Child Abuse
Read Ezekiel 18:1–24:27
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36. The Lord said to me, . . . “You must accuse Oholah and Oholibah of all their detestable sins.
37. They have committed both adultery and murder—adultery by worshiping idols and murder by burning as sacrifices the children they bore to me. . . .
38. They have defiled my Temple and violated my Sabbath day!
39. On the very day that they sacrificed their children to their idols, they boldly came into my Temple to worship! They came in and defiled my house. . . .
46. Now this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Bring an army against them and hand them over to be terrorized and plundered.
47. For their enemies will stone them and kill them with swords. They will butcher their sons and daughters and burn their homes. . . .
48. I will put an end to lewdness and idolatry in the land, and my judgment will be a warning to others not to follow their wicked example.” Ezekiel 23:36-39, 46-48
Some of the Jewish children of Ezekiel’s time were physically abused by their parents. They did not even have a chance to grow up. In this reading, Ezekiel confronts the Jews about one of their most heinous practices—child sacrifice. What may be even more shocking than this, however, is what the Jews did after sacrificing their children.
Also in this reading, you can see God’s people trying to deflect their responsibility for their sin. They say it’s unfair, that they’re not guilty, that they don’t deserve it. But Ezekiel won’t accept these excuses.
Today children aren’t often killed in religious rituals, but they are sometimes sacrificed in other ways. Some are abused by adults who take out their anger on them or, worse, derive sexual pleasure from them. Some children are neglected by parents who are too busy to spend time with them. Other parents selfishly indulge their appetites and don’t provide for their children’s needs. All of these atrocities are modern-day examples of child sacrifice. Children have no power to stop those who treat them with contempt. We should not abuse or neglect children in any way. Rather, we should treat them as the precious gifts from God that they are.
