There is something striking about the response of the people of Judah when Jeremiah rebuked them in Egypt. They actually recalled their own experience: when they offered sacrifices to the ‘Queen of Heaven’, they felt they had enough food and were living in prosperity. Conversely, when they stopped doing so, disaster struck. To them, that experience seemed to prove that what they had been doing all along was not wrong.

However, that is precisely where the problem lies. Experience and habit can shape the way a person judges what is right and what is wrong. Something that is done repeatedly gradually comes to feel normal, whilst something perceived as bringing results is readily accepted as being right. In fact, Jeremiah urges them to re-examine their experiences from a different perspective. The destruction of Judah was not the result of ceasing to offer sacrifices to the ‘Queen of Heaven’, but was linked to their disobedience towards God. In other words, the issue lies not in the experiences they have had, but in the way those experiences are interpreted. Therefore, experience is not always sufficient as a basis for determining the truth. It needs to be re-examined in the light of God’s Word.

We, too, may experience something similar. There are customs that are perpetuated because “everyone else does it too”, “if we don’t do it that way, things won’t get done”, or “it’s always been this way”. Over time, we may stop questioning something not because we are convinced it is right, but because we have become too accustomed to seeing it as the norm. In fact, when that habit seems to yield results, it becomes even harder for us to realise that there is something that needs to be re-examined. This is because something that is constantly present in our lives can gradually come to feel like the truth, when in fact it may simply be a habit that we have never re-examined.