When the king of Moab saw that the battle had gone against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through to the king of Edom, but they failed. Then he took his firstborn son, who was to succeed him as king, and offered him as a sacrifice on the city wall. The fury against Israel was great; they withdrew and returned to their own land.
//A bit of context: King “Jumping Jehoshaphat” asks Elisha the prophet whether or not he will be victorious in a battle against Moab. Elisha calls for a harpist (music seems to aid his visionary abilities) and while the music is playing God speaks to Elisha, promising victory. So the battle begins, in which Moab is at first routed. But then Moab turns the tables with a surprising counterstrike.
Many of my blog post ideas derive from the books I review. This idea comes from David Plotz’s Good Book, and Plotz is such a fun writer that I’d feel silly paraphrasing him. I’m going to invoke my privilege as a book reviewer, and just quote Good Book:
“The besieged Moabite king, on the verge of defeat, sacrifices his firstborn son as a burnt offering in plain sight of the Israelites. This turns the tide of the battle, and the Israelites flee. The theology here befuddles me. If the Moabite made his child a sacrifice to his own god, not the Lord, then it shouldn’t have helped, since rival gods are presumably impotent. If the Moabite king made the sacrifice to the Lord, that shouldn’t have helped either, because the Lord has made it very clear that he loathes child sacrifice. The only theory that makes sense is that the child sacrifice did not work theologically, but did work strategically. It scares the heck out of the Israelites, who figure: If he’ll do that to his own son, can you imagine what he’d do to us?”
Correct, God does not allow or condone in any way child sacrifice and the only explanation for such a victory over the Israeli army was that the Moabite army became demonically empowered for a time because of this abomination. The same thing is prophesied to happen at some point in time with us because of the millions (if not billions) of child sacrifices due to our abortion practices here in the USA (Russ Dizdar, Steve Quayle, etc). If one child sacrifice can produce a victory in that instance, one would shudder to imagine what we have unleased demonically with the multitude of abortions coupled with the putting away of God and His precepts in almost every aspect of our society. May God have mercy on our souls.
ReplyDeleteare you for real, anonymous? It's always a little hard for me to decipher between sarcasm and fundamentalism...
ReplyDelete