“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.” (Jeremiah 44:17, ESV)
The writer of Proverbs gave this exhortation.
“Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” (Proverbs 26:11, ESV)
The proverb refers to the fool who cannot or will not learn from his mistakes. I have seen this proverb play out in life on many occasions. Let me give you an example. There are people that never do any preventative maintenance on their cars. They do not change the oil. What happens, their cars start running poorly and they take the car to the shop. The auto mechanic tells them that the engine is shot and they will need an engine replacement. They decide it is not worth the money to get a new or rebuilt engine so they scrap the car and get a new one only to make the same mistake again, repeating the cycle. Their failure to learn from their mistakes costs them thousands of dollars unnecessarily.
The band of Israelites from Judah who fled to Egypt fit right into this category of fools. Jeremiah and other prophets had repeatedly warned the people of Judah to cease from their idolatry, their worship of false gods. Yet they would not listen. As a result, the Lord used the Babylonians to chastise the nation, by bringing destruction upon them, decimating the cities and their capital Jerusalem.
Here we see that those who left Judah to Egypt again did not learn from their mistakes. In Judah, they had practiced idolatry by worshipping the queen of heaven in burning incense, giving offerings, pouring out drink offerings, and making cakes formed in the image of the goddess. It was because of this practice and their refusal to repent that the judgment of Babylon came upon them.
Yet they refused to believe this was the cause of their hardship. For in Egypt, they claim that their hunger was because they had not been worshipping the queen of heaven as they had before. Thus, in spite of the prophet’s warning from the Lord, those who fled to Egypt vowed to engage in this evil practice again.
Jeremiah brought the Lord’s word to them that all along, this was their gross error, that is idolatry. They had trusted in gods that were not gods instead of trusting the Lord God of Israel. They had constantly rejected the Lord’s word through the prophet and for this they now would pay the price. They would die in Egypt by the sword and by famine.
Only a few in number would escape the destruction and return to Judah. These would know that the Lord’s word stands as the truth.
It is unfortunate that today we find a unique parallel in Christendom. There are people who make mistakes by not following the ways of God. They pay the price for their sins and yet turn around and do the same things over and over again. Some have financial problems as a result of borrowing money to buy stuff they do not need with money that they cannot repay. Yet they continue to borrow more and more, and accumulate more and more debt. Some may have a drinking problem and yet continue to put themselves in vulnerable positions where they continue to imbibe.
It is true, a dog returns to its vomit. Many people fail to learn.
