Articles
Sacrificing Children
God’s indictments of the ancient Israelites included offering their children to idols (Ezekiel 16:20). This abominable practice is mentioned numerous times in the Old Testament. God said such a thing never even entered His mind (Jeremiah 32:35), and we, too, often wonder how a parent could ever do such a thing. Were they total barbarians?
Before we offer too much pious protest, perhaps we should do some soul searching.
In our nation well over a thousand babies per day are sacrificed to the idol of selfishness. I am speaking of abortion. And a sizeable portion of our “advanced” culture is determined to defend this practice at all costs—just watch any Supreme Court nomination process.
But the problem is even closer to home than that. In the Lord’s church there are fathers and mothers who shudder when reading those Old Testament accounts, yet at the same time they allow their own children to run to Satan’s modern idols, in some cases even pushing them along.
Is that not the case when mothers encourage their daughters to draw attention to themselves by means of immodest dress and dancing; when fathers teach their sons to put the Lord second to sports; when parents by their example put more emphasis on material things than spiritual things; when work takes priority over worship; when parents stress their children’s secular education while doing little to teach them the Bible; when they let children have their way instead of disciplining them; when families are half-heartedly involved at church but fully engaged elsewhere; when most of the family’s associations are with people who are not Christians? Idols are not all made of metal and stone!
“. . . Bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).
