Molech Renewal Pt. 3: A Biblical Historical Look At Molech Worship In Israel

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 12^th 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 14^th 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 1^st 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

Archaeology at Dan (Tel-Dan) has rendered many finds in recent times. An artifact called the Tel-Dan inscription, is the first historical evidence of King David and Israel’s kingdom outside of the biblical text. The Stela notes the “King of Israel” and the “King of the House of Israel”, and referring to two nations (both Judah & Israel, Southern and Northern Kingdoms) that Hazael, King of Aram, defeated ie: Jehoram of Israel and Ahaziah of Judah (2 Kings 8). Prior to this discovery it was speculated by many biblical critics, that both David and Israel as a kingdom was a myth or tall tale.

Dan is an over 6,000 year old city described in the bible as being one of the places where Jeroboam set up one of his “golden calves” as a symbol of veneration in order to attract attention away from Rehoboam’s Jerusalem (who, as stated, set up idols as well).

 Among some of the other finds at Tel-Dan include a scaled down version of the Temple in the North and miniature figurines, apparently present throughout Israel, that archaeologists believe were used to represent false gods such as Molech and Ashera or Chemosh.

In an article discussing the excavations and findings at Tel-Dan, the website  Haaretz.com states the following:

“Archaeologists have found hundreds of figurines in Jerusalem and Judah, mainly in the ruins of private homes. Most were depictions of a nude female with exaggerated breasts. Scholars identify these figurines with the fertility goddesses Ashtoreth and Asherah, talismans to help conception and childbirth.” 

Although much evidence exists that Israel was into idolatry and various practices including worship of Ashera and even revised, if not out right worship to Molech and Chemosh, archaeologists have concluded that Dan was not “wholly” given to idolatry, but was such a place where dual worship (worship of both idols and YAHWEH) took place and existed.

The Mesha Stele aka: The Moabite Stone
Approx 840BCE

According to to the Mesha Stele, which is an amazing archaeological discovery, and as confirmed in 2 Kings 3, after King Ahab died, the King of Moab, Mesha, rebelled against Israel (2 Kings 3:5). The stele contains a favorable history in which Moab was basically punished punished by their god Chemosh, but was forgiven for past indiscretions and told to take Nebo from Israel. According to the stele, Chemosh, gave Moab the strength to overcome Israel. 

Although the Stele never revisits the latter parts of the incident other than to say that Chemosh had directed Moab into victory over Israel as stated. The scriptures however paint a much more broad picture and gives us the conclusion of this particular incident.

Scripture outlines a league of nations (Israel, Judah & Edom) as they went up to fight the Moabites. Although they encountered trouble, such as having to travel the long way around, and running out of water, the scripture outlines that in the end the victory was directed by God through the Prophet Elisha. He was given a message of God's deliverance which centered around telling the alliance to dig as many ditches as they could so that water, not from rain and or from seas, could be retained (2 Kings 36:16-17). The water, which was interpreted as blood by the Moabites led them into a trap (2 Kings 3:23-24), and the Moabites were defeated. 

What is interesting, is that the initial defeat wasn't satisfactory with Mesha. He mounted another attack using 700 of his best soldiers only to be defeated again. In light of his defeat he then took his oldest son and sacrificed him to Chemosh:

2 Kings 3:27~ Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned unto their own land.

Once again, we view child sacrifice associated with the worship of Chemosh (aka Molech) as in direct relationship to Moab.

Additional Biblical History

In 2 Kings 17 a scenario unfolds regarding Assyria and the re-population of Israel after captivity. It seems that Assyrians brought their systems of worship to Samaria, which of course, displeased God, causing judgment to come upon the citizens through an attack of lions.

In response, the Assyrians recognized these attacks to be a result of dishonoring the “God of the land” (2 Kings 17:27) and that the people needed to better know how to honor the God of the land. The King of Assyria commissioned a former Danite priest to teach the people how to worship and honor God.

The interesting part here is that even after the people received instruction, they continued to worship their own idols and gods brought into the land:

2 Kings 17: 29-33 ~  29-Howbeit every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities wherein they dwelt. 30-And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31-And the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32-So they feared the LORD, and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, which sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places. 33-They feared the LORD, and served their own gods, after the manner of the nations whom they carried away from thence.

2 Kings 17:41 ~ So these nations feared the LORD, and served their graven images, both their children, and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.

