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We'll talk a little bit about what we talked about last week. We started out with the assassination of Gedaliah at Mizpah by Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, the governor of the region of the promised land. Gedaliah was he was appointed by Nebuzaradan. A prophet had warned him beforehand that Gedaliah was or that there was this plot against Gedaliah. He offered to go and to strike Ishmael first, but Gedaliah said no. And then when Ishmael came to him, he brought him in and entertained him, and sure enough, he killed him. Then a couple days later while Ishmael was still there in Mizpah, a group of mourers came by, 80 mourners were coming down from Shechem to go to Jerusalem to mourn over the destruction of the temple, it seemed.
And as he sees this procession going by, I don't know if trying to cover up what he had done. So Nebuchadnezzar didn't hear about it, but he goes out to him and he invites him to come into the city. He says come on in, you to meet with Gedaliah, who's already dead., and he brings him into the city. And then he starts killing them and throwing them into a pit there. He gets through about 70 of them. And then there are 10 who offer him some treasure that they say they buried out in the field somewhere. And so he keeps them alive.
Then he flees the city headed towards Ammon. Jeremiah was in that group. As they were going towards Ammon, Johanan, that same prophet who had prophesied the assassination attempt, he came out and chased them down and he rescued all the people that that Ishmael was trying to take to Ammon. But Ishmael survived and fled with eight of his men off to Ammon. And then Johanan took the rest of the people, Jeremiah included, and decided to flee the land and go down to Egypt. But then they turned to Jeremiah and they said, "Jeremiah, ask God, should we go down to Egypt?" And they said, "Whatever God says, we will do it."
Then Jeremiah turns and seeks the Lord. And the Lord says, "Don't go." The Lord says that the destruction is over. Babylon will not mess with you anymore. You do not need to fear Babylon anymore. But he says, "If you go to Egypt, you will be destroyed there and then the whole nation of Egypt will be destroyed." And so they because of their fears going down into Egypt, not only would they lose their lives, but then it would cause the destruction of all of Egypt as well. He says, "Just stay in the land." But after Jeremiah said that and after they had already committed that they would do whatever God said, once Jeremiah said that, then Johanan turns to him and says, "You speak falsely.
We're not listening to you." And so they proceeded to do whatever they wanted to do. And they ignored the word of the Lord from Jeremiah. They went down to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them. We ended last week with their arrival there in the region of Egypt at Tap. And there Jeremiah was given a prophecy. He took some stones. He had a visual aid for that prophecy. He took stones and he brought them to a courtyard of clay bricks. And it sounds like he maybe dug a hole in the courtyard and buried the stones down there and then covered them back up and and then he says, "This is a sign to you that now Egypt will be destroyed also.
Nebuchadnezzar will come and he will set up his throne right here in this courtyard over these stone." And that's where we ended saying that Egypt would be burned with fire and that they trying to escape destruction for fear of destruction that wasn't even coming. Their worries and their anxieties chase them out of the comfort that God would have given them right into destruction. And that's where we'll pick up today. Let's pray. Father, we praise you. Father, I thank you for Jeremiah chapter 44, which is before us this morning. I pray that your Holy Spirit would give us interpretation of this Scripture, that we might apply it to our lives today, that we might understand what you were speaking to your people few thousand years ago.
I thank you that your word, which is alive, is just as applicable today as it was then. And I thank you for the interpretation of your spirit which helps us to understand how these things apply to us today in Jesus name. Amen. As we come towards the end of the book of Jeremiah, this chapter will really be the last chapter of history. And so we're going to see, like I said, they're taken down into Egypt. We're going to read sort of the last thing that Jeremiah says to them and then we don't really know what happens to Jeremiah after this. There are still several more chapters in the book, but we'll see next week we'll go into a chapter where it's going to take us back in time a bit and it's a prophecy to Baruch, that guy that was called to help Jeremiah to transcribe the word to write it down in that scroll and stuff.
