Jeremiah 19:3b,11

Let’s be serious. God wanted Israel to be serious. God wanted Israel to know the consequences of their idolatry. Indeed, He tells Jeremiah to take the elders of the people to the valley of Hinnom, also called Tophet, which was a valley that ran E-W near the South gate of Jerusalem. There he declared to them:

‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Behold, I will bring such a catastrophe on this place, that whoever hears of it, his ears will tingle.”’. (Jeremiah 19:3b)

For the Israelites had been offering sacrifices to Baal there. Indeed, they were sacrificing their own sons, burning them alive on altars to Baal (vs. 5). The name ‘Tophet’ comes from the Hebrew word for drum. Drums were beaten to drown out the screams of the children being burnt. The rubbish from Jerusalem was dumped in this valley and continually burnt as well, making the place a symbol for the burning fires of hell.

God told Jeremiah to break a pot in front of the elders of Israel and declared:

‘Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter’s vessel, which cannot be made whole again; and they shall bury them in Tophet till there is no place to bury.”’ (Jeremiah 19:11)

Such a catastrophe! So many people would be slain that the valley could not hold the dead. Indeed, the place became a place of massacre, where people ate their own family and friends during a long siege. God is not kidding around. Idolatry is evil. And these Israelites should have known better, since the true God had explicitly revealed Himself to them and saved them time and time again!

It reminds me of a story that I heard on camp which the study leader (Bryson Thomas) told, about his friend in India. In India, the Hindu religion is prominent, and they have many gods, in fact every object basically has the potential to be a god, so there are hundreds of thousands of them. One of their gods is the river Ganges. His friend was walking around in the river, telling people about Jesus and the true God, while hundreds of people stood in the river worshipping their false god. He saw a lady crying uncontrollably and went up to her and asked her why she was crying. She said ‘I cannot do anything to appease Ganges. Nothing I do is enough, he is never happy with me.’ He went on to tell her about Jesus and His love for us and the true God, and how we cannot appease Him, but we can only let Him wash us clean. She was amazed and said ‘why didn’t you tell me five minutes ago?!’. He was a bit confused, and said ‘well I only just got here’. She told him that just before he came she had thrown her one year old son into the river in an attempt to please her false god.

It’s a heartwrenching story. The sickness of idolatry. But she didn’t really know any better! These Israelites had ample experience of God, and yet they committed the same ugly sin. And don’t read this lightly. For as Christians, we know infinitely better, for God has revealed Himself in our very hearts. And yet so often we turn to the world for pleasure, for fulfillment. How can we do this?!! We may not be burning our children on pagan altars, but by loving the world we burn our children’s consciences. We might not kill our children, but by worshipping our own ego we kill others’ faith. We must be serious. We must put God first at all times. He is the fountain of living waters (Jeremiah 2).