The Book of Jubilees, a text that gives us a unique retelling of the Torah, certainly seems to think so. It’s a book overflowing with warnings and rebukes, a call to remember the covenant and avoid straying from the path.
In this passage, we hear God lamenting what will happen, the future He sees unfolding. He's outlining what will happen if the Israelites forget Him. Think of it as a cosmic parent, knowing their children are about to make a terrible decision.
He begins by listing the things most precious to Him, the things He has set aside as sacred: "My sabbaths, and My holy place which I have hallowed for Myself in their midst, and My tabernacle, and My sanctuary, which I have hallowed for Myself in the midst of the land, that I should set My name upon it, and that it should dwell (there)." It’s a beautiful image, isn’t it? God wanting to dwell among His people, to have a place, a name, a shared sacred space.
But then… the tone shifts.
The Book of Jubilees tells us that they will fall astray, and “they will make to themselves high places and groves and graven images, and they will worship, each his own (graven image), so as to go astray, and they will sacrifice their children to demons, and to all the works of the error of their hearts."
The tragedy here isn't just about worshipping idols. It's about the why. It's about straying from the path, about losing sight of the values and principles that define them. It’s about the ultimate betrayal, even going so far as to sacrifice their own children to demonic entities - a horrifying act born of the "error of their hearts."
And God, in His infinite mercy and, perhaps, a touch of despair, doesn’t just let them wander into the darkness. "And I will send witnesses unto them, that I may witness against them, but they will not hear, and will slay the witnesses also..." He will send witnesses. Prophets, teachers, guides. People to point them back to the light. But tragically, the Book of Jubilees predicts they will reject these messengers, even kill them.
It's a grim picture, isn't it? But it's also a powerful reminder. The Book of Jubilees isn’t just a historical account; it's a warning. A plea to remember, to listen, to choose the path of righteousness. It asks us: are we listening to the witnesses in our own lives? Are we heeding the lessons of the past, or are we doomed to repeat them?