Gehenna and the Valley of Hell

Gehenna and the Valley of Hell.

“King Manasseh did what was evil in the Lord’s sight while he ruled in Jerusalem, following the detestable practices of the pagan nations that the Lord had driven from the land ahead of the Israelites. He rebuilt the pagan shrines, he constructed altars for the images of Baal and set up Asherah poles. He also bowed before all the powers of the heavens and worshiped them. Manasseh sacrificed his own sons in the fire in the Valley of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft, and he consulted with mediums and psychics. He did much that was evil in Yahweh’s sight, arousing His anger.” (2 Chronicles 33:1-6). 

The Valley of Gehenna, which is known as the Valley of Hinnom in the Hebrew Bible, was a little valley just outside the walls of ancient Jerusalem. Gehenna/Hinnom had a horrific history, the lowest of the low points of the nation of Israel. There were two very evil kings in Israel, Ahaz (2 Chronicles 28:3) and Manasseh, who practiced and advocated pagan worshjp at its worst. In the Valley of Gehenna, Ahaz built a throne and placed an idol figure of the detestable pagan god Molech. The metal idol had the head of an ox and the body of a man with outstretched arms. The idol was totally hollow, so when they heated it up with fires, the idol would become unbearably hot to the touch. Once the pagan priests thought the metal was sufficiently hot, they practiced the unthinkable… child sacrifice. Ahaz and Manasseh led the way by sacrificing their own children to the fires of Molech by laying the child on the idol’s blazing hot extended arms. The child would then be roasted alive by the idol. The particular section of the valley where the sacrifices were held was called Tophet, which means “fire-stove.” The putrid air hanging above Gehenna day and night was surely a rotten stench in the nostrils of Lord Yahweh. This type of cruelty could only have come from the mind of Satan, the truly evil one. It’s actually not unlike the modern practice of abortion, in which the unborn, healthy child still forming in the womb of its mother, is cut into pieces and then suctioned into a trash bag.

Thankfully, the righteous king Josiah came into power and immediately shut down Molech’s operation in the valley. During his national reforms, Josiah declared Gehenna an abomination, unclean and utterly defiled (2 Kings 23:10). Josiah destroyed anything and everything that had to do with Molech, Baal, Asheroth and any other pagan gods being worshiped. Thereafter, Josiah declared that Gehenna was good for nothing but a garbage dump, and that’s what it became in short order. Gehenna became the site where those living in Jerusalem would place dead animals, executed criminals, dead lepers and others with contagious diseases, rotting food, and every kind of trash. Through this unimaginable landscape the cesspool water and waste would flow through the valley dump as well. The smoldering fires in Gehenna would burn continuously. In order to keep the fires burning, someone would throw combustible brimstone (Sulphur) over the trash. And whatever didn’t burn was quickly ingested by an army of worms living there.

Jesus used Gehenna many times in His teaching as a symbol of hell, the place of judgment where those who rejected God would find themselves if they weren’t careful. Gehenna was where they would “weep and gnash their teeth.” Gehenna was the place in the “outer darkness” with unholy fire and torment, the cursed place outside of God’s presence. As Jesus said, Gehenna was the place “prepared for the devil and his demons.” (Matt. 25:41). Indeed, Gehenna was the likely place for Jesus to use to symbolize hell.

The hellscape of Gehenna is not to be confused with Hades or Sheol, which were simply where the dead congregated, a holding place for all who have died. Hades and Sheol were not necessarily a place of judgment like Gehenna. The Hebrew Bible refers to Sheol over sixty times, and they never developed a consistent concept of hell or eternal judgment. Tartarus, used only by Peter in 2 Peter 2:4, according to Greek mythology, was the holding place for the wicked dead. Interestingly, Greek mythology considers Sheol to have a section similar to paradise and another section similar to Tartarus.

For those who simply think of Jesus as being meek, mild, eternally forgiving, and non-judgmental, it’s surprising that He talked about Gehenna and hell so much. In Christian history, though, there has never been a unified understanding of hell, who goes there, and for how long. Certainly hell will be eternal for Satan and his minions, but who else would qualify for eternal torment in a place like Gehenna?

Speaking of judgment, we are told in Jesus’ parable of the weeds and the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43) to be careful as we distinguish between good and evil, as we notice the bad seed in amongst the good seed, the weeds amongst the wheat. We can’t judge a person’s eternal identity or destination, of course. We don’t know someone’s heart, where they are in their pilgrimage. We don’t know when someone is in the process of perhaps going from bad seed to good seed, from bad grain to good grain, from turning into a wheat after being a weed. Only God knows, and will make the final sorting come harvest time. In the meantime, “live in the grace of the long view.” (Thielicke). Judge not, and offer a blessing of love instead of personal judgment. Judge behavior, not people. Judge the fruit, not the destiny.

Jesus seems clear and unequivocal that there is a hell, there will be a final judgment, a separation led by the angels, in His parable of the fishing net (Matthew 13:47-50). The “good fish” though should not feel especially smug, self-righteous or judgmental against what they consider the “bad fish.” We are assured it won’t get all sorted out till the end. Spread the net and pray for mercy for others and for yourself in the separation process. It’s hard to miss that the angels seemed intent and eternally tough in their display of divine justice. Somehow, Lord, may your judgment throne be a mercy seat. “So let us come boldly to the throne of grace. There we will receive His mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most.” (Hebrews 4:16). Let’s pray that verse for everyone, even the “bad fish.” Maybe somehow, after the angels are done sorting things out, Jesus, who has the Last Word, will say, “Father, forgive them, for they didn’t know what they were doing.” Maybe, somehow, the Lord will give the bad fish a final opportunity to flop into paradise.