Who is Chemosh and why should we care?

Chemosh is not your average household name.  In fact, you probably have never heard of him.  Why would you?  He is a rather obscure name in the Old Testament.  Why would we even bother knowing who he is?  Except perhaps he is someone we need to know.  Because this guy has influence today!

When God gave King Solomon, the special gift of wisdom, he used his gift wisely for many years.  Even the Queen of Sheba came hundreds of miles to pay her respects, to witness his wisdom and view his glorious kingdom.  She was awed by what she saw “Even the half as not been told me” she said (1Kings 10:7)
 Solomon was given wives to cement peace treaties; provide raw materials for his many building projects and to secure the borders of his kingdom.  These wives came from pagan backgrounds and brought their religious traditions with them. Three 700 hundred wives and 300 concubines all lived in his harem.  Can you imagine that many women living together? No wonder he only visited them occasionally!!

Solomon built a beautiful temple to His God.  The God of Israel. The one true God, that we worship today.  It was the most beautiful temple in the world.  It was finally destroyed by the Babylonians. But In order to keep peace among his many wives, Solomon also built a temple to Chemosh, god of the Moabites (1Kings 11:7)

            Did not God say, “Thou shall have no other God’s before me?”

Chemosh was a remote deity, who could be worshipped with no entanglements, no dos or don’ts, no threats of judgement.  But he was also a fearful god.  His worshippers offered him sacrifices but he gave nothing in return.   This so call god didn’t love or provide comfort for his people.  He was not a personal god.  He was a god in name only. 

Today this god might be called a humanist. He is meaningful to people who believe that man’s destiny is not involved with God of the Bible.   Man becomes the maker and breaker of his own life.  To the humanist mindset, man must provide spirituality for himself.  Man, himself is worshipped, in his own being and identity. Man glorifies only himself and does not reflect his Maker’s image.  He becomes his own Chemosh. 

Evolving from some lower life forms and pulling himself up through evolutionary life forms, our humanist Chemosh, demands only that man himself is deified.  He is the god of his own power.  The humanist refuses to accept that the laws of logic, uniformity and morality come from the foundation of knowledge given to man through only one holy God.   

As Solomon was influenced by the paganism of his day, let us not fall into the same trap. Man’s worldviews are faulty.  Truth does not come from within man himself. Truth is found only in the knowledge of the Creator. Truth came in the form of a man, not untouchable and never a fearful Chemosh.  He came to save all mankind from the sins of man’s own doing. We might even touch the hem of His garment!

               He has a name, Jeshua or Jesus, our Messiah and Savior.