Slices
Prepare
Acknowledge the holiness of God and recognise what it means to come into the presence of a holy God.
Bible passage
The valley of slaughter
30 ‘“The people of Judah have done evil in my eyes, declares the Lord. They have set up their detestable idols in the house that bears my Name and have defiled it. 31 They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire – something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind. 32 So beware, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when people will no longer call it Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, for they will bury the dead in Topheth until there is no more room. 33 Then the carcasses of this people will become food for the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 34 I will bring an end to the sounds of joy and gladness and to the voices of bride and bridegroom in the towns of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem, for the land will become desolate.
8 ‘“At that time, declares the Lord, the bones of the kings and officials of Judah, the bones of the priests and prophets, and the bones of the people of Jerusalem will be removed from their graves. 2 They will be exposed to the sun and the moon and all the stars of the heavens, which they have loved and served and which they have followed and consulted and worshipped. They will not be gathered up or buried, but will be like dung lying on the ground. 3 Wherever I banish them, all the survivors of this evil nation will prefer death to life, declares the Lord Almighty.”
Sin and punishment
4 ‘Say to them, “This is what the Lord says:
‘“When people fall down, do they not get up?
When someone turns away, do they not return?
5 Why then have these people turned away?
Why does Jerusalem always turn away?
They cling to deceit;
they refuse to return.
6 I have listened attentively,
but they do not say what is right.
None of them repent of their wickedness,
saying, ‘What have I done?’
Each pursues their own course
like a horse charging into battle.
7 Even the stork in the sky
knows her appointed seasons,
and the dove, the swift and the thrush
observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know
the requirements of the Lord.
Explore
In my younger days when I used to play rugby, I would sometimes come off the field caked in mud: a shower and a washing machine were called for (except that we didn’t have a washing machine in those days). We can understand what it means to be filthy and need a good clean-up. That’s the picture in verses 30– 32, but there is a deeper dimension that is strange to us. Their sin, their idolatry and now their child sacrifice which is particularly abhorrent to God (v 31) had made the land ritually unclean. It could no longer be the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey.
The descriptions of the coming judgement are harrowing (vs 7:31 – 8:3). But the people of Judah have brought it on themselves. The tragedy is that the natural world knows how to make the right responses (v 7), but Judah has no intention of returning to God. It all seems so unnatural (v 4). That is precisely what sin is. We were made for fellowship with God – that is natural. The natural thing when we turn away is to come back (vs 4–6). But humans in every age prefer to go their own way.
Respond
It’s hard to know how to respond to verses like these. We feel numbed. Perhaps it is a time to pray that we might have the sensitivity to know when we need to turn afresh to God.
Deeper Bible study
Bring to mind six children you know, from your family, your neighbourhood, your church community. Pray for their protection and guidance this coming day.
Today we plumb the depths of darkness. The people of Judah, not content with installing foreign idols in the holy places (v 30), in a horrific perversion of the rituals instituted by the Lord, are now carrying out child sacrifice (v 31). No wonder today’s passage ends with the bleak echo of three voices over the charnel house of the valley of Hinnon: a distraught Jeremiah (8:18), a confused, deserted population (v 19a) and the almost despairing cry of a rejected God (v 19b).
I find these verses agonisingly relevant today. They provoke images of starving children with wide eyes and swollen bellies, of North African pre-teenagers huddling in tents beneath Paris underpasses, of Nigerian school pupils taken at best as hostages, at worst to be trained as child soldiers and sex slaves. Are these any less horrific than the child murders of Jeremiah’s time?
Jesus is very clear about the place of children in the kingdom of God. In Matthew 18:1–6 he explains that children demonstrate the essence of the kingdom itself (v 3). They are the model of simple faith (v 4) and are to be safeguarded and nurtured (v 6). Significantly, to adults he says that a child is to be received as if we are receiving Jesus himself (v 5).
Child sacrifice illustrates how far Judah has fallen from God’s direction. They have devised a horrific form of worship that had not even entered God’s mind (7:31). Maybe our attitudes to our children can be a useful guide to our closeness to his purposes.
Search for news stories about children. Respond to each child with the heart of Jesus. Actions as well as words are to be encouraged.
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: 1 Samuel 12,13; Mark 12
Pray for Scripture Union
SU’s Board of Trustees are meeting today. Pray for God’s guidance and wisdom as they finalise the budget and plans for the next phase of our Revealing Jesus development and roll-out.
