“You must not do this to Adonai your God! For they have done to their gods all the abominations that Adonai hates! They even burn up their sons and daughters in the fire for their gods!“-Deuteronomy 12:31
Deuteronomy Chapter 12 ends with the Lord calling out the abominable practice of child sacrifice AND…
…making it clear this is one of the chief reasons why His People are to stay far away from the religious practices of the Canaanites.
Since child sacrifice comes up quite a bit in the Scriptures, let’s dive into this topic a little bit.
The first thing you should know is that child sacrifice was well known outside of what’s written in Scripture and was much more common in the ancient world than you can imagine.
How it worked was when a family wanted protection from some disaster like an epidemic or defeat in battle…
….or if they wanted something of tremendous value, the normal practice was to offer up their child to a god who they believed had the power to influence fate on their behalf.
There is actually a ton of archeological evidence proving just how widespread this practice was.
Literally hundreds of urns containing the charred bones of young children have been discovered at the ancient sites of pagan altars strewn throughout the whole ancient Middle East.
According to one historical episode of Egyptian origin, we’re told of an incident that occurred around 1200 B.C. when the Egyptian army had stationed itself around the walled cities of Canaan to attack them.
In the midst of the Egyptian assault, the Canaanites inside the walls began throwing the bodies of their dead children over the walls.
What had happened was that the Canaanites had been holding a religious ceremony during which all those children had been sacrificed to their gods in hopes of receiving protection from the advancing Egyptians.
One question concerning this detestable practice that sometimes comes up is why were the children sacrificed?
That is, why didn’t the adults sacrifice themselves instead of putting their children through the horror of being offered up to the gods?
The answer to this question gives us a peek into how the ancient pagans thought.
According to their belief system, the heathens believed if they wanted to get something of immense value from the gods, they had no choice but to offer what was most precious to them in order to get the gods to look favorably upon them.
The reality is most ancient societies valued their children above everything.
Their value system was a far cry from our flippant attitude towards pregnancy today where abortion has become practically the norm.
So we shouldn’t get the idea that the ancient Canaanites murdered their young sons and daughters because they didn’t really love or care about them…
…or that they had so many children that it really wasn’t a big deal to sacrifice one out of the bunch.
The truth is they cared deeply about their children and it was incredibly heartbreaking for them to have to sacrifice one of their children to the gods.
And sad to say, in spite of the clear instructions from God to Israel that they were NOT to engage in this abhorrent practice (a command the Israelites in general took very seriously), there were some rare occurrences when the Hebrews did offer their children up.
One of the most famous examples was the tragic tale when Jephthah made a vow to offer as a burnt offering the first “thing” that greeted him when he returned from a key battle, if God would grant him victory.
We all know the story.
Jephthah got his victory but when he returned home, to his horror, his daughter (his only child) rushed out to greet him.
In those days in the Middle East (and even in some undeveloped areas today), people lived right alongside their farm animals inside the home.
This was actually the norm right up until the time of Yeshua.
So obviously, Jephthah was expecting one of his farm animals to come bounding out of his house when he returned home victorious.
We all know what happened in the end.
In spite of his tremendous sorrow and horror, we’re told that Jephthah went ahead, killed his daughter and roasted her up on an altar in the name of the Lord.
From our perspective today, we can see just how warped Jephthah’s logic was in that regardless of just how rash his vow was, he felt compelled to keep his promise no matter what.
Boy, this true story sure does demonstrate how seriously people took their vows in those days.
We know that even during Yeshua’s day, child sacrifice occurred.
It took place in an area called the Valley of Hinnom which was a deep gorge that encompassed the southern and eastern corners of the Holy City.
This area was used as both a trash dump and an area where several altars to the god of MOLECH had been built and where countless children over the centuries had been offered up for sacrifice (by gentiles, NOT Israelites).
The takeaway for today is quite profound and kind of ties into what I wrote about yesterday concerning God being firmly against any and all mixing of worship of Him with the worship of the gods of the gentiles.
Here’s the thing.
Your mediocre Bible scholar will read Deuteronomy Chapter 12 and come to the conclusion that the purpose of the final verse of this chapter was simply all about the prohibition of child sacrifice.
On the other hand, your more astute Bible scholar will more properly understand that the real lesson being communicated here is that child sacrifice is simply an extreme example of what would result if Israel ever began experimenting or dabbling in the idolatrous ways of their heathen neighbors.
It’s one helluva a slippery slope.
We think it’s okay to just sample or inquire a bit into seemingly the most ho-hum and harmless aspect of some other pagan religion or worldly philosophy thinking that we’ll be able to prevent ourselves from getting entangled by it.
God says NO you won’t be able to dabble and come away unscathed!
We are to shun these ungodly religions and the ways of the world with all of our heart, soul, mind and every fiber of our being.
And if in doing so, we maybe insult, offend or anger someone, well that’s just too doggone bad now, ain’t it Charlie?
Jepthah’s daughter was not offered up as a burnt sacrifice, she was dedicated in service for life at the temple which is why her virgin friends “wept over her virginity”. She was to stay single her whole life and not bear children which was highly valued in Israel.
I agree as well. Burnt offering just does not mean to burn up the offering. The true meaning to to become a “living sacrifice” like stated in Romans 12.