Jeremiah 44:20-23 – To please God or our craven desire is a choice

The remnant of Judeans that sought refuge in Egypt was influenced by their forefathers and became illogical and senseless. So disillusioned were they to conclude that the Queen of Heaven was helping them. They claimed to be more peaceful, had food to eat, and were free from war when they were making sacrifices to her. They claimed that ever since they stopped their sacrificing to her, they had more trouble with war and famines. In context, they were pushing the blame on Josiah who outlawed the sacrifices to the goddess.

Being deceived, they failed to see that it was their indulgence with the Queen of Heaven that brought them their trouble. Jeremiah 44:20-23 show us that they were indeed blinded by their godless activities and that they could no longer differentiate between truth and falsehood. Hence, they could no longer recognize that it was their sin that had brought on all the judgment of God and failed to see that they were being judged.

Jeremiah explained that it was their idolatrous sin that brought their ruin. He truthfully told in verses 22 that “the Lord was no longer able to endure it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you have committed…” Hence their land has become a ruin, an object of horror and a curse, without an inhabitant, as it is this day?” Pointing them to the real cause of their calamity,  Jeremiah said it was “Because you have burned sacrifices and have sinned against the Lord and not obeyed the voice of the Lord or walked in His law, His statutes or His testimonies, therefore this calamity has befallen you, as it has this day.”

These people Jeremiah was addressing insisted that sacrificing to the Queen of Heaven worked for them. They did not care about the long-term effect. They failed to realize that in doing what they did, they were unwittingly incurring the displeasure of God. What is important in life is not doing what works for us but what is right and pleasing to God. Self-pandering always makes one feel good. It satisfies our ego, but corrodes our conscience and destroys our relationship with God. Many things appear alright on the surface but had hidden severe undertones. We must choose to please God rather than pandering to our abject craven desires.