Contemplative Bible Reading

Jeremiah 44:15-18 (New International Version)

¹⁵ Then all the men who knew that their wives were burning incense to other gods, along with all the women who were present—a large assembly—and all the people living in Lower and Upper Egypt, said to Jeremiah, ¹⁶ “We will not listen to the message you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD! ¹⁷ We will certainly do everything we said we would: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and will pour out drink offerings to her just as we and our fathers, our kings and our officials did in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and were well off and suffered no harm. ¹⁸ But ever since we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have had nothing and have been perishing by sword and famine.”

Sometimes you just have to slap your forehead with the palm of your hand and shake your head. Why can’t they get it?

God had punished His people for their sins. The people had been burning incense to “the Queen of Heaven” whoever that may be. Terrible things happened to them as a result. What is their conclusion?

We were okay while we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven, let’s do that again.

Sigh.

It is easy to sit here several thousand years later and see the folly of their thought. They were wrong and their continued actions only led to more troubles. Us? Today? We are all fine; we have everything under control. We know what we are doing; we have this cause and effect thing just right.

Well, do we? Maybe we are a bit smarter today. We sure have some advantages of history and hindsight to use.

God, help us to understand the mistakes of those who came before us. Help us to live as You wish us to.