Jeremiah 44

A face set against

Judgment against Israel-44

Baruch- 45

then Egypt- 46

then philistines- 47

moab- 48

Ammon- 49

Kedar and Hazor- 49:28

Elam- 49:34

Babylon- 50

Utter destruction of Babylon -51

Fall of Jerusalem recounted- 52

This is the last narrative account in the book of Jeremiah. In other words, this is the end of the story of Jeremiah, as such. It ends with him prophesying destruction against the Israelites who fled to Egypt, against God’s warning who told them clearly, that God’s blessing was not to be found in Egypt, but rather in Israel, even though Israel had just been devastated by Babylon.

Here is the situation.

Jeremiah is an old man now by the standards of the day. He is in his 60s in all likelihood. That’s old. I am 50 today. If I imagine my life, looking back, all 50 years, without antibiotics, without any dental care, without any modern healthcare whatsoever, the surgery that opened up my sinus passages, without toothpaste or flouride in the water and all the hundreds of things we rarely think of but all provide some degree of benefit such that it is questionable if I would be alive right now, but even if I was, I would look a lot more beat up than I do right now. And Jeremiah has literally been beaten up and tortured more than once.

(images)

And this elderly man was just forced to march down to Egypt, against his wishes, and against the Word of the Lord that God gave to them.

Why?

Nebuchadnezzar had come and destroyed Jerusalem, destroyed the Temple, and taken a final group of captives back to Babylon, where by the rivers of Babylon they would weep. And then, if you will recall, the governor that Nebuchadnezzar had placed in control of Judah, Gedaliah, had been assassinated by a Jewish warlord, Ishmael and he had escaped into Ammon.

Quite reasonably, the remaining Israelites were fearful of Babylon’s revenge.

So here comes the first test of faith since the punishment of the Lord had been laid upon Jerusalem. The people specifically consult Jeremiah, as a prophet who has proven to be true, about what they should do. And the Lord speaks clearly through His prophet. Stay in Israel. God’s blessing is going to return to Israel. Do not go to Egypt, God’s judgment is coming upon Egypt.

They go to Egypt, taking Jeremiah with them. But the Lord is not done speaking. He is not done with His people. And He continues to give Jeremiah prophecies...hear the word of the Lord:

Read Jeremiah 44:1-14

Which leads the Lord to say

Jeremiah 44:7–10 “And now thus says the Lord God of hosts, the God of Israel: Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, infant and child, from the midst of Judah, leaving you no remnant? Why do you provoke me to anger with the works of your hands, making offerings to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have come to live, so that you may be cut off and become a curse and a taunt among all the nations of the earth? Have you forgotten the evil of your fathers, the evil of the kings of Judah, the evil of their wives, your own evil, and the evil of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? They have not humbled themselves even to this day, nor have they feared, nor walked in my law and my statutes that I set before you and before your fathers.”

Israel is the nation of the promise, not Egypt. It is a people group formed specifically by God’s hand for God’s unique purpose, calling Abraham to come out from his people and to create a new family group that would become a new nation, the people of God, specifically chosen by God to fulfill His purpose which is, somehow, to bless the whole world and, indeed, restore it and free it from sin.

Now Israel no longer exists as a nation. The Lord Himself has destroyed it. It is a province of Babylon, with an assassinated governor, with its strongest families living in exile in Babylon. Only a remnant remain, and now a significant portion of THAT remnant have hightailed it for Egypt.

And once again we hear this question from God, this word that philosophically speaking, God never needs to speak. That word is Why.

Why do you commit this great evil? Why do you provoke me to anger?

Let us be clear…when the Lord asks anyone ‘why’ in the Bible He is not like a man who is confused and in need of an answer. He knows full well why. But when the Lord asks “why” in the Bible what He is doing is inviting humanity to look deep into their own soul and ask ourselves “why”. Why did we do that thing?

Asking ourselves “why” we do the things we do is a necessary part of repentance, salvation, and also discipleship, our continued sanctification.

Let me share an interesting Biblical tidbit. I am convinced that most of our sins, most of the offenses we commit, we commit without knowing why we committed them. We do not understand well our own motivations nor do we fully understand or appreciate the depth to which sin has corrupted our intentions and our actions. This is absolutely true of people who do not know the Lord, but it is also true for His people.

At any rate, the interesting Biblical tidbit is the following: The first time God asks “why” in the Bible is of Cain, when Cain feels anger with God because God looked upon Abel’s offering with more favor than Cain’s offering. And the Lord asks Cain “why are you angry”?

