Then all the men who knew that their wives had made offerings to other gods, and all the women who stood by, a great assembly, all the people who lived in Pathros in the land of Egypt, answered Jeremiah: 16 “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the Lord, we will not listen to you. 17 But we will do everything that we have vowed, make offerings to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her, as we did, both we and our fathers, our kings and our officials, in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. For then we had plenty of food, and prospered, and saw no disaster. 18 But since we left off making offerings to the queen of heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been consumed by the sword and by famine.” 19 And the women said, “When we made offerings to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands' approval that we made cakes for her bearing her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”
20 Then Jeremiah said to all the people, men and women, all the people who had given him this answer: 21 “As for the offerings that you offered in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your officials, and the people of the land, did not the Lord remember them? Did it not come into his mind? 22 The Lord could no longer bear your evil deeds and the abominations that you committed. Therefore your land has become a desolation and a waste and a curse, without inhabitant, as it is this day. 23 It is because you made offerings and because you sinned against the Lord and did not obey the voice of the Lord or walk in his law and in his statutes and in his testimonies that this disaster has happened to you, as at this day.” Jeremiah 44: 15-23 ESV
Jeremiah 44: 15-23 Queen / goddess of Heaven
The phrase queen of heaven appears in two passages of the Bible, both in the book of Jeremiah. The first passage deals with the things the Israelites were doing that provoked the Lord to anger. Entire families were involved in idolatry. The children gathered wood, and the men used it to build altars to worship false gods. The women were engaged in kneading dough and baking cakes of bread for the “Queen of Heaven” (Jeremiah 7:18). This title referred to Ishtar, an Assyrian and Babylonian goddess also called Ashtoreth and Astarte by various other groups. She was thought to be the wife of the false god Baal, also known as Molech. The motivation of women to worship Ashtoreth stemmed from her reputation as a fertility goddess, and, as the bearing of children was greatly desired among women of that era, worship of this “queen of heaven” was rampant among pagan civilizations. Sadly, it became popular among the Israelites as well. - Questions.org
Then all the men who knew - It is an unpopular thing these days, but in God's design the man represented the head of the family, so this is for good and bad. He is the priest to his family, meaning that he exemplifies the priority of what is sacred, intercedes in prayer, holds family Bible reading, corrects and disciplines. When something God hates, like idolatry in this case, is introduced, whether from outside or by his own wife, it is his responsibility to confront it and return the family back to the authority of Scripture. I was too lazy for this early on in my marriage, and it was not a priority of my culture. I really hoped my wife would take the kids to church and lead them, because I just wanted to go fishing and I thought I did enough by having a job. I also wanted to be the fun guy, no confrontation, no spiritual responsibility, and no life that would stand out to others, just fade in. God doesn't have to care about what I want, only what He says and His expectation, and the reality of it was that I would have to answer for the state of my family.
33But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father in heaven. 34Do not assume that I have come to bring peace to the earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35For I have come to turn ‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.… Matthew 10: 33-35
…24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,… Ephesians 5: 24-27
…7Give these instructions to the believers, so that they will be above reproach. 8 If anyone does not provide for his own, and especially his own household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. 9A widow should be enrolled if she is at least sixty years old, the wife of one man,… 1 Timothy 5: 7-9
And all the women who stood by - This is a large gathering, representation of the people, who had gone from Judah to Egypt, against God's command.
We will not listen to you - They know Jeremiah's track record, that he has put it out there before, and that his words have been tested and proven not to be his own. Adam chose his wife over God, yet quickly blamed her and God for his own failure, "the woman You gave me,", but these people seem to be in much solidarity. Jeremiah is saying that this word is also from God, and He has been right thus far, so what is it you trust other than your notions and feelings? What is more important, what God said or your wife, or neighbor, or child, or society at large? Who do you fear more? Abraham was told that Sarah would have a son, that in Isaac his seed would be called, but her womb did not produce so she tried to find another way.
“Who told you that you were naked?” asked the LORD God. “Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” 12And the man answered, “The woman whom You gave me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” 13Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” “The serpent deceived me,” she replied, “and I ate.”… Genesis 3: 11-13
Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the Lord has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” 6 But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. Genesis 16: 1-6
We will do everything that we have vowed - They have betrothed themselves and their families to this goddess. Now these men that would not speak up against wrong are quick to defend their choice of it. Like many today, who are stoically loyal to gangs, clubs, and culture, they set their course and will not repent.
We, our fathers, our kings and our officials - Oh, so you have great precedence in your traditions. This is so very Roman Catholic of you, your rituals, your tradition, opposes the word of God, that word which He has placed equal to His name, and so you would place your traditions above His word and His Self.
