I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 42-44.

    Today’s passage gives us a warning about seeking God’s guidance as a rubber stamp of what we want to do anyway. After the murder of the governor appointed by Nebuchadnezzar the people were afraid of what the Babylonians would do to them. They had decided to take refuge in Egypt, but they were having cold feet. So, they asked Jeremiah to pray to God to show them what to do. Their decision was already built into their question, “Pray that the Lord your God will show us what to do and where to go.” They had already decided that they needed to flee. Their only question was whether they should flee to Egypt, or somewhere else. Of course, since Nebuchadnezzar already controlled all of the lands between them and anywhere other than Egypt, Egypt was their only choice if they fled. We need to turn to God for guidance BEFORE we have made up our minds about what to do.

    Once the people got to Egypt, they took up making offerings and worshiping idols. In particular, they offered sacrifices to the “Queen of Heaven”. The people responded by claiming that the troubles which came upon them in Jerusalem was a result of them giving up idol worship, not of the idol worship itself. All too often we do this sort of thing. Something convicts us of our sin causing us to attempt to give it up and live righteously. However, we fail to truly give up the sin. Then when we begin to suffer the consequences, we blame giving up the sin rather than the sin itself for our suffering.
    I want to touch a little more on the fact that the women were worshiping the Queen of Heaven. I think it is telling that they did not refer to this goddess by a name. Earlier in Jewish history they often worshiped Asherah, and sometimes Ashtoreth. Asherah and Ashtoreth were different goddesses. However, I think it likely that the “Queen of Heaven” referenced here is an amalgamation of the two. We see a similar amalgamation of various female gods in modern paganism. Actually, we see a similar amalgamation of various gods in modern paganism. I am not quite sure to make of the fact that we see this happen again and again, but one thing to note is that the writer of Ecclesiastes was wright in saying that there is nothing new under the sun.