“You shall not worship the LORD your God in that way; for every abomination to the LORD which He hates they have done to their gods; for they burn even their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods.” — Deuteronomy 12:31
God doesn’t just hate idolatry because it’s misdirected affection. He hates it because it devours the vulnerable. He watched as entire cultures threw their children into flames, calling it holy. He heard the cries of sons and daughters sacrificed for the sake of power, approval, and prosperity. And He said: Don’t you dare do that in My name.
This warning echoes loudly in our modern orphan age. We like to think we’re more civilized, more advanced—but listen closely and you’ll still hear the fire crackling. Children today are burned in different ways:
• Abandoned in systems that manage them but never love them.
• Exploited for likes, followers, or profit.
• Sacrificed to ambition, addiction, politics, or even misplaced religion.
And the Church—God help us—has sometimes stood by, if not participated, while calling it “ministry,” “discipline,” or “God’s will.”
But God is not fooled by worship music layered over injustice. He does not receive offerings that cost children their futures, their trust, or their place at the table. Worship without love is just noise. Religion without protection is violence dressed up in ritual.
This is a call to recover something ancient and holy: true worship—the kind that shelters the orphan, welcomes the widow, and refuses to bow to any god that demands the lives of the least of these.
If your worship leaves the vulnerable burned, it’s not from God. Recover worship that restores. Recover faith that protects. Recover the heart of the Father.
Prayer: God, tear down every altar we’ve built that harms the very people You came to save. We confess how easily we’ve traded compassion for convenience, justice for performance. Teach us again what worship really means. Not songs. Not shows. But lives laid down in love. Let us be known as a people who guard the fire—not feed our children to it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
