Let me first say: this is not an indictment on women or wives, but it does show the problems inherent when we allow even our closest relationships to come before God.
”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?”“
Jeremiah 44:19 ESV
The wives were seeking after the things of this world. Comfort, ease, material things… not bad in and of themselves but they were willing to worship whomever was willing to provide them with those things.
But notice here… Jeremiah points out that the men sat by and watched the wives do this. They didn’t rebuke their wives, they didn’t stand up for the Lord. They placed their relationship with their wives above their relationship with God. They sat back passively while their wives drifted off into idolatry and they did nothing, taking no charge of their home and failing to lead in the office of husbands to which they were called.
A few verses later God declares the consequences of the wives willful rebellion and the husbands passivity.
”Therefore hear the word of the Lord, all you of Judah who dwell in the land of Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by my great name, says the Lord, that my name shall no more be invoked by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, ‘As the Lord God lives.’“
Jeremiah 44:26 ESV
God had told them not to return to Egypt (the world), but the world is what they desired. So God tells them, I’m going to give you over to the desires of your heart and allow your heart to be hardened such that they will no longer call on the Lord.
This is echoed in the New Testament as well:
”For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt.“
Hebrews 6:4-6 ESV
God removes the ability to repent by removing the conviction through which one was being called through the Holy Spirit. This is why we’re cautioned not to “quench the Spirit” or told not to “despise prophesying” (1 Thes 5:19-20). The Spirit brings conviction and prophesying is the manner in which correction is brought through our brothers and sisters in Christ. We’re warned repeatedly not to harden our hearts (Heb 3:8,15) because God’s patience should never be mistook for His approval.
In Jeremiah we see the wives taking off into idolatry focusing on the things of this world as their chief pursuit. We also see the husbands in idolatry with the wives as their chief pursuit. Both are idolatrous because both place the love of something or someone else above God.
While Jeremiah shows this primarily as the wives rebellion it can just as easily take place with husbands pursuing the things of this world and wives pursuing their husbands as their chief pursuit.
If the message you’re receiving from this is that God or this message is anti-marriage, I would ask you to pause and prayerfully reconsider. The Bible, God, and this message are not anti-marriage. They are pro-God, pro-His Kingdom, pro-His Glory.
God gives us health and we corrupt it into vanity. God gives us sex and we pervert it into immorality. God gives us marriage and we degrade it into idolatry… the problem is not any of these things. The problem lies in the priority of importance we place on these things and the perversion we’re willing accept… all of which come from a man-centered heart and an earthly kingdom focus, as opposed to a God-centered heart and His Kingdom focus.
There is no stronger marriage and no greater picture of our relationship with Christ than a husband and wife wholly and completely surrendered to Jesus in every aspect of their lives. Putting Christ first, His kingdom, walking together in faith, supporting their spouse by taking their rightful, God appointed position within the marriage and family.
But this can only happen when both see Christ as their chief pursuit. But for those who find themselves married in unequally yoked circumstances, be encouraged. God is gracious and merciful and has outlined how to navigate this problem in 1 Corinthians 7. But nowhere in that passage does it mention compromise on the part of the believer. Because it’s by the very faithfulness of the believer through difficulty and hardship (even those inflicted by the unbelieving spouse) that the believing spouse is used to draw the unbelieving in.
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