What happens when you follow the LORD God, and are suffering, but when you follow a pagan God, you come into the place of abundance? Does that mean that the gods or the “Queen of Heaven” is therefore the truth? And a God of love and blessing? But Jehovah isn’t?
This argument is used today. Blessings = truth and hardship = something wrong.
The remnant of Jerusalem and Judah were suffering. But then they started worshiping the “Queen of Heaven.”. Then their lives were “blessed” and they had enough food and provisions.
After the Babylonians came in, they became refugees in Egypt where they even more worshiped the gods of the land. This was specifically led out by the wives of the Israelites with the full knowledge of their husbands. Sounds like a remake of the garden.
Jeremiah tells them what they are doing is wrong. But the response is open resistance.
If we are “blessed” when we serve the Queen of heaven and suffer hardship serving Jehovah, then we choose the Queen of Heaven because our lives are better.
Jeremiah tells them that their decisions are foolish. The reason Jerusalem and Judah are in ruins is because of their worship of other gods. Couldn’t they see that?
But if there was any doubt, God was soon to bring judgment on the land of Egypt. The Israelite remnant who are there would die by the sword and by famine. They would not be “blessed” in the long run as they thought they would.
There was a reason that the LORD was not blessing them in the land of Israel. It was because of their many sins. He was punishing them for their good. But instead of receiving punishment, they turned away.
It’s like the wayward teenager that is rebellious at home and gets punished. Since punishment is not fun, they run away and join a gang and enjoy the life of parties, power and drugs. As any parent knows this will not end well even though there is temporary pleasure.
It is not true that just because we have suffering in our lives that God is not with us. It sometimes feels that way but it isn’t true.
It is not true that just because we are “blessed” we must be doing something right. Many people have abundance but it doesn’t equal truth.
The Bible says we must endure hardship at times. It says in the life of Moses that he even denied himself the pleasures of sin for the sake of looking towards what was to come in heaven (Heb 11:24-26). It says we must deny ourselves and take up our crosses and follow him.
There are many Scriptures of hardship. The question is will we stay with Him? Or will we leave just because it got hard? Because we may face good times for awhile, but in the end there is always the price to pay.
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