This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not act like the other nations, who try to read their future in the stars. Do not be afraid of their predictions, even though other nations are terrified by them.’ Jeremiah 10:2
She lived at the highest levels of power, and still looked to the stars for answers.
After the assassination attempt on her husband, the wife of a world leader began consulting an astrologer, in secret. For the next seven years, the astrologer’s readings quietly shaped the presidential schedule; virtually no major event was scheduled without first passing through this astrological filter. The astrologer later claimed she had even influenced the timing of superpower arms negotiations[1].
Here was a thoroughly modern woman gripped by fear, looking to the stars for certainty. This is the same impulse God warned against thousands of years ago. At one of Israel’s most dangerous moments, God chose a man named Jeremiah to speak for Him. The Babylonian Empire was rising, the nation was in spiritual chaos, and rather than turning back to God, the people had drifted into the customs of surrounding nations, including consulting the stars. Jeremiah gave a wake-up call: don’t look to the sky for answers, and don’t be swept up in fear. He told the people: “This is what the Lord says: ‘Do not act like the other nations, who try to read their future in the stars’” (Jeremiah 10:2a).
God knows we need wisdom in our chaotic lives. The Bible assures us that “ … the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6), and it assures us, “If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking” (James 1:5). The same God who spoke through Jeremiah is speaking today. Scripture says that God, alone, has all wisdom and power (Daniel 2:20-21) and unlike the stars, He knows your name. If you’ve been looking anywhere but to Him for wisdom, it’s not too late to ask.
[1] Donald T. Regan, For the Record: From Wall Street to Washington (San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1988).
