paints a more alarming picture of modern priorities. In Canaan, as in many cultures around the globe at this time, child sacrifice was common, though the means varied. The Canaanites built statues of the god Molech, a pagan deity with a human body and the head of a bull, and made various sacrifices in niches within the statue, including burning newborn or even older children alive. They believed that offering their children to Molech would bring them wisdom, wealth, or blessings
Their hearts were set on what was in it for them, rather than on God or even on someone else's (their child's) best interest.
And that is where the connection with modern times becomes painfully clear and more broadly applicable. Whether it is parents so consumed with their own interests, desires, or demons that they will shoot up drugs while driving with their children in the car, or forget their child is in the car and leave them all day in the heat, we have a society where people think more and more of themselves and less of anyone else. Or maybe they do care for their children, but choose to push them mercilessly to succeed in sports, academics or other endeavors, not with the child's interests in mind, but with selfish motivations.
Maybe it isn't even their own children - maybe it is someone else in the car beside them, who they are willing to shoot for cutting them off in traffic. Maybe it is being willing to throw anyone and everyone under the bus at work in order to gain status or success for yourself. Or maybe it is being willing to turn a blind eye to abuse or to children living in desperate poverty.
The reason God states that they should not sacrifice their children is that it makes His sanctuary unclean and profanes His Holy Name. How would the modern behaviors relate to that?
If we call ourselves Christians, we bear the Name of Christ. To a watching world, we represent Christ whether we do that well or whether we do it poorly. If we believe that sacrificing an unborn child is a woman's choice, we profane the name of God by failing to proclaim that He has created all life and declared it to be good. If we treat another person with hatred or disdain, we profane the name of God by failing to proclaim they were made in the Imago Dei (image of God) just as we were. Anything we do that puts our well-being above that of others, particularly of children, reveals a heart that leans toward Molech more than to the Lord, because Jesus said, "But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." Luke 6:27-28
In a world where looking out for number one is seen as the norm, the worship of Molech continues.
When we think about the root of what these child sacrifices were, and why God forbade them, it paints a more alarming picture of modern priorities. In Canaan, as in many cultures around the globe at this time, child sacrifice was common, though the means varied. The Canaanites built statues of the god Molech, a pagan deity with a human body and the head of a bull, and made various sacrifices in niches within the statue, including burning newborn or even older children alive. They believed that offering their children to Molech would bring them wisdom, wealth, or blessings
Their hearts were set on what was in it for them, rather than on God or even on someone else's (their child's) best interest.
And that is where the connection with modern times becomes painfully clear and more broadly applicable. Whether it is parents so consumed with their own interests, desires, or demons that they will shoot up drugs while driving with their children in the car, or forget their child is in the car and leave them all day in the heat, we have a society where people think more and more of themselves and less of anyone else. Or maybe they do care for their children, but choose to push them mercilessly to succeed in sports, academics or other endeavors, not with the child's interests in mind, but with selfish motivations.
Maybe it isn't even their own children - maybe it is someone else in the car beside them, who they are willing to shoot for cutting them off in traffic. Maybe it is being willing to throw anyone and everyone under the bus at work in order to gain status or success for yourself. Or maybe it is being willing to turn a blind eye to abuse or to children living in desperate poverty.
The reason God states that they should not sacrifice their children is that it makes His sanctuary unclean and profanes His Holy Name. How would the modern behaviors relate to that?
If we call ourselves Christians, we bear the Name of Christ. To a watching world, we represent Christ whether we do that well or whether we do it poorly. If we believe that sacrificing an unborn child is a woman's choice, we profane the name of God by failing to proclaim that He has created all life and declared it to be good. If we treat another person with hatred or disdain, we profane the name of God by failing to proclaim they were made in the Imago Dei (image of God) just as we were. Anything we do that puts our well-being above that of others, particularly of children, reveals a heart that leans toward Molech more than to the Lord, because Jesus said, "But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you." Luke 6:27-28
In a world where looking out for number one is seen as the norm, the worship of Molech continues.
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