Judah and Samaria, the capital cities of the southern and northern kingdoms of Israel, have rebelled against their God and his provisions for them and have adopted the sacrificial system of the pagans around them. Baal worship involved sexual immorality of all kinds. The result of such blatant immorality is often unwanted pregnancies. Those would be resolved by offering up unwanted children as sacrifices to the pagan deities. This is what Micah 1:6-7 says, “Therefore, I will make Samaria a heap in the open country, a place for planting vineyards, and I will pour down her stones into the valley and uncover her foundations. All her carved images shall be beaten to pieces, all her wages shall be burned with fire, and all her idols I will lay waste, for from the fee of a prostitute she gathered them, and to the fee of a prostitute, they shall return.” The nation of Israel had picked up this practice from the pagan nations around them. We cannot help but notice the similarity with our own practice of elective abortions being practiced in America. Many commentators and preachers have noticed this similarity. Sailer writes, “There was a rite in ancient Israel which has parallels to the modern practice of abortion – the rite of child sacrifice, one of the detestable things the Lord hates.” Because of the present climate of reproductive rights, it is not popular to point out this comparison. Andrew White wrote a very profound and convincing article entitled “Abortion and the Ancient Practice of Child Sacrifice.” It was published in the Journal of Biblical Ethics in Medicine (1987, Volume 1 (2), pp:34-42. This article “examines the primarily neglected parallels between ancient child sacrifice and the modern practice of abortion.”
The Bible condemns this practice. Deuteronomy 12:31 says, “You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods.” There are too many arguments against child sacrifice, thus abortion, to be mentioned here. But child sacrifice was the idolatrous practice of pagan nations (See Leviticus 20:2-5, Psalm 106:35-38, Jeremiah 32:35 and Hosea 13:2). Abortion defiles God’s people (See Ezekiel 20:26 and Exodus 20:31). It defiles God’s sanctuary (See Ezekiel 23:37, 39). It also incurs God’s anger in general (See Jeremiah 19:4-5, Ezekiel 16:20-21, and Hosea 13:2).[1]
Samaria, the capital city of the northern kingdom, had become totally assimilated into the pagan cultures around them. Baal became their pagan god of choice, followed by Molech, the god of their perennial enemies, the Ammonites. Micah tells the people of Samaria that they will face many severe consequences for this practice. Her building and paved streets, and other city structures will be destroyed, and it will be nothing be a field only good for planting crops. The idolatrous images she worshipped will be smashed to pieces. However, we understand this passage regarding the judgment on Samaria. We cannot miss the fact that God will judge such a horrible practice. I fully agree with the Got Questions website that addresses this issue. It makes the comparison between the child sacrifices of the Bible with the abortion of today. They practice infanticide because they do not have the technology to perform abortions like we have today. The article says, “There is also a correlation between child sacrifice and modern-day abortion. Unprecedented numbers of children have been ‘sacrificed’ at the hands of abortionists for the sake of convenience, immorality, or pride.” Could these be the modern-day Baals and Molechs? “Hundreds of thousands of babies have been killed so that their parents can maintain a certain lifestyle. God hates ‘hands that shed innocent blood’ (Proverbs 6:17), and we can be sure that God will judge this horrendous sin.”[2]
[1] Manser, Martin H. 2009. Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. London: Martin Manser.
[2] Got Questions Ministries. 2002–2013. Got Questions? Bible Questions Answered. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.