February 18, It's about our precious children... Deut. 5:5-10, Exodus 22:20, 23:13, Exodus 34:17, Leviticus 19:4, Leviticus 26:1, Deut. 16:21-22, Leviticus 20:1-5, Deut. 14:1-2, Leviticus 19:27-28, Deut 12:29-31, Deut. 13:6-11, 13:12-18, Deut:17:2-7, Deut. 12:1-15, 17-22, 26-28

Deuteronomy 5:8-10

Amplified Bible (AMP)

⁸ You shall not make for yourself [to worship] a graven image or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

⁹ You shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

¹⁰ And showing mercy and steadfast love to thousands and to a thousand generations of those who love Me and keep My commandments.

Maybe we assume this passage is for the poor souls out there who don't quite have the spiritual depth we have. Think again. I cant tell you the number of times I've come to God and said Please clean out my heart, knowing that it was most likely clean already. I had just cleaned it out yesterday, for heaven's sake, and I didn't willfully sin since yesterday, so it's gotta be pretty much clean, right? Wrong. IF, and that's a big IF, I am honest with myself and God, He will show me an idol in my life I TOTALLY am NOT aware of! THEN, and only then, do I even know what I'm dealing with! Sometimes it's painful and shocking. Well, pretty much EVERY time.

Leviticus 20:1-5

Amplified Bible (AMP)

20 And the Lord said to Moses,

² Moreover, you shall say to the Israelites, Any one of the Israelites or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech [the fire god worshiped with human sacrifices] shall surely be put to death; the people of the land shall stone him with stones.

³ I also will set My face against that man [opposing him, withdrawing My protection from him, and excluding him from My covenant] and will cut him off from among his people, because he has given of his children to Molech, defiling My sanctuary and profaning My holy name.

⁴ And if the people of the land do at all hide their eyes from the man when he gives one of his children [as a burnt offering] to Molech [the fire god] and they overlook it or neglect to take legal action to punish him, winking at his sin, and do not kill him [as My law requires],

⁵ Then I will set My face against that man and against his family and will cut him off from among their people, him and all who follow him to [unfaithfulness to Me, and thus] play the harlot after Molech.

Question: "Who was Molech?"

Answer: As with much of ancient history, the exact origin of Molech is unclear. The term is believed to have originated with the Phoenician mlk, which meant a type of sacrifice made to confirm or acquit a vow. Melekh is the Hebrew word for king. It was common for the Israelites to combine the name of pagan gods with the vowels in the Hebrew word for shame: “bosheth.” This is how the goddess of fertility and war, Astarte, became Ashtoreth. The combination of mlk, melekh, and bosheth result in Molech, which could be interpreted as “the personified ruler of shameful sacrifice.” It has also been spelled as Milcom, Milkim, Malik, and Moloch. Ashtoreth was his consort, and ritual prostitution was considered an important form of worship, as though “reminding” the two how to procreate would ensure a plentiful harvest. 

Phoenicia was a loosely gathered group of people who inhabited Canaan (modern day Lebanon, Syria, and Israel) between 1550 BC and 300 BC. In addition to sexual rituals, Molech worship included child sacrifice, or “passing children through the fire.” It is believed that giant metal statues were made of a man with a bull’s head, either with a hole in his abdomen or outstretched forearms that made a kind of ramp to a hole in his torso. A fire was lit in or around the statue. Babies were placed in the statue’s arms or in the hole. If a couple sacrificed their first born, they believed that Molech would ensure financial prosperity for the family and future children. 

