God’s Peace Plan

“I have sent to you all My servants the prophets... but they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness.” God’s prophets are His gifts to the nations to guide them away from war, hunger and disease and toward peace, prosperity and well-being. Those nations that have access to Bibles and Bible teachers who rightly speak it, should give heed to them.

“The Word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the Jews who dwell in the land of Egypt, who dwell at Migdol, at Tahpanhes, at Noph, and in the country of Pathros, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: you have seen all the calamity that I have brought on Jerusalem and on all the cities of Judah; and behold, this day they are a desolation, and no one dwells in them, because of their wickedness which they have committed to provoke Me to anger, in that they went to burn incense and to serve other gods whom they did not know, they nor you nor your fathers. However, I have sent to you all My servants the prophets, rising early and sending them, saying, ‘O, do not do this abominable thing that I hate!’ But they did not listen or incline their ear to turn from their wickedness, to burn no incense to other gods. So My fury and My anger were poured out and kindled in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem; and they are wasted and desolate, as it is this day.’” Jeremiah 44:1-6

Global military spending reached a record $2.718 trillion in 2024. The $2.718 trillion represents a 9.4% increase from 2023 which is the largest jump since at least the end of the Cold War. [1]

Much thought, time and treasure were poured into creating and sustaining militaries. What percentage of human thought, time and treasure were allocated to studying God’s peace plan?

The Lord says in Jeremiah 18:7-10 that He will relent of destroying a nation if that nation takes heeds to His warnings to repent of evil. The Lord said in Jeremiah 5:1 that if His prophet could find anyone in the city who executed judgment and sought the truth, He would pardon them. In Genesis 18:31, the Lord promised not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there were at least ten righteous people there. Jesus said in Matthew 5:13 that salt which loses its flavor is good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men.”

How many nations are factoring into the national defense equation... sin? Sin is the root of all evil. Sin brought the curse on humankind and the earth in the first place. The Word of God tells clearly and repeatedly that sin is what destroys people.

Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people.”

James 4:1-2 says, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members? You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask.”

The Word of the Lord to us in James 4:7-10 is, “Submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

Imagine how much better off the nations would be if we all had hearts like Paul’s! In Philippians 3:8-9, he wrote, “What things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ.”

In Jeremiah 44, the Lord reproves the Jews for their idolatry in Egypt. God did not spare Judea from judgment when they abandoned Him. He was not going spare those who forsook Him in Egypt either. He announced judgments on Migdol, Tahpanhes, Noph, and in the country of Pathros. Migdol was a city upon the borders of the Red Sea. Noph is now called Memphis. Pathros is now called Thebes. These were the four areas where Jews settled in Jeremiah 44.

In this prophecy, the Lord reminds His people of the calamities that He brought on the cities of Judah. Those cities were empty now. Their worship of other gods ignited His holy anger against them. Jeremiah warned them to turn back to God but they would did not listen to him.

Are nations listening to the Bible’s prophets today?

“Now therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: why do you commit this great evil against yourselves, to cut off from you man and woman, child and infant, out of Judah, leaving none to remain, in that you provoke Me to wrath with the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt where you have gone to dwell, that you may cut yourselves off and be a curse and a reproach among all the nations of the earth? Have you forgotten the wickedness of your fathers, the wickedness of the kings of Judah, the wickedness of their wives, your own wickedness, and the wickedness of your wives, which they committed in the land of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?’” Jeremiah 44:7-9

God asked them why they were opposing themselves. Why kill themselves? Had they forgotten what idolatry did to their ancestors? God was and is and will continue to oppose idolatry.

In the Old Testament, in Deuteronomy 32:17, God calls idolatry demon worship. “They sacrificed to devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.”

In the New Testament, in 1 Corinthians 10:20-22 says, “The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God, and I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of devils: you cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of devils. Do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?”

In 1 Timothy 4:1, Paul wrote, “Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons.”

The Lord had these words to say about His idol-worshipping people in Egypt...

“They have not been humbled, to this day, nor have they feared; they have not walked in My law or in My statutes that I set before you and your fathers.” Jeremiah 44:10

“He shows that we ought to keep in memory God’s plagues from the beginning that considering them, we might live in his fear, and know if He did not spare our fathers, yea kings, princes, rulers and also whole countries and nations for their sins that we vile worms cannot look to escape punishment for ours.” [2]

Proverbs 8:13 says, “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.” Proverbs 14:16 says, “A wise man fears, and departs from evil: but the fool rages, and is confident.” Proverbs 16:6 says, “By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.” Proverbs 28:14 says, “Happy is the man that fears always: but he that hardens his heart shall fall into mischief.” Revelation 15:4 says, “Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your Name? For You only are holy: for all nations shall come and worship before You; for Your judgments are made manifest.”

“Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: behold, I will set My face against you for catastrophe and for cutting off all Judah. And I will take the remnant of Judah who have set their faces to go into the land of Egypt to dwell there, and they shall all be consumed and fall in the land of Egypt. They shall be consumed by the sword and by famine. They shall die, from the least to the greatest, by the sword and by famine; and they shall be an oath, an astonishment, a curse, and a reproach! For I will punish those who dwell in the land of Egypt, as I have punished Jerusalem, by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, so that none of the remnant of Judah who have gone into the land of Egypt to dwell there shall escape or survive, lest they return to the land of Judah, to which they desire to return and dwell. For none shall return except those who escape.” Jeremiah 44:11-14

Psalms 34:16 says, “The face of the Lord is against them that do evil to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth.”

