In the late days of Judah before they were given into the hands of Babylon, some in Judah fled for protection in Egypt, settling in cities there. Just as they had been doing in the land of Judah, they likewise in Egypt provoked God to wrath with “the works of your hands, burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt” (Jer 44:8).
When confronted by the word of the Lord through the prophet Jeremiah for their sin in Egypt, they are obstinate and stiff-necked and reply to Jeremiah in this manner: “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” (Jer 44:16-18). In other words, because they were “well-off” physically when they practiced idolatry but “lacked everything” when they ceased the idolatry, they have concluded that the right course of action for them is to continue in their idolatry.
The problem is that all is not well with them. They are spiritually bankrupt and stand in the condemnation of God, but they have reasoned that since they are “well-off,” then all is ok with their current behavior.
Their being “well-off” is absolutely no indication of God’s approval of them nor of what punishment God has in store for them if they do not repent. There’s some bad reasoning going on.
This reminds us of the fact that the devil wants people to feel that all is well between them and God when they are well-off, when things are going well in their own eyes and they are in good physical health and financially well-off. I’m afraid that even some religious people look on those who suffer affliction as somehow out of the favor of God. This is the wisdom of the world and is not of God’s wisdom.
The truth is that suffering can be the result of persecution for doing right. Suffering can be the result of the consequences of your own sin. Suffering can be the consequence of another’s sin. Suffering can occur as the result of the natural order of life in this temporal body. Job suffered when blameless before God.
And the truth is that many ungodly are “well-off.” This perplexed Asaph in Psalm 73, but he learned the truth of the full picture when he “went into the sanctuary of God; then I understood their end” (Psalm 73:17).
We need to be sure that we go to the word of God as a mirror to see ourselves for who we are and where we stand in relation to God. That’s the objective standard and the only standard by which we must determine what we will do and whether God is pleased with us.
-Larry Jones