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Sorry this is such a long post, but I love theology.

Ah, the Book. The Word of God. In the flesh, Jesus, Yeshua Messhiah. I have read it 7 times cover to cover and on the eighth.

I do have a bad habit of assuming that who I am conversing with knows my point of reference and I am truly sorry I did not explain before quoting. The verse I quoted is the only reference in the Old Testament when God does not forgive. (In the New Testament, I am sure you know, there is one other.)

The judgment/reward you are referring to is after death, and the repentance is that of the individual. In the verses I quoted God’s judgment is against the nation of Judah (“His anger burned against Judah”) in this space time physical life. I was referring to God not forgiving the nation of Judah, not an individual. I believe God does in fact still work on the national level as He did in the Old Testament and He also works in the lives of the individual, bringing the gentiles into a relationship through Jesus. God did in fact forgive Manasseh who murdered his sons by sacrificing them to molech. His story is in 2 Chronicles 33. He humbled himself before God, repented and tore down the alters. That is the most powerful portrait of Grace I know, and Manasseh’s grandson, Josiah, is the king of Israel who brought revival to the Israelites.

My point about the timing was in reference to the deferred judgment of the nation of Judah. God did not reveal His wrath until after Josiah’s son did evil as Manasseh had done but he never repented. God’s wrath was the 70 year dispersement described in the book of Lamentations.

When God spoke to the Israelites right before they entered the promised land, He said a couple of profound things (as usual). Here is what I wrote when I did the study on God’s response to child sacrifice:

God’s people were to go into a land already occupied. They were not given this land because they were better than the nations of the land but because the nations were doing what God hates, and when you do this there are consequences. National consequences.

Deuteronomy 9: 5 “It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath (word) which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, & Jacob.”

Deuteronomy 12:29-32...”when the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations which you are going in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, beware that you are not ensnared to follow them (after 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. Whatever I command you, you shall be careful to do, you shall not add to nor take away from it.”

Deuteronomy 18:9 -12... “When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate (do according to) the detestable things of those nations. There shall not be formed among you anyone who makes his son or his daughter pass through the fire, one who uses divination, one who practices witchcraft, one who interprets omens, or a sorcerer, or one who casts a spell, or a medium, or a spiritist, or one who calls up the dead. For whoever does these things is detestable to the Lord; and because of these detestable things the Lord your God will drive them out before you.”

Therefore, God was judging the nations for sacrificing their children to the demons and their handmade idols (among other abominations). He warned His people that if they followed the same practices, they too would be judged as a nation. God does not say one thing He doesn’t mean. When Jesus rules the world, if a nation does not tythe to Him in honor, the nation has a drought.

It’s 4 a.m. I hope this makes sense.

I’ve wanted to do a historical study on every nation that ever practiced human sacrifice and find out why they no longer exist. Interesting parallel is that the Native Americans practiced human sacrifice, were invaded, and now the nation that exists on their land is doing the same thing.

http://www.examiner.com/article/evidence-found-of-human-sacrifice-north-america

http://www.amazon.com/Cannibalism-Headhunting-Human-Sacrifice-America/dp/0911469338