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. v.18
Read chapter 44
When a sin is given up it seems as if anything good is gone, yet that pain or seemingly loss can actually be God's favor for our good. These people are arguing that the worship and sacrifice to the queen of heaven brought them prosperity and good and when they didn't do it they only had calamity. Yet they were looking at prosperity with the lenses of the world and not of God. They got caught up in superstitions that appeared to be provisions of the queen of heaven based on their worship and offering to her. God had provided their every need, yet it was when their hearts went astray from Him that they desired not what they needed but what the lusts of their flesh desired, fixing their eyes on the things of this world rather than on God. What they thought they wanted and needed was only a temporary, short-term fulfillment and not the enduring satisfaction that God could provide. Sin brings short-term pleasure and is why people continue to do it over and over again to continue that filling their searching for thinking they're getting what they want, but only God can satisfy our every need. It may hurt at first stopping the sin of what you have clung to for so long, but when God fills that emptiness you fill it is a million times greater than any cheap sin fulfillment. What sin is deceiving you for more benefit than what God provides?
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