SCRIPTURE: Jeremiah 19
OBSERVATION/APPLICATION:
For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned incense in it to gods that neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind. So beware, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when people will no longer call this place Topheth or the Valley of Ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. [Jeremiah 19:4-6]
I have heard that there is a ‘sex island’ somewhere in South Asia, where young boys and girls are sold as sex slaves, and customers (mostly European men) pay for pleasure.
Something God did not command or mention, nor did it ever enter His mind!
God is horrified by such cruelty to children, as with child sacrifice.
And now He is decreeing judgment as a result.
When we think of the children suffering and dying, then we can appreciate a little more God’s anger and judgment.

And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me. But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. Woe to the world because of the things that cause people to sin! Such things must come, but woe to the man through whom they come! [Matthew 18:5-7]
Jesus shares this same anger for abuse of children and warns that those who mislead or misuse ‘little ones’ would be better off perishing in the sea than face God’s final judgment.
How we treat children is indicative of the condition of our heart.
Someone has made the comparison of the child sacrifice of Jeremiah’s day to abortion today – a society that determines whether a child is a child or just a fetus based on the parent’s choice.
And how many children are sacrificed as a result.
But any child abuse of any sort is in view here, and we need to know as a society that God is angry at such abuse – whether perpetrated by people of other religions, godless pedophiles or by priests or pastors or parents.

The outcry against God after the 2004 tsunami was huge, and having just reviewed video footage, I am horrified by what I see too.
But I also wonder how many child slaves on the sex island were finally released from their bondage and escorted to God by their angels…
See that you do not look down on one of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven. [Matthew 18:10-11]

PRAYER:
Lord, forgive us for getting more angry at You for what You do, and not angry enough about what we do, either individually or collectively. Help us take sin more seriously.