Jeremiah 44:15–19
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: “As for the word that you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you. 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. 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.” 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?” (ESV)

Two signs held by young women in front of the Texas Capitol tell us the worship of the ancient gods and goddesses has never ceased. One reads, “Sex is beautiful. Reproduction is optional. Abortion is healthcare.” The other reads, “Fetuses are not babies. Abortion is not murder. Women are not incubators.” More on this after a little biblical exploration.

Take a look at the Jeremiah passage and let’s have a little historical context. Josiah was perhaps the best king to have ever ruled over the southern kingdom of Judah. He was only 8 when he came to the throne (640 BC), and he came in troublous times. Judah was a subordinate state of Assyria and had been since the erasure of the Northern Kingdom of Israel some 80 years earlier (720 BC). Trouble was brewing on the borders of the Assyrian Empire as the Babylonians were growing stronger and the Egyptians to the south were looking to expand their reach. (Josiah would die in battle against the Egyptians in 609 BC.)

Josiah’s subjects were dedicated worshipers of every god but the God of heaven. The people of Israel were always of two minds when it came to worship. The gods of the day were gods who scratched where they itched. God made us sexual creatures. His first command was to have sex and make babies. Sex is essential to our continuance on this earth, but when sex becomes the object instead of the means, it becomes an idol. It’s an attractive idol, and an idol that easily displaces the God who devised it for the pleasure it bestows. The queen of heaven was one such god. Her worship and the worship of her consorts were sex parties where anything goes. The land was filled with pleasure palaces and glens, and sacrifices were made, often the lives of infants and children, on their altars.

Josiah set about changing the mindset of sex for sex’s sake. He destroyed the pleasure palaces and salted the glens. He restored the temple in Jerusalem – the priests and the Levites were as into these gods as were the people – and with the prophets, called them to worship God with all their hearts, minds, AND bodies. For awhile it looked like real reform, a real return to the God of the Exodus, was taking place. Throughout the reign of Josiah, the worship of Baal, Astarte, Moloch, and all the other gods of Canaan, Assyria, and Egypt, plus whatever gods they picked up on their travels along the trade routes of that region, disappeared. Well, not disappeared really. They went into the closet only to come back full force as soon as Josiah died and Jehoiachim took the throne. He and those who came after worshiped the gods and goddesses of sex for sex’s sake full bore until Nebuchadnezzar tired of them and their intrigues and completely destroyed the nation in 586 BC.
Off the remnant of the land run to Egypt dragging Jeremiah along. And this is where our text comes in. Jeremiah gives the message that their sins brought this destruction upon them, and they respond by telling him he’s full of it and they are going to worship these gods and goddesses just as they and their fathers had done as far back as memory could take them. And they killed Jeremiah.

This brings us back to Austin, Texas. Texas just passed a law saying that as soon as a heartbeat is detected, that which is in a woman’s womb is not her body, but is another person. This is anathema to those who worship the goddess. Sex is for pleasure, they cry, producing the next generation is an afterthought. An infant developing in a woman’s womb is just a blob of tissue and an abortion is no different that cutting one’s hair or trimming one’s nails. But they are deluded! Indeed, we are told in 2nd Thessalonians that they are under the sway of Satan and that God has sent them a powerful delusion that they might believe his lie that there is no God, and that they might be reserved until the condemnation of Judgement Day. It pains me to say this, but these women and the men who support them are the enemies of God, and thus of God’s children. Any enemy of my Father is an enemy of mine!

What’s a Christian to do? Speak the truth in love. These women are deluded children of the devil and must be identified as such. Do not smile and pat their hands. Tell them they are just one step from hellfire and although the door to heaven is not yet closed, they are pushing against it. Can God forgive a woman who murders her child? Yes, as he has forgiven countless repentant murderers throughout the history of our race. He forgave David for murdering Uriah; he is willing to forgive any and all who confess and forsake their sins. But do not be deceived! Murder is not a woman’s right to choose. I don’t know how many children have been sacrificed on the altar of the goddess since seven God-hating men determined the murdering of children to be written in invisible ink in our Constitution. One would be too many, and millions weigh heavily against the future prosperity of our republic. Should God send his judgements of Famine, Plague, and Sword upon The United States of America as he sent them upon Israel and Judah, those whom he has redeemed can say naught but Amen.