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.

Worship is not a substitute for obedience.

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel says: “Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other offerings and eat the meat yourselves! For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you.

But they did not listen or pay attention, instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiffnecked and did more evil than their forefathers.” (Jeremiah 7:21-26)

This is another of Jeremiah’s sweeping statements condemning the official religion in Jerusalem during the reign of Jehoiakim and shortly before the Babylonian invasion of 598 BC. The positioning of this word in Jeremiah 7 is highly significant. It follows Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon and his declaration that God was actually going to destroy his own sanctuary, as he had done at Shiloh.

Jeremiah was told to tell the people that the message from God was: “I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim” (Jer 7:15). He then received a personal command to stop praying for the welfare of the nation because God was no longer prepared to turn a blind eye to what they were doing. God could see whole families indulging in the worship of Astarte, the goddess of fertility – and actually doing these things openly in the streets of Jerusalem!

These things were provoking the anger of the Lord, but his wrath was primarily turned upon the religious leaders of the nation – the Temple priests and prophets who were allowing such things to happen openly, in sight of the Temple, without rebuke!

The people were provoking God’s anger, but his wrath was primarily turned upon the religious leaders of the nation.

Call to Obedience

This word from Jeremiah is directed to the priests who were responsible for the daily morning and evening sacrifices in the Temple. They were told not to bother with these ritual sacrifices any more – they were wasting their time, because God would no longer heed their prayers and petitions on behalf of the nation. They might as well eat the meat for themselves rather than burn it on the altar as “a pleasing aroma, an offering made to the Lord by fire” (Ex 29:41).

The presenting of a regular daily offering at the Tent of Meeting was a command given to Moses (Ex 29:38-45; Num 28:11-13). This practice was still being observed when David became king over all Israel, even before he established Jerusalem as his capital. When the Ark was recaptured from the Philistines we read, “David left Zadok the priest and his fellow priests before the tabernacle of the Lord at the high place in Gibeon to present burnt offerings to the Lord on the altar of burnt offering regularly, morning and evening” (1 Chron 16:39). When Jerusalem became the capital of the nation, this daily offering was transferred to Solomon’s Temple.

In the reading we are studying today, God reminded Jeremiah that the central command he had given to Moses was a call for obedience. The First Commandment was that the people of Israel should have no other God than Yahweh their Lord. This was of supreme importance. Obedience to the teaching given to Moses was far more important than offering sacrifices. The sacrifices were acts of worship during which prayers and petitions were offered, but worship was not a substitute for obedience.

God reminded Jeremiah that the central command he had given to Moses was a call for obedience.

Meaningless Offerings

Jeremiah, in accordance with prophetic tradition in Israel, gave little importance to the ritual of sacrificial practices. Back in the 8^th Century, some 200 years earlier, Isaiah had begun his ministry with a devastating attack upon the whole sacrificial system:

The multitude of your sacrifices – what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals…Stop bringing meaningless offerings!…Even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen…Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed… (Isa 1:11-17)

In a similar vein, Amos lambasted the people in the northern Kingdom of Israel: “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies. Even though you bring me burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them…Away with the noise of your songs!…But let justice roll like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!” (Amos 5:21-24).

Jeremiah said that there was a long history of the people failing to obey the commands of the Lord. He had sent them prophets to declare his word in every generation, ever since they left Egypt: “Day after day, again and again…But they did not listen to me or pay attention.” The people were doing just as their forefathers had done, relying upon the traditional ritual of religion carried out by the priests on behalf of the nation and thinking that they were thereby fulfilling the requirements of God.

The priests were at fault for not teaching the people that obedience to the commandments of the Lord was essential. They could not expect God to fulfil the promises of his covenant relationship with the nation unless this requirement of obedience to the Torah was fulfilled.

But the level of disobedience and refusal to listen to correction was so ingrained in the nation, due to it being institutionalised in their religion, that Jeremiah was told by God that neither the priests nor the people would listen to him. He was to say, “This is the nation that has not obeyed the Lord its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips” (Jer 7:28).

The priests were at fault for not teaching the people that obedience to the commandments of the Lord was essential.

True Worship

It is a basic biblical teaching in the prophetic tradition of Israel that worship, however loud and exuberant, does not absolve the worshippers from obedience to the teaching that God has given. This is an instruction that ought to be heeded today!

Faithful attendance at church and participation in worship on Sundays does not absolve us from ungodly behaviour on weekdays – especially in the denial of justice and compassion in our human relationships.

This prophetic tradition also applies to preachers and teachers and worship leaders today. It is no use turning up the volume on our sound system if the teaching we are giving is contrary to biblical truth! If truth has ‘vanished from our lips’, we may be sure that the Lord will be saying, “Away with your songs! Walk in all the ways I command you that it may go well with you.”

This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.

The laying on of hands (Part 1).

In our series on the Jewish High Holy Days, Helen Belton examines Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.