Reflections on Jeremiah 44

Jeremiah 44 (Contemporary English Version)
1. The LORD told me to speak with the Jews who were living in the towns of Migdol, Tahpanhes, and Memphis in northern Egypt, and also to those living in southern Egypt. He told me to tell them:
   
2. I am the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel. You saw how I destroyed Jerusalem and the towns of Judah. They lie empty and in ruins today,
   
3. because the people of Judah made me angry by worshiping gods that had never helped them or their ancestors.
   
4. Time after time I sent my servants the prophets to tell the people of Judah how much I hated their disgusting sins. The prophets warned them to stop sinning,
   
5. but they refused to listen and would not stop worshiping other gods.
   
6. Finally, my anger struck like a raging flood, and today Jerusalem and the towns of Judah are nothing but empty ruins.
   
7. Why do you now insist on heading for another disaster? A disaster that will destroy not only you, but also your children and babies.
   
8. You have made me angry by worshiping idols and burning incense to other gods after you came here to Egypt. You will die such a disgusting death, that other nations will use the name of Judah as a curse word.
   
9. When you were living in Jerusalem and Judah, you followed the example of your ancestors in doing evil things, just like your kings and queens.
   
10. Even now, your pride keeps you from respecting me and obeying the laws and teachings I gave you and your ancestors.
    
11. I, the LORD All-Powerful, have decided to wipe you out with disasters.
    
12. There were only a few of you left in Judah, and you decided to go to Egypt. But you will die such horrible deaths in war or from starvation, that people of other countries will use the name of Judah as a curse word.
    
13. I punished Jerusalem with war, hunger, and disease, and that's how I will punish you.
    
14. None of you will survive. You may hope to return to Judah someday, but only a very few of you will escape death and be able to go back.
    
15. A large number of Jews from both northern and southern Egypt listened to me as I told them what the LORD had said. Most of the men in the crowd knew that their wives often burned incense to other gods. So they and their wives shouted:
    
16. Jeremiah, what do we care if you speak in the LORD's name? We refuse to listen!
    
17. We have promised to worship the goddess Astarte, the Queen of Heaven, and that is exactly what we are going to do. We will burn incense and offer sacrifices of wine to her, just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did when we lived in Jerusalem and the other towns of Judah. We had plenty of food back then. We were well off, and nothing bad ever happened to us.
    
18. But since the time we stopped burning incense and offering wine sacrifices to her, we have been dying from war and hunger.
    
19. Then the women said, "When we lived in Judah, we worshiped the Queen of Heaven and offered sacrifices of wine and special loaves of bread shaped like her. Our husbands knew what we were doing, and they approved of it."
    
20. Then I told the crowd:
    
21. Don't you think the LORD knew that you and your ancestors, your leaders and kings, and the rest of the people were burning incense to other gods in Jerusalem and everywhere else in Judah?
    
22. And when he could no longer put up with your disgusting sins, he placed a curse on your land and turned it into a desert, as it is today.
    
23. This disaster happened because you worshiped other gods and rebelled against the LORD by refusing to obey him or follow his laws and teachings.
    
24. Then I told the men and their wives, that the LORD All-Powerful, the God of Israel, had said: Here in Egypt you still keep your promises to burn incense and offer sacrifices of wine to the so-called Queen of Heaven.
    
25. (SEE 44:24)
    
26. Keep these promises! But let me tell you what will happen. As surely as I am the LORD God, I swear that I will never again accept any promises you make in my name.
    
27. Instead of watching over you, I will watch for chances to harm you. Some of you will die in war, and others will starve to death.
    
28. Only a few will escape and return to Judah. Then everyone who went to live in Egypt will know that when I say something will happen, it will--no matter what you say.
    
29. And here is how you will know that I will keep my threats to punish you in Egypt.
    
30. I will hand over King Hophra of Egypt to those who want to kill him, just as I handed Zedekiah over to Nebuchadnezzar, who wanted to kill him.
    
    

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    The true loyalty of those Jews who made their way to Egypt is seen in this chapter. Before going to Egypt to escape the Babylonians, they had Jeremiah inquire of the Lord on their behalf to determine "the way we should walk and the thing we should do." From this we might assume they had learned their lesson and were turning back to the Lord. The account of chapter 44 corrects any such assumptions. Whatever was their motivation for inquiring of the Lord about going to Egypt, they swiftly rejected the Lord's counsel to not go to Egypt and went anyway. Chapter 44 informs us that the Jews who went to Egypt returned to their practices of worshiping the queen of heaven.
    
    God sent Jeremiah to deliver a message to the "Jews living in the land of Egypt." (44:1) This message reminded the people of the disaster God brought on Jerusalem and all Judah because of their practice of burning incense to other gods. This they did even though God repeatedly sent them prophets to warn them against such practices. Now, here they were in Egypt, their homeland in ruins because they turned to other gods, and they were again worshiping other gods. As a result, God warned them through Jeremiah that "I am about to turn against you to bring disaster, to cut off all Judah." (44:11) They went to Egypt thinking they would be safe, but nowhere was safe as long as they were apart from God. They had not learned that it was their proximity to God, and not to external danger, that determined their safety.
    
    Our safety is not the only thing determined by our proximity to God. Our grasp on reality is also so determined. Apart from God our view of reality becomes distorted. The people to whom Jeremiah delivered God's message were convinced that their prosperity was determined by their burning incense to the queen of heaven. They insisted that while they burned incense to the queen of heaven they were prosperous "but from the time we ceased to burn incense to the queen of heaven and to offer her drink offerings, we have lacked everything, and through sword and famine we have met our end." (44:18) What did their minds do with the memory of repeated messages from God through His prophets that such practices were leading them to destruction? The fall of Jerusalem and Judah to the Babylonians had been clearly prophesied. What distortion did their minds make of this?
    
    Again, God was clearly foretelling, through His prophet Jeremiah, the result of their worship of other gods. The first result, God told them, was that He had "sworn by My great name, says the LORD, that My name will never again be invoked by anyone of Judah in all the land of Egypt." (44:26) Thus, they were cut off from God and could not turn to Him for help when disaster came. The second result of worshiping other gods was that God was "watching over them for disaster and not for good, and every man of Judah who is in the land of Egypt will meet his end by sword or famine until they are finished off." (44:27)
    
    Turning away from God is not unlike an addiction to drugs or other substances. It distorts our thinking and we cannot see the harm it causes us. Though the harm is obvious to those around us, we cannot see it.