“The reference is probably to the Assyro-Babylonian Ishtar. …Ishtar (Canaanite Athtart) was the goddess of war and love. She represented the female principle of fertility. …Ashtoreth is the Hebrew of which Astarte is the Greek. This ancient goddess was called Ishtar in Akkadian, Inanna in Sumerian, and Athtart in Ugaritic. Her counterpart in the NT is Artemis (cf. Acts 19, in Latin, Diana). The worship of this goddess was widespread in the ancient Near East.” (Feinberg)
ii. For the Babylonians, the queen of heaven was a maternal deity connected with the moon, with family, and fertility. It is strange and shocking that Roman Catholics give Mary, the mother of Jesus, this same title and direct to her improper prayer and veneration – sometimes even worship. We have no Biblical permission or encouragement to have any connection with the queen of heaven. Some observe that modern people worship the queen of heaven under other names: Mother Nature, Feminism, or Glamor. - EW
For then we had plenty of food - It is God Who causes His rain to fall on the just and the unjust. It is He Who made the heaven and the earth. You would borrow a god that the heathen have invented, an idol made with hands, and you would attribute to her that which she cannot give. You would take from God, the Creator, His glory and give it to another. Did Ishtar warn you of the coming Babylon, did Ashtoreth tell you not to go down to Egypt?
…7to open the eyes of the blind, to bring prisoners out of the dungeon and those sitting in darkness out from the prison house. 8I am the LORD; that is My name! I will not yield My glory to another or My praise to idols. 9Behold, the former things have happened, and now I declare new things. Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you.”… Isaiah 42: 7-9
Was it without our husband's approval - Just like the prosperity gospel, "remember when we bought those prayer cloths, and you finally got that job, remember when we buried the saint in the yard and the house finally sold?" Their husbands totally approved, because they remember those days, those were the roaring 20's before the Great Depression. We had everything in abundance then, and our neighbors were doing it and enjoying success that they attributed to this system. Now God's patience is mistaken for an idol's blessing, but this superstition is all over the place, not just in Pentecostal and Roman Catholic churches, but also in Evangelical circles. Their husbands were a part of it, and these women think this adds to the justification, but no, it indicts your husbands as cowards, spiritual infants at best, and traitors to the God that brought them into the land of Israel. You may think it wonderful and very modern of your husband to follow you, but that is not by original design, it is a result of the fall. He may like it that you are getting along, that he seems to get peace when you get your way, or that he thinks he is passing the responsibility on to you, but that was not original intent.
And in Genesis 3:16 we find the divine curse on the woman. And I want to read it to you. It says, “To the woman, He” – being God – “said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain’ – and the Hebrew text says – “and childbirth; in pain you shall bring forth children. Yet your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.’” I’ve lived long enough and I’ve been in enough places in the world to know that the plight of women in the world is very difficult. We have it the best here in America and still the plight of women is very difficult. I have seen the struggles that women go through in all corners of the world. It’s very hard being a woman, and throughout human history it has been very hard, and in many places in the world today it’s very little different than it has been since ancient times.
In general, women are the slaves of men. Men who, in general, have little interest in their personal needs, very little interest in their feelings, their emotions, their sufferings. In general, men have throughout human history used women for sexual fulfillment, for domestic duties, to tend to the children. All over the world women have been subjugated and humiliated. And until modern times, men actually held the power of life and death over women and still do in some tribal regions. This harsh treatment of women, which is pretty much the general pattern of human history, was not the original design of God. Sin brought it in and it therefore corrupted the original relationship between man and woman, between woman and her children, and made life very difficult. - J. Mac From the Curse On The Woman Part 1
Now let’s look at the specific of the language here that expresses the conflict. “Your desire shall be for your husband.” Now let’s talk about the word desire. What does it mean? It’s an interesting word. It comes from an Arabic root, and I have continued to survey this passage, because it’s been a passage of some controversy. But it is of Arabic root meaning to seek control. Literally it could read, “You shall seek control over your husband.” You will desire to exert your will. That is a sign of the curse. You will desire to take charge, to be in control, to master. And that desire shows up in various women in various ways. In some of them it’s a quiet, silent desire that smolders, with others it is a shouting desire that isn’t much of a secret to anybody. And the more godless women are, very often the more hostile they are toward men. Sometimes that hostility takes the attitude of coldness, indifference, apathy. Because she can’t achieve what she wants, she eventually becomes totally indifferent and apathetic toward the man.
But there is this desire, this seeking to have one’s own way, to get control. That’s why there have been through history always feminist movements, always. Even in the time of the apostle Paul. I read some fascinating things about the time of the apostle Paul. There was a liberation of women movement going on in the world of the apostle Paul. Women were shaving their heads and going around bare chested with spears in their hands and trying to prove that they can do everything men did. There have always been that kind of – there’s always been that kind of movement in history, because it’s reflective of this curse. The man has to deal with the fact that his wife wants to control him. - J Mac From the Curse On The Woman Part Deux
Did it not come into His mind - You mistake your times of plenty as proof of your wisdom in this, and again you mistake God's patience for His blessing and permission. He is God and does not need to change, for He has not fallen, and He said:
1. Thou shalt have no other Gods.
2.Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.
3. Before you came down here to practice your idolatry, He said, don't go down to Egypt.
It is because...this disaster has happened to you - Jeremiah corrects them. It was not their offerings to Ishtar that brought them wealth, but rather, it was those same offerings and disobedience to the voice of God that brought them this disaster, and more to come.
It is the truth which is assailed in any age which tests our fidelity. It is to confess we are called, not merely to profess. If I profess, with the loudest voice and the clearest exposition, every portion of the truth of God except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christianity. Where the battle rages the loyalty of the soldier is proved; and to be steady on all the battle-field besides is mere flight and disgrace to him if he flinches at that one point. - Elizabeth Rundle Charles