The Israelites had their first exposure to Molech worship when Abraham followed God’s call to move to Canaan. Although human sacrifice was not common in Abraham’s native Ur, it was well-established in this new land. God referenced this exposure when He asked Abraham to offer Isaac (Genesis 22:2). But, unlike the native Canaanite gods, Abraham’s God abhorred human sacrifice. Just as He provided a ram to take Isaac’s place (Genesis 22:13), He provided His own Son to take ours. Over five hundred years later, Joshua led the Israelites out of the desert to take their inheritance of the Promised Land. God knew that the Israelites were immature and easily distracted from worshiping the one true God (Exodus 32). Before the Israelites had even entered Canaan, God warned them not to participate in Molech worship (Leviticus 18:21) and repeatedly told them to destroy those cultures that worshiped Molech. They didn’t. Instead, they incorporated Molech worship into their own traditions. Even Solomon, the wisest king, was swayed to build places of worship for Molech and other gods (1 Kings 11:1-8). Molech worship occurred in the “high places” (1 Kings 12:31) as well as a narrow ravine outside Jerusalem called the Valley of Hinnom (2 Kings 23:10).  (gotquestions.org)

Deuteronomy 12:29-31

Amplified Bible (AMP)

²⁹ When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go to dispossess, and you dispossess them and live in their land,

³⁰ Be watchful that you are not ensnared into following them after they have been destroyed before you and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? We will do likewise.

³¹ You shall not do so to the Lord your God, for every abominable thing which the Lord hates they have done for their gods. For even their sons and their daughters they have burned in the fire to their gods.

Parents, this is horrifying and shocking behavior to us, isn't it? And yet many of us are unknowingly sacrificing our children to Molech today! 

Our natural, fleshly, worldly tendency is to want our children to be well liked and popular at school and at church. This is a STRONG tug. I know, because I felt this tug when my children were young. BE WARNED! Encouraging our children to fit in with the crowd as much as possible by only compromising a LITTLE, in order to be well liked at school or church, is the same as offering our children up to Molech. When we see and accept worldly attitudes in their behavior, and assume they will "grow out of it", wanting them to have a pleasant experience in school or elsewhere, we are offering them up to Molech. We are KILLING our own children when we do this. 

Allowing our children free access to the internet, television, and movies is INVITING our families to bow down and worship the god of Asheroth (the sex goddess) right in our homes, under our noses. 

Like I have stated before, the devil is lounging on our couches in our homes, just waiting for one of our precious family members to be home alone so he can pounce on them through pornography, etc.

We must research the best possible way to monitor what comes into our homes. We are fooling ourselves if we think none of our family members are ever looking at any of this garbage. (Like I stated before, our General Superintendent David Bernard uses an email accountability system such as triple x. Also thepentecostals.org has some great resources.)

A Principle Many Need To Relearn

Deuteronomy 13:6-11

When God gave the commandments to Israel, He first told them to not to worship other gods. He explained that He was a jealous God who would surely punished all those who gave homage to idols. (Ex. 20:1-6) When the nation of Israel was given over to idolatry God gave them the national death penalty. He disavowed, dispossessed and destroyed them.

To keep this ultimate penalty from coming on the whole people, God provided that anyone who introduced such evil, even secretly and privately, should be condemned. Thus the nation would not be corrupted and could maintain its purity. Deut. 13:6-11 "If your brother, your mother's son, or your son or daughter, or the wife you cherish, or your friend who is as your own soul, entice you secretly, saying, 'Let us go and serve other gods' (whom neither you nor your fathers have known, 7 of the gods of the peoples who are around you, near you or far from you, from one end of the earth to the other end), 8 you shall not yield to him or listen to him; and your eye shall not pity him, nor shall you spare or conceal him. 9 But you shall surely kill him; your hand shall be first against him to put him to death, and afterwards the hand of all the people. 10 So you shall stone him to death because he has sought to seduce you from the LORD your God who brought you out from the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 11 Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you." God knew that everyone who perverted the people by leading them into false ways had a mother, a father, a brother and a friend. But those relationships were not to give cover to evil. You had to love God and right even more than you loved your closest friends and relatives.

This may seem like a harsh standard, but it was the standard of God. This is contrary to human nature (man's sinful will). Proof of this is seen in the reaction of numerous people to the evil done by their relatives. Under the heading of "All in the Family," the Wall Street Journal's online service, OpinionJournal.com, published the following outrageous statements (web address for all these at the end of article - wjh):

"Sheikh Ahmad spoke fondly of his older brother, describing him as a simple, deeply religious man with 'a very soft heart' who 'hates injustice.'"--CNN, quoting Osama bin Laden's half-brother.  "The real John Walker is a thoughtful, gentle, kind, committed Muslim whose strength of faith has impressed everyone who knows him."--Marin Mujahid, John Walker Lindh's cousin Musa Abdun Nur, himself a convert to Islam, quoted in the New York Times.
"I believe in Andrea. She is the kindest, sweetest, gentlest person I've ever met."--Andrea Yates's husband, Russell, quoted by the Associated Press.

