Modern Child Sacrifice
2 Kings
17 And they caused their sons and their daughters
to pass through the fire, and used divination and
enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in
the sight of the Lord, to provoke him to anger.
18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel,
and removed them out of his sight: there was
none left but the tribe of Judah only.
Moloch was a false god in Biblical times. Children were sacrificed to him by being burned or boiled alive. I have read varying accounts, but the Bible warns against this many times, using the phrase “pass through the fire” or something similar. So, I believe either account, burning or boiling, could be accurate. I researched to find out why someone do this, but never found a definite answer, and after a while, it was just too disturbing to continue. Whatever reasons someone would have of sacrificing their child is selfish. Our instinct as parents is to protect our child at all costs, even if it means sacrificing ourselves. It makes me think of the selfish and twisted excuses for abortion.
We sacrifice our unborn for convenience. We don’t want mess up our lives. We can’t imagine someone burning their child alive for any reason. But don’t judge them too harshly. At one time, most of us couldn’t imagine killing our child before birth for any reason.
It started with getting most of us to the point of being okay with abortion only very early on and under certain circumstances. Now look what most of us are okay with today. Right now, there is an uproar over Texas ruling abortion illegal after a heartbeat is detected. A HEARTBEAT! How can you deny life after a heartbeat? You can’t. So, you use excuses like a woman’s choice, kids ending up in foster care or being born into abusive homes. With the exception of rape, a woman has a choice before conception… don’t have sex with someone you don’t want to have a child with or before you are ready to have a child. That baby, the baby with a beating heart, has no choice. And yes, some children are born into abusive homes or end up foster care. And by the way, in my former profession, I worked with a lot of foster care parents. Some of them were amazing!
A lot of children face heartbreak and adversity, that is true. That doesn’t mean their life doesn’t have value. It doesn’t mean they can’t overcome their childhood to have happy, productive lives that they are grateful to have. We don’t get to make that choice for them. Maybe ancient child sacrifice started with being okay with only very limited acceptance as well.
Apparently, it didn’t stay that way. It even spilled into practice with the Israelites. (That’s a whole ‘nother post in that …. Keep yourself separate!) Reread verse 18. God was not pleased. Do you think he is please with how we sacrifice our children now? Although this post is about abortion, it isn’t the only way we sacrifice our children. Anything from being abusive or neglectful to turning a blind eye to the horrors we are just now learning that happens to our trafficked children, is child sacrifice. Our country is a mess. Do you see a connection?