Molech מֹ֫לֶךְ

We are in chapter eighteen of Leviticus with our word for today. מֹ֫לֶךְ Moloch, Saturn, the planet Saturn. It is used 8 times in the Old Testament. Our word is used for the first time in the Bible in our chapter so we will start there. Leviticus 18:21 You shall not give any of your children to offer them לַמֹּ֑לֶךְ to Molech, and so profane the name of your God: I am the Lord. This is child sacrifice. God speaks as strongly as one can speak against anything in His word against such evil. Leviticus 20:1-5 The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children לַמֹּ֖לֶךְ to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I myself will set my face against that man and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given one of his children לַמֹּ֔לֶךְ to Molech, to make my sanctuary unclean and to profane my holy name. And if the people of the land do at all close their eyes to that man when he gives one of his children לַמֹּ֑לֶךְ to Molech, and do not put him to death, then I will set my face against that man and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after הַמֹּ֖לֶךְ Molech. Through Jeremiah God continues to condemn this wicked practice. Jeremiah 32:35 They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters לַמֹּלֶךְ֒ to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. Our next use describes more in detail about this great evil. 2 Kings 23:10 And he defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no one might burn his son or his daughter as an offering לַמֹּֽלֶךְ to Molech. Can you believe that one of King Josiah’s changes was to get rid of this disgusting practice that the people were involved in? This child sacrifice involved burning their children alive to this evil god Moloch. The reference to the valley of Hinnom becomes the word Gehenna in the New Testament. This is the garbage dump outside of Jerusalem that was always on fire. This is place that Jesus used to describe what hell was like. Mark 9:47-48 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into γέενναν hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ The people in that day and time would have picked up on what Jesus was talking about. What is interesting is that this horrifying sin is right in the middle of all the sexual sin that God has been warning about. This elevates what we usually think about how bad sexual sin is. Like with sexual sin that we have been looking at the corrupted culture around us teaches that there are no consequences to sin. This is why God started our chapter with the warning of not being influenced by Egypt and Canaan. We will look at these consequences in the next few days as we look at more of the details in the rest of the chapter. I’ll close with this very sobering verse because it shows that even the wisest man in the world was influenced to not only allow this practice but even to support it. 1 Kings 11:1-2, 7-8 Now King Solomon loved many foreign women, along with the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women, from the nations concerning which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “You shall not enter into marriage with them, neither shall they with you, for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon clung to these in love … Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, וּלְמֹ֕לֶךְ and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem. And so he did for all his foreign wives, who made offerings and sacrificed to their gods.