Genesis 4:5–7 “but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, and you must rule over it.””

We see here that the healing solution for Cain, his ability to overcome his sin, involves asking himself WHY he is doing the things that he is doing. It is the work of Satan within each of us to hide our sin and the reasons for it from ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit to reveal to ourselves our sin and the reasons behind our sin.

Why do the Israelites, and, indeed, most people, historically and currently, continually reject the saving love of God? Let us take a little excursus here and talk about this because this is in some ways the final and climactic narrative of the book of Jeremiah. The climactic prophecy, I would argue, is the prophecy of the New Covenant that God is going to give to His people (Jer 31) but this is the climactic narrative that digs down deep into the root of what is going on in Israel that things have gotten so bad.

Before we answer that question in detail, Let’s go back to our text and see what the Israelites have to say for themselves with regard to WHY. God has asked them why. And there is a big reveal here. There is, perhaps for the first time in Jeremiah, real honesty in the answer from the Hebrews.

This may actually be the first honest conversation between God and His people in the book of Jeremiah.

What is it they say to God. It’s very simple. We love/believe in/trust the Queen of Heaven (Anat) more than God Himself. And that’s it. They finally admit the truth. Here in the last narrative of Jeremiah.

They have never admitted that- not through all the years, decades, of Jeremiah’s life. Let’s look at what they have said in the past when God has asked them WHY they refuse to follow Him. There are, in my view, 3 main responses that they have given to the WHY up to this point.

Jeremiah 2:22–23 “Though you wash yourself with lye and use much soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Lord God. How can you say, ‘I am not unclean, I have not gone after the Baals’? Look at your way in the valley; know what you have done— a restless young camel running here and there,”

The oldest excuse ever given. “No I wasn’t” We weren’t doing that. I call this the “shaggy” excuse. It wasn’t me. But that excuse doesn’t hold much water because it seems that most Israelites at this time were indeed worshiping other gods alongside the LORD, to the point where this worship was even happening in the Temple itself, apparently with very little scandal as a result.

Jeremiah 2:31 “And you, O generation, behold the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness to Israel, or a land of thick darkness? Why then do my people say, ‘We are free, we will come no more to you’?”

2. The second excuse sounds more contemporary and relevant to our time. We are a free people. We can do whatever we want. If we want to worship the LORD we can and will. But if we also want to worship this other God over here because he or she is more impressive or more fun or more relatable, then we can do that too. We are a free people! So the second excuse is “whatever, I do what I want”.

Jeremiah 5:12–13 “They have spoken falsely of the Lord and have said, ‘He will do nothing; no disaster will come upon us, nor shall we see sword or famine. The prophets will become wind; the word is not in them. Thus shall it be done to them!’ ””

3. However, if the LORD is truly jealous of His people, and truly the Lord of Heaven and Earth, both 1 and 2 are going to cause anxiety in the hearts of the Israelites, because deep down they know that He is Lord, they are just being slaves to their flesh, slaves to their greed and their own kingdoms. You can say to God one of 2 things. One, I have not sinned. I have not forsaken your laws to fulfill my own desires. Or, God, I am a free man or a free woman. I can do whatever I want because that’s who I am. That is who YOU have made me. I am a free spirit.

So the third excuse isn’t so much an excuse as a way to not worry about the consequences of idolatry. And this one says God loves us, cares about us so much, that He will never bring judgment against us. This is the reigning sin of every liberal church in America by the way. It’s not the specifics of what they are saying and teaching it is the underlying presupposition. The mainstream churches all speak with one voice now. God loves you just as you are. God is love. God would never judge you, never condemn you, you can believe whatever you like and do whatever seems good to you, you are always safe from His judgment. And the Cross gets thrown out the door along with the thousands of warnings in the Bible to repent of your sin. He will do nothing. Hell? Just an archaic fantasy. It does not exist. God will do nothing in response to your sinful life. And if our God is a God who does nothing, it’s a short step from that to He IS nothing.

I listened to a sermon by a United Presbyterian Minister in our area recently online. And she got to a point in her sermon where she was even yelling “everyone is part of the community of god” “no one stands outside of god’s love” “everyone is welcome in the church”. It was a bit ironic I thought because she had just got done talking about white nationalists and Trump and other things and I got the feeling that she didn’t feel like THEY were part of god’s community but this is the kind of spiritual blindness that has taken hold these days. Lazy thinking creates lazy theology and the consequences are real because if God just loves everyone and has no judgment then God sort of disappears. He has no answer for the sins that have bogged you down and no justice for the sins that have been committed against others in this world, and therefore no healing to provide. There are no broken covenants and therefore no need for a New Covenant. There is just nothing but empty air and vague promises of love spoken by pastors that carries no weight.

