Austin Bible Church
In Jeremiah’s day, the Queen of Heaven was some women’s apostate concept of God. The Queen of Heaven was a female deity, Astarte or Ashtoreth, to whom Hebrew women made offerings. This was family cooperation with the apostate woman in charge. The Queen of Heaven emphasized love and fertility and was similar to the Babylonian Ishtar and the Roman Venus. Jer. 7:18.
“"The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me.” (Jeremiah 7:18, NASB)
A woman must believe what the Word of God says about a man. If she does not, then she becomes matriarchal where she becomes head of the family. Since she is distorted about being the glory of the man, she is distorted in her concept of Christ and of God. Her whole image of the chain of command is distorted. Therefore, she makes God into a feminine god and makes this false god the queen of her life - the Queen of Heaven. 1 Cor. 11
“But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:3, NASB)
“For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man. For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman's sake, but woman for the man's sake.” (1 Corinthians 11:7-9, NASB)
“Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him, but if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her? For her hair is given to her for a covering.” (1 Corinthians 11:14-15, NASB)
She becomes spiritual head of the home. She emphasizes that God is a God of love. She completely ignores the doctrine of authority, or if mentioned teaches it incorrectly. She emphasizes emotion in her worship, kindness, and sweetness and throws out anything with “teeth.” She begins a system of Christian education, wholly woman and child centered and woman led.
She censures her husband for his language and behavior and mothers him. She gets him up in the morning and suggests he get his pants on to go to church with her and the children. She suggests that he pray before meals and so on. She controls the vocabulary in the home and she must be consulted before all decisions, important and otherwise. She is a monster and doesn’t even know it. She is human good, nice, sweet, but critical, and frustrated because no matter how hard a woman tries, she cannot grow male equipment!
She controls her husband. She controls her children. She controls her Sunday School class. She is heading down to the local church to control her pastor-teacher. She controls the finances. She tells him what cars he can buy, what clothes, how often he can have sex with her, the whole bit. She gets sucked into business with the backslider (carnal, emotional revolt, reversionism) and is ruined almost overnight.
She ends up being a nag, a frustrated old bag with nerves on edge, a hollow, empty, and disillusioned shell. The woman becomes neurotic, psychotic, and pitiful. She ends up being a Christian lesbian in spiritual perversions and hooked up with women’s organizations that try to evangelize other women. It is simply the Queen of Heaven approach.
In Jeremiah 42 through Jeremiah 44, the women pushed their men to give loving speeches, but controlled what they said and did. In Jeremiah 42:2, they asked Jeremiah to pray for them.
“and said to Jeremiah the prophet, "Please let our petition come before you, and pray for us to the LORD your God, that is for all this remnant; because we are left but a few out of many, as your own eyes now see us,” (Jeremiah 42:2, NASB)
In Jeremiah 42:3, they prayed for guidance from the Lord. They avoided saying Jeremiah’s name by repeating the Lord’s name 11 times in four verses.
“that the LORD your God may tell us the way in which we should walk and the thing that we should do."” (Jeremiah 42:3, NASB)
They pledged obedience to the Lord, but had no intention of doing so. Jer. 42:6.
“"Whether it is pleasant or unpleasant, we will listen to the voice of the LORD our God to whom we are sending you, so that it may go well with us when we listen to the voice of the LORD our God."” (Jeremiah 42:6, NASB)
The women were afraid of war with the king of Babylon. The true issue was never stated regarding the Lord’s prohibition to not go to Egypt. The apostate women had influenced their men to be cowards. Jer. 42:11.
“'Do not be afraid of the king of Babylon, whom you are now fearing; do not be afraid of him,' declares the LORD, 'for I am with you to save you and deliver you from his hand.” (Jeremiah 42:11, NASB)
The women were not able to trust their men for a meal ticket. How are your finances going lately? How is you husband providing? Jer. 42:16.
“then the sword, which you are afraid of, will overtake you there in the land of Egypt; and the famine, about which you are anxious, will follow closely after you there in Egypt, and you will die there.” (Jeremiah 42:16, NASB)
In Jeremiah 42:20, “deceived” is a term for seduction, to pant, they were trying to use Jeremiah with typical woman guile. This type runs a man from behind the scenes. They primed the fool and sent him to Jeremiah.
