Jeremiah 44: Who's At Fault?

Picking through the traumatic events of the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of Judah, the survivors in Egypt naturally ask themselves, "Why?  Who is at fault for the fall of our nation?"  However, depending upon their spiritual perspective, they come to radically different answers.

Jeremiah speaks for the covenant that has been broken and trampled upon by the Israelites over the years.  He argues that the sin of offering sacrifices to idols by the previous generations has resulted in God forsaking His people.  Jeremiah proclaims, "Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: You yourselves have seen all the disaster that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the town of Judah.  Look at them; today they are a desolation, without an inhabitant in them, because of the wickedness that they committed, provoking me to anger, in that they went to make offerings and serve other gods that they had not known, neither they, nor you, nor your ancestors" (vs 2 and 3).  Why has this destruction come upon Judah? Jeremiah asks.  It is because of idolatry.

Not everyone accepts this explanation for Jerusalem's defeat, however.  The Jewish people now living in Egypt defiantly reply to Jeremiah, "As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we are not going to listen to you.  Instead, we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out libations to her, just as we and our ancestors, our kings and our officials, used to do in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem.  We used to have plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no misfortune.  But from the time we stopped making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out libations to her, we have lacked everything and have perished by the sword and by famine" (vs. 16-18).  In other words, these people don't believe the problem has been idolatry; rather, they haven't been idolatrous enough!  They actually think that they have been serving the wrong God, and instead of the Lord they want to worship the "queen of heaven."

Jeremiah repeats his theological claim in verses 20-23, stating plainly, "It is because you burned offerings, and because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his decrees, that this disaster has befallen you, as is still evident today" (vs. 23). He goes on to challenge the idolaters in Egypt, pronouncing doom upon them that they will suffer for their unfaithfulness.

Jeremiah concludes with the promise of disaster befalling Egypt just as it has Judah, and predicts confidently: "All the remnant of Judah, who have come to the land of Egypt to settle, shall know whose words will stand, mine or theirs!" (vs. 28)  The fact that we have the Book of Jeremiah in our Bible, and not some apostle of the queen of heaven, is proof that he was right!