Tonight's reading from Jeremiah 19 seems like it should be shocking. Even elders among the priests were called out because "the people have forsaken me....they have filled this place with the blood of innocents... to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings...which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind"

Even the religious leaders seem complicit in the death of the youngest children as sacrifice in exchange for... What? The hope of a better life for the adults?

It's framed here as totally foreign and opposite of the ideas of the God of Israel they claimed to represent.

Despite being called out on this by Jeremiah, they don't change and subsequently face divine punishment they evidently thought would never come.

Thinking about how this might apply today...