So, we're going to the next chapter is going to be about him. Then we're going to have several chapters which are judgment to the nations around about but not chronologically. They don't finish out the history. So this is the last chapter of historical chronology in the book of Jeremiah. The final chapter, chapter 52, is written sort of as a summation or an appendix if you will that kind of tells about some of the things that happened afterwards. So, as we come into chapter 44 here, the Jeremiah has been taken, it seems, against his will, down into Egypt with this group of rebels who should have listened to the Lord, should have stayed in the land, but their fear has driven them down to try to seek safety in Egypt.
There's some great analogies that we can draw from that. The in the Scriptures, Egypt is often a picture of the world. A picture of this kingdom which is ruled by Satan now and the principalities and powers that are now on this earth and that we have been called out of Egypt just as the children of Israel were called out of Egypt. They were brought out of Egypt with great miracles and they came through the Red Sea and into the wilderness and across the Jordan into the promised land which all speaks of us in our salvation that we've been called out of the world and that through miracles of of a new creation.
We have died to the old man. We've been buried with him in baptism just like they went through the Red Sea there. And we've come out into a relationship with God and we've entered into a Spirit-filled life which is that symbol of entering the promised land. And so here when they're looking to go back to Egypt, an analogy of that would be that if we have come out of the world and joined the church for a time, but we didn't really accept the Lord, and then we're now looking back to the world, coveting the things that we once had, coveting a relationship with sin that we once had, coveting some sort of comfort that we had in the world, and going back to those things.
Similar to maybe the seeds which fell among the tears who were choked out by the cares of this world and returned to the world fruitless verse one. Too much introduction. Let's get into it. The world sorry the word that came to Jeremiah concerning all of the Jews who dwelt in the land of Egypt who dwell in Mgdal Tapan Nof and the country of Pathos. So here this is a prophecy now spoken to all of those Jews who have fled to Egypt. Whether it was that last wave that fled that drugged Jeremiah along or whether it's anybody that's made it down to Egypt over the past many years or decades where they've been under siege.
This prophecy is to all of them. All of them that went back to Egypt to try to get protection when they should have just trusted in the Lord. They should have turned to the should have sought the Lord instead of their own protection, instead of their own comfort. It would be better to die up in the promised land in a Spirit-filled relationship with the Lord than it would be to live longer by turning to the world. I mean, if you can gain a few more years by living in the world, what does that profit you if you end up in hell, right? And that's sort of the analogy that we see here.
They because of their fears because they wanted to escape the I don't know the trials that are sometimes associated with a relationship with the Lord because we put ourselves into submission to his judgment, right? Being his servants, they wanted to escape those things and go to what they thought would be an a safe and easy life down in Egypt. It now brings about their destruction. And so here this has spoken to all of them, all of the Jews that are now living in this region. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Egypt. You have seen all the calamity that I brought on Jerusalem and all of the cities of Judah.
Behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them. I love this here. It's like God saying to them, "Don't you have eye? Haven't you seen? I told you that I was going to destroy all these cities, and I did. Go try to live in one. They're ruined. They've been destroyed." What God said happened. All of God's promises are yes and amen. Even promises of destruction. And so here, how do they figure that they're going to escape God's hand by going down to Egypt? And so he asks them that plainly. Have you not seen? Did you not see all the calamity? Did you not experience?
Did you guys not live through the famine that I sent you? What do you think you're doing? And hereafter, he promised them that it was done. After he said, "Okay, captivity is all done. Sieges are all done. Famine's all done. Stay in the land. You'll be able to work the land." He said that he would make them fruitful. They could work the vineyards. They could work the land. And God would bless them there. And yet they were afraid. They didn't trust the word of the Lord. So they ran away. So he says, ' Didn't you see because of their wickedness, right? The destruction upon the land was not some whim of the Lord, it was right and it was just.