“For you have only deceived yourselves; for it is you who sent me to the LORD your God, saying, "Pray for us to the LORD our God; and whatever the LORD our God says, tell us so, and we will do it."” (Jeremiah 42:20, NASB)
Jeremiah exposes the whole mess in Jeremiah 42:22.
“Therefore you should now clearly understand that you will die by the sword, by famine and by pestilence, in the place where you wish to go to reside.” (Jeremiah 42:22, NASB)
In Jeremiah 43:2-3, Azariah and Johanan and arrogant men called Jeremiah a false teacher and a liar.
“Azariah the son of Hoshaiah, and Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the arrogant men said to Jeremiah, "You are telling a lie! The LORD our God has not sent you to say, 'You are not to enter Egypt to reside there'; but Baruch the son of Neriah is inciting you against us to give us over into the hand of the Chaldeans, so they will put us to death or exile us to Babylon."” (Jeremiah 43:2-3, NASB)
Note that the congregation form of government takes them to Egypt. Religion always coerces volition. Uprisings like this are always the worst. Jeremiah had his say and the true issue came out that they had created a matriarchal society. Jeremiah could never be bought off. He always spoke the Truth! Jer. 44:1.
“The word that came to Jeremiah for all the Jews living in the land of Egypt, those who were living in Migdol, Tahpanhes, Memphis, and the land of Pathros, saying, "Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, 'You yourselves have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are in ruins and no one lives in them, because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers.” (Jeremiah 44:1-3, NASB)
The burning of incense to other gods in Jeremiah 44:3 illustrated the apostate woman’s concept of God and of Christianity. Like Eve was off base in rejecting her husband’s authority and seeking counsel from the serpent, so were these women. And like Adam, the men chose to go the same direction as their women. When a woman leads and the man follows, the man is just as guilty.
“because of their wickedness which they committed so as to provoke Me to anger by continuing to burn sacrifices and to serve other gods whom they had not known, neither they, you, nor your fathers.” (Jeremiah 44:3, NASB)
In Jeremiah 44:9, they had forgotten the wickedness of their fathers, their father’s wives, their own wickedness and that of their own wives. Adam and Eve both sinned, remember!
“"Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, and the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?” (Jeremiah 44:9, NASB)
Sooner or later the cat gets out of the bag. The men were well aware of what their wives had been doing and went along with all of it.
“Then all the men who were aware that their wives were burning sacrifices to other gods, along with all the women who were standing by, as a large assembly, including all the people who were living in Pathros in the land of Egypt, responded to Jeremiah, saying,” (Jeremiah 44:15, NASB)
In Jeremiah 44:18, the apostate women said that when they gave up offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven, things did not improve. They had remained apostate in their thinking and had not returned to the Lord in their souls.
“"But since we stopped burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have met our end by the sword and by famine."” (Jeremiah 44:18, NASB)
In Jeremiah 44:19 the apostate women make it clear that their husbands had gone along with everything they had done.
“"And," said the women, "when we were burning sacrifices to the queen of heaven and were pouring out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands that we made for her sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?"” (Jeremiah 44:19, NASB)
Jeremiah addresses both the women and the men in Jeremiah 44:20-22. And he lets them have it, plainly, giving the whole picture!
“Then Jeremiah said to all the people, to the men and women—even to all the people who were giving him such an answer—saying, "As for the smoking sacrifices that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your forefathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them and did not all this come into His mind? "So the LORD was no longer able to endure it, because of the evil of your deeds, because of the abominations which you have committed; thus your land has become a ruin, an object of horror and a curse, without an inhabitant, as it is this day.” (Jeremiah 44:20-22, NASB)
A small number responded to Jeremiah’s message from God and returned from Egypt. This was God's grace in deliverance. The majority that remained in Egypt would know that the Lord’s words will always stand. The result was military disaster. Jer. 44:28.
“'Those who escape the sword will return out of the land of Egypt to the land of Judah few in number. Then all the remnant of Judah who have gone to the land of Egypt to reside there will know whose word will stand, Mine or theirs.” (Jeremiah 44:28, NASB)