Consider the work of a plumber. Some jobs turn into pretty intriguing scenarios. Some are dirty with an aroma that sticks to you for a few hours and you hope you don't still smell like someone's sewage by the time you go to the next call. In some jobs, especially if the homeowner thinks he’s a DIY’er, you get into the WOW factor, trying to figure out what the man was trying to do in a certain situation which only made matters worse. This happens way more often than you would think. Often, fixing the cause of the problem and spending another hour fixing the owner’s mess, the owner will say they thought about doing it that way, but hindsight is 20/20. I like to say hindsight is sometimes 20/20, because if it has happened in the immediate past, you know what went wrong and how to avoid those mistakes. Sometimes the past gets too far away, and we want to forget the wrongs that happened, only to repeat them when they come back up. For example, when the Egyptian King forgot what Joseph had done, the Israelites ended up becoming slaves, helping build the Egyptian empire. How about in the book of Jeremiah, the people turn to idol worship, turning away from God because they haven't seen the miracles of the flood, the Red Sea, the plagues, and the Jericho walls coming down? I don’t know if seeing a great miracle would’ve changed their minds. Scripture says in John 12:37 that there was a spiritual blindness when Jesus performed His miracles, which we can easily see Israel doing in Jeremiah and throughout scripture. What's the opposite of looking into the past for a sometimes 20/20 view? It's looking into the future blind, which is what men often do. Our vision for the past, present, and future is quite limited. We can't predict the future. God is the only one who can. In Jeremiah 44:20-30, Israel flees to Egypt to run into the warm embrace of false security. Rather than turn to God to save them from the Chaldeans, they run to Egypt to be saved. While they are there, they still don’t change their ways and live in sin, making offerings to the queen of heaven. They are still just as blind looking to Egypt (which will end up falling to the Babylonians) as they were when they were in their promised land. They looked to Egypt thinking their future would be bright, but the same darkness awaited them there. Baruch, in chapter 45, is also looking into his future, but God has different plans for him. Jeremiah 45:5, “And seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord:” Baruch seeking his glory is not in God's plans. That’s why Jeremiah has placed this chapter here in this specific book. So, like Baruch, we can see that God’s vision for the future written by men which we call prophets always comes to light. This chapter was probably written during chapter 36 of Jeremiah. God had different plans for Baruch’s future than Baruch had for himself. Baruch wanted more but God says you'll be happy to just still be alive because I've allowed it to happen. Some takeaways from the latter part of Ch. 44 and into 45. Don’t be too quick to make decisions in the future. God has your future planned and, if you turn to Him, he will guide you.

John 8:12 says, “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.” If we decide to follow the light of Christ, we will have the light of life. God’s plans for our future may be that we have barely enough to make it by or He may bless some with abundance. Either way, God has plans for your life. It may shatter your dreams and desires, but God wants you to follow his plans. We should be thankful for this light he has given us.

WHAT’S YOUR THOUGHT?

The queen of heaven shows up in only Jeremiah and 4, of the 5 times, in chapter 44. He could be referring to a couple of different things, possibly the worship of the moon, but, I believe he is referring to the wife of Baal, the Babylonian goddess of love, named Ishtar. Considering the Israelites made the golden calf at the bottom of Mt. Sinai, they were quick to worship the god of the enemy which was one of Egypt's gods. So, this may be the case with the Babylonian takeover of the Jews. They were worshipping a false god they believed was more powerful at the time.