Underground Exiles

Leviticus 20.1-5 is the final text I’ll ask you to consider:

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘Anyone of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who give any of his children ot Molech shall surely be put to death.  The people of the land shall stone him with stones.  I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name.  And if they people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I myself will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech.”

Lest there be any confusion, “giving” a child to Molech was not some form of indentured servitude.  Leviticus 18.21 makes it explicitly clear that God is talking about child sacrifice, the heathen ritual of offering live babies as burnt offerings to pagan gods.  After reading this passage does it seem like God has much patience for this barbaric practice?

Notice that God isn’t just commanding Israel not to sacrifice their own children; he also expects them to intervene for the children of strangers among them.  If God’s people “close their eyes” and fail to drive child sacrifice from their midst, God will set his face against them.  The domestication of abortion has mad it tragically commonplace, so much so that we seem to have lost our ability to be outraged by it.  How is it that even we who are opposed to abortion are not more overwhelmed by the fact that it is legal, in the United States of America, to tear apart the tiny bodies of helpless unborn children?

The Old Testament accounts of child sacrifice are the closest parallel to abortion that we’ll find in Scripture.  The names of the idols have changed in our day; we don’t sacrifice our children to Molech or Baal.  Instead we give them to our idols of comfort, wealth, freedom and autonomy.  These are the modern idols that drive most abortions.  It is unthinkable that God’s people would sacrifice their own children, but is also unthinkable that God’s people would do nothing while other children are sacrificed all around them!