The Wages of Sin

Jeremiah 44:15-30

15 Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense to other gods, with all the women who stood by, a great multitude, and all the people who dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, answered Jeremiah, saying: 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 certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to 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 we had plenty of food, were well-off, and saw no trouble. 18 But since we stopped burning incense 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 The women also said, "And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, did we make cakes for her, to worship her, and pour out drink offerings to her without our husbands' permission?"

20 Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people—the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer—saying: 21 "The incense that you burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, you and your fathers, your kings and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and did it not come into His mind? 22 So the LORD could no longer bear it, because of the evil of your doings and because of the abominations which you committed. Therefore your land is a desolation, an astonishment, a curse, and without an inhabitant, as it is this day. 23 Because you have burned incense and because you have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD or walked in His law, in His statutes or in His testimonies, therefore this calamity has happened to you, as at this day."

24 Moreover Jeremiah said to all the people and to all the women, "Hear the word of the LORD, all Judah who are in the land of Egypt! 25 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying: 'You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands, saying, "We will surely keep our vows that we have made, to burn incense to the queen of heaven and pour out drink offerings to her." You will surely keep your vows and perform your vows!' 26 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, all 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 named in the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Egypt, saying, "The Lord GOD lives." 27 Behold, I will watch over them for adversity and not for good. And all the men of Judah who are in the land of Egypt shall be consumed by the sword and by famine, until there is an end to them. 28 Yet a small number who escape the sword shall return from the land of Egypt to the land of Judah; and all the remnant of Judah, who have gone to the land of Egypt to dwell there, shall know whose words will stand, Mine or theirs. 29 And this shall be a sign to you,' says the LORD, 'that I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for adversity.'

30 "Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I will give Pharaoh Hophra king of Egypt into the hand of his enemies and into the hand of those who seek his life, as I gave Zedekiah king of Judah into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, his enemy who sought his life.'"

The wages of sin are death.  Judah fled to Egypt because their sin against the LORD brought defeat and destruction on Jerusalem and Judah.  But they could not escape the consequences of rejecting God and serving dead idols leading to their own deaths as a result of their self-seeking pleasures of immortality and infidelity against the God of their covenant promises.  His word makes it clear that idolatry which substitutes death for the life God offers and the immorality of rejecting that word to live instead in disobedience only earns what is just and fair.  God’s wrath and sentencing of punishment that fits the crimes against Him, eternal separation from the goodness and grace He offers for following in faith and willing obedience.  Yes, these hid from that judgment in far away Egypt, but not from God’s eye or hand.  Their rebellion caused them to speak out loud of their resolve to continue in rebellion instead of repentance.  They said they would continue to worship their idols so they had no lack of all their eyes desired.  They did not care to follow God’s will as later spelled out more clearly in 1 John 2:15-17, but ran headlong into more sin and rejection of Him.  They did this in Judah and Jerusalem, and now resolved to continue without change in a foreign land of false gods of dead stone just like their own hardened hearts.  God therefore removed Himself and His protective hand of grace from them.  He took the words from them, “The Lord GOD lives,” so that they knew they were all alone and without hope (1 Chronicles 29:15) as they were before being chosen to follow Him into a fruitful land.  Their sin brought their situation upon them; it was not they God left them, but they left Him for the passing pleasures of sin (Hebrews 11:25).  They earned their pay of death fairly by not keeping their word to keep His as the covenant required (Deuteronomy 28:15, 45).  God would then look out for their adversity instead of for their good as agreed.  Only a small remnant would survive out of Egypt to return to the promised land.  That would prove to them whose word was true and the punishment there was demonstrated proof of that sentence and the verity of all they heard through Jeremiah and the men of God before him.  Egypt would be defeated just as Judah’s  king could not escape captivity and death.  Egypt and Judah would be handed over to their enemies just as those who reject Christ will be in the final judgment.  This is an example of the wages of sin for disbelief and disobedience (Romans 6:23) and the offer of life for faith that receives God’s word by repentance and faith.  That is the obedient work required for deliverance from death to life (John 5:24), to do as John 6:29 says to trust God’s word and receive His Son by that believing trust of faith.