He burned sacrifices in the Valley of Ben Hinnom and sacrificed his children in the fire, engaging in the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. – 2 Chronicles 28:3

Today's Scripture Reading (March 4, 2023): 2 Chronicles 28

"Let us sacrifice our today so that our children can have a better tomorrow." The words belong to A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, the eleventh President of India. A follower of Islam, Kalam was the great unifier of India's diverse cultures. His plea was that his people would learn to live together in peace and prosperity, bringing a better tomorrow for the future of India. One of the reasons for his policies and personal habits of unification was so that the India of tomorrow would be one from which the children of the nation would benefit. With unification comes strength. The only thing that division ever brings is weakness. It is a lesson Muhammad taught in the early days of Islam. But it is also a lesson that followers have not always appreciated.  

The building of a better tomorrow is something that I feel my generation has not done well, often because we do not want to make the necessary sacrifices. We want things easy now. The national debt that the West is handing to our kids is obscene. The reality is that the money will have to be repaid at some point, maybe not in our time, but in the time of our children or grandchildren. Kalam's plea of sacrifice to build a better world for our kids seems to have fallen on deaf ears. Instead of sacrificing today so our children can have a better tomorrow, we appear to want to sacrifice tomorrow (and our kids) so that we can have a better today. That scares me.

Maybe we are a step better than Ahaz, but only a step. The practice that the Chronicler refers to here is worshiping the god (or perhaps better phrased, the demon) Moloch. The worship of Moloch included building a large brass idol representing the god, often seen with the head of a bull. The hands of Moloch were outstretched, and the priests would build a fire at the base of the idol. Of course, a fire at the bottom of a brass idol means the whole idol would soon be red hot. When the statue was suitably heated, the father would place his infant son in the outstretched hands of the god. The child would scream as he was slowly burned to death. To hide the screams, the priests would bang loudly on drums so that the father could not hear the cries of his child.

The first-century historian Plutarch wrote that –

... with full knowledge and understanding they themselves offered up their own children, and those who had no children would buy little ones from poor people and cut their throats as if they were so many lambs or young birds; meanwhile the mother stood by without a tear or moan; but should she utter a single moan or let fall a single tear, she had to forfeit the money, and her child was sacrificed nevertheless; and the whole area before the statue was filled with a loud noise of flutes and drums [so that] the cries of wailing should not reach the ears of the people.

The children were sacrificed in a perversion of Kalam's desire so that the adults could enjoy a better today.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: 2 Kings 16

See Also 2 Kings 16:3