“So beware, for the time is coming,” says the Lord, “when that garbage dump will no longer be called Topheth or the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. They will bury the bodies in Topheth until there is no more room for them. The bodies of my people will be food for the vultures and wild animals, and no one will be left to scare them away. I will put an end to the happy singing and laughter in the streets of Jerusalem. The joyful voices of bridegrooms and brides will no longer be heard in the towns of Judah. The land will lie in complete desolation.” Jeremiah 7:32-34
God would answer the idolatry of Judah and the outrageous practice of human sacrifice with devastating judgment. There would be a grotesque slaughter in that valley. The dead corpses in that place would also be disgraced by having no proper burial, and by being food for scavenger birds with no one to frighten them away. For the body to remain unburied, thereby, providing food for carrion birds and rodents was a thing of unspeakable horror for the ancient Hebrews. Ironically, their sanctuary would become their cemetery as the treasured homeland was ravaged. For the land shall be desolate: When judgment came upon Judah, it would seem that all happiness and hope had departed from the land. No more would there be the voice of gladness.
The Bible is a book of reality. It tells us all about life. The good and the bad… Death is a certainty. God is not primarily committed to our peace, security or prosperity on the earth. He is interested in our faithfulness to Him in a world of pain and suffering where evil still runs wild. We see these scriptures such as this one in Jeremiah and we wonder why God would put this in the Bible. God wants us to understand life. God wants us to wake up to the consequences of sin. “Today I have given you the choice between life and death, between blessings and curses. Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Oh, that you would choose life, so that you and your descendants might live!” (Deuteronomy 30:19) This is reality!