This sonnet is based on Jeremiah 19:4, 5 in which the Lord through Jeremiah says,

 ⁴ Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their fathers nor the kings of Judah have known; and because they have filled this place with the blood of innocents, ⁵ and have built the high places of Baal to burn their sons in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it come into my mind—

Jeremiah 19:4, 5

If it’s helpful, you may listen to me read the sonnet via the player below.

I never thought, did not enter my mind
That you’d take your own, one of your kind,
And offer their life as a gift to fire—
It never entered my mind.

I never thought that you’d ever admire
Those who for blessing would think to require
The life of their child as one of the rules—
How could you ever admire?

I never thought that you could be such fools,
Think it wise to wield wickednesses tools,
That the strong may make the weak pay it all—
How could you be such fools?

Who, for this sin pay, drink its bitter gall?
What Son bear the curse, be wrapped in death’s pall?

© Randall Edwards 2018.
This poem is for Christ’s church. If it is helpful, please feel free to copy or reprint in church bulletins, read aloud, or repost. I only ask that an attribution be cited to myself (Randall Edwards) and this blog (backwardmutters.com). Thanks.

artwork: By Charles Foster [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons