Turn from Idols

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are going to be at Jeremiah chapter 44. How do people respond to Jeremiah's previous prophecy of what's going to happen with Egypt and the Babylonians coming in? People will take that well? Or what's going to happen? Let's have some coffee, we'll pray, and we'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
God, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for giving us the opportunity and the blessing it is to get to spend time in your word. And we pray, God, that as we read your word, that you would help us this morning to understand it, and that your Holy Spirit would take the words and bury it in our hearts, that we might truly, as it's laid up in our hearts, practice it in our lives. God, we need your spirit to help us with this. So please be our teacher. Please be the one who equips us by your spirit in Jesus's name.
Amen. Here we go. Jeremiah chapter 44. The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, at Tafanis, at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, You have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah.
And behold, this day they are a desolation and no one dwells in them because of their wickedness, which they have committed to provoke me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and serve other gods whom they did not know, nor they, nor you, nor your fathers. However, I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, O do not do this abominable thing I hate. But they did not listen nor incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods. So my fury and my anger were poured 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."
All right, so going on a history lesson here, right? You've seen everything that happened and why it happened, because of idolatry, even though I told them to stop doing this, is what the Lord is saying. Number seven. Now, therefore, thus says Jehovah, the God of hosts, the God of Israel.
Why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you a man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, leaving none to remain? And that you provoke me to wrath with the works of your hands, 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 the nations of the earth. 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 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 statutes that I set before you and your fathers."
Whoa, now we find out Jeremiah knows what they're doing. It's not just their fathers who were involved in all this idolatry in the land of Israel. For that reason, Jerusalem had been destroyed and people taken captive. He said, in the cities of Egypt, now you're doing the same thing. He says, 15, then all the men that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who'd stood by a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt and Pathos answered Jeremiah saying, no, let's lean in and listen. God has shown his zeal for his own glory. And what happens to his covenant people when they break his covenant, how are they going to respond? Now they're in Egypt. There's ladies involved in idolatry again. How do we hope they are going to respond? Let's see, verse 16.
As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of Jehovah, we will not listen to you, but we will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour our drink offerings to her as we have done. We and our fathers, our kings and our princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, for then we had plenty of food, were well off and saw no trouble. But since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring our drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine. Say we remember the good old days when we had food and things were going well and that's when we were making the incense and we were worshiping the God of heaven or the goddess of heaven, the mother of heaven.
So we're going to do that again and you just shut up. The women also said, and when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offering to her, Did we make cakes for her to worship her and pour our drink offerings to her without our husband's permissions? Say, look, our husbands know what we're doing. This is no secret. We're doing it in the open.
Verse 20, then Jeremiah spoke to all the people, men, women, and all the people that had given him that answer saying, 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 Jehovah remember them? And did it not come into his mind?
So Jehovah could no longer bear it because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed? Therefore, your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant as it is this day, because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against Jehovah and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord and walked in his law or in his statutes or in his testimonies.
Therefore, this calamity has come to you as it is this day." She still don't get it. I said, destruction happened at home because of our sins and now you're coming here and you're doing it again. God's no fool. He heard these things come to mind. You did it in front of his eyes and that's why he destroyed Jerusalem. And you're doing it again.
Moreover, Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, hear the word of Jehovah. All Judah who are living in the land of Egypt, that 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 and burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and pour out drink offerings to her. You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows. Therefore hear the word of Jehovah, all Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt. Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says Jehovah. that my name shall be no more named in the mouth of any of the men of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, Yehovah God lives.
Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and famine until there is no end to them. Yet a small number who escaped the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah. And all the remnant of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt to dwell there shall know whose words will stand, mine or theirs. And this shall be a sign to you, says the Lord. I will punish you in this place. You will know that my words will surely stand against you for adversity. Thus says Jehovah.
Behold, I will give Pharaoh of Hophra, king of Egypt, into the hand of his enemies, into the hand of those who seek his life, and I will give Zedekiah, king of Judah, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, his enemy, who sought his life. Jeremiah says, the judgment's coming.
God has sworn it. because you've sworn vows to a foreign God. It's hard not to see parallels between what they're doing going back to Egypt and what the Israelites did when they left Egypt when God redeemed them. God had purchased them. God had rescued them out of the bondage of slavery and brought them into freedom. Freedom to worship Him, freedom to be their own people and to have a land flowing with milk and honey, to enjoy Him.
And instead, it wasn't enough. In the wilderness, they wanted to go back to Egypt. At least there was food there. In the land, it's not good enough that they have the Lord, they have the temple, they have the law, they have the sacrifices. They always want more. loving this world and being corrupted by the cultures that they're around.
But here's the thing, it's hard for me to stand in judgment over these people because if we were honest with ourselves, that's the truth for my heart. I know that's probably the truth for your heart too. How quickly, how quickly do we go and fall back in love with the things of this world. How often do you hear the word of God preached to you or read his word and then not even an hour later, we can't remember it. And we just go back into the world and we drink deeply of all the things of this life and of this world.
We need rescued. Judgment comes for this type of disbelief, this type of idolatry. God's not a fool. He's not going to be mocked. So do we throw ourselves at the feet of Christ? Will we be like Matthew, the tax collector? We hate our sin. Turn away from it. or will we harden our hearts like they did here? Choice is yours today. Who are you and who will you be?
Let's pray. God, we need your help. We need your Holy Spirit. We need you to surround us and protect us. You have given us Jesus Christ, who is our King, who never did any of this. And so, Father, we pray that you would hide our lives in Christ. Hide us in your Son, in Jesus, and remember us in him. God, please turn our hearts away from sin and death and idolatry and the things of this world and turn us to you. God, please do not let us walk on the wide path that leads into destruction, but Lord, Please, by your spirit, using your word, in the instrumentality of faith, use, oh God, show us the narrow path that leads to life. Help us, Lord, we pray. In Jesus's name, amen. Well, may you rest in Christ. May you hold to his promises. May you walk in his ways. And may you love him forever. I'll see you next time.