Worldwide in 2020, Covid-19 claimed the lives of approximately 1.8 million people. In that same time period, there were 11 million deaths from communicable diseases, 8,2 million deaths from cancer, 5.1 million deaths from smoking, 2.5 million deaths from alcohol, 1.8 million deaths from tuberculosis, 1.4 million deaths from road accidents, and 1.1 million deaths from suicide. Adding up all of these categories gives us a total of approximately 33 million deaths worldwide in 2020.

By comparison, the number of babies who were put to death by way of abortion in 2020 was 42.6 million. Yes, you read that right. The total number of deaths by abortion exceeded the total number of deaths from all those other categories combined. Approximately speaking, for every single Covid-19 death there were 41 abortion deaths. I guess the mainstream media didn’t have time to work that into their reporting, what with all the news about Covid-19, politics, the weather, sporting events, etc.

Do black lives matter? You bet they do, all of them. Well, I guess I should say that almost all of them matter. The lives of the approximately 800 black babies that get aborted in America every day don’t seem to matter much. By the way, half of those babies are females, too, if you want to talk about the rights of women. You see, the dirty little secret is that not all women have rights. Rights are exclusively reserved for women whose mothers don’t opt for abortion.

God gave the people of Israel the land of Canaan to possess and settle. The problem with that was the fact that Canaan was already home to various races of people. Those races were idolaters who worshiped their false gods by way of bizarre rites and rituals. One such race was the Ammonites, who worshiped a god named Molech by literally offering their children to him in fiery sacrifices. This specific god and this specific type of worship are frequently mentioned in the Old Testament. As a matter of fact, in that body of law that God imparted to Moses to give to the Israelites, He took the time to especially condemn this god and this type of sacrifice. Tragically, however, there were times over the course of Israel’s long history that the people of Israel broke God’s law by offering their children in sacrifice to Molech. Consider the following passages (all from the N.K.J.V.):

• Leviticus 18:21: “And you shall not let any of your descendants pass through the fire to Molech, nor shall you profane the name of your God: I am the Lord.”
• Leviticus 20:1-5: Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, “Again, you shall say to the children of Israel: ‘Whoever of the children of Israel, or of the strangers who dwell in Israel, who gives any of his descendants to Molech, he shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. I will set My face against that man, and will cut him off from his people, because he has given some of his descendants to Molech, to defile My sanctuary and profane My holy name. And if the people of the land should in any way hide their eyes from the man, when he gives some of his descendants to Molech, and they do not kill him, then I will set My face against that man and against his family; and I will cut him off from his people, and all who prostitute themselves with him to commit harlotry with Molech.”
• 1 Kings 11:7: Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the hill that is east of Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the people of Ammon.
• 2 Kings 2-3: Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel.
• 2 Kings 23:10: And he (King Josiah) defiled Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, that no man might make his son or daughter pass through the fire to Molech.
• 2 Chronicles 33:5-6: He (King Manasseh) also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem shall My name be forever.” And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. Also he caused his sons to pass through the fire in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom; he practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft and sorcery, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.
• Jeremiah 7:30-33: “For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,” says the Lord. “They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name to pollute it. And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart. Therefore behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord, “when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away.”
• Jeremiah 19:1-4: Thus says the Lord: “Go and get a potter’s earthen flask, and take some of the elders of the people and some of the elders of the priests. And go out to the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, which is by the entry of the Potsherd Gate; and proclaim there the words that I will tell you, and say, ‘Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. 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. Because they have forsaken Me and made this an alien place, because they have burned incense in it to other gods whom neither they, their fathers, nor the kings of Judah have known, and have filled this place with the blood of the innocents.”
• Jeremiah 32:34-35: ‘But they set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to defile it. And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into My mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.’
• Ezekiel 16:20-21: “Moreover you took your sons and your daughters, whom you bore to Me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your acts of harlotry a small matter, that you have slain My children and offered them up to them by causing them to pass through the fire?”
• Ezekiel 20:30-32: “Therefore says to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Are you defiling yourselves in the manner of your fathers and committing harlotry according to their abominations? For when you offer your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you defile yourselves with all your idols, even to this day. So shall I be inquired of by you, O house of Israel? As I live,” says the Lord God, “I will not be inquired of by you. What you have in your mind shall never be, when you say, ‘We will be like the Gentiles, like the families in other countries, serving wood and stone.'”
• Ezekiel 23:36-37: The Lord also said to me: “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols, and even sacrificed their sons whom they bore to Me, passing them through the fire, to devour them.”

You’ll note that in these passages frequent reference is made to a certain valley, The Valley of the Son of Hinnom (the shortened version being The Valley of Hinnom). The Greek equivalent of “The Valley of Hinnom” is Gehenna. This valley is located near Jerusalem, and it was the site where the people of Israel offered up their children to the god Molech. In the later days of Israel’s history, the valley became the local garbage dump for Jerusalem. As such, the carcasses of animals, the unclaimed bodies of deceased criminals, and all kinds of trash from Jerusalem ended up there. Everything got burned to eliminate it, and the smoke from the fires seemed to be rising continually from the valley.

Jesus used the macabre scenery of this valley as an earthly illustration of the eternal lake of fire where Satan, all the other fallen angels, and all of history’s lost people will spend eternity. Just as worms were frequently seen feasting on the carcasses in the midst of the fires of Jerusalem’s Gehenna, Jesus described the eternal lake of fire (the eternal Gehenna) as being a place where the fire is never quenched and their (referring to lost people) worm does not die (Mark 9:42-48). That was His way of saying that the lost will not be obliterated or annihilated in the eternal Gehenna. Instead, they will be tormented in the fire of the eternal lake of fire endlessly with no hope of ever experiencing relief or pardon. (I realize that this is not a pleasant topic, but if you would like to read more about it, please read the post “Are Hades & Hell the Same Place? post #2.”)

But let me ask you something in closing: Do you think it’s a coincidence that the valley where the people of Israel once offered their children in fiery sacrifices to the god Molech ultimately became the New Testament’s earthly illustration of God’s site of eternal judgment? I don’t think it’s a coincidence in the least. No, I think that God absolutely despises the shedding of what He calls in Jeremiah 19:4 “the blood of the innocents,” and I think He has not forgotten the murders that occurred in that valley.

Of course, in our modern world, we don’t have a Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna) that serves as the site where children are killed, do we? Instead, our “valleys” are called “Centers for Reproductive Alternatives,” “Women’s Health Centers,” “Women’s Medical Pavilions,” or “Family Planning Centers.” Likewise, we don’t offer our children to Molech, do we? Instead, we offer them to gods called “convenience,” “self-centeredness,” “irresponsibility,” and “worldliness.” Despite all of this new terminology, though, God still considers abortion the same old song, just sung to a different tune. The song is called “The Shedding of the Blood of the Innocents” and the world continues to sing it without shame. So, this coming Sunday, which has been designated as Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, let’s remember all the innocents that abortion has claimed worldwide, and let’s consider what we are doing to help put an end to this worldwide atrocity.