Friday 5 July 2013

He desecrated Topheth, which was in the Valley of Ben Hinnom, so no one could use it to sacrifice their son or daughter in the fire to Molek. – 2 Kings 23:10

Today’s Scripture Reading (July 5, 2013): 2 Kings 23

I do not generally like Christian movies. For me, they work way too hard to try and get a Christian message across. When the moral lesson becomes the main line of the plot, it feels too much like indoctrination. And on top of all of that, the acting is usually fairly bad. Maybe it is the fault of the script writers, but too often I am sitting in the audience asking the question – would this stretch of dialogue ever really happen. By the way, that is never the question that I ask in watching one of the “Die Hard” movies – or even "Ironman" or "The Avengers" – and I know deep down that none of that is real – but for the two hours I am sitting in the theater, the writers and actors allow me to forget that it is not real.

There are a few shows and movies that are excellent Christian shows, but the miracle is that that is not what they are trying to be. “Blue Bloods” is a great study of Christian (in this case Roman Catholic) life. But the moral lesson is never part of the main plot. The T. V. Show is about a family of police officers – it derives its action and its plot in the common theme of chasing the bad guy. But the Christian moral comes through clear as the family gathers after church for Sunday Dinner, starting with the act of saying grace and then discussing the tough moral decisions that the family has had to make during the week. And the writers and actors slip in the moral so carefully that the viewer seldom even knows that it is happening.

In the same way, the 1970’s movie trilogy “Oh God” contained the same type of teaching about God and about the Devil, who makes an appearance in the final movie of the series. And in that movie, appropriately named “Oh God, You Devil,” we are introduced to a Satan who looks exactly like God and who does his best to imitate God – except in a couple of critical areas. And in this we learn the biblical teaching that our idea of God as a silly man in the red pajama’s is seriously flawed. He is the master deceiver, and he knows that he will get the most traction when he looks like God. But the writers wanted to send us another message and so they give Satan a name in the movie – it is Harry O. Tophet – a name that almost looks like prophet, but the name comes from the place in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom (Ben Hinnom) and the place of worship was that was called Topheth. Topheth was a place where the children of the nation had been killed in sacrifice to a false God so that the nation could survive. And Josiah recognizes the incredible failure of this practice and he desecrates the altar at Topheth so that no more children could be sacrificed. In the movie “Oh God, You Devil” Harry O. Tophet is on the prowl for another child of God that can be sacrificed to a false ideal and a false pursuit of security and success. And the viewer of the movie receives that message without even recognizing that that was exactly what was intended.

Topheth and The Valley of the Son of Hinnom are called by a different name in the New Testament or Christian Bible. It is Gehenna and is often translated in modern translations as hell. But it is not hell as a mythical place, but rather the memory of a very real place right here on earth. Matthew records these words and places them on the lips of Jesus - Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are (Matthew 23:15.) The literal translation is that the Pharisees would be twice as much a child of Gehenna as they already were. But what we miss in the translation is that the children of Gehenna were all dead. They had been burned alive and the drum had been beaten at Tohpeth so that no one would be able to hear their screams.

And maybe all of this just stresses another thing that we sometimes miss as Christians. Jesus did not come to the earth to miraculously make us good. He died to steal us away from Topheth and make us alive.   


Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 24

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