The Lamp Post

A message for you traveler who’s not traveled so long
Some tidings I bring you, and present them in song
Soon the road takes a turn, and the turn grants a fork
You will need choose a path, a difficult work

You may choose the direction that is journeyed by most
You’ll find plenty of company, ‘A fine path’ they all boast
Or instead you may choose the path overgrown
Rare will be company, you shall go mostly alone

But a word I must give you, I advise you to heed
The outcome of the paths and the direction you lead
Young lad please consider, think carefully with haste
For one is toward life, and the other toward waste

If you choose the direction, where most have tread feet
The passage will be broad, it will be steady and mete
You’ll face little challenge and the adventure will be ease
Flattering tongues and wise men, will be not in the least:

“The journey you’ve set on, and now just begun
Will face good times many, in not long we’ll be done
There’ll be merriment and gladness and smiles to g…

Jesus spoke of a horrible place called the Valley of Hinnom. By his time it had become a trash heap, used to burn unwanted waste, such as animal carcasses. The place was continually burning in order to keep disease from spreading, and provided a picture of judgement Jesus used to describe 'hell'.
But the Valley of Hinnom, or Gehenna, had a notorious history to it. Before it became a trash heap it was a center for the worship of the pagan god Molech. The things that went on there would be enough to make even the most insensitive squeam. Fathers would offer their children to be burned alive as child sacrifices. Of course what father could stand and listen to the horrifying screams of the child he offers up? But the priests had a solution to this problem. They would bang drums to drown out the screams of the innocent. It is enough to give you nightmares. The deafened fathers, the cold-hearted priests, the screaming babies. You can almost hear the sound of the drums...drums...dru…