It was judgment for their wickedness. Trying to escape the consequences of our sin don't help. We need to face up to the consequences of our sin and allow the Holy Spirit to work in those situations. There are consequences for sin always. And those consequences will work out for God's glory. I promise you that. But if you don't let those consequences of sin work in your life to drive you to him to deepen your relationship with him and you try to alleviate those consequences through, I don't know, going to the world in some way, it will not help. Oh, it might feel good for a time.
It might feel good for a season. Right? If I don't know, I'm trying to think of a practical example. You know, if I let's put a kid here, right? One of my kids, they go to the gas station with us and they steal some bubble gum and put it in their pocket and go out and if they then in the car, guilt comes upon them and they could confess that and there would be some consequences. You know, I at one point this happened with one of our kids and I turned around and I went back to the gas station. I marched them in there and they had to confess and the gas station attendant was not helpful at all.
He was like, "Oh, it's okay. She can have it." I mean, no, she cannot. Amen. But praise the Lord, it worked out and it was a good lesson that she was submitted to. But should she have tried to escape those consequences by lying about where she had got the gum from or trying to hide it more saying, it was just going to build and get worse and worse. And there's a short little example, but there are a lot of times in our lives where we've done something that there are consequences for that sin, and we're often presented with easy ways out, right?
We can submit ourselves to the Lord and then go through the judgment and then then we will be restored in our relationship with him and he will then be with us and upon us just like them in the land. But there they didn't want that. They didn't want that relationship. They wanted to run away. So they're going down into Egypt which is not going to work out well for them. It was right and it was just what God had done in destroying those cities. It was because of their wickedness. Verse three again. Which they had committed to provoke me to anger in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they did not know.
They you nor your father. They nor you nor your father. This burning incense kind of stuck with me quite a bit. When we were over in Nepal, there's prolific use of incense all over the place. You know, as part of their Hindu worship and Buddhist worship, they burn incense to their idols all over the place. You we went up to one of the idols there, the temples there in the middle of Katandu., and in the middle of that area, there was this very large temple that was dedicated to an idol that they had there. But then around it as well, there were hundreds of smaller or lesser idols.
And I think one of the guides that we were with said that people have built so many little idols around this big one that now they've made it illegal for people to build new idols. It's because there's too many. But in front of all of these idols, there's little offerings. You know, there might be food there. They might have taken some sort of chalk or wax or so and made marks on the idol with their prayers. But there's a lot of incense around and it's just sticks of incense or piles of incense that are burning all and it's a pretty strong smell.
And one of my kids, I think Dasha when we were up there, she was talking about how she just didn't like the smell. I didn't like the this heavy smell of incense. And something that I started talking to her about was that, well, the use of incense in worship is godly. And that that smell, the similar herbs and oils and extracts that they use in those incense for pagan worship would be similar to what was in the recipe for the incense that was in the temple. And so that smell is something that was supposed to be associated with worship. God has created our bodies so that the alactory senses, our sense of smell is mapped out in the brain in almost the same region as memory.
And so smells trigger memories in an incredible way. And so the smell of incense was designed by God to remind us of worship, to remind us of a good relationship with him. But really any good thing that God has created, Satan wants to pervert it. See, he in his pride, Satan feels that he should be God. And that's his claim there. When it says when he declares in his pride, he says, "I will ascend my throne above the throne of God. I will be like the most high is what Satan said." Well, God instituted that incense would be burned to him in the temple. And so then Satan says, "Okay, let's have incense burnt to all my little idols, too."
Right? So there's nothing wrong with incense. Incense are good. Incense are supposed to be for worship. They're supposed to remind us of that relationship with God. But here now because it's been perverted by Satan, it becomes the very thing that they are doing to provoke God's anger. See, he's a jealous God who doesn't want to share his worship with any other created thing. I mean, how insulting that is to the creator who is supposed to be the one that you're lighting incense for that then you go and you light them to a little dumb statue and you start worshiping and bowing down to that statue and God's like, "Hey, I'm the one who made the materials that made that statue.
