Who Was Chemosh?
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesChemosh (see article) is not your average household name. In fact, you probably have never heard of him. Why would you? He doesn’t belong in the 21st century….or does he?
When God gave King Solomon, the special gift of wisdom, he used his gift wisely for many years. He followed in the tradition of his father, David. As a result, Solomon’s kingdom became wealthy, powerful, and his great wisdom was known throughout the world. 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….”and indeed the half has not been told me,” she said (1 Kings 10:7).
This mighty, powerful and godly man soon committed the sin of idolatry. He was given wives to form political alliances with neighboring countries; 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. Solomon, at one point, had 700 wives and 300 concubines living in his harem.(1 Kings 11:3). Can you imagine that many women living together? No wonder he only “visited” them occasionally!
While he had built the most beautiful of all temples in which to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob….he also built a temple to Chemosh, god of the Moabites (1 Kings 11:7). Perhaps he thought if the Hebrew God didn’t supply all his needs, another god just might! This shrine would also appease his pagan harem.
He brazenly defies God’s first commandment, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3).
Chemosh was a remote deity, who could be worshipped with no entanglements; no do’s and don’ts; no threats of judgment. He was a fearful god. He demanded sacrifices but giving nothing in return. This 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 the God of the Bible. Man becomes the maker and breaker of his own life. He becomes his own Chemosh. To the humanist mindset, man must provide for himself. Man himself is worshipped…..in his own being and identity. 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 universe. The acquisition of knowledge through man’s own intellect is the source of man’s power. The humanist refuse to accept that the laws of logic, uniformity and morality come from the foundation of knowledge given to man through one holy God.
As Solomon was influenced by the paganism of his day, let us not fall into the same trap. Man’s worldview is faulty. Truth does not come within man himself. Truth is found only in the knowledge of the Creator, who came in the form of a man, not an untouchable and fearful Chemosh.
He too has a name….Jeshua, or Jesus, our Messiah and Savior (Matthew 1:21-23).
—Barbara Hyland, guest writer