"God Will Kill Children - "The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will die at birth or perish in the womb or never even be conceived. Even if your children do survive to grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone. I have watched Israel become as beautiful and pleasant as Tyre. But now Israel will bring out her children to be slaughtered." O LORD, what should I request for your people? I will ask for wombs that don't give birth and breasts that give no milk. The LORD says, "All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them. I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels. The people of Israel are stricken. Their roots are dried up; they will bear no more fruit. And if they give birth, I will slaughter their beloved children." (Hosea 9:11-16 NLT)
You can read Hosea 9 in its entirety
here:
Hosea was a prophet who lived during
the time of the split monarchies of Israel and Judah. His life and prophecy was in the northern
kingdom of Israel circa 785-725 BCE, just before Israel was conquered by the
Assyrians.
During Hosea's life, the kingdom of
Israel had completely rebelled against God.
Since the time of King Jeroboam I (reigned circa 931-910 BCE), the
people had turned to worshipping Baal and other idols, in direct disobedience
to God's commandment (1 Kings 12:26-33, 13:33-34, 16:25-33, 22:52-53; 2 Kings
13:2-6, 17). In response, God first sent
prophets such as Hosea to warn them to repent or perish, but they would not
listen. As a result, the northern
kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and the people that remained were exiled into
Assyria (2 Kings chapter 17).
This is yet another example of
destruction that came about because the people disregarded God's command
against idolatry (see Exodus 20:3-6, 23;
23:13, 23-24; 34:17; Leviticus 19:4; 26:1; Deuteronomy 4:15-28; 5:7; 6:14-15;
8:19; 12:31; 17:2-7; 27:15; 29:17-18).
Idolatry is a very serious sin, one that God does not take lightly. Since the Israelites had abandoned God and
trusted in supposed gods of fertility (such as Baal and Asherah) to protect
them, God withdrew his protection from them, and their fertility as well.
It is important to note here that
all life was created by, and belongs to, God.
He controls whether or not a person has children (Genesis 20:17-18,
25:21, 29:31, 30:22; Ruth 4:13; 1 Samuel 1:5).
Children are a blessing from God (Psalm 127:3). God had warned the Israelites that if they
broke their covenant with him, disobeyed his commandments and showed him
contempt by worshipping idols, he would withhold blessings from them, including
the blessing of children: "You who were as numerous as
the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey
the Lord your God" (Deuteronomy 28:62, NIV).
We
come now to the verse describing God taking the lives of Israelite
children. As in previous passages, this
is a difficult issue. There are a few
things that we need to take into consideration.
First, God gave the people ample warning over many years to avoid
destruction. If they had repented, God
would not have withdrawn his protection and allowed them to be overtaken by the
Assyrians (Jeremiah 18:7-8, Jonah chapter 3).
Second, one of the reasons that God would have withheld children from
being born during this time period was due to the widespread killing and
destruction that occurred during the siege of Samaria (2 Kings 17; Hosea
13:16). Finally, if the children had
lived to adulthood, they most likely would have followed the idol-worshipping
practices of their parents, and would have been lost for eternity. God took their lives in childhood to prevent
this from occurring.
Passages
such as this one are horrifying, and cause for sober reflection. God's commands are not to be treated
flippantly or disregarded. He does not
want anyone to perish, and he takes no pleasure in the death of anyone (Ezekiel
18:32). However, there comes a time when
his patience runs out and he abandons those who have rejected him to their
fate. The conquest of Israel by Assyria
was such a time.