You couldn't have made that statue unless I grew the tree or unless I formed the rock." you know, what whatever it's made out of, God is the one who created the raw materials. And so how insulting it is a good example is if you were to go into a museum and you're sitting there and there there happens to be one of your pieces of art on the wall, something you painted and you're there in the room and as the artist, but people come in and instead of instead of thanking you for the art, instead of saying how incredible your skill is in creating this, they just completely walk right past you, ignore you, and they go over to the portrait itself and they start praying to it and giving it all these, "Oh, you're such an incredible painting."
And it's ridiculous. But here, as they were worshiping false gods and lighting incense to these false gods, that's exactly what they were doing. They were ignoring the creator in order to worship created things. And so he says that is wickedness that you've committed in burning these incense to these false gods. And so he brought destruction. We need to be careful that we don't then confuse the good that God has created with the false worship that the flesh, the devil and the world want to pervert his good. Right? There there is a tendency within us. I think because ultimately at our core we are all legalists.
I think that there is a tendency to want to boycott things that have been used in false worship, right? That that here God is saying, "I'm going to judge you guys because you lit incense to false idols." That then somebody's going to read that and be like, "Oh, okay. Well, we'll we'll never light incense again. We'll we'll burn the recipe. We'll get rid of it. We'll never make incense again." And that's God's like, "That's not what I said, right? That's to allow Satan to not only pervert the thing, but to then own it. He doesn't own it. He didn't create it. Just because they were using incense for the wrong thing doesn't make incense bad.
Just because in Nepal there are piles of incense before Hindu and Buddhist idols doesn't make incense bad. And that we need to then extrapolate that into everything, right? An area that Satan is very good at perverting is music, right? And I think that some of that has to do with that he was created by God to be involved in worship and music. It talks about that when he was created and when he was perfect and he was there in the garden that the work of his pipes and his timberals was there as worship to the Lord. And so I think that he had something to do with providing worship in the Garden of Eden and it was probably gorgeous and amazing.
But in his sin, he then wanted worship for himself. And so then he can use his skill and his talent with music to try to get people to worship him and other things. Does that mean we should ban music period? No. God created it. Should we let the devil own different genres and different styles and different sounds? No. God made those things and we can use them to worship him. But to boycott things is foolish, right? There are some churches who boycott drums and they say that they're demonic. God created the ability for a taunt thing to create resonance, right? He created the ability for things to make sound and he can be worshiped even in those things.
Drum beats often are designed to mimic the heartbeat, right? Which God created that that constant beat that we hear sometimes I don't know when you lay your head on a pillow and you can hear your own heartbeat. Does that happen to anybody else or just me? Right? You can hear that and that rhythm that has been built into us. God gave you a metronome in your chest, that beat that you can live your life by. God created that and it's good. And so to boycott drums in worship is foolish. Some churches go even further. They boycott all instruments period. And they say that God created the voice and that we should only have a capella worship.
Foolish. You know, have you not read the Scriptures? David was a maker of instruments and he created them specifically to worship the Lord. You know, instruments were created to worship God. We should not then allow the devil to pervert them and own them, right? Just because he's perverted things. You know, another area that he has perverted is sex, right? God created a sexual relationship between Adam and Eve that they might have pleasure in that one flesh relationship. And it is good. And it ought to be something that is celebrated in marriage, but the devil has perverted it, right? And has brought sexual immorality out into the open, encouraged people to have pleasure outside of marriage where God intended it to be.
Within marriage, sexual intercourse is is beautiful and it's the worship to the Lord. And I think that couples can worship the Lord together as one flesh in that way and they ought to do so and they ought to do so often. In first Corinthians, Paul talks about how you guys shouldn't be abstaining from one another. That married couples ought to be engaging in sexual relations often and only for a certain time can you ever fast from that. And that is good. But the world has perverted those things so that now people abstain certain I don't know abstain from from what God wants to be beautiful within marriage and they've allowed those perversions to come into marriage.