Here is defense of evil based on personal bias. The murderer of thousands is a soft hearted, religious hater of evil. The spoiled sympathizer and willing adherent of the great murderer is impressive in his kindness, gentleness and strong faith. The murderer of her own five children is kind, sweet and gentle, having more of these qualities than anyone that the father of those same murdered children knows. (He must not know many people.)

When we hear these outrages we just shake our heads, gag, or call these people liars. This is not just the reaction of the devout, but even of a worldly newspaper that compiled these things to show the similarities in these horrifying, scandalous and offenses statements. It is pure evil naked enough for the world to see.

But often we see the same sentiments (and these are sentimental, not reasonable defenses) expressed to a lesser degree to cover other evils closer to home. Parents won't condemn their children who are caught in sin. They defend them and accuse those who expose the sin and call for repentance. Preachers condemn error, unless it is found in their family or lifelong friends. Then they will defend fellowship with them in their destructive heresies and make charges against those who expose the sin and mark the false teacher so that the brethren can be warned.

Yet God said in Deut. 13 to not only to "not listen" to the one closest to your heart if they do evil, but He also further said not to "pity," "spare" or "conceal" them. Then when capital punishment was executed upon them, the dear one was to be the first to stone them. Of course now we don't have to literally do that (thus our excuses are even flimsier and have less merit than Israel's might have), but we still must rebuke and exposes the error. But many refuse even to acknowledge the clear error.

Some just cannot bring themselves to live up to the standard that God set forth. Their love of men who are dear to them (friends, family, brethren) who are caught in evil overwhelms their faithfulness to God. "But what about unconditional love?" they whine. "Don't we love these dear ones too much to do this?" Shouldn't we rather be concerned with unconditional faithfulness to God? "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me." (Mark 10:37,38)

The problem with defending evil is that it encourages further evil. Why did God say to punish even the dear one who did evil? "Then all Israel will hear and be afraid, and will never again do such a wicked thing among you." (Deut. 13:11) Correspondingly, what was the preacher in the N.T. told to do? "Those who continue in sin, rebuke in the presence of all, so that the rest also may be fearful of sinning." (1 Tim. 5:20) Evil is only checked by exposure and condemnation by the proclamation of truth. The closer to the source of evil, and the sooner it is done, the more effective the rebuke is.

Let us all then live up to the admonition that Paul gave Timothy. "I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus and of His chosen angels, to maintain these principles without bias, doing nothing in a spirit of partiality." (1 Tim. 5:21) Let us have the integrity and fortitude to apply to gospel standard to all -- friends, relatives, children and ourselves included. (The Expository Files)

In the Old Testament, God expected the person embracing evil to be put to death! Today, God expects us to simply expose the person embracing evil and destroy the evil, not the person! We are to cleanse every trace of idol worship in our homes and in our families. 

The days are over when we can sit idly by and hope our children are in a phase and will "grow out of it". I PROMISE you, parents, they WILL NOT "grow out of it".

We are in a WAR. We must cling to Jesus like never before. The task seems insurmountable and overwhelming, but God if FOR US! He LOVES YOU! He LOVES me! He WANTS us to WIN! 

"Dear God, there is a war going on for my soul and the souls of my family. I know You are for me. That's really all I need to know. I cling to You and to Your word like never before. Your Word will lead me and my family HOME! I want to spend eternity with You. You are my Redeemer and Friend. You stick closer than a brother, father or mother. In You I place ALL my trust. I lean on Your wisdom and understanding. I can't do this alone. You alone are my HOPE in this dark world. Thank You for dying on the cross for me. I will worship You for ever and ever. In Your precious Name, Jesus, AMEN."

I sing this song in prayer a lot!!! It is my current fave.