God’s abhorrence at the killing of children.

“The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes”, declares the Lord. “They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my name and have defiled it. They have built the high places of Topheth in the valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire – something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.” (Jeremiah 7:30-31)

Jeremiah does not identify the pagan gods or goddesses that had been set up in the Temple, but his description of what was happening in the Valley of Ben Hinnom fits the description of Molech, the detestable god of the Ammonites, who had been introduced to the land of Judah by King Solomon when he set up shrines to each of the gods of his foreign wives (1 Kings 11:7).

Molech was a particularly evil god to whom children were sacrificed in the fire. This form of religious sacrifice was so abhorrent to God that Moses was told to make it a capital offence: “The Lord said to Moses, say to the Israelites: any Israelite or any alien living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the community are to stone him” (Lev 20:1-2).

The Fires of Gehenna

Hezekiah had cleansed the land of many foreign shrines on the high places but Manasseh, his son, re-introduced a wide range of idolatry including the worship of Molech: “In both courts of the temple of the Lord, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practising sorcery and divination” (2 Kings 21:5- 6).

All this was reversed when the young Josiah came of age and instituted reforms, removing “from the temple of the Lord all the articles made for Baal and Asherah and all the starry hosts” (2 Kings 23:4). Josiah also “desecrated Topheth which was in the valley of Ben Hinnom, so no-one could use it to sacrifice his son or daughter in the fire of Molech” (2 Kings 23:10).

Sacrificing children in pagan fire was so abhorrent to God that Moses was told to make it a capital offence.

But all this was reversed once again by Josiah’s son Jehoiakim, which is what caused Jeremiah to explode in righteous anger. The reason why Jehoiakim re-established the burning of babies in the valley of Ben Hinnom is probably to be found in a passing reference in 2 Kings 24:2, which says: “The Lord sent Babylonian, Aramean, Moabite and Ammonite raiders against him.” It was a common practice to buy off raiders by installing a shrine to their god, acknowledging defeat and reducing the amount of treasure that had to be given to them. The fact that Ammonite raiders are mentioned here would be a reason for re-installing a shrine to Molech.

Jeremiah was outraged: he refers to the shrine as ‘Topheth’ which in Hebrew is a pun, rhyming with the word bosheth (‘shame’) and pronounced like the verb ‘to spit’ used in Job 17:6. The Valley of Ben Hinnom certainly became a ‘valley of shame’ as Jerusalem’s refuse tip which was burning constantly. The name was later shortened to ‘Ge Hinnom’, which when translated into Aramaic and Greek becomes the Gehenna that we meet in the New Testament, as the word for hell whose fires are never extinguished.

Speechlessness

Jeremiah’s level of outrage at the burning of little children in this valley of shame had no measure. He was virtually rendered speechless; as can be seen from the words he puts into the mouth of God: “[this is] something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.” This strange anthropomorphism is unlike any other pronouncement from Jeremiah.

It gives us another little glimpse into the life and ministry of Jeremiah and his amazing relationship with God. The words must have just tumbled out of Jeremiah’s mouth without him stopping to remember that he was speaking on behalf of the Lord God Almighty, the Creator of the Universe, who was not only omnipotent but also omniscient. It is hard to think that God would actually have said that he had been taken by surprise – that the sins of the people of Judah had actually not ever entered his mind!!

The Valley of Ben Hinnom is the Gehenna we meet in the New Testament as the word for hell whose fires are never extinguished.

Jeremiah’s use of this phrase reveals the nature of genuine, God-inspired prophecy that is expressed through our own human mind and in our human language. It is a reflection of Jeremiah’s own shock and horror, and the abhorrence of the Holy Spirit, that Jehoiakim could have sunk to such a depth of spiritual degradation and offence against the word of God. He was actually committing a crime of which God had said a perpetrator should be stoned to death. Here was the King himself bringing into the land of Judah this terrible practice of burning babies alive.

Glory Departed

It was probably at this moment that Jeremiah realised why God had told him to cease praying for the welfare of the nation - because its fate was already sealed. The holiness of the God of Israel, who had created human beings in his own image for fellowship with him, could not keep company with such detestable behaviour.

God could do no other than remove his presence from the Temple, from Jerusalem and from among the people of Judah. They would now be left to their fate which Jeremiah knew meant that the Babylonians would come and conquer the land, tearing down the walls of Jerusalem, setting fire to the King’s palace and first desecrating and then destroying the Temple. Jeremiah could already foresee what Ezekiel was later to speak about – the word ICHABOD, ‘Glory Departed’, over the Temple.

So, what is God saying to us today? He sees hundreds of live babies torn from their mother’s wombs every day, thrown into a black plastic bag and taken out of the back door of our hospitals and thrown into the incinerator – the modern equivalent of the shrine of Molech. Can we really expect God to bless a nation whose land is filled with the blood of the innocent?

