Jeremiah 44:17
But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: for then had we plenty of victuals, and were well, and saw no evil.
The Jews living in Egypt answered Jeremiah's reproof and warning of punishment with a defiant vow to keep doing whatever they had promised with their own mouths, to go on burning incense and pouring drink offerings to the queen of heaven as they and their fathers, kings and princes had done in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. They claimed that while they kept up that worship they had plenty of food and enjoyed health, well-being and freedom from harm, and that want, sword and famine came only after they left it off. They thus credited their food and welfare to idolatry and reversed God's explanation that disobedience had brought their calamity, when those blessings had been continued only from His patience to lead them to repentance, until wickedness could no longer be borne and brought Jerusalem's destruction, captivity and desolation. Their short-sighted bread-and-butter reasoning that present prosperity proves divine approval is false, for wicked Babylon, Nineveh, Rome and Carthage also knew years of peace, plenty and rule while Christ and the apostles suffered. The same argument is now used against Sabbath-keeping and for Sunday observance, and that ancient worship lives on when Mary is given the heathen title queen of heaven and honored with incense and offerings.
Words and Historical Setting
The words are the defiant answer of Jewish men and women living in Pathros in Egypt after they disobeyed God's express command not to go down to Egypt and fell into burning incense to Egyptian gods. After Jeremiah, divinely inspired, reproved their wickedness and reminded them of the judgments brought on Israel in the past for departing from God and warned that God would bring similar punishment on them, they refused to hearken to the word spoken in the name of the Lord. They vowed to certainly do whatsoever thing went forth out of their own mouth, to continue burning incense and pouring out drink offerings to the queen of heaven. They continued a practice followed by themselves and their fathers, their kings, and their princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. The verse belongs to the section of Jeremiah, chapters 32-45, that recounts events in the two years before Jerusalem fell.
The queen of heaven is the moon. She is also identified with the sun, and her worship is grouped with Baal, Ashtoreth, and Astarte, which God abhorred as a profaning of His holy name. Tradition links the queen of heaven to an ancient goddess cult associated with Semiramis, Venus, and Diana of Ephesus. Traditions differ about Semiramis's identity and life, and it is not established that she was the queen of heaven worshiped in Jeremiah's day, though some say she began building Babylon.
The worship was open and widespread in Judah's cities and Jerusalem, with many people taking part. It included cakes offered to the queen of heaven as an unbloody sacrifice, alongside burning incense and pouring out drink offerings. Israel learned this idolatry from Egypt, which had learned idolatry from Babylon.
False Prosperity Argument Judged
The people insisted that their burning of incense and pouring of drink offerings to the queen of heaven had given them plenty of food, well-being, health, comfortable living, and freedom from evil, harm, and disaster. They tied that worship, carried on by themselves and their fathers, kings, and princes in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, to having enough to eat, living comfortably, and experiencing no disaster. They held that while they maintained that worship all went well with plenty of food, peace, and prosperity, and that want and being consumed by sword and famine came only after they left it off.
Their reasoning was short-sighted and worldly, taking present prosperity as proof of divine approval and demanding that all accounts be settled as they go along. It was a bread-and-butter policy rule that cared only for material supply and not for whether God's commandments were obeyed. In crediting food and well-being to idolatry they reversed the Lord's own explanation that their idolatry and disobedience had brought their calamity. Those blessings enjoyed while they worshiped false gods had been given as an expression of God's patience, to lead them to repentance.
Popularity and prosperity do not prove truth, for wicked Babylon, Nineveh, Rome, and Carthage also enjoyed years of peace, plenty, and world rule without their ways pleasing God. Christ and the apostles suffered, and Paul lost all worldly advantage and was driven from place to place after becoming a Christian. The worship was forbidden by God, and when wickedness could no longer be borne judgment came. Sun worship alongside disregard for the Sabbath led to Jerusalem's destruction and the land's desolation, and false worship and false education among God's own people and their kings brought captivity, enforced exile, and Zion left in utter ruin.
That sad result was a lesson Daniel and his companions had seen and heeded in refusing any part in Babylon's idolatrous feasts.
Old Idolatry in New Forms
The vow to do whatever goes out of the mouth in burning incense and pouring drink offerings to the queen of heaven, because then there was plenty of food and wellness and no evil, makes prosperity the proof of right worship. It is exactly the same argument used against keeping Saturday and for keeping Sunday, that if keeping Saturday were highly pleasing to God He would prosper it more, and if Sunday observance were sin He would not so remarkably bless those who persist in it. The claim is that the nation has been greatly blessed while keeping Sunday, and that to triumph over infidelity, intemperance, lawlessness and other evils and to retain blessings the first day of the week must be hallowed as far more important than the old Jewish Sabbath. That reasoning carries weight because it is easily comprehended and requires no logical mind to grasp, judging worship by a bread-and-butter policy rule that cares only for material supply and not for whether God's commandments are obeyed.
Sunday was a new sabbath established by Persian sun-worshipers and baptized by the mother of harlots, and is now to be legalized by the daughters of Rome as the true and veritable Sabbath called the holy Sabbath of the Lord. Its advocates rely on great numbers and popularity, just as the opposers of Jeremiah did, while laying aside and treading down the moral law which was the point at issue. Their profession not to worship the sun is answered by asking why they keep his day, as with one who says he does not worship Mary yet bows before her image. Jeremiah stood up for the first commandment and his opposers denied it, just as those who now stand for the first and the fourth commandments are opposed by those who deny them virtually in the first and positively in the fourth. In the judgment all who receive the mark will be counted as worshipers of the beast and his image.
Heathen worship later influenced the Christian church, where Mary was given the position held by goddesses in heathen religions. The queen of heaven was an idol worshiped in ancient times openly in Judah's cities and Jerusalem through incense and drink offerings, defended by the claim that it had brought food, well-being, and freedom from disaster. The title queen of heaven later given to Mary is thus associated with that ancient idolatrous worship, condemning applying that title to Mary and worshiping her. That ancient false worship, which God abhorred as a profaning of His holy name with Baal, Ashtoreth, and Astarte, was no different from the greater part of the Christian world singing praises to Easter, the Saxon goddess of spring, with pagan offerings of flowers, eggs, and other customs, profaning the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus with heathen names and customs. The same worship is recalled through a ceremony in which priests burn incense as part of rites to the queen of heaven, as the people insisted they would continue burning incense and pouring drink offerings as they and their ancestors had done.