July 20

Jeremiah 44
We enjoy singing I’m Trading My Sorrows, but when we get right down to it, do we really trade them? Sometimes our sorrows are actually our joys, and in reality, we hang on to them. At least that was true of the Israelite remnant that fled to Egypt. This passage is almost unbelievable. For all these years Jeremiah has been preaching to them to give up what they have in order to gain what cannot be taken away. Each step of the way from the death of Josiah through the reigns of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, Zedekiah and finally the Governorship of Gedaliah, he has preached, “Return to the Lord.” Each time that the people rejected the message, their political, social and economic situation became worse. Now they are refugees in Egypt because they rejected the Word of the Lord. Even as refugees they still worship the queen of the heavens. When Jeremiah brings the Word of the Lord to them, one more time the women respond, “Since we stopped burning incense 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.” Not only is their focus on their creature comforts, but they are attributing their decrease in creature comforts to the revival of Josiah shortly before his death. Their sorrows were found in their creature comforts or lack thereof. They traced their history and observed that their economic decline began with Josiah’s revival and his subsequent death. They attribute their problems to his calling the nation to Yahweh and away from the queen of heaven.
So, were they ready to trade their sorrows for the joy of the Lord? No indeed, they were ready to blame their sorrows upon Him. It is interesting to me that this complaint came from the women. The worship of the Canaanite Queen of Heaven seems to have included in some cases ritual prostitution as a means of exciting the fertility of the queen of heaven in order to receive the blessing of the riches of the land. Oh the depths of self-deception! Matthew Henry has this to say of this problem:
Those creature-comforts and confidences that we promise ourselves most from may fail us as soon as those that we promise ourselves least from, for they are all what God makes them, not what we fancy them.
We don’t worship the queen of heaven, but do we worship our creature-comforts? Would we lay down our creature-comforts for the glory of God? A more poignant question is, “Do we lay down our creature-comforts for the glory of God?” I think one of the reasons that it is so vital for us to spend time everyday looking at the glory of God and sharing what we have found with someone else is because if we don’t, we will become just as deceived as the women of Judah. Our creature-comforts become more important that His glory. I find that if I don’t gaze upon His glory, I forget. When I forget, the creature-comforts become more enticing. He is a God that is more glorious than all the comforts of which I can dream, and I can dream a lot! Indeed we serve a glorious King! Speak His glory to someone today!
--Pastor john