A Wicked Past

       Whether we are as ‘evil’ as Stalin, as ‘saintly’ as Mother Theresa, or somewhere in between, we all have pasts and in our pasts are sins, transgressions and spiritual death.  When we surrender our hearts and lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven of our sins- they are purged. (1John1 7:9) The problem is that our minds which regenerate over time with the Lord still remember past sins and this can cause difficulty in our journey.

       There is a place in Israel that was considered ‘wicked’ by God because ancient peoples used it as a place of idol worship.  It was called the Valley of Hinnom, (or in Greek Gehenna) and was on the S.W. corner of old Jerusalem, likely in Benjamin’s territory. (Jos. 15:8) Incense was burned to other gods, the blood of innocents poured out, there were high places of Baal, child sacrifices (burnt offerings) to Baal or Molech and it was called the valley of slaughter. (Jer. 32:35; 7:32; 19:1-6)

       King Ahaz burned incense and his own children there. (2Chr. 28:3) King Mannaseh dedicated or killed his children there. (2Chr.33:8) King Josiah shut it down for a while. (2Kn. 23:10)  Garbage was thrown in this valley where continual fires burned to keep the stench down, lepers lived there off the garbage scraps, and bodies of executed criminals were dumped there.  It certainly doesn’t seem like a place I’d enjoy visiting due to its history.

       But God… can redeem the most unredeemable. (Ps. 49:15) He can make all things new. (2Cor. 5:17) He can heal and restore the vilest of our history and bring out beauty from our earlier spiritually dead places.  He will create beauty from the ashes of fires that burned in our past. (Is. 61:3)

       Today, much of the Hinnom valley is now beautiful park land.  Enjoy these pictures and think- God took this place with a wicked past and restored it to beauty.  He is doing the same to me!