FBI agents had been trying to plant bugs in the home of a reputed mafia boss but with little success. The biggest problem was four ferocious Doberman Pinchers who roamed the grounds. Eventually, the agents would walk up to the fence at night and throw the beasts Big Macs bought from a local McDonald’s. Before long, as the dogs were eating the burgers right out of the FBI’s hands, other agents climbed the fence and planted the listening devices.
What’s so fascinating about this story is how quickly beings can get acclimated to their environment. The dogs, though trained to attack, through familiarity were literally eating out of the hands of the very people they were supposed to be attacking.
Is it any different with people? Not really. The same thing happens to us as well. Much of the history of the Bible is the story of how the nation of Israel, accustomed to the practices of the people around them, started doing the same things, including child sacrifices.
“For they have forsaken me and made this a place of foreign gods; they have burned sacrifices in it to gods that neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah ever knew, and they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent. They have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind” (Jeremiah 19:4,5).
So used to the prevailing culture around them, these ancients Hebrews actually began to, by following that culture, sacrifice their own children to these pagan “gods”! Though they were supposed to reflect the character of their God “(Be ye holy as I am holy”), they had so far deviated from Him that they were doing things that He abhorred.
We, as believers—we too are called to like Christ; “Christians.” And though we might not be sacrificing our children to false Gods, how careful we do need to be that, whatever we are doing, God would not say to us that these are things which “I did not command or mention, nor did it enter my mind.”
