The people thought they had the truth. They had seen with their own eyes what was true, or so they thought.

From their own understanding, they perceived that as long as they were honoring the queen of heaven, their lives were great. When they stopped doing it, they lacked in every way and their city was destroyed.

They were sure they knew the truth. They could see it with their own eyes.

It’s hard not to lean on your own understanding, especially when you are sure you understand.

I don’t know what the situation was with them stopping making offerings to the queen of heaven, but we know they didn’t turn to serving the Lord. There wasn’t repentance. How do we know? They just go back to it. If there had been a turning, they would have continued in following the Lord.

They were only as good as their circumstances were going. They only had thoughts of following a god when it would benefit them and make things go the way they wanted.

Is that how you treat God? Do you serve Him no matter what? Or is your relationship with Him and how you are doing and how you are serving dependent on how things are going for you?

Is God worthy of being served if everything is against you?

Are there conditions on your serving God?

We need to serve God because of who He is, not because of what He does for us. He is unchanging, so our service and attitude toward Him should be unchanging. If we are fickle, up and down with how things are going, then we are worshiping ourselves; our own lives are what’s most important to us.

If prayer doesn’t seem to work, do you stop looking to God in prayer? Or do you remain faithful knowing that He will always remain faithful and will always prove faithful?

Honor God. Know who He is and believe it.