Contemplative Bible Reading

Jeremiah 44:15-18

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.”

These verses are fascinating to me. In one sense, it is obvious that these people had no sense of cause and effect. Their thinking was clear. When they worshiped the Queen of Heaven everything was alright. When they stopped worshiping the Queen of Heaven, as Jeremiah told them to stop, things fell apart. It was obvious to them that they should worship the Queen of Heaven again.

From a scientific perspective, their minds were too small. They were not considering all the factors in the situation. They were drawing conclusions from coincidences about things didn’t matter.

But look at the bright side (yes, I think there is a bright side here):

1. They understood that there is more than the physical world as they were worshiping something spiritual.
2. They understood that there are consequences to who and how they worshiped.

Those are a couple of big points when speaking with someone about salvation and spiritual matters in general.

All Jeremiah had to do was convince these people that they were worshiping the wrong spiritual being in the wrong manner. The ensuing verses, however, show that Jeremiah failed to do so. At least these people refused to listen to Jeremiah.

And I guess that brings us to one conclusion:

When someone is angry because they have been kicked out of their homes by an invading army, they aren’t likely to listen to anyone who wants to change their way of thinking.

Another conclusion:

When people have been kicked out of their homes by an invading army, they aren’t likely to listen to you if you explain how it is their own fault.

And still another:

Don’t confuse me with the facts when my opinion matters so much to me.

And yet still another:

This is a wonderful world that God has created. It is pretty easy to confuse the wonder of the creation with striking a match, burning incense, and pouring perfumed water on your front porch.

I could go on, but those are enough conclusions for now.