“Their idols are silver and gold, the work of human hands…Those who make them are like them; so are all who trust in them.”[1]Psalm 115:4,8
Ikemefuna is a child war trophy. After a victory in a clash of clans, the child is given to the people of Umofia as part of the terms of peace. The elders leave him in the care of Okonkwo until such a time as the gods decide his fate. As the years go by, the child and his carer develop a bond. He calls Okonkwo father. Okonkwo calls him son. And why not? Okonkwo is particularly fond of Ikemefuna as he sees a strength of character in the boy that is lacking in his own biological son, Nwoye. With the passage of time, all forget that the child is only a temporary guest of the family.
One day, a few elders visit. The gods have spoken, they tell Okonkwo. The boy must die. Okonkwo is crestfallen. The boy has become one of his children. However, who can resist the will of the gods? On the day of the execution, Okonkwo follows the elders as they lead unsuspecting Ikemefuna to the Evil Forest. The first elder takes a swing at the boy but misses. Realising that his life is in danger, Ikemefuna runs desperately towards Okonkwo for safety. “Father,” he calls out. Despite being warned not to participate in the killing of a child that calls him father, Okonkwo strikes the fatal blow. In one of the most gut-wrenching scenes in Chinua Achebe’s classic, Things Fall Apart, the protagonist, Okonkwo, kills Ikemefuna, the child that calls him father.
The indignation that follows is not so much against the ritual murder of a child, but that Okonkwo need not have been the executioner. Ritual killing was not universally regarded abhorrent in the ancient world. In the Bible, King Ahaz and Manasseh sacrificed their children, as did many others. Human sacrifice as an extreme ritual in the worship of some gods has a deleterious effect on the psyche of idolaters. Sooner or later people are made in the image of the god to which they bow.
The story of the binding of Isaac does more than prohibit child sacrifice. It reveals God’s opposition to a religious imagination that treats human beings as expendable for divine purposes.
We often celebrate Abraham’s obedience in the binding of Isaac, and rightly so. Yet God’s command also touched something deeper. Isaac was Abraham’s only covenant heir, the vessel through whom God’s promises were to be fulfilled. To surrender Isaac was to surrender not merely a beloved son but Abraham’s hopes, legacy, and future. In an earlier exchange, Abraham tells God that God’s exuberant promises do not move him because he has no heir. That’s why the angel emphasised “…your only son….”[2]Genesis 22:21 Isaac represents Abraham’s hope for immortality.
We treat the binding of Isaac as God’s platform for revealing His aversion to human sacrifice. That is true. However, the story of the binding of Isaac does more than prohibit child sacrifice. It reveals God’s opposition to a religious imagination that treats human beings as expendable for divine purposes. History and literature provide many examples of what happens when such thinking is normalised.
In Mel Gibson’s Apocalypto, raiders invade a small clan and capture all but a pregnant woman. They are led to a central Mayan city where priests are busy placating angry gods. These captives are the ritual offerings. The captives are bound and their hearts are harvested while they’re still alive. Their remains are piled into a heap of thousands of bodies. But that’s not the end of the savagery.
Soon the gods are placated. So what to do with the remaining captives. They’re released one or two at a time as the raiders use them for target practice. Those that do not immediately succumb to being struck by an arrow or a spear are bludgeoned to death. It’s humanity at its bestial best. That’s what idolatry does to the psyche. This is what one becomes in order to fulfil the pleasures of bloodthirsty idols.
When St Paul wrote that idols were nothing in the world, his observation highlights one aspect of the danger of idolatry; another is its effect on human character. In addition to idols being possessed by demons, the concern of the Judeo-Christian God is the effect of a communion with demons on our psyche and humanity. Hence the clarion call to flee idolatry.[3]1Corinthians 10:14 As it’s written:
“…because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the Lord hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods.”[4]Deuteronomy 12:31
God’s aversion to the rituals of idolatry goes to the kernel of the teachings of the Bible, namely, the sanctity of human life.
At Redeemed Camp, we are often criticised by some in our audience of trying to force a foreign God and religion over and above African religious heritage. It is understandable that folks are passionate about their cultural and religious roots. However, what we present in our posts are perspectives on a God like no god the world knew before He chose to reveal Himself to humanity. A God that is radical in His approach and radical in His thinking.
Whereas some gods see humanity as supplicants, servants and sometimes as pieces of meat to be offered upon their altars, the Judeo-Christian God sees us as His children, made in His image. The first law that God gave to Noah was to forbid murder because man was made in the image of God. [5]Genesis 9:6
What we present are perspectives on a God like no god the world knew before He chose to reveal Himself to humanity. A God that is radical in His approach and radical in His thinking.
Most ancient and ethnic cultures are highly hierarchical. The priests and the elites use their gods to keep the poor perpetually underclass. These gods do not mediate social relations. They are not involved in the human conversation nor engaged with human struggles. In many traditions, the gods were not portrayed as advocates for society’s weakest members. The Indians have their Dalits (untouchables), the Igbos have the Osu, families generationally dedicated to deities and regarded as untouchables, the Spartans have their helots, they possessed no legal rights, no political voice, and no personal freedom. They were used for brutal labour in mines, agriculture. However, the Judeo-Christian tradition uniquely affirms the dignity of every human being, as Psalm 82:6 declares, “You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.”
When the rich hurt the poor, such as when King Ahab’s wife orchestrates the killing of Naboth to take Naboth’s land, the God of the Bible gets involved.[6]1Kings 21:1-19 When King David kills Uriah and takes Uriah’s wife, God sends an everlasting sword to the household of David.[7]2Samuel 12:9-12 He forbids the sort of ill-treatment of immigrants that we see in different parts of the world, including so-called Christian nations these days[8]Leviticus 19:34; and He is a shield to orphans and widows.[9]Psalm 68:5 He legislates that farmers may not take up crops that fall to the ground but must leave them to the poor[10]Deuteronomy 24:19 and brings Himself to the debt of anyone who helps the poor.[11]Proverbs 19:17
Unlike many ancient religions in which ritual performance occupied a central place, the Bible invites humanity to a communion with a socially conscious God. A God who cares and is touched by our struggles. In Isaiah He says:
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices? Says the LORD; I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts; I do not delight in the blood of bulls or of lambs or of goats. When you come to appear before me, who asked this from your hand? Trample my courts no more! Bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and calling of convocation – I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove your evil deeds from before my eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do good; seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow.”[12]Isaiah1:11-17
Some cultures enjoin the poor to accept their poverty as karma for the way they lived in a previous life. The God of the Bible rejects that. He says:
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”[13]Isaiah 43:18-19
Most people do not get to know the desires of God for humanity because He’s poorly represented by those He’s sent. But to any who dares to experience the God of the Bible, you would find that there’s no god like Him.
The gods of the nations often demanded that human beings justify their existence before the divine. The God of the Bible reverses the equation. Human beings are not expendable offerings to Him; they are image bearers, objects of His concern, and recipients of His love. If people become like the gods they worship, then there truly is no god like Him.