We need to not let the devil own not abstain from those things. Another area that I think this applies is this coming Saturday, October 31st. Is that an evil day? Is it not one of the days that God created and God says that you can worship him every day? Right? This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. You can rejoice and be glad in the Lord on October 31st. October 31st has a lot of documented Christian history that it seems like our society today just completely wants to forget about. There are so many churches today that want to boycott the day.
You know, last year when we announced that we were going to have I don't know, a party with carnival games and a night of worship and Erskin came and he did a concert and he did worship., I got attacked vehemently on Facebook that these people just trolling through and then writing people we don't even know and they're like, how dare a church even recognize that day. Like, God caused the sun to rise on that day and he causes the sun to set on that day. The devil doesn't do that. God did. Right? And there, like I said, there is great Christian history on that day.
In fact, better documented Christian history on that day than any pagan history. Right? There is a fall festival that the Kelts and the Druids would would practice in that season, but nowhere is it documented that it's on that day until I think the 19th century that some monks had recorded that they saw the Druids doing this in that season. But as for the day, October 341st, there's documented Christian history going all the way back to the 6th century. Martin Luther chose that day on purpose to nail his 95 thesis to the door. And so if we let the devil own that day and boycott it and isolate ourselves into our homes and turn off our lights, what are we doing?
Are we letting the devil win? Yes. People do wicked things on that day. They do wicked things every day. And just because they've chosen that day to do all manner of wickedness, don't think that I'm not recognizing that pagans do a lot of wicked things on that day. But that doesn't mean that we need to ignore it. In fact, burying our head in the sand and ignoring what they do on that day is probably worse than trying to redeem that day and use it for the Lord as he created it. Amen. Verse, where was I? I haven't even gotten very far here. Verse four. However, I have sent to you all my servants, the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, "Oh, do not do not this abominable thing that I hate."
Lighting incense to the pagans. You know, he says, "I sent you warnings. I sent you prophets. I sent you my word. I told you don't do this." But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness to burn no incense to other gods. So my fury and my anger were pointed out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem and they are wasted and desolate as it is this day. You know, God is able to defend his own honor. He's not dependent upon you to defend him. Right? And here God knew that they were worshiping idols with incense.
God knew that that was wicked and he saw it, right? He didn't he didn't need like Jeremiah to come and hey God did you know that they're lighting incense over here? He saw it. He was there and he brought judgment for that thing. You know, you can trust that God is able to judge those who sin against him. Those pagans who will be out on Saturday worshiping the devil and demons doing things that are all manner of wickedness. God sees that and he will judge them. God is not mocked. They are sowing to wickedness and of that wickedness they will reap that wicked. And I can trust him.
I can be that prophet that speaks out against them as hopefully I'm doing even today. So God says here, I saw that. I knew what they were doing. I sent them prophets to warn them. They didn't listen. And so those cities are destroyed. They are wasted. Now God is a longsuffering God. You know, we talk about we read this here and it's like they lit idols to these these altars and so I destroyed them, right? And you could read that and you could think, "Oh, well, that's a two-day thing, right? They lit the incense on on Saturday and God destroyed them on Sunday."
No. No. There's some 500 years of disobedience before God actually destroyed them. 500 years of sending them warning. 500 years of prophets and judges and and his kings trying to lead good kings anyway trying to lead them towards the Lord. 500 years of longsuffering and mercy. I can't imagine. I don't have that patience. I don't have that lifespan. He does, you know. And so be careful if you are that one who's trying to quickly judge, quickly destroy. You identify something that you see as sin in somebody's life and then instead of praying for them and being longsuffering with them and showing them mercy and grace like God does for hundreds of years, you're like immediately trying to get out the sickle.
