One law in Leviticus stands out to me as I read about the trial of the abortion doctor in Philadelphia: “You shall not give any of your children to offer them to Molech, and
so profane the name of your God: I am Yahweh” (Lev 18:21). God did not give this law to the Israelites to stop them from continuing a sin they were already practicing. Rather, He gave it to them because His people were about to enter the land
of Canaan and these things were
practiced by the Canaanites. “Do not make
yourselves unclean by any of these things, for by all these the nations I am
driving out before you have become unclean, and the land became unclean, so
that I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out its inhabitants”
(Lev 18:24-25). God did not want
the Canaanite debauchery to take hold of His people.
The offering of children to
Molech probably conjures the least vivid picture of all the things prohibited in Leviticus 18. In our culture, we are somewhat familiar with different
forms of sexual depravity, but child sacrifice is not something that hits as
close to home. Who is Molech
anyway?
Molech was a god of the Ammonites who was worshiped through child sacrifice. Rabbinic sources
give varied accounts of how this was done. Some suggest that the child was put
inside a statue of Molech, which was then heated with fire from the outside so that the child burned to death. Others suggest that the child was
placed in the arms of a statue so that the statue was holding the child over
the fire. One common theme is that
the priests would beat drums to drown out the sound of the children’s cries so
that the parents would not be moved to save them.
However the worship was performed, the Bible does indicate that
the children were burned (2Kings 23:10).
It is hard to imagine the callousness required to perform such an
atrocity. No doubt, the Israelites
felt the same way when Yahweh forbade them to engage in such child sacrifice in
Lev 18 and 20. But what does the
OT storyline reveal? God’s people
slowly succumbed to the influence of the Canaanites to the extent that they did
more evil than all the nations God
had destroyed from the land…including sacrificing their children to Molech
(2Kings 21:9; Eze 5:6-7; 2Kings 23:10; Jer 32:35).
And what is the overarching point demonstrated in the OT
regarding man’s ability to obey God’s law? Every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart is only evil
continually (Gen 6:5). Not even
God’s chosen people had the heart to obey Him (Josh 24:19; Deut 29:4). The only place for the depraved human
heart to go from one degree of debauchery is to a greater degree of
debauchery. There is no such thing
as self-improvement. And thus, the
OT prepared the world for the coming of a Savior who would take upon Himself
the penalty for such debauchery AND transform the nature of man by removing his
heart of stone and replacing it with a heart of flesh (Eze 11:19-20; 36:25-27).
People are rightly appalled by the details coming out of the
Philadelphia abortion trial of Dr. Kermit Gosnell.
[WARNING: This link contains extremely
graphic photos of “evidence” in the trial. Click at your own risk.] I won’t go into those details other than
to say the depravity of the procedures alleged to have been performed in Dr.
Gosnell’s clinic is reminiscent of the worship of Molech. And yet, there are many in our society who will fight to keep abortion in all its
forms legal.
What should faithful believers do? Many of us would like to stage demonstrations outside of
abortion clinics or lobby congress to enact laws to protect the unborn, the
weakest and most vulnerable among us.
I do believe that these things are legitimate expressions of the
God-given directive to “do justice” (Micah 6:8). But if that is all we do, we will miss the gospel-trajectory
of the Old and New Testaments and fail to address the real issue. The only thing that will turn
worshipers of Molech into lovers of life and worshipers of Yahweh is a heart
change that can only be affected by the good news of Jesus Christ.
Dr. Gosnell and other abortion doctors are nothing more than
priests of a modern-day Molech, the god of self. For personal gain, they offer up sacrifices to convenience
and self-interest so that parents may live as they please, unencumbered by the
moral laws of God. But as they
reject the law of God, they are running headlong into judgment, just like the Israelites
ran headlong into exile. Yet,
judgment awaiting them is far worse than life in a foreign land; it is eternity
in a literal place of torment called hell (Matt 13:41-42, 25:41). They do not have hearts to obey
God. The only hope for them is to
hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, that He lived a sinless life, was crucified for the sins of men, and was raised from the dead so that all those who repent and trust in Him might be saved from the wrath of God and walk in newness of life.
So if you are moved to organize or participate in peaceful
demonstrations against abortion clinics, that’s great. Do that AND spread the gospel. If you desire to lobby congress to pass
laws preventing further atrocities, praise the Lord. Do that AND spread the gospel. Abortion is but one expression of the depravity that God
will certainly judge and from which only Christ is mighty to save. If you are appalled at this latest
manifestation of pagan worship, stand against it and spread the gospel far and
wide.
Posted by Greg Birdwell
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