Jeremiah’s people had gone to Egypt thinking that it would be easier to return from there to Judea than from Babylon. The exact reverse happened. Those who went to Babylon rejected idolatry and were restored. Those who went to Egypt embraced idolatry and were destroyed.

“None shall return except those who escaped” – some among them were unwilling travelers to Egypt. Jeremiah and Baruch were such! Some of them left Egypt before Babylon attacked.

“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: ‘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 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. 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.’” Jeremiah 44:15-18

“We will certainly do whatever has gone out of our own mouth.” This is the same defiant attitude that they expressed when Jeremiah first told them not to go to Egypt.

They defied the Creator and Sustainer of all things and defended the Queen of Heaven. Rather than acknowledge and repent of their sins, they blamed their nation’s collapse on God. Psalms 73:9 speaks of those who set their mouth against the heavens. In Luke 19:14, Jesus spoke of those who did not want Him to reign over them.

“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?’” Jeremiah 44:19

“The Queen of Heaven was not Egyptian; she was the fertility goddess of Canaan, Assyria and Babylonia. How ironic it was for the Jews, having fled from the Babylonians, to worship a Babylonian goddess!”

“The Queen of Heaven went by different names in different dialects – Anat, Astarte, Ashteroth, and Ishtar, which is the pagan origin of Easter. Her cult was worshiped with the burning of incense, the pouring of libations, and the sacrifice of animals. In the palace kitchen at Mari, archaeologists have uncovered some of the baking molds used to shape this goddess into sweet little cakes.”

“Goddess worship may sound old-fashioned to postmodern ears, but it is becoming increasingly fashionable. In every period of history, sin takes feminine as well as masculine forms.”

“Mary, the mother of Jesus, [is] venerated as the Madonna in the Roman Catholic Church. The pope calls her ‘the woman promised in Eden, the woman chosen from the eternity to be the Mother of the Word, the Mother of divine Wisdom, the Mother of the Son of God.” “Roman Catholics pray, ‘We have no greater help, no greater hope than you, O most pure virgin.’ Or again, ‘Come to my aid, dearest Mother, for I recommend myself to thee. In thy hands I place my eternal salvation, and to thee I entrust my soul.”

“Worshiping Mary is not a harmless addition to the Christian faith. It is rank pagan idolatry. It is as wicked as worshiping the Queen of Heaven. Indeed, ‘Queen of Heaven’ is one of the titles Catholics sometimes give to Mary.” [3]

“The remnant claimed that things were fine until they stopped worshiping the Queen of Heaven. Goddess worship brought them health and wealth, they claimed. All their subsequent troubles were to be blamed on the reformation under Josiah when goddess worship was outlawed. The fall of Jerusalem and the exile in Egypt did not take place until after they abandoned their Queen.”

“Greed works if you want to make money, but it is the enemy of contentment. Sexual sin destroys sexual intimacy. And so on. Sin destroys the soul. It destroys relationships with other people and fellowship with God. In the end, sin recoils to devour the sinner.” [4]

The women made crescent-shaped cakes to offer to the moon. The sun was worshipped as Baal. The moon was worshipped as Baal’s counterpart. They felt Jeremiah was unreasonable to speak to them as though they were insubordinate. Their husbands supported their idolatry.

“Then Jeremiah spoke to all the people—the men, the women, and all the people who had given him that answer—saying: ‘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? 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. 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.’” Jeremiah 44:20-23

Jeremiah told his listeners, “The Lord could no longer bear it.” Revelation 16:19 speaks of great Babylon misdeeds coming up in remembrance before God and stirring up His wrath. Revelation 18:5 says that her sins had reached unto heaven. Psalms 95:10 speaks of God being grieved for 40 years because of the erroneous ways of their hearts.

“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! 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! 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. 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. 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. 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.’” Jeremiah 44:24-29

They felt obligated to fulfil their vows to their idols. Jeremiah affirmed that no one could accuse them of breaking their vows to idols, but what about to God? Faithfulness to God would have kept them from making vows to idols.

Jeremiah countered their claims on behalf of the Queen of Heaven by assuring them that none of them in the land of Egypt, would say, “The Lord God lives.” His Name would be taken from them. They felt safe in Egypt to blaspheme God, but that safe feeling was about to end.

God assured them that they would soon know whose words would stand, His or theirs. He said to them, “This shall be a sign to you… I will punish you in this place, that you may know that My words will surely stand against you for adversity.”

God finished His message to the Jews in Egypt by saying...

“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.” Jeremiah 44:30

Jeremiah’s preaching venue changed, but his message did not. Those who reject God’s guidance to embrace gods of their own imaginations will perish.

Praise God! He has a peace plan. Isaiah 2:4 says, “He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people. They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Revelation 21:4 says, “God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.” The Lord shall vanquish sin, death and the devil. Then, there shall be peace and prosperity for everyone who believed in Him and who called upon His Name.


[1] Google

[2] Geneva Bible Notes

[3] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, pp. 623-627

[4] Dr. Phillip Graham Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations from Sorrow to Hope, Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL, © 2001, p. 630