Through the Fire
I had wondered a little bit just how bad the Old Testament Israelites were, if they had ever dared to actually do such a thing as human sacrifice. In the King James we see the term “pass through the fire”, something that they did to their children. While it is used less than 20 times in the OT (never in the New), some of the uses indicate that it happened an awful lot:
“And they left all the commandments of
the LORD their God, and made them molten images, even two calves, and made a grove,
and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 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. Therefore the LORD was very angry with
“And they built the high places of
Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom,
to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my
mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause
We see that whatever the term means, it is anything but what God wants. So the question becomes, is it literally “pass through” or is it sacrifice? I (so far anyway) only found one book where it explained what went on, in Ezekiel:
“Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter, That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?” Ezekiel 16:20-21 KJV
“The LORD said moreover unto me; Son of man, wilt thou judge Aholah and Aholibah? yea, declare unto them their abominations; That they have committed adultery, and blood is in their hands, and with their idols have they committed adultery, and have also caused their sons, whom they bare unto me, to pass for them through the fire, to devour them. Moreover this they have done unto me: they have defiled my sanctuary in the same day, and have profaned my sabbaths. For when they had slain their children to their idols, then they came the same day into my sanctuary to profane it; and, lo, thus have they done in the midst of mine house.” Ezekiel 23:36-39 KJV
So this gives us the picture that human sacrifice was actually done among God’s people, their children were killed as they went after their idols. That’s a pretty scary thought, particularly when we see the terrible judgments that God brought upon them for all this evil. That first reference in Second Kings is one example, and there are others as well.
Now we can see a slightly different scenario, because it doesn’t specifically name Molech, but instead Baal:
“3:
And say, Hear ye the word of the LORD, O kings of
4: Because they have forsaken me, and have estranged this place, and
have burned incense in it unto other gods, whom neither they nor their fathers
have known, nor the kings of Judah, and have filled this place with the blood
of innocents;
5: They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with
fire for burnt offerings unto Baal, which I commanded not, nor spake it,
neither came it into my mind:
6: Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that this place
shall no more be called Tophet, nor The valley of the
son of Hinnom, but The valley of slaughter.
7: And I will make void the counsel of
8: And I will make this city desolate, and an
hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished and hiss because of
all the plagues thereof.” Jeremiah 19:3-8 KJV
God takes this very, very seriously. Killing innocents in this idol worship was abhorrent to God and He dealt out a very harsh punishment. You may very well know what I’m getting at already, for while we do not have the exact situation, nothing has really changed.
Today we simply call it a woman’s right to choose.
The idol is self.
It is murder and there is no way that God can overlook it.
This is not to say that you cannot find forgiveness after an abortion, for you certainly can. If that is in your past, you can find hope in God, repent, and make heaven. I am no expert on the subject, but I am sure that there are ministries for women who had an abortion in the past, it’s a needed thing.
But I see
no way that
I call
And yet even in the tribulation it will be rejected, for consider a couple verses in Revelation:
“And the rest of the men which were not killed by these plagues yet repented not of the works of their hands, that they should not worship devils, and idols of gold, and silver, and brass, and stone, and of wood: which neither can see, nor hear, nor walk: Neither repented they of their murders, nor of their sorceries, nor of their fornication, nor of their thefts.” Revelation 9:20-21 KJV
The two easiest types of murder are abortion and hating your brother, for with both it is possible that almost no one knows. As one who has been there I understand that hatred is to be dead while alive. You can overcome with the Blood of the Lamb, repentance brings life and healing.