Day 794: The Queen of heaven - Jeremiah 44 vs 12 - 19
Speaking by His prophet Jeremiah, God said: 12-14 “I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to come to the land of Egypt to live, and they shall all be consumed. In the land of Egypt they shall fall; by the sword and by famine they shall be consumed. From the least to the greatest, they shall die by the sword and by famine, and they shall become an oath, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, so that none of the remnant of Judah who have come to live in the land of Egypt shall escape or survive or return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return to dwell there. For they shall not return, except some fugitives.”
15-18 Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” 19 And the women said, “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands' approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?” Jeremiah 44:12-19 English Standard Version
Well before Jerusalem fell, God had spoken strong words concerning those who were worshiping 'the queen of heaven'. He'd said to Jeremiah: “As for you, don't pray for this people or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and don't intercede with me, for I will not hear you. Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger.” (Jeremiah 7:16-18)
This 'queen of heaven' was probably Ishtar, an Assyrian and Babylonian goddess who was thought to be the wife of the false god Ba'al, also known as Molech. It's said that her worship involved fertility rites and temple prostitution. So, in vs 12-14, Jeremiah declares that God would bring the same disasters that destroyed Jerusalem upon the refugees who had fled to Egypt. Why was that? (vs 15-18)
Because the men, who knew their wives were making offerings to false gods, rejected God's word and defiantly insisted they would continue worshiping the queen of heaven. They even said it was when they stopped serving her that their troubles started. The women were quick to defend their actions by saying they served the false goddess with their husbands permission. (vs 19)
Two applications. Firstly, if God's word calls wives to submit to husbands, then husbands have a responsibility to guide their wives. The apostle Paul said: “Husbands, love your wives. As Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that He might sanctify her . . . in the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.” (Ephesians 5:25-28) Jerusalem's men had failed in that duty of love.
Secondly, the title 'queen of heaven' has been used by the Church of Rome for Mary, through whom Jesus was born, because it was said that at the end of her earthly life she was bodily and spiritually assumed into heaven. That is not what the Bible teaches and should be denounced in the same way Jeremiah denounced the sin of idolatry in Israel. Idolatry in all its forms is an act of defiance that provokes God. We are to worship God alone.