This morning I happened upon a verse I had not read
before: Isaiah 30:33
"Topheth has long
been prepared; it has been made ready for the king.
Its fire pit has been
made deep and wide, with an abundance of fire and wood;
the breath of the
LORD, like a stream of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze."
Pretty strong language.
I was curious. What is Topheth?
What
in the world happened there? Why does God’s Holy anger burn against it so?
I
did a little research. And I found out basically, it all goes back to sin.
Doesn't everything?
First, there was a god called Molech. Its origins are in all
ways evil. It was a god who produced sun, or warmth - in theory of course. In
practice Molech was only appeased by death. Primarily the death of children.
First born, new born, babies. Or perhaps, if the need was there, some children up
to age six or so.
Really? The death, by sacrifice, of babies?
Think about it.
Don’t let your brain go all Hollywood and visualize
drums beating and crazy people carrying babies to a big fire then…
Cut! Crying
mother and its over.
This was real. You can go to archaeological digs in the Middle
East right now and see thousands of dead baby bones. Thousands of dead babies.
One account says at one point the nobles- the upper class, affluent people-
thought the god was angry with them because instead of giving their own babies
they were buying babies from poor people and giving them as a substitute
sacrifice. So their response was to repent and offer up 200 of their children all
at once. But in their zeal more than 300 children were actually slaughtered.
The god was represented by a large hollow metal statue.
Being the god of the sun’s warmth a fire was lit inside of the statue. Some
accounts have the tiny babies being dumped inside the hollow burning part all
at once. Some say the statue had outstretched hands ready to receive the little
ones. Perhaps it was spring loaded and then fed the children into its own fiery
belly. One account says that was probably too mechanically complex. The babies
were just placed in the statues’ hands and left to slowly burn to death over
several hours as the fires grew hotter and the heat transferred throughout the
statues’ metal body.
Do you think that precious innocent one was screaming in
terror and pain?
Crying out in the confusion of being abandoned and tortured?
If
they were old enough, calling out, “mama, mama”...
Without a doubt they were crying.
So how do
you keep a parent from being moved by this?
Play the drums louder.
Add some
horns and flutes. Chant.
How do you keep anyone from being moved by this?
Mask over their cries with distracting noise.
The practice of Molech’s sacrifices has gone on for a very
long time. Leviticus shows us God’s admonition to the Israelites way back in
chapter 18 verse 21
"Do not give any of your children to be
sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the
LORD."
Even though this
edict is very plain, some leaders and people of Israel actually practiced this
ritual. Where?
Topheth.
It was a place right outside of Jerusalem where the
sacrifices were performed. The word means “altar” but it was not a place of
beauty it soon just became a garbage dump. It was a place where death and
discard reigned. There was a continual fire burning, probably to mask the
smell. It was also called the Valley of Hennon. This place was so vile it
eventually gave birth to the Greek word Gehenna which we know today as Hell.
The Scripture from
Leviticus is pretty plain and straightforward, “Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you
must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD."
Why shouldn’t you sacrifice your children?
Not because it is hurtful to the parents or will seriously deplete your
population growth?
No, because it profanes
God’s name. It hurts the very core of
who He is.
We are all defined
by our name. God chose to reveal Himself to us by His many descriptive names.
He is our Redeemer, Provider, Healer, Shepherd and on and on. It is of great
interest that God forbids sacrificing children because it compromises who He is. It profanes or negates His
Holiness and goodness. What a connection. God must truly see these innocent
ones as a reflection of His purity and power. He must value them as a piece of
Himself; a precious reflection of the Creator of the Universe in a sweet small
human form. Don’t misunderstand, there
were sacrifices of adults as well. But just as God has clearly explained to us
what is right and wrong, so also the demons know evil and good. The worshipers of Molech were fully aware of the abomination, the blatant evil, involved in this
practice and did it anyway because they knew, as well, the wondrous power of
the holiness of God. If they were to effectively try to bring down the LORD
they must fight fire with fire. Pure innocence compromised allows evil to
reign.
Totally irrelevant
to us today?
God’s Word is never
irrelevant. It speaks to us throughout time.
I can hear the cries
of the innocent babies echo from sacrificial fires burning strong and bright,
right now, today. The children of the world are being sacrificed as easily as
they were thousands of years ago. Every time I choose to indulge in a North
American luxury and turn my face away from images of malnourished toddlers the
drums beat louder. Every time I think the numbers are too great and I cannot
possibly make a difference another worshiper pushes past me and tosses an
innocent one into the flames. Every time
I ignore the cries of the children next door being beaten and silenced I pour
fuel on the fires of evil triumphant. Each time I give in and say "some" abortions are needed...
Do not tell me that
children are of value to you unless you can take a stand; do something besides
cry and turn away. Do not raise your hands in praise beside me and offer
worship to God as His name is profaned by your indifference and ignorance to
the cries of the little ones.
I pray that one day
we may truly see the Holiness of God and comprehend our unworthiness of His
love. Then perhaps we can value what He holds most precious and guard it with
our lives. Then perhaps we can understand how beautiful to Him our prayers for
the protection of His children truly are. How valued are our few dollars when
used to buy rice for hungry tummies. How life changing and life saving is our
compassionate response to their needs. How tenderly loved by God we are when we
simply hand a needy mother a blanket to hold her baby in instead of having it
ripped from her to be tossed into the fire.
The weapons with
which we fight this evil are simple: faith, hope and love.
The greatest of
these is Love.
References:
The Bible and the End
of the World: Should We Be Afraid? By Margaret Nutting Ralph
