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RED ALERT! MARY MARIA'S SISTER FACING PERSECUTION!
Sister Mary Maria's (Twin?) Sister, sunday school teacher, and member (by marriage) of Mike Huckabee's family has been arrested for obeying the Bible:
TRACY, Calif. — Police said Saturday they do not know what motivated the Sunday school teacher they arrested on suspicion of kidnapping and killing an 8-year-old girl whose body was found in a suitcase dumped in an irrigation pond.
Melissa Huckaby, 28, a local minister's granddaughter...
Huckaby is a granddaughter of Pastor Clifford Lawless, whose Clover Road Baptist Church was searched by police. Huckaby taught Sunday school at the church and lived with Lawless in the Orchard Estates Mobile Home Park that also was Sandra's home.
Lawless did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment Saturday.
There are two explainations for her actions, both Biblically sound:
A) The child was being rebellious, and cursed her, which demands the death penalty:
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.
God spoke in her head, or came to her in a dream, and ordered her to sacrifice the child as a proof of her loyalty:The most famous example of God ordering child sacrifice is Genesis 22:1-24
2And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering
But child sacrifice actually shows up all over the Bible:
CHILD SACRIFICE IN THE BIBLE
Joshua
Joshua practiced what is called "foundation sacrifice." In order to protect a structure from evil powers, a person was killed and buried at the foundation of a city or building. Sometimes the victim was walled in alive. In this case, Joshua's victim would be someone's first born.
26Joshua laid an oath upon them at that time, saying, "Cursed before the LORD be the man that rises up and rebuilds this city, Jericho. At the cost of his first-born shall he lay its foundation, and at the cost of his youngest son shall he set up its gates."
27So the LORD was with Joshua; and his fame was in all the land. (Josh. 6:26-27)
King David
King David participated in the sacrifice of seven men at the beginning of a barley harvest with an eye towards ending famine in the land.
There was famine in the kingdom of David for three years. When David asked God what he could do about it. God explained that it was because of bloodguilt on Saul because he put the Gibeonites to death.
1Now there was a famine in the days of David for three years, year after year; and David sought the face of the LORD. And the LORD said,"There is bloodguilt on Saul and on his house, because he put the Gibeonites to death." (2 Sam. 21:1)
So David called for the Gibeonites and wanted to know what he could do to expiate for what Saul did.
2So the king called the Gibeonites. Now the Gibeonites were not of the people of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites; although the people of Israel had sworn to spare them, Saul had sought to slay them in his zeal for the people of Israel and Judah.
3And David said to the Gibeonites, "What shall I do for you? And how shall I make expiation, that you may bless the heritage of the LORD?" (2 Sam. 21:2-3)
The Gibeonites replied that it was not a matter of money. What they wanted was seven of Saul's sons so they may hang them. David agreed.
4The Gibeonites said to him, "It is not a matter of silver or gold between us and Saul or his house; neither is it for us to put any man to death in Israel." And he said, "What do you say that I shall do for you?"
5They said to the king, "The man who consumed us and planned to destroy us, so that we should have no place in all the territory of Israel,
6let seven of his sons be given to us, so that we may hang them up before the LORD at Gibeon on the mountain of the LORD." And the king said, "I will give them." (2 Sam. 21:4-6)
David picked two of Saul's sons and five of his grandsons. They were hanged on the mountain before God, at the beginning of the barley harvest.
7But the king spared Mephibosheth, the son of Saul's son Jonathan, because of the oath of the LORD which was between them, between David and Jonathan the son of Saul.
8The king took the two sons of Rizpah the daughter of Aiah, whom she bore to Saul, Armoni and Mephibosheth; and the five sons of Merab the daughter of Saul, whom she bore to Adri-el the son of Barzillai the Meholathite;
9and he gave them into the hands of the Gibeonites, and they hanged them on the mountain before the LORD, and the seven of them perished together. They were put to death in the first days of harvest, at the beginning of barley harvest. (2 Sam. 21:7-9)
King Solomon
Solomon earned his reputation as a wise king by settling a maternity dispute between two women. His solution was to cut the child in half. The real mother prevented the execution by giving up her claim. We are left to wonder if Solomon would have done it.
24And the king said, "Bring me a sword." So a sword was brought before the king.
25And the king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other." (1 Kings 3:16)
He built a place for Molech.The cult of Molech was associated with child sacrifice.
7Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem.
8And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods. (1 Kgs. 11:7-8)
Israel and Judah
After the time of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split up into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah.
When the kings of Israel and Judah were wining their invasion against the Moabites, the Moabite king made a burnt offering of his oldest son. A great wrath came upon Israel and they had to withdraw. In effect, the Moabite god, Chemosh, defeated Yahweh.
