The WORD of the Lord:
Lev. 20:1-8 ~ 1- And the
LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2- Again, thou shalt say to the children
of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that
sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be
put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3- And I will
set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people;
because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to
profane my holy name. 4- And if the people of the land do any ways
hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill
him not: 5- Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family,
and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom
with Molech, from among their people. 6- And the soul that turneth after such
as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will
even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people.
7- Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God.
8- And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify
you.
Written prior to approximately
900BCE to 700BCE, and recording events as far back as 1400BCE, the word of God
was clear in its admonitions against idolatry, but that did not dissuade the
children of Israel from disobeying God. In fact, Jeremiah received a word as
God spoke against it specifically:
Jeremiah 32:35
~ 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 Judah to sin.
As late as 626 BCE
potentially and arguably some 700 to 800 years after God would tell his people
to forsake idolatry, many of who would be called his “chosen people” would
engage and continue in some of the most vile idolatry in history, which would
involve child murder as a “right” and other illusive practices for which the
people longed for.
From The Top: Israel & Judean Kings Given To Child MURDER
In the divided Kingdom, we also see a continuation of idolatry in both Judah and Israel, so much
and so until God brought judgement upon the entire nation and discarded them
from his presence disbursing the nation even for a time.
Let’s start by observing King Rehoboam who,
although he was a 41year old adult, yet seemed to be influenced in the
idolatrous worship of his mother who was also an Ammonite:
1 Kings 14:21-24 ~ 21- Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in
Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned
seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen out of all
the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah
the Ammonite. 22 - And Judah did
what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to
jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their fathers
had done. 23 -For they also built for
themselves high places and pillars and Asherim on every high hill and under
every green tree, 24 - and there were also male
cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the
nations that the LORD drove
out before the people of Israel. (ESV)
As suggested, I am
careful to note here that Solomon, out of all the over 700 wives, princesses
and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), married an Ammonite or at least fathered a
son, Rehoboam, by an Ammonite woman. As I will go into detail shortly, the
Ammonite worship system seemed to have included, not only Molechian worship and
observance, but also observance of Asherim (Ashera “the queen of heaven”) and
ultimately the worship of Baal which it appears to suggest worship and
observance of “Molech” and other deities of the pantheon of false and pagan “celestial” deities.
While trying to assert
himself as King, opposing Rehoboam, Jeroboam thought to preserve his life and insert
himself into power after Solomon’s death by promoting idolatry and appointing
non-Levite Priests to office. He recreated the “golden calf” system claiming
that the calves were representative of the God that had delivered Israel
through the wilderness, similar to what Aaron did when he succumbed to the
people’s request supposing Moses to be dead.
Jeroboam, who evidently
was a polytheist, set idols at both Bethel and Dan. (1 Kings 12:29). When the
judgment of the Lord came upon his family by his son’s sickness and eventual
death, a prophet told him of his evil and what God was going to do by cutting
off his seed in the earth. The prophet goes on to reveal this:
1 Kings 14:15-16 ~ 15- the LORD will strike Israel as
a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land that he
gave to their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they
have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger. 16- And he will give Israel up because of the sins
of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin.”
Interestingly enough, one can see that even in
Jeroboam’s short tenure, he had begun to allow and encourage the Kingdom to
pick up every idolatrous act which had preceded them. It is within reason to
believe however, that this idolatry had begun prior to his tenure or
aspirations to be king even if subtly.
God warned Solomon that “strange women” would
turn his heart from God. (1 Kings 11:2) scripture validates that Solomon
honored the gods and deities of many of the women he married and even bowed
himself to worship them as well. The scripture points out that specifically
that Solomon built worship centers for “Chemosh the abomination of Moab” [The
Queen Of Heaven] and for “Molech the abomination of Ammon”.
(1 Kings 11:7)
In other words, we can see a full bloom
polytheism in practice long before Solomon’s death. (1 Kings 11:1-13)
Therefore, it is not a wonder why and how the Kingdom slipped so quickly into
idolatry once Solomon died. They were already engaged in idolatrous practices
from top levels of leadership.
Idolatry Persists In A Divided Kingdom
After Solomon’s death, among the Kings under whose tenure the nation of Israel would
be divided and developed, we continue to see a debase worship system and continued debaucheries endorsed and given an
open door. It is therefore not difficult to believe that child murder was
common under the regimes of both Israel and Judah.
Ripe Scriptural Evidence:
King Ahaz (Judah’s 12th
King) was also dastardly and diabolically evil sacrificing children to Molech:
2 Chronicles 28:3 ~ and he made offerings in the Valley of the Son
of Hinnom and burned his sons as an offering, according
to the abominations of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the
people of Israel. (see 2 Kings 16 to see the sins of Ahaz
regarding idolatry)
King Manasseh (Judah’s 14th King) did
not follow his father Hezekiah in keeping Judah’s God pleasing reforms:
2
Chronicles 33:6 ~ And he burned
his sons as an offering in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom,
and used fortune-telling and omens and sorcery, and dealt
with mediums and with necromancers. He did much evil in the sight of the
LORD, provoking him to anger.
Additionally the scripture affirms:
2 Kings
21:7 ~ And the carved image of Asherah
that he had made he set in the house of which the LORD said to David and to
Solomon his son, “In this house, and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of
all the tribes of Israel, I will put my name forever. (ESV)
And during the process Israel would not listen
nor turn from their idolatry. They simply proceeded by their own will, into
judgement.
2 Kings 17: 14-18 ~ 14-But they would not listen, but were
stubborn, as their fathers had been, who did not believe in the LORD their
God. 15-They despised his statutes and
his covenant that he made with their fathers and the warnings that he gave
them. They went after false idols and became false, and they followed the
nations that were around them, concerning whom the LORD had
commanded them that they should not do like them. 16-And
they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made
for themselves metal images of two calves; and they made an Asherah and
worshiped all the host of heaven and served Baal. 17-And they burned their sons and their
daughters as offerings and used divination and omens and sold
themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. 18-Therefore the LORD was very angry with
Israel and removed them out of his sight. None was left but the tribe of Judah
only.
The deity known as
Molech, is believed by many to have been stamped out and practices honoring him
died in the wilderness, or at the very least when Israel began to settle in the
Land of Promise. From scriptural evidence, both preceding, postdating and
concurrent with Israel’s travels and mission to settle the “Land of Promise”,
it is my contention that the deification, worship and observance of both Molech,
by many names and even under the name Baal, and Ashera worship, under various
names and even under the name Chemosh, as it were known in Moab in
particularly, never completely died out.
I contend that worship
to these false deities simply evolved, changed, cloaked and revised itself like
other such ANE deity cults, adapting into various and alternate cultures even
up until modern times. Further, I contend that Israel, even during the 1st
Century, a time at which scholars have said that there is ample evidence that
Jews were particularly observant of their national theme in Deut. 6:4 “the Lord
OUR God is ONE” , the Hebrew Shema, that the culture was well aware of the
concept of Hinnom, child sacrifice and murder of the innocents at the alter of
Molech and Ashera.
Archaeology:
The Tel-Dan Inscription
Approximately 870BCE
