Not everything in life is sunshine and rainbows. There are ugly sides to life: death, destruction, deception. With the access we have to information these days, it’s easier and easier to see these ugly realities. The Bible does not shy away from the ugly parts of life. God did not allow the ugly parts to be edited out to paint some pretty, false idealistic picture of life. We don’t often talk about Old Testament law, but today we are going to look at a specific instruction from Leviticus 20 that God gave to the Israelites concerning an especially evil practice to an idol called Molech.

“I myself will turn against them and cut them off from the community, because they have defiled my sanctuary and brought shame on my holy name by offering their children to Molech.” (Leviticus 20:3)

While the Israelites had been freed from their Egyptian slave owners, they were now entering into a world filled with various different people groups who had chosen to worship various different gods. One of these gods was called Molech. Molech (of course not being a real god) was a cow/bull statue made of metal with an oven at its base. The cow had human arms that were stretched out over the heat of the oven, and as a sacrifice to Molech, mothers and fathers would place their babies on the hot arms of the idol to sizzle and burn to death.

“And if the people of the community ignore those who offer their children to Molech and refuse to execute them, I myself will turn against them and their families and will cut them off from the community. This will happen to all who commit spiritual prostitution by worshiping Molech.” (Leviticus 20:4-5)

This evil was being practiced by the Canaanites and later the Ammonites and God warned His people for 400 years not to associate with them or intermarry with them lest they be corrupted. So often we hear people complain or argue that if there is a good God, why doesn’t He stop all the evil in the world? Here we have an example of evil being done and God ordering His people to stop it, to put to death anyone who commits such atrocities, and yet those same non-believers complain that God is so mean for killing the Canaanites! The fact is, God will not tolerate evil forever. Only He who gives life has the authority to take life. Below is an excerpt from a brilliant response concerning this issue by Dr. William Lane Craig:

“God stays His judgement of the Canaanite clans 400 years because their wickedness had not reached the point of intolerability!  This is the long-suffering God we know in the Hebrew Scriptures.  He even allows his own chosen people to languish in slavery for four centuries before determining that the Canaanite peoples are ripe for judgement and calling His people forth from Egypt.  

“By the time of their destruction, Canaanite culture was, in fact, debauched and cruel, embracing such practices as ritual prostitution and even child sacrifice.  The Canaanites are to be destroyed ‘that they may not teach you to do according to all their abominable practices that they have done for their gods, and so you sin against the Lord your God’ (Deut. 20.18).  God had morally sufficient reasons for His judgement upon Canaan, and Israel was merely the instrument of His justice, just as centuries later God would use the pagan nations of Assyria and Babylon to judge Israel.”

To what gods are we sacrificing today? Mostly I think it’s the god of self. The god of self and self worship who requires you to think of no one but yourself, to live a life as if you are the only person on the planet, or certainly the only one who matters. He tells you that your opinions and wants and desires are all correct, right, and just. The god of self points things out and convinces you they are inconvenient and too much for you to handle. He tells you that the opinions and words of others are actually violent acts against you. He tells you anyone who disagrees with you must be silenced and anyone who inconveniences you must be locked away at best, murdered at worst. He tells you to live your best life, that whatever feels good and sounds good, is good.

Sometimes, the god of self requires a payment; it might be isolation, it might be living each day annoyed or constantly looking for annoyances, it might be living a lonely life because your selfishness has driven everyone away from you. Or it might be the sacrifice of 860,000 babies each year. Regardless of your political opinions over a matter which isn’t political at all, the justification for abortion always falls back to self. In the nearly 50 years since the Roe V. Wade decision on abortion, there have been around 43 million babies legally aborted, sacrificed to the god of self. Please examine how much you worship the god of self versus how much you worship the God of the universe.

May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.