But I digress. My point was that the Israelites have had nothing but excuses this whole time, through Jeremiah’s entire lifetime all he has heard are excuses. But that time is now over. The third excuse, that the Lord would never take action against His people, that judgment would never come, has proven hollow. What will they say now?

You won’t believe it.

Read Jeremiah 44:15-19

Gone are the excuses. Gone is the posturing. In a way, this is the first honest exchange that Jeremiah, and hence the LORD, has had with His people in this entire book.

“We will not listen to you”

“We will honor the vows made to the Queen of Heaven - amost certainly the Goddess Anat- who is she?

Anat’s most defining characteristic in the surviving texts—especially the Ugaritic texts from modern-day Syria—is her ferocity and ruthlessness in battle. Bloodlust: Unlike gods who fight solely for strategic conquest, Anat is depicted as exulting in the violence of warfare. In one famous mythological passage, she slaughters two armies, laughing as she wades knee-deep in the blood of soldiers and wears severed heads and hands as trophies on her body. Gruesome revenge is her stock and trade. But she is also

The Defeater of Death: She is fiercely loyal to her brother (and sometimes consort), the storm god Baal. In the epic Baal Cycle, when Baal is killed and swallowed by Mot (the god of death and drought), Anat hunts Mot down. She ruthlessly splits Mot with a sword, winnows him with a sieve, burns him, grinds him in a mill, and scatters his remains—resurrecting Baal and restoring rain to the earth.

You can see, I hope, why this particular deity would be so compelling especially to the Israelite women who have seen their families destroyed and their land taken by the Babylonians and have seen their men defeated and overcome, helpless to stop the judgment of the Lord.

And of course, in their mind the reason for their recent hardships does not involve the Lord at all, because they do not trust Him or Believe in Him or love Him, as He has been saying these many years. No, it is the Queen of Heaven who has punished them. They have not worshiped the Queen of Heaven as they ought to have. Here is the truth. They don’t trust or believe God.

What is the root cause of Sin? We can see it here in John 16 where Jesus is explaining the role of the Holy Spirit to His disciples.

"And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me..." (John 16:8-9, ESV)

Revealing the sin: The word translated as "convict" (from the Greek elenchō) means to expose, bring to light, or convince someone of their error. It is the Spirit's active role to make us aware of where we have missed the mark.

The reason we sin: Jesus explicitly names the root cause that the Spirit exposes: "because they do not believe in me." Theologically, this indicates that the fundamental reason behind all sinful actions is a lack of trust, belief, or reliance on God. Every specific sin is essentially a symptom of this deeper root of unbelief.

Jer 44:20-23

Jeremiah, wisely, does not address the Queen of Heaven issue. He does not argue about whether or not she is real or is powerful or whether or not she can bless or curse at all. All he does is reiterate God’s Truth: as I, Jeremiah, have said my whole life, God has seen your commitment to and your love for other gods, your offerings to them, and the evil that resulted. Your evil deeds.

Jeremiah points out that this idolatry, this worship of Anat, has led them astray and the evidence of this is the rotten fruit that results from it.

Grinding the face of the poor, sexual infidelity, and of course the supreme evil of sacrificing children to foreign gods. When you forsake the laws of God, when you stop believing Him then you became vulnerable to every evil thought and inclination.

It is the initial sin, the idolatry, that grieves God the most, but what follows is so heinous that the Lord is grieved all over again by the terrible sins we fall into.

Jer 44:24-30

Those who are choosing Anat, the goddess of the sword, will die by the sword. And their presumed safety will be shown to be an illusion, in fact Egypt itself will be proven to be a poor sanctuary. There is no hiding place .

Jeremiah 23:24 “Can a man hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.”

There is a hint of what is to come that the Lord gives through His servant Jeremiah.

I will give a brief synopsis of what happened, and it proves I think the impossibility of trying to predict the future.

Pharaoh Hophra was allied with the Kingdom of Libya, in North Africa. Libya was attacked by the Greeks. Pharaoh sent a large army to support Libya. However, Pharaoh’s army was badly beaten and greatly reduced in numbers in this campaign. The military became suspicious that Hophra had done this on purpose to weaken certain military rivals that Hophra had in Egypt.

So they revolted and declared one of their own generals to be the new Pharaoh. But Hophra managed to escape and he fled, looking for help in, you will never guess, in Babylon, the reigning power in the Near East at the time other than Egypt.

