Exodus 22:29-30, Did God Command Child Sacrifice? Part I of II

“Do not hold back offerings from your granaries or your vats. You must give me the firstborn of your sons. Do the same with your cattle and your sheep. Let them stay with their mothers for seven days, but give them to me on the eighth day.”

//Did God really command that his followers sacrifice children to him? Some scholars think so. Or, I should qualify, some scholars believe the Bible says God told people to sacrifice their children.

Today’s verse seems straight-forward. Give offerings of grain, cattle, sheep, and your firstborn sons. There’s little question that God expected the grain and animals to be sacrificed, so should we not assume the same fate is expected of the children?

Ezekiel says so, and even explains why God commanded child sacrifice:

So I gave them other statutes that were not good and laws through which they could not live; I defiled them through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn—that I might fill them with horror so they would know that I am the LORD.’ –Ezekiel 20:25-26

More tomorrow on this topic.

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