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here to read previous instalments. You may also be interested in our News Page this week, which features several pro-life events coming up in September.

Art Katz looks at the Prophet Ezekiel and the significance of his vision of the valley of dry bones.

The 'dry bones' of Ezekiel 37 represent not only a spiritually dead Israel but a similarly lifeless Church. But in this prophetic scenario, Art Katz, a Messianic believer with a love and burden for Israel, argues that each will be the agent of the other's resurrection.

Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones, set out in chapter 37 of his book, symbolises the Jewish community of exiles in Babylon. The NIV footnote expands the phrase 'very dry' in verse 2 to mean 'long dead, far beyond the reach of resuscitation'. As with the prophetic 'son of man' who figures so prominently in this chapter, so are we, the prophetic people of God, also set down in a valley full of dry bones - the Church in our day.

In such a desperate situation we must be realists, avoid wishful thinking, and consider circumstances as they are, i.e. as God sees them. If we are unable to see this reality, then we cannot expect to prophesy in order that the 'bones' might be brought to life again. Any prophecy over the situation requires an identification with the mind of God that overcomes any reluctance to face the awesome fact of Israel's death.

We, the prophetic people of God, are set down in a valley full of dry bones – the Church in our day.

Israel and the Church Related

From the first verses of chapter 37 one suspects that the object of God's intention is not Israel alone, however glorious her restoration will be (Rom 11:15), but also that of the 'son of man'. Could this person be a figure of the remnant, the end times Church come to its full prophetic shape and stature? Could it be that the Church is to be brought alive again through its response to Israel in a time of urgent crisis affecting that country?

Such a situation, involving a reciprocal relationship between Israel and the Church, by which the one is made complete through the action of the other, is surely the heart of Paul's discourse in Romans 11. Is it not such a relationship that explains the ecstatic paean of praise with which the chapter concludes (Rom 11:33-36)? For the mystery of which Paul speaks is not only Israel's restoration, but is also the transfiguration of a last-days Church that has been appointed by God to be the very agent of Israel's restoration!

If this interpretation is correct, the Church will surely need to change from its present fragmented and divisive state to become a people of God speaking with a single voice. Such authentic unity does not come through any contrived ecumenical arrangement but through apostolic authenticity.

Israel a Means of Bringing God Glory

In the present-day Church we find a variety of extremes of attitude towards Israel - from indifference (if not outright hostility), to a celebration that borders on idolatry. If the Church is to be the agent of Israel's resurrection, drastic changes will be needed. Much of the Church does have an intuitive knowledge of Israel's 'death', and a desire that she should rise again. Has our perception of Israel not been the projection of our own self-satisfaction and acceptance as 'the Church'?

Could it be that the Church is to be brought alive again through its response to Israel in a time of urgent crisis affecting that country?

Have we not missed the significance of Israel as a means of bringing glory to God? Is there not an issue greater than Israel's success as a nation? Indeed, can Israel fulfil its covenant destiny to 'bless all the families of the earth', except as a nation transformed through resurrection? What we may be celebrating prematurely as the final prophetic fulfilment may only be a necessary preliminary. In other words, 'what is raised in glory' must first be 'sown in dishonour' (1 Cor 15).

We do not need to defend or justify Israel's increasingly desperate situation, if we can only see her travails as the means by which God is bringing the nation to an end of its false hope in itself. Unless we are able to do so, what alternative is there but to reject Israel, or to join in with those who censure her for the very moral failings which she must experience in order that she might be brought to the end of a reliance upon her own ability and moral authority?

If Israel does not perceive God to be the One by whose word the dead are raised, then how can she know God as he really is? And, if she does not, then how can she reveal him to the nations?

Apostasy and Undeservedness

Surely, the sad national acknowledgment of Ezekiel 37:11 is yet to come. For us Jews, our bones are indeed dry and our hope is lost, a situation contrary to the historic optimism and indomitable self-sufficiency which we have so often demonstrated to the world.

Is it on that basis that we are to fulfil our Abrahamic calling that "in you shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Gen 12:3)? Israel's increasing failure to establish herself as a righteous example to the Gentile nations is an eloquent testimony to this fact.

How wrong it is to condemn her for the very thing she is prophetically required to demonstrate! That even the Holocaust did not suffice to elicit the cry of Ezekiel 37:11, her present defiant condition testifies.

Israel's travails are the means by which God is bringing the nation to an end of its false hope in itself.

On the contrary, the oft-reiterated boast 'never again', itself suggests an attitude derived from military self-confidence, thus inviting a continuation of Israel's sorry situation.
Ironically, Israel, in her apostasy and undeservedness, is a greater testimony to God's love than if she were walking in righteousness. It is as a God of power, faithfulness and mercy, that a redeemed Israel must make him known, her ultimate restoration coming about through the word spoken by the very Church with which Israel has been so long in enmity!

