Friends, Do Not Be Afraid

Luke 12:1-12

There are two things I would like to do in this blog. One is to share a personal account of my own struggle with the "yeast of hypocrisy" and the other is to give more background to the Valley of Ben Hinnom and the idol worship of Molek.

First my story. In the sermon I talk about how the fear of what others will say or think about us is the driving force behind hypocrisy. As a young preacher just starting out in church leadership (and I was young, being 19 when I was called to the ministry, 20 when I was licensed and 23 when ordained), I had my own struggle with fear. Ashamedly, I was overly concerned with how people would view me and it impacted how I preached and dressed and lived. I remember one dream I had sometime into my early ministry years. I dreamed that I had made a commitment to be true to the Word of God no matter what others thought. As I recall, I had been reading the journals of Jonathan Edwards, Puritan reformer in New England, in which he talked about his list of life resolutions. The first one was: Resolved to live for Jesus no matter how hard it gets (my paraphrase. Read his list here.) Anyway, in my dream I made this commitment (which was not just a dream, because I had recently responded to an invitation at a crusade and made this very commitment), and as a result, in my dream I saw all my friends walking away from me, and I was all alone.

I woke up a bit shaken. Over the next years as I both matured spiritually and in my own personality (I was a bit of a dweeb way back then), this dream proved itself to be true. I did lose friendships because of stands I took, some of which I see now were more influenced by the people I wanted approval from, than they were by a pure reading of the Word.

As the years unfolded, I grew more and more hungry for the approval of God and less concerned about the approval of others, and that has led to a higher level of authenticity and integrity in my life. But it has come with a price--the price of strained relationships and associations. But living true to oneself and true to what one believes are the purposes of God, is worth any sacrifice one makes. I still do not live this out perfectly--everyone is impacted by the "yeast of hypocrisy" to one degree or another. I continually pray, asking God to show me where I need to be strong and more authentic.

Now Molek.
In the sermon I talk a bit about the history of the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which encompasses Jerusalem on the West and South sides of the city.

In Old Testament times, the idol to the god Molek was located in the Valley of Hinnom, most likely near its juncture with the Kidron Valley. (Interestingly enough, today at this juncture there is the Greek Orthodox Saint Onuphrius Monastery. I love the way God redeems things!) Molek was one of the gods in the pantheon of Canaanite gods. His worship involved the propitiatory sacrifice of children. Read more about Molek 

here.

Worship of Molek and the associate child sacrifice was strongly condemned in the Old Testament. Prohibitions exist in the early law codes of Leviticus (18:21 and 20:1-5) and by the prophets, particularly Jeremiah (32:35). However, its presence in such a central place continued to cause trouble for Israel. Molek played a role in the fall of Solomon (1 Kings 11:1-6) and the evil kings Ahaz (2 Chron. 28:1-4) and Manasseh (2 Chron. 33:1-6). Righteous Josiah desecrated the idol of Molek (2 Kings 23:10).

By the time of Jesus, the idol was long gone, but its memory lingered. The Valley of Ben Hinnom, Gehenna in Greek, was now the garbage dump of Jerusalem where a fire burned continuously. This is the image that lies behind the word Hell, as Jesus used it in the Gospels (and James one time in his writing). Here is a list of the references, copied from the Wiki entry for Hinnom:

• Matt.5:22 whoever calls someone "you fool" will be liable to Gehenna.
• Matt.5:29 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.
• Matt.5:30 better to lose one of your members than that your whole body go into Gehenna.
• Matt.10:28 rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in Gehenna.
• Matt.18:9 better to enter life with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna.
• Matt.23:15 Pharisees make a convert twice as much a child of Gehenna as themselves.
• Matt.23:33 to Pharisees: you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to Gehenna?
• Mark 9:43 better to enter life with one hand than with two hands to go to Gehenna.
• Mark 9:45 better to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into Gehenna.
• Mark 9:47 better to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into Gehenna
• Luke 12:5 Fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into Gehenna
• James 3:6 the tongue is set on fire by Gehenna.

Lastly, here is an old artistic rendition of what the idol Molek looked like:

 

The arched opening at the base is where you built the fire that heated up the bronze idol. Then, if the image on the left side is correct, you threw your child in the fire. If the one on the right is correct, after the arms were glowing red with heat, you placed your child in the idol's arms.

It does not get any more detestable than that.

Thanks for digging deeper.