As stated in our previous article on the subject, the confirmation of the survival of these false deities existed well into the 1^st century New Testament in both a Jewish and a Hellenized or secular world. In reference I previously said this:

"Tophet which literally also means “the place of burning” is believed to be the extreme southeast part of the “Valley of Hinnom”, is not mentioned as a literal place in the New Testament but appears to be synonymous with Gehenna or HELL or death in wordplay. This place was said to be a place where garbage and that which was unwanted was taken to burn and be consumed by fire. Interestingly, Gehenna is a transliteration of the Aramaic form of the Hebrew word Hinnom. The “fire” associated with Gehenna, never ceases (Mark 9:43-44) and the fire consumes ones “body and soul” in judgment. (Matthew 10:28)"

At Mars Hill (Acts 17), in a Greek cultural setting, Paul was confronted with all manner of idolatry and false worship and proceeded to preach and teach about the alter dedicated to “the unknown god” (Acts 17:23) Though no specific deity is pointed out here, it is not beyond the realm of believability that among the gods venerated at Mars Hill were revised versions of not only Baal, but also Ashera and Molech.

In Conclusion

In a recent debate on abortion and abortion rights, Dr. Willie Parker, who actively aborts children for a living, acknowledged that although a baby in a mother’s womb was a “human being” he or she was  NOT a “person”. He then went on to state that under our system of law and justice that “persons”  have rights and a right to live, but human beings don’t necessarily have the same. Yes, it was really an experience and an amazing expenditure of intellectual currency in effort to rationalize his actions of murder on demand, but the point is that many, no matter their education level and exposure, are doing mental gymnastics in order to make baby murder more palatable.  

I simply do not believe that our current actions and even actions and the desire to murder the unborn whether for hire or organically, even prior to Roe v Wade, are simply novel ideas. Our current experience is simply a repackaged and updated version of an age old desire to kill mankind, youth and in this case, the unborn.

Sin Packaged As A Good Idea

Amazingly, the current covid 19 vaccines, which are being mandated, and in some cases forced into people’s arms from place to place all over the world, were tested and developed using aborted fetal cells as I have pointed out in THIS ARTICLE.

I have heard people attempt to defend abortion related to vaccine by saying that many medications were developed similarly using HEK 293 fetal cells. Amazingly, the reports regarding HEK 293 range from “miscarriage” to “elective abortion”, therefore, whether abortion or baby murder was invoked to develop HEK 293 is ambiguous depending upon who you are talking to. What is not ambiguous is the fact that the vaccines were developed also using PER.C6 which is also a fetal cell line definitively and clearly obtained by ABORTION. Many argue that there are no aborted fetal cells in the vaccines, so their development should be of no consequence. But is any of that true?

Should we only value results with little regards to the means or the path taken to those results? Should we only value our societal conveniences as opposed to the methods that are implored to achieve those conveniences?

Historically, and biblically, we can see that since sin entered the world and the first murder committed by Cain, the murder and killing of humans has been an issue. It is a wartime strategy as far as I am concerned. If I were in an extended war against anyone, the best path is to reduce their numbers. Reduce their reinforcements. Don’t let them out of the gate.

Abortion is a wartime strategy of disinformation and misinformation at the highest level. It is simply about  number reduction and ultimately control. These are the same elements that were in these ancient systems of worship of molech and chemosh and ashera that demanded parents to agree in a solemn fashion without emotion and certainly without a willingness to intervene.    

Could it be that society’s need to promote abortion is, at root, not about anything other than “worship”? Not women’s health, not about personal choice, not about “my body, my choice”, but about WORSHIP?

With our bodies and minds we glorify God. We do the same when we glorify the devil!

 When all 3 of these articles are considered and held against modern society, I pray that it can be observed that this issue is one of epic concern to every believer. The unfortunate part is that within the context of the church this subject is probably one of the least spoken about and least taught. The fact is, teaching and showing those how to save life and especially innocent life, is the root of ministry and service to the living God we serve.
Jesus said,

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:
I am come that they might have life, and that
they might have it more abundantly."
~ John 10:10

Blessed

Additional Resources & Info:

CDC: Birth: National Vital Statistics Report Volume 68 #13

CDC: DEATH: National Vital Statistics Report Volume 68 #9 

The Dunamis Word:

Molech Renewal Pt. 1 : Ableism Drives Protests & Laws For The Right To MURDER Babies

Molech Renewal Pt. 2: The Survival Of Child Murder Through Moab And Ammon

Additional Historical Resources

The Mesha Stele

The Tel-Dan Inscription