The issue then, is not the glorification of Israel, but of God. His own goodness prompts him to act as he does. It is as a recipient of his undeserved grace and mercy that Israel must bear him witness, as a nation brought to such depths of repentance and change as never before witnessed by the world (Ezek 36:31; Zech 12:10-14; Zeph 3:11-13; Isa 60:15). It is through this that Jerusalem will be made 'a praise in the earth'.

The Painful Truth

Such a perception of Israel's future is painful. How much greater, though, would be the disappointment in an Israel that fails our every expectation and even brings into question the veracity of Scripture (as some have perhaps naively understood it).

Will there be those who will lose faith in a God who appeared unable to secure his people from calamity - and will this be a factor in that great end times apostasy of which Paul warned?

It is better for believers to be "brought out by the Spirit of the Lord" (Ezek 37:1) and put "down in the midst of the valley" (i.e. in a place of depressing truth) than to find themselves in opposition to, or exempted from, God's purposes for Israel, however well-meaning their intentions.

How much of our own 20^th Century 'Christianity' is a desperate 'keeping alive' of what God would make desolate? Are there not many who present Israel as a projection of their own vain hopes?

To pray for the removal of the situations that vex and threaten Israel, however much one may desire it, could well be against God's plans, for it is surely his intention to bring to an end those Zionist or charismatic false hopes which need to perish in order that God's eternal and prophetic purposes might come about.

To pray for the removal of the situations that vex and threaten Israel, however much one may desire it, could well be against God's plans.

Truth at the Right Time

Such was the obedience of Jesus that, despite his own human desire, he "stayed two more days where he was" (John 11:6), after hearing about the sickness of his friend Lazarus. Had he acted prematurely out of human compassion and hastened to the bedside of his friend, he would have nullified the purposes of the Father, for the sickness was not to end in death, but was to reveal God's glory.

The prophetic mouth disqualifies itself when it speaks a false word of comfort, however well-meaning. The same is true when it speaks a true word prematurely. May we keep ourselves in prophetic obedience, despite being censured and misunderstood by others for our apparent 'lovelessness'. Otherwise, when the Father calls us, the agent of Israel's resurrection, to proclaim to her, 'Come forth', our word may fail.

However much our non-intervening silence will be misconstrued, only a faith that works by love will suffice in that critical moment.

The love I am referring to is not a 'love' which is no more than a mere sentiment or fascination for Israel's mystique, but is one which represents the unconditional love of God; a love manifested in the same hour in which Israel will be hated by the nations.

If Jesus, as an utterly devastated Son, cut off from the land of the living, was able as the resurrected and glorified Son to enlist God's power in order to bring his Church to birth, how should we expect less for Israel, whose glorious restoration is the theocratic key to the nations?

The prophetic mouth disqualifies itself when it speaks a false word of comfort – and also when it speaks a true word prematurely.

Total Obedience Required

But how is this to be effected? The prophet is no mere spectator, but an agent. It is his fidelity alone that releases the power which brings about new life. His vision is critical to the redemption of Israel, the more so because he is able to see the situation as it is. Total obedience is required, an obedience that represents death to those inveterate prejudices, envies and insecurities that would just as soon leave Israel in its grave than bring the prodigal back from the dead to bask in the Father's favour!

Only through such obedience to the prophetic calling can the 'sticks' be joined together so that "one king shall be king over them all and David, their prince forever" (Ezek 37:22, 28).

It is the issue of Israel alone - though she does not realise it - that compels the Church to that ultimate faith, obedience and stature by which it is itself fitted for eternity! Is not this the heart of that mystery whose understanding alone saves us from the deadly 'conceit' referred to in Romans 11:25? For there are many who have a misconception of the Church, viewing her as being apart from, or a substitute for, Israel.

What shall be found more to redound to the eternal honour of God, than this triumph over sin and death in both Israel and the Church?

Only a faith that works by love will suffice – the unconditional love of God, manifested in the same hour in which Israel will be hated by the nations.

God's Sovereign Purposes Will Triumph

The same powers of hell and darkness that rushed in their characteristic fury to bring about the death of Jesus will, at the end of the age, seek to destroy the nation whose restoration is bound up with the coming of its King and with the triumphant establishment over the nations of his theocratic rule!

At present the principalities and powers which control the various nations are doing all they can to stir up hatred towards Israel. In doing so they are, ironically, fulfilling the purposes of him who is sovereign over all - the One whose certain triumph will be made plain to all the nations, including the chosen nation itself, Israel (Ezek 36).

It is in this way that Israel will fulfil the role which it has spurned or so sorely misunderstood. Such a fulfilment will, paradoxically, be brought about more by Israel's vices than its virtues, and by her failings rather than her successes. It is in this way that God, and God alone, will be glorified.

First published in Prophecy Today, Vol 10 No 1, January 1994.