Sacrificing Children
Where did we get the idea that we needed to offer something up to God?
Though God gives guidelines and instructions for sacrifice, it appears that He is not the author of offering. The first children mentioned in the Bible - Cain and Abel - grow into men and take up a trade. Cain becomes a farmer, Abel raises livestock. And then, without any reasoning as to why, the two men offer up a portion of their earnings to God. Generations later, men have veered so far off God's intended plan for them that they break His heart. And He wishes that men had never been created. Long story short, God finds one man - Noah - who is still honorable and saves his family from a flood that wipes out the entire Earth. After the waters recede, again (with no provocation from God) a burnt offering is given to God in appreciation for His grace and mercy upon Noah's family. Many years pass, and we find Abraham. God tells Abraham that He will makes his ancestors into a mighty nation if he follows God into a new land. And each time God leads Abraham to another checkpoint, a sacrifice is made. Still, God has yet to make any demands for an offering to Himself. At the same time, followers of a god named Molech were also making sacrifices to their god. However, these were no mere offerings of crops or livestock - these were human sacrifices. To show allegiance and appreciation to Molech, the people offered their most prized possession, their baby boys and baby girls. A statue was made of Molech with his hands outward, awaiting to receive his gifts. This idol was heated from within so that the babies would be burned to death, and drums would be played as fathers threw their children to Molech in order to drown out the screams of the dying babies. [The picture displays this event] Then, for the first time, God asks for a sacrifice - He asks Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac. For Abraham, child sacrifice was nothing new in his day and time. So he takes his son and makes a three day journey to the top of a mountain where he is to sacrifice Isaac. When Abraham reaches the peak, he builds an altar, places Isaac on top of that altar, and begins to offer up his most prized possession to his God. Suddenly, an angel appears and says, "Stop! Do not sacrifice your son. God is pleased with your obedience." In this instance, God is setting Himself apart from all the other gods of the world. He does not need anything. He does not need your children, your cattle, your crops. God's grace and mercy are not dependent upon what your bring Him. Paul puts it this way: "Human hands can’t serve [God's] needs—for He has no needs. He Himself gives life and breath to everything, and He satisfies every need." God doesn't need anything from us. Rather, the sacrifice that God desires from us is for us to "do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with [Him]." God would later go on to set up a system of sacrifices, but this was for our sake, not His. He doesn't need our offerings, but we need to offer them. We are born with an inherent need/desire in our soul to sacrifice. This is how we express gratitude, appreciation, and - more than anything else - repentence. This is evidenced in Cain and Abel, Noah, and Abraham - all sacrificed without God's prompting. But this first system that God set up was not complete. It still left us reminded of our shortcomings - people would repent in their hearts, but remained stuck in guilt until yet another sacrifice could be made. In fact, the author of Hebrews tells us that "The sacrifices under that system were repeated again and again, year after year, but they were never able to provide perfect cleansing for those who came to worship. If they could have provided perfect cleansing, the sacrifices would have stopped, for the worshipers would have been purified once for all time, and their feelings of guilt would have disappeared." And here we are. We need to sacrifice to get rid of our guilt, and God wants us to live free from guilt (once we have repented in our hearts), so He makes a sacrifice on our behalf. God makes a sacrifice on our behalf. And this sacrifice is so great, so revolutionary, that when we accept His offering, we are able to live freely - no more guilt holding us back, no more attempting to gain God's approval through offerings. We are free to live as God intended: with our hearts, minds, and souls as the only sacrifices God desires. And all it took was the sacrifice of a son.
