In Leviticus 18.21 Deuteronomy 12.31 2 Kings 3.26-27 16.3 and Ezekiel 16.20-21 God seems to express an extraordinary disgust for the practice of child sacrifice. Could you please help me understand why he chose this method child sacrifice to reconcile us to him. -- John York (Fayetteville North Carolina)

You have put your finger on an amazing paradox one seldom noticed by most Christians! A good question especially considering that child sacrifice was so common in O.T. times and God so strongly forbids it. Here are my thoughts:
* I would not call the death of Jesus "child sacrifice " because although Jesus was God s Son he was not a child when he was sacrificed. The abhorrent custom of child sacrifice was normally applied to infants. Incidentally some have suggested that God "murdered" Jesus. Yet this sort of language does not appear in the Bible; it is an inference which does not redound well to God s character. 
* The death of Jesus was an offering by God made to God. The deaths of multitudes of babies in Old Testament times for example to Molech were made by man to a false (non-existent) god.
* The pagans believed that giving up their firstborn like offering firstfruits was essential to agriculture and fertility. Canaanite religions for example revolved around weather and farming. Jesus death however brought no such temporal benefit.
* The crucifixion of Jesus Christ was more than the death of a man; it was the experience of death in some sense of God. In Acts 20:28 we read of "the church of God which he bought by his own blood." No man could ever die for the sins of another as Psalm 49:7-8 clearly says. In this vital respect the death of Jesus was totally unlike any "child sacrifice" in history.
* Finally as a matter of interest the death of Jesus was foreshadowed in the "sacrifice" of Isaac (Genesis 22). Actually neither was ultimately lost: Isaac was saved by a substitution while Jesus was rescued through resurrection. In a way in each offering God is showing that he does not desire the destruction of a child.

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