Q. I opened the Bible to read and it was Jeremiah 44.19. It spoke about pouring out drink offerings to the Queen of Heaven. I backed up to v 15 which

A. Let’s look at this portion from v 15-19 in context. Jeremiah was sent to give prophecies about the destruction of Jerusalem because the people had turned to idolatry instead of worshipping the one true God. This chapter contains a message to the Jews who fled to Egypt to escape the Babylonians. He tells them that the land of Judah was destroyed because of the idolatrous practices of their fathers and gives a prophecy in verse 24-30 about what was going to happen to those who thought they escaped to Egypt. The Lord was going to seek them out for evil, not good, and the sign that this was going to come to pass was that the King of Egypt was going to be given over into the hands of the King of Babylon. So, they were not going to escape punishment. Now, going back to your verses it seems that the wives of the Jewish refugees were continuing to give various offerings to a pagan deity called the “Queen of Heaven” and they said they were not going to listen to Jeremiah’s message. The “Queen of Heaven” is a term given to a moon goddess in its simplest meaning, the sun being the “king of heaven”. This “goddess” went by many names, depending on the culture. She was known as Asherah, Ashtaroth, Astarte, Ishtar, Venus, Diana, Artemis, Europa and was the consort of the sun deity. This title is even given Mary, Yeshua’s mother in some Christian denominations and the name Easter comes from “Ishtar” and carries some of the same themes today because some of the practices in apostate Christianity is based more in Mithraism (sun-god worship) than the Bible. The great benefactor of Christianity was the emperor Constantine and he was the “pontifus maximus” (yes that’s where the term “pontiff” comes from for the pope) of Mithraism and a sun-god worshipper to the day he died. He said that one of the reasons for calling the Council of Nicea was to “root out the last vestiges of Judaism”, in other words stop people from keeping the commandments found in the Torah. That’s why it is important to follow the commandments of God found in the Torah and to stay away from the practices of the nations (Jer. 10.1-5) because their holy days and practices or just “made up” as they go along or are grounded in paganism. Well, these women were not going to listen to Jeremiah and gave the following reasoning. They said that while they offered sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven they had material prosperity and when they stopped they had nothing but lack and persecution (v 17-18). So, they went back to these practices and fared better and did it with the consent of their husbands. This is a very important concept. People today follow the same thing and use similar logic when they justify their pagan practices and false doctrine. Many times it’s the wives who go to congregations with the children with the consent of the husband who won’t or can’t stand up to their wives. He knows it’s not of God but gives in. When someone sent by God comes to give them the truth they will not listen either. They will say that they are” set free from the Law”. They keep Christmas and Easter, eat pork and that Sunday is the Sabbath and they will say that God has “blessed” them financially and they have a peace in their hearts about it. The children are trotted off to Sunday school where they learn to perpetuate the deception to their children and “the beat goes on.” They have legitimized idolatry even though they are committing the same sins these people did. Replacement Theology is the doctrine of Apostate Christianity and you can see it all around you. Idols, images, statues are everywhere. They offer you material prosperity and testimonies about how God has supposedly prospered them when they started following these practices when He did no such thing. That is exactly the “proof” they are giving Jeremiah in rejecting his message. God is not prospering any ministry that teaches rebellion against the Lord and His Torah no more than he prospered the people who were doing the same things in Jeremiah’s day and he told them so by saying that the Lord was going to punish them in Egypt so that they would know He was against them. You see, when you participate in practices that are not found in the Torah you offering strange fire to the Lord. Prayers are like incense and when you are offering them in relation to things God didn’t sanction it is like offering incense to another god. What passes as worship to the Lord today is nothing but a waste of time because it is not the Lord they are honoring but another god they have fashioned after their own image and likeness. They don’t have a God who has good commandments that are holy, righteous and good but they have their own ideas. They don’t want to change so they develop a god and a worship system made after their owns designs. When their desires change, they go find another group who has a god that fits their image and likeness and begin attending there. And as long as the god of that particular denomination doesn’t get too “pushy and demanding” they will stay there. But if there are too many rules, commandments or demands, they leave and either find one that fits what they want, or they will design one themselves. But the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible says we are to conform to Him and isn’t really concerned how we feel about it. This can only be done through the Spirit of God who changes our desires to fit the Lord’s heart. That’s what a changed heart means. Well, the people in Jeremiah’s day rejected Jeremiah and his message and the people today do the same thing and that is the message of Jeremiah 44.1-30. I hope this answers your question.