The movie, “Unplanned” retelling the true story of Abby Johnson, a director of a Texas Planned Parenthood, who changed her views after participating in an abortion of a 13 week baby, featured Ashley Bratcher in the lead role. This Christian actress upon landing the role began to share Abby’s testimony with her mother. This brought her mother to the point of sobbing and weeping. When Ashley asked her mother what was wrong, it was then that her mother admitted that she was an unplanned pregnancy and her mother was actually in an abortion clinic when at the last minute she changed her mind and carried on with the pregnancy resulting in Ashley. In her words, she said, “I believe that God plans our steps from conception...I just feel so humbled that God Loves us that much, that He would give me, this nobody, the opportunity to tell this story.” There are no coincidences with God.

In the worship of pagan gods, one such god was Molech. This would include infanticide as part of the ritual. A large bronze idol with outstretched arms would be heated up to accept the infants and children who would be burned alive as part of the child sacrifice ceremony. This was convenient in that the sexual practices in those days in the worship of many of the deities including Asherah involving temple prostitutes resulted in a multitude of unwanted children. We read of one of the most evil kings of Judah, Ahaz, 2 Kings 16:2-4, “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 before the children of Israel. And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree.” Ahaz sacrificed at least one of his sons on the altar of Molech (pass through the fire) practicing child sacrifice. Just as in the story of Ashley Bratcher above, we will read tomorrow of Ahaz’s son, Hezekiah, who escaped being sacrificed and was a very good king. One of his first orders of business was to remove all of these pagan idols including the idol Molech used for child sacrifice.

It’s easy to look at this with disgust and view it as something far removed from what our nation would do. But we as a nation have aborted approximately 60 million babies since 1973 (when abortion became legal). These are now carried out in the womb rather than after birth, in that technology has evolved since the days of the kings of Judah and Israel. But it amounts to the same thing, the discarding of unwanted children. In those days often due to pagan worship, now due to sex before marriage, concerns over hurting one’s ability to grow professionally, educationally, economically, etc. These are our new idols of worship: the idol of self, the idol of money, the idol of success, the idol of sexual freedom, the idol of intellect, etc. all in the name of “choice”. With the passing of the New York Law, infanticide, no different than the days of Ahaz is now allowed and applauded. Ashley Bratcher was spared and did something about it. King Hezekiah was spared and did something about it. It is time for all of us to do something about it. Lord, help us to remove idols from our lives beginning with the idol of self. Help us to cast down every stronghold and thought that is against your purposes and against your Word. We pray that you would help us to choose life. In the mighty and glorious name of Jesus Christ our Lord and King. Amen.