26When the king of Moab saw that the battle was going against him, he took with him seven hundred swordsmen to break through, opposite the king of Edom; but they could not.
27Then he took his eldest son who was to reign in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there came great wrath upon Israel; and they withdrew from him and returned to their own land. (2 Kings. 3:26-27)
Israel
The divided kingdom of Israel came to an end with its capture by the Assyrians. God is said to have made it happen because they worshipped alien gods, made burnt offerings of sons and daughters and practiced occultism.
16And they forsook all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made for themselves molten images of two calves; and they made an Asherah, and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.
17And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used divination and sorcery, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger.
18Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; none was left but the tribe of Judah only. (2 Kgs. 17:16-18)
Give this a second thought. In order to punish his chosen people, he showed favor towards the heathen Assyrians.
King Ahab
Ahab and his Phoenician wife Jezebel were among God's most infamous royalty. He practiced "foundation sacrifice" in which a child in entombed in the foundation. We are told that Jericho could not be rebuilt without satisfying Joshua's curse (above). I leave it to readers to decide whether Hiel's sons were intentionally sacrificed according to Joshua's prescription or died accidently or by divine will.
33And Ahab made an Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.
34In his days Hiel of Bethel built Jericho; he laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his first-born, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun. (1 Kgs. 16:33-34)
King Ahaz
King Ahaz burned his son in an offering in accordance with the practices of other nations.
2Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. And he did not do what was right in the eyes of the LORD his God, as his father David had done,
3but he walked in the way of the kings of Israel. He even burned his son as an offering, according to the abominable practices of the nations whom the LORD drove out before the people of Israel. (2 Kgs. 16:2-3)
King Hoshea
Hoshea was the last king of Israel before it split from Judah. Under his reign the people burned their sons and daughters.
17And they burned their sons and their daughters as offerings, and used divination and sorcery and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger. (2 Kings 17:7)
King Manasseh
King Ahaz's grandson, Manasseh, reigned for 55 years, the longest in Judah's history. He is said to have burned his son as an offering. We can safely assume that the practice was widespread among the people of Judah during his reign.
1Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah.
6And he burned his son as an offering, and practiced soothsaying and augury, and dealt with mediums and with wizards. He did much evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger. (2 Kgs. 21:6, 2 Chron. 33:6)</SPAN>
King Josiah
Israelites are sacrificing their children to the wrong deity:
10He defiled Topheth, which is in the valley of Benhinnom, so that no one would make a son or a daughter pass through fire as an offering to Molech. (2 Kgs. 23:10)
Ezekiel
God purposively gave bad laws which discouraged life and made them offer gifts of their first born by fire. All this was to horrify them and show them he is the Lord.
25Moreover I gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not have life;
26and I defiled them through their very gifts in making them offer by fire all their first-born, that I might horrify them; I did it that they might know that I am the LORD. (Ezek. 20:25-26)
Take notice: it makes a huge difference which deity the children are sacrificed to. In one case Ezekiel says God made the Israelites offer their children by fire to horrify them. In the other, he complains when they do the same for other gods.
Cannibalism
While sacrifice was practiced as a matter of appeasement, cannibalism was imposed as a matter of punishment, and maybe at times it was a matter of hunger.
A woman complained to the king about being tricked by another woman to share in eating their sons. After they boiled the first son and ate him, the second woman refused to give up hers.
26Now as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, a woman cried out to him, saying, "Help, my lord, O king!"
27And he said, "If the LORD will not help you, whence shall I help you? From the threshing floor, or from the wine press?"
28And the king asked her, "What is your trouble?" She answered, "This woman said to me, 'Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow.'
29So we boiled my son, and ate him. And on the next day I said to her, 'Give your son, that we may eat him'; but she has hidden her son." (2 Kings 6:26-29)
Speaking through Jeremiah, Yahweh threatened to make the Israelites eat the flesh of their sons and daughters. They were to eat their warring neighbors too
9And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and their daughters, and every one shall eat the flesh of his neighbor in the siege and in the distress, with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them. (Jer. 19:9)
As judgment, Yahweh will make fathers eat their sons and sons shall eat their fathers.
9And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again.
10Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in the midst of you, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. (Ezek. 5:9-10)
26I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh, and they shall be drunk with their own blood as with wine. (Isaiah. 49:26)
2you who hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people, and their flesh from off their bones;
3who eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them, and break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron. (Micah 3:2-3)
Let the survivors devour the flesh of one another.
9So I said, "I will not be your shepherd. What is to die, let it die; what is to be destroyed, let it be destroyed; and let those that are left devour the flesh of one another." (Zech. 11:9)
Prohibitions
Child sacrifice was considered evil when it was done in the name of foreign gods. It wasn't a morality issue. The priests saw it as a violation of the First Commandment: You shall have no other gods before me.
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