Do These Passages Talk of Human Sacrifices?

Answer:

A sacrifice is an offering to God, the giving of something belonging to a person. It can be the giving of a possession, such as money or grain, or it can be the giving of the life of an animal.

"Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O peoples! Let the earth and all it contains hear, and the world and all that springs from it. For the LORD'S indignation is against all the nations, And His wrath against all their armies; He has utterly destroyed them, He has given them over to slaughter. So their slain will be thrown out, and their corpses will give off their stench, and the mountains will be drenched with their blood. And all the host of heaven will wear away, And the sky will be rolled up like a scroll; All their hosts will also wither away As a leaf withers from the vine, Or as one withers from the fig tree. For My sword is satiated in heaven, Behold it shall descend for judgment upon Edom And upon the people whom I have devoted to destruction. The sword of the LORD is filled with blood, it is sated with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Edom. Wild oxen will also fall with them, and young bulls with strong ones; Thus, their land will be soaked with blood, and their dust will become greasy with fat. For the LORD has a day of vengeance, A year of recompense for the cause of Zion" (Isaiah 34:1-8).

The Lord was angry with all the nations, but Edom's sins were particularly bad. The book of Obadiah details the sins of Edom. Thus, God declared that the nation would be "devoted for destruction." "Anything devoted to destruction is most holy to the LORD. No one who may have been set apart among men shall be ransomed; he shall surely be put to death" (Leviticus 27:8-9). Jericho, as the first city taken in the conquest of Canaan, was placed in this category (Joshua 6:17-19). The Amalekites were also placed in that category for their sins (I Samuel 15:2-3). This is why Saul and his men's violation of the destruction was so heinous a crime (I Samuel 15:21). Benhadad, king of Syria, was devoted to destruction. Because the king of Israel let him go, he and his people were marked for death (I Kings 20:42). When God marks something for destruction, He is serious about it. This is not a sacrifice to God. God is removing evil from the world, and those who do His bidding are not allowed to profit from it in any way.

In describing the destruction of Edom, God used the imagery of sacrifices being made.

"But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, 'Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, and gather you from the west. I will say to the north, 'Give them up!' And to the south, 'Do not hold them back.' Bring My sons from afar, and My daughters from the ends of the earth'" (Isaiah 43:1-6).

God promised to return Israel to their land. He accomplished it through the Persian kings. However, choices have consequences. To get Israel back, God had to set in motion events that would eventually lead to the Persians attacking Egypt and its neighbors. God assures Israel that He prefers them to these greater nations. These mighty nations would be sacrificed so that Israel could have its homeland back. Again, this is not God receiving sacrifices from men. God is the one directing this to be done. Now, the reason God was willing to do this is because Egypt and its neighbors were deep in sin, so to God it was a minor loss. This is an example of Proverbs 21:18 being put into practice by God. God will sacrifice the wicked to benefit the righteous.

Regarding Proverbs 11:8, many times, wicked people set traps to bring down the righteous. The righteous avoid trouble by carefully considering the results of their choices and consistently applying God’s wisdom in their decisions. In this way, the righteous avoid the traps set by the wicked. However, the wicked don’t care about the morality of their choices. Thus, the problems avoided by the righteous are the same problems into which the wicked run headlong, and their own traps often snare the wicked. "He who leads the upright astray in an evil way will himself fall into his own pit, but the blameless will inherit good" (Proverbs 28:10).

None of these passages deals with humans offering other humans up as a sacrifice to God. God does execute justice that will result in the death of the wicked, but this is not human sacrifice. "Beware that you are not ensnared to follow them, after they are destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire after their gods, saying, 'How do these nations serve their gods, that I also may do likewise?' You shall not behave thus toward the LORD your God, for every abominable act which the LORD hates they have done for their gods; for they even burn their sons and daughters in the fire to their gods" (Deuteronomy 12:30-31).