Five centuries later, when Ahab was on the throne of Israel, "Hiel the Bethelite built Jericho; he laid its foundations with the loss of Abiram his first-born, and set up its gates with the loss of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke by Joshua the son of Nun" (1 Kings 16:34).

     Amazing, isn't it? Surely this man knew about the curse of Jericho that had caused it to lie in ruins all those years. But he rebuilt it anyway. His oldest son's death must have made him realize that God meant what He said. But he kept building anyway. I don't know exactly what his reasons were - he probably wanted to accomplish something great. Imagine! Here was a father so driven by personal ambition that he sacrificed his own children's lives rather than give up his "dream."

     As appalled as I am at the callousness of this man, it's even more unsettling when I realize how easily I could become like him. Many of us parents sometimes resemble Hiel the Bethelite more than we're ready to admit. We're just so busy. We work long overtime hours to provide more money. We have our hobbies, our distractions, and our "toys." We have lots of things we want to accomplish. And for these mundane concerns we often trade the time and attention that our children need so badly from us.

     What's even scarier is that we can be great, loving parents and still sacrifice our kids without even realizing it. We spend time helping them with Tonka trucks and Barbie dolls, with math, baseball, and fishing, with dating problems and SAT's; but do we do anything to cultivate a genuine love of God in their hearts? We may work so hard to make our children "good people" that we forfeit their souls in the process.

     Fathers and mothers, we need to be careful. Let's not build Jericho at the expense of our children. The price is just too high.