Nebuchadnezzar saw a potential opening here. If he was able to leverage this Egyptian civil war and re-install Hophra as Pharaoh then Hophra would essentially be a puppet king to Babylon, owing Babylon his very throne.

So against all odds, because Egypt and Babylon had been mortal enemies for decades, Babylonian and Egyptian armies combine to attack Egypt. They do not succeed, but such a large and sophisticated force almost certainly would have killed many people in the border towns where, you guessed it, the Jewish diaspora was living.

Why do people reject God? Because they love other things more than God. In their heart they know what holiness looks like. We all know. Everyone in America, for example, knows deep in their heart that our love of violence, our addiction to pornography, our desire for wealth and fame, we all know that these are unholy things. And yet, we pursue these things anyway, because we love them more than God. This is the Why. Anat, the Queen of Heaven, is not real. She is not a goddess, she is just a manifestation of those things we want more than God Himself, who loves us and who died for us that we might live.

If you find yourself in Egypt worshiping false gods, thinking that there is safety in a land that is strong and wealthy, then come to your senses and see that you are but dust and your days are numbered, and you need a savior before that hourglass empties. Know that the reason WHY you are in Egypt is because you have forsaken His commands and rejected His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, who alone can offer forgiveness and healing.

Escape from Egypt into Israel. It will look like you are going from a land of plenty and strength to a burned out barren landscape of a country. People will sneer that you aren’t sophisticated enough to know that the promises of the Bible are just ancient myths. People will delight to point out every time the Church has a scandal or some Christian says something terrible on social media. The Church you attend will have sinners in it and sometimes they may so or do things that hurt your feelings or you think are wrong. The worship songs will not always be to your liking and the amateur musicians who play them may play them at the wrong tempo or the wrong volume or even in the wrong key when they forget their capo.

The Church won’t give you the prestige that you might find at Harvard or Princeton. The Church won’t give you the thrill of power that you might find working on Capitol Hill. The Church is not Egypt. What it is, is real. God’s presence and His Hand of blessing upon those who call Him Lord, is real. Jesus Christ does not disappoint and His Holy Spirit will clear the thistles and weeds from your soul and start to plant the fruit that will yield in season its wholesome produce. You will lose your life, and find it again abundantly. You will take up a yoke, to be sure, burdens of service and conscience that look daunting, and you will then find that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. People may start to ask you WHY, just as the Lord asked His people WHY 2,500 years ago. Why do you stay in Israel? Why don’t you run to Egypt? Look at all the great things Egypt as to offer? And you will say because I love my God. I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I love being a vessel of the Holy Spirit. I don’t want Egypt. I don’t want the Queen of Heaven. I want the well that will never run dry, and I want to live all my days in awe of the glory of God and in humble acceptance of His love for me, which I could never earn, but gratefully confess to any who have ears to hear.

[Jhn 16:20-22 ESV] 20 Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn into joy. 21 When a woman is giving birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world. 22 So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.

Exposing the Internal Motives: Hebrews 4:12

If you are looking for a passage that describes how God's Spirit reveals the specific, personal motives behind why we commit individual sins (like fear, pride, or selfishness), Hebrews provides a powerful image:

"For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart." (Hebrews 4:12, ESV)

While this verse explicitly mentions the "word of God," in Christian theology, the Holy Spirit is the one who illuminates the Word. The Spirit uses it like a scalpel to not only show us what we did wrong, but to reveal the "thoughts and intentions" (the underlying reasons and motives) that drove the behavior.

So why did they go to Egypt?

Because they trust something or someone else more than they trust God.

The women give 2 excuses:

one is that everything was better when they were sacrificing to other gods

two, the men are the head of the household, and the men gave their blessing to their pagan worship practices.

implication is that what they suffered was not the wrath of Israel’s God, their own God, YHWH, who warned them for decades that wrath would come upon them, but rather they are suffering the wrath of Asherah,

But they go to Egypt anyway, and force Jeremiah to go with them. Why? Because all that Jeremiah prophesied has come true, and truth is a hard thing to ignore. They still don’t like him. They still don’t agree with him, most of them. But he is hard to ignore because of the accuracy of his predictions. So they can’t bring themselves to kill him or exile him, probably out of a lingering fear of God. So they take him with. Maybe Jeremiah will see reason once they are in Egypt and (in their minds) safe from Babylon and safe from Assyria and all their enemies and in a stable and prosperous land such as Egypt.