Part CXIX on Galatians Study

Jeremiah 44:18
"But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, (that was one of the pagan goddesses, Ishtar from which the pagan churches of the world get Easter, you know the ones who make light of Christ and His Gospel) and to pour out drink offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine."
The Israelites weren't reckoning that God was trying to deal with them, but what were they trying to say? The reason we're having all our problems is we have quit worshiping the queen of heaven. Imagine, the Hebrews were saying that. Now verse 19.


Jeremiah 44:19-21
"And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink offerings unto her, without our men?" (In other words the women were the primary culprits here.) Then Jeremiah saith unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people which had given him that answer, saying, The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into his mind?"
Now we can see from verse 21 how far pagan worship had penetrated the Jewish community? It wasn't just a few of them, but rather the whole. Men and women, places of authority, kings, and government people, they were all worshiping false idols and pagan gods. In other words they were in spiritual fornication, for even they're hot cross buns has the pagan goddesses image. These replaced the matzo bread or show beard in the temple.  Now verse 22.
 

Jeremiah 44:22a
"So that the LORD could no longer bear,..."
The Lord couldn't take it any more. That scares us doesn't it? Most people can realize that America can be identified with ancient Israel over and over. We're not the first one's to say that. We mean we see so much that God has to look down on America, who at one time as a nation, was steeped in the Word of God, our founding fathers based everything on the Word of God. The Constitution was almost, we might say, Biblically oriented, and now what are we seeing? The making light of Christ's Gospel and even Christ Himself by the wickedness of so called spiritual leaders. And the constant tearing down of all these principles. And Israel went through these same things. Now reading verse 22.


Jeremiah 44:22-23
"So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings, and because of the abominations which ye have committed; therefore is your land a desolation, and an astonishment, and a curse, without an inhabitant, as at this day. Because ye have burned incense, and because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD, nor walked in his law, nor in his statutes, nor in his testimonies; therefore this evil is happened unto you, as at this day." (Isaiah 1:11-15, 66:3)
It wasn't because they had quit worshiping the female goddesses. It was because they turned against the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Then in verse 24 Jeremiah the prophet says -


Jeremiah 44:24-25
"Moreover Jeremiah said unto all the people, and to all the women, Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah that are in the land of Egypt: Thus saith the LORD of host, the God of Israel, saying; Ye and your wives have both spoken with your mouths, and fulfilled with your hand, saying, We will surely perform our vows that we have vowed, to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her; ye will surely accomplish your vows, and surely perform your vows.(Amos 5:21)
Jeremiah goes on to warn them that God is not going to continue to deal with them except in gross judgment and punishment. God won't stand for that kind of behavior. Now let's come back to Galatians. Fortunately we're still in the Age of Grace, and God is not pouring out His wrath on the wickedness of men, but their day is coming, and we're getting closer and closer. We think the world is getting more and more aware of the trials and tribulations that are going to come upon this planet. We think all of our weird weather is just a little bit of a fore warning of what the world has ahead of them. We think there's no doubt about it the whole world is having a complete upset of normal weather patterns and of course the tremendous increase in earthquakes which are multiplying every year. There are many, many earthquakes that take place everyday that the press doesn't even bother to report on. The only ones we hear about are the ones that cause damage, the real strong ones. In fact we believe that we're in the closing seconds, not minutes, not hours, of this Age of Grace. We don't believe we have a lot of time left. Back to Galatians chapter 5, and remember all of these in verse 20 can all be lumped into false worship.



Galatians 5:20
"Idolatry, witchcraft, (that's associated again with the powers of Satan, and it's a form of worship, a form of false religion the different gospel) hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies."