Sunday, October 11, 2020

Leviticus 20:1-9 comments: banning child sacrifice

 

Leviticus 20:1 ¶  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2  Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3  And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. 4  And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: 5  Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people. 6  And the soul that turneth after such as have familiar spirits, and after wizards, to go a whoring after them, I will even set my face against that soul, and will cut him off from among his people. 7  Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the LORD your God. 8  And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the LORD which sanctify you. 9  For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

 

Molech worship required sacrificing children into a fire. See my comments on Leviticus 18:19-30.

Leviticus 18:21  And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the LORD.

 

That verse refers to the heathen practice of sacrificing babies to the gods. Carthage in North Africa was a colony of Phoenicia. The Roman historian Plutarch wrote about their practices in his On Superstition;

…with full knowledge and understanding they themselves offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds; Meanwhile the mother stood by without a tear or moan; but should she utter a single moan or let fall a single tear, she had to forfeit the money, and her child was sacrificed nevertheless; and the whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums took the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people.[1] 

 

Mourning the child was supposed to nullify the effect of the sacrifice. Wikipedia quotes various sources;

Cleitarchus, Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch all mention burning of children as an offering to Cronus or Saturn, that is to Bal Ammūn, the chief god of Carthage. According to Justin, the Carthaginians accepted the Persian Achaemenid Empire's instructions to stop sacrificing children (and eating dogs). Some of these sources suggest that babies were roasted to death on a heated bronze statue. According to Diodorus Siculus, "There was in their city a bronze image of Cronus extending its hands, palms up and sloping toward the ground, so that each of the children when placed thereon rolled down and fell into a sort of gaping pit filled with fire."They placed their children alive in the arms of a bronze statue of the lady Tanit:

The hands of the statue extended over a brazier into which the child fell once the flames had caused the limbs to contract and its mouth to open... . The child was alive and conscious when burned... Philo specified that the sacrificed child was best-loved.

According to Stager and Wolff, there is a consensus among scholars that Carthaginian children were sacrificed by their parents, who would make a vow to kill the next child if the gods would grant them a favor: for instance, their shipment of goods were to arrive safely in a foreign port.[2]

 

To be cut off is to be killed. See my comments on Leviticus 17:1-9. It is more than just exile or banishment from the cross-references.

Genesis 9:11  And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.

 

Zechariah 13:8  And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

 

2Kings 9:8  For the whole house of Ahab shall perish: and I will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel:

 

Tolerating this wickedness was just as bad. The United States Military Academy at West Point, New York has an honor code that says, “A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.” Again, the admonition about not seeking after wizards, necromancers and the like is stated. This is obviously very important to God.

Considering how the American consumer church trying to gain congregants like a salesman tries to get sales tolerates sin because the guilty party can just go to another church where they aren’t known we can understand how God views people in open sin in the congregation. We will read in 1Corinthians 5 about how Paul admonishes a congregation for tolerating sin that is even not accepted in the heathen culture around them.

For verse 9 see 19:3 and these interesting cross-references.

 

Exodus 21:17  And he that curseth his father, or his mother, shall surely be put to death.

 

Deuteronomy 27:16  Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.

 

Proverbs  20:20 ¶  Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness.

 

Proverbs 30:11  There is a generation that curseth their father, and doth not bless their mother…17  The eye that mocketh at his father, and despiseth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.

 

Paul reinforced to Christians the importance of honoring one’s parents in the same passages where he admonishes fathers not to provoke their children to wrath and anger.

Ephesians 6:1 ¶  Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. 2  Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;) 3  That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. 4  And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

 

Colossians 3:20  Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. 21  Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest they be discouraged.

 

These admonitions can be traced directly to the Ten Commandments.

 

Exodus 20:12 ¶  Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

 

We would do well when we complain about the disregard we think our children express toward us to consider our own rebelliousness and disrespect, even benign and seemingly trivial, we showed to our parents. I have muttered once or twice about step-grandchildren not offering to help me mow the lawn or clean my gutters but God silenced me by reminding me that I missed many opportunities to help my father care for his property and he died of a heart attack shoveling snow at a younger age than I am now. Honoring our parents requires more than lip service and to receive respect sometimes requires that you teach it by example.



[1] Plutarch, On Superstition, Loeb Classical Library Edition, Vol. II, 1928, http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Moralia/De_superstitione*.html (accessed 11.8.2019)

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