Jeremiah the Weeping Prophet - No. 15
Jeremiah 10 - Turn from Idols
The first section of Jeremiah chapter 10 reveals God’s instruction regarding idols.
“Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel. This is what the Lord says:
“Do not learn the ways of the nations
or be terrified by signs in the heavens,
though the nations are terrified by them.Jeremiah 10:1-2
God describes the nations outside of Israel as idolatrous. In other words, their beliefs and practices lead them away from the true God of Israel to destruction. Those who worship idols are terrified by signs in the heavens as they follow an ancient form of astrology, always looking for good and bad signs and omens in the sky. The true God created the heavens and all that is contained therein. Therefore, it was, and still is, dangerously misleading to adjust one’s life based on the things you observe there. It’s ironic that people carefully observe and make decisions based on creation while ignoring the Creator of all that is seen and unseen!
It’s no different when people bow down before the idolatrous creations of their own hands,
For the practices of the peoples are worthless;
they cut a tree out of the forest,
and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field,
their idols cannot speak;
they must be carried
because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them;
they can do no harm
nor can they do any good.
Jeremiah 10:3-6
Unlike these handmade statues and forms, God is the One who created us! We cannot manipulate Him. Instead, we should bow before Him and worship Him with all that we have. The very earth we walk on trembles before Him, and no one can stand before Him in His immensity and majesty!
But the Lord is the true God;
he is the living God, the eternal King.
When he is angry, the earth trembles;
the nations cannot endure his wrath.
Jeremiah 10:10
In the Western world