Time for harvest. You're a bad one. Wicked. Remember, God is long-suffering. God is gracious. His will is not that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And he will give them many, many opportunities to repent. Something that I hope you've seen here in Jeremiah is how many times he's told them, "I'm going to destroy you. I'll give you one more chance if you turn around." And then the next prophecy, you're like, "I'm going to destroy you. I'll give you another chance. And it's like, wait, you've already given them a chance. Just wipe them out. Come on. Let's get this book done. No, he keeps giving them chance after chance after chance.
He gave them so many chances. Now therefore, verse 7, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel, why do you commit this great evil against yourself? To cut off from you man and woman, child and infant out of Judah, leaving none to remain. In that you provoke me to wrath with the works of your hand, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to dwell, that you may cut yourselves off and be a curse and a reproach among all of the nations of the earth." Notice there in that section a couple of times he says this is your responsibility.
You've done this to yourself. No way could they claim well God you know you didn't warn us. God you know this you're being unjust. God says no. You did this to yourselves. This is the judgment that should be upon you and you've invited it. They continued. They had just gotten driven out of their own land for all of this wickedness. And so then they didn't trust the Lord that they could remain in the land. And he promised them. He said, "You know, the destruction is over. Remain in the land. Be submissive to Babylon and I will bless you." And they're afraid. So they run down to Egypt.
And what do they do in Egypt? They keep burning incense to false God. They keep doing exactly the thing that brought judgment upon them. And they were judged in the region of Israel and now they're going to be judged down in Egypt. Their location doesn't change that fact. Where can you go to hide from the Lord? Right? Where can you go to escape his judgment? If your actions need to be judged in Israel, then they also need to be judged in Egypt. If your actions need to be judged on the mountain, they also need to be judged in the valley, right? The location doesn't change that.
And so here they're trying to run down to Egypt, but they're not going to escape the judgment of the Lord. Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers? The wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed to the land or in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. They have not been humbled to this day, nor have they feared. They have not walked in my law or in my statute that I set before you and your father. You know, he like I brought all this upon you. Don't you fear me?
Don't you see that this is the consequence and yet you're going to continue in this? You're going to keep doing this. You and your wives and your children and all of these. Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, behold, I will set my face against you for catastrophe, and for cutting off all Judah, and I will take the remnant of Judah, who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine. They shall die from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine.
And they shall be an oath and an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach. For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to and dwell. For none shall return except those who escape. The very thing that they were trying to run from is going to come upon them. I find that and I think I mentioned this last week too.
It's astounding sometimes when I hear people sharing their fears and the things that they are concerned about and their anxieties and I'm really afraid of this and I'm just afraid that this is going to happen to me or it's going to happen to my kids or it's going to happen to my family and it just bothers me all the time. And then I'll counsel them that you need to just trust in the Lord. You need to trust the Lord that his word and his promises for you are yes and amen. And they don't listen and they just continue in their anxieties and they try to run away from those things.
And often it's it's ironic how often they run right into the thing that they fear. The very thing that they fear is what comes upon. Fear is so destructive in our life. We are to fear the Lord and him alone. And when we fear him, we don't need to fear anything else. But when we fear other things, it is the same as lighting incense to those things. It is to worship and they will come upon you. None will escape. He said, "Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods with all of the women who stood by, a great multitude and all of the people who dwell in the land in Pathos answered Jeremiah saying."
So here's their response, right? Notice there's kind of an interesting thing here where they're trying to separate themselves from their wives. It's almost like they're trying to blame their wives for some of this. And that's not new. Adam tried to do that in the garden, right? In fact, that's it's so funny because he sort of blames Eve, but in his in essence, he's blaming God himself for his sin, right? He asks Adam, "Why did you eat of the fruit?" And he's like, "It's that woman you gave me. It's your fault. You gave me that woman." No, he doesn't get to do that. Anyway, so we're going to see that here kind of as they're the wives and the husbands are trying to blame each other.
