History Does Repeat Itself

“Is there any thing whereof it may be said, See, this is new? it hath been already of old time, which was before us.”  Ecclesiastes 1:10

If folks have been paying attention to the news, then we all know what is going on in the Middle East.  Hamas, the terrorist organization of the people of Gaza (the Biblical home the Philistines, one of Israel’s foremost ancient foes) unexpectedly attacked the western portion of Israel on the border with Gaza, killing 1,400 people at the time of this writing and taking nearly 200 hostages.  Videos and pictures have been circulated which shows their brutality upon the people of Israel, but those who are against Israel and the Jews, God’s chosen people, insist that Israel was the instigator of these crimes, and much of what has been shown to be factual, these antisemites refuse to believe their own eyes.

One of the most brutal pieces of evidence of Hamas’ crimes is the killing of babies, some being decapitated, and others being burned alive.  But where have we heard of this before?  If we go back to ancient Israel, the people who worshiped the Baal gods, including the Philistines, used baby and child sacrifice as offerings to their idols and false gods.  No doubt some of these babies were burned alive.  According to Unger’s Bible Dictionary, Molech was the main god to which children were either made to walk through fire or walk directly into fire.  Archeologists, in excavating sites in Palestine, the home of Gaza, have found evidence of infant skeletons in burial places around heathen shrines.  Ironically, the Ammonites, descendants of Ben-ammi, Lot’s son through incest with his youngest daughter (Genesis 19:38), claimed Molech as a protecting father.  Israel regarded the worship of Molech the most abhorrent form of idolatry.

Solomon, considered as the wisest human that ever lived, was influenced in his later years by the idolatrous 700 wives and 300 concubines that he married.  They turned his heart to worship false gods, and he even built a shrine to Molech (I Kings 11:1-8).   The only son of Solomon in scripture was Rehoboam.  However, with 1,000 wives and concubines, it is likely that many more babies were fathered by him, thus, we could speculate that many or most of these babies were sacrificed to Molech.  Child killing did not end with the Old Testament.  Remember Herod the Great?  Was he not the ruler over Israel when Jesus was born?  For what is he known?  Did he not order the killing of all babies under two years of age because he was jealous and feared that, as the wise men said, Jesus would become the Governor who would rule Israel (Matthew 2:6,16)?

Historical accounts tell us that Herod the Great was born in Ashkelon, one of the five major cities of ancient Philistia.  Ashkelon has been mentioned several times in the current news accounts concerning Hamas.  Unger’s states that “Herod was not only an Idumaean in race and a Jew in religion, but he was a heathen in practice and a monster in character”.  The Idumaeans were descendants of the Edomites whose father was Esau, brother of Jacob, later named Israel who fathered the twelve sons who became the leaders of the twelve tribes of Israel.  Herod was so wicked that he commanded that when he died, the leaders of Israel should be gathered and killed so that there would be great mourning at his death.  Thank God that this order did not happen.

From these accounts, we can see the horrible and cruel legacy that was left for the current generation of terrorists.  While the killing of babies, children, and adults has been one of the most horrible events to take place in our generation, many don’t acknowledge the killing of the unborn which is also a horrible crime that is perpetrated by many in our nation and across the globe.  Could all of these murders actually be disguised sacrifices to the gods of Baal and Molech by those who do not worship the Lord Jesus Christ?  Something to think about and pray to God for an end to such barbarous acts in the name of false gods and to “pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love Thee” (Psalm 122:6).