So, here's the response. Verse 16, as for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. Well, that's bold. I mean, here they've seen all this destruction. They've seen his hand. They've heard his prophets for hundreds of year. I mean, Jeremiah has been prophesying to them for about 45 years at this point. They're like, "We're not listening to you, but we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our mouth to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her, as we have done, we and our fathers and our kings and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.
For then they had plenty of food and were well off and saw no trouble. So they're they're they're justifying their worship of the Queen of Heaven here. Queen of Heaven was a female deity that they were worshiping then that they had picked up from the pagan civilizations around them. It's actually one of the oldest deities that pagan civilizations have worshiped. And that queen of heaven is depicted in art going back thousands and thousands of years. And it's one of the most prolific idols or demons that people worship. People even worship her today calling her by Christian terms at times saying that it's Mary when they're not really worshiping the mother of God, but they're worshiping the queen of heaven in disguise.
So, it's prolific this worship of the Queen of Heaven. And here they own it here, right? They've been denying things. They've been saying, "Oh, God, whatever you say, we'll listen to you." And then they don't. But here now, they're bold and they say, "We're not going to listen to you. We're just going to keep worshiping the Queen of Heaven." You know, and now this is their own revisionist history here. They're like, "You know, when we worshiped her, everything was great. It was beautiful. We had food. If she's so powerful, then how could God take those things away?" Right? If she's really this powerful deity, then couldn't she combat God?
Right? It's like when when Gideon is called by God, he goes out and the first thing that he does is he cuts down the altar of Baal that's in his dad's grove and the whole city's up in arms and they're upset and they come out and they're like, "Who broke our God?" And his dad says something incredible. He says, "If your God can't defend himself against my son, then he's not a God. If this queen of heaven is so incredible that she can deliver them from famine and sword, then how is it that all of their cities are now in rubble, right? It's that she's not a God.
She's an idol backed by a demon worshiping Satan trying to pull people away from the true and living God. But they own it here. They said that they're just going to continue Verse 19, the women said also said, "And when we burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, did did we make cakes for her to worship her and pour out drink offerings to her without our husband's permission?" I love this here. Like the husbands are like regarding those wives that have been worshiping the queen of heaven. And then the wives are like, "Hey, wait, wait, wait.
You gave us permission to do that. We didn't do this without your knowledge. You know, it's not just some feminist uprising to worship the queen of heaven. No, the men were complicit also. And so they're like, "We did this with our husband's knowledge." Then Jeremiah spoke to all of the people, the men, the women, and all of the people who had given him that answer. So he's not having this division between the men and the women. He's just like, "I'm prophesying to both of you. The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them?
And did it not come into his mind? So there there again, God sees everything when they're out there committing these worship of or this worship of pagan idols and worshiping the queen of heaven. God knew it. It came into his mind. He knew the wickedness that they were doing. So the Lord could not bear it because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is desolate, an astonishment, a curse, without inhabitant. As it is this day, because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in his law, in his statutes or in his testimonies, therefore this calamity has happened to you as it is this day.
They're just continuing in the same message. You know, I don't He didn't care what their excuses were. He didn't care what their false doctrine was that here it was about them not giving the right things to the queen of heaven. Doesn't matter. I brought destruction upon you. I brought destruction upon you because of these things. Because you were not worshiping me the way that you ought to. He sees those things. And there are consequences. There are a couple of times it says that they would become a curse. Earlier in the chapter, it said that they would become a byword.
And I look at that is that if God can't use them as a good example, he's going to use them as a bad example. They would become the story of how God destroyed his own people would become a story that all the nations around about would hear and they would understand the power of God and the consequences for disobedience. Verse 24, moreover, Jeremiah said to all of the people and to all of the women, "Hear the word of the Lord." See, again, we're including all sexes here. You know, this is not a message to one gender or 84 genders. Hear the word of the Lord.
All Judah and who are in the land of Egypt. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, "You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, We will surely keep our vows that we have made to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her. You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows." Like, "Yep, that's what you're going to do. You're not going to listen to me. I know it. You've said it. He confirms it. They are not going to repent. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt.
Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name shall no more be named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all of the land of Egypt, saying, "The Lord God lives. Behold, see, even speaking his name would become blasphemy. Like, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear my name out of your mouths anymore. He's done. How many times had he given them mercy? How many times did he given them grace? Probably more than 490, right? That whole 70* 7 thing. I think he got past. But if they I would say that even at this point, if one of them were to repent, he would still forgive them.
But they're so committed that they're not going to Where was I? Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good and all. That one got me right there. One, there's two things that we can extrapolate from that verse from 27. One is that God is watching over us for good. He is there. He does see us and that his intention is good. Everything that he wants for you is good. And he is there watching over you. But if you make yourself an enemy of God, then that same watchful eye that is watching over you for good as a child of God will then watch over you for adversity in order to hopefully punish you and bring you back to him.
But don't think that God has ever forgotten about you. Don't think that ever God has ever taken his eyes off of you. He is still watching. Hopefully, you are in a position where he's watching you for good. As he says to them, "As I watched over you, behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good." And so, the idea there is that he was watching them for good until they got to a point where now he has to watch over them for adversity. And all of the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine.
Same things that they were afraid of and trying to escape until there is an end to them. Yet a small number who escaped the sword shall return to the land of Egypt and the land of Judah and all the remnant of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt will dwell there shall know whose words will stand mine or theirs. He kind of lays down a gauntlet here. He says whose word is going to stand mine or yours? Any of you want to stand up to God like that and say "Hey, God, my will's better. My word is better. I'm going to do my word."
Which one's going to stand? His word will stand forever. And this shall be a sign to you, says the Lord, that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that my words will surely stand against you for adversity. Thus says the Lord, "Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hapra, king of Egypt, into the hands of his enemies, and into the hands of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. King of Babel. His enemies sought his love. You hear God says, "Just as I destroyed Zedekiah, I'm going to destroy Pharaoh." You can count on it.
Says his word will stand. Just as then, so today, his word will stand. God's word is yes and amen. And we can put ourselves into one of two positions. We can put ourselves into the favor of God by submitting to him or we can make ourselves enemies of God by standing against in Christ Jesus. We are his children. We are the inheritors of a citizenship that is not of this world and that is far greater than anything this world has to offer. How foolish we would be to forsake our citizenship in heaven for a worldly kingdom which is perishing, which will be destroyed. His word will stand.
Now to most of you in this room as I look out I know that you are a citizen of heaven. I know that you have accepted Jesus Christ as your savior and now we are his ambassadors. So let all those people that you know that are marching down into hell that they can too become a citizen of heaven through Jesus Christ. Amen. Father, we praise you. Father, I thank you for the clarity of this chapter, for the finality of these things. I pray that they would spur us to action, that they it would equip us as ambassadors to have a ferveny for the gospel, that we would not take for granted one more day, but that we would share your truth with as many as possible.
That they might come into your kingdom and into a relationship. I pray that if there be any here among us this morning that have chosen their will over yours, have chosen to run from fear of this world rather than trust in you. I pray that these words would fall upon their ears and that you would give them ears to hear that they might do what your word said and trust in you and everything. We praise you Jesus name. Amen. Let's stand.
Something that really has put that into perspective for me, which is a simple truth that I already knew, but I heard someone say recently, if you're if you go to hell and you've been suffering for a thousand years, you're not a thousand years closer to the end of hell. You're just thousand years into it. There's no end in sight. And that's that's given me a little bit of a a push to bring people to the Lord. You know what I mean? Not saying I'm perfect at it by any means. But when we look at people and we look at the hardships that they're in or we think, oh, there's no hope for that person or I don't know, they're not worth it.
They're worth it. They're worth it to the Lord. No matter how far gone they are, we don't want anyone to be spending a thousand years in hell. A second in hell anytime in hell because they're never going to get out of it. We want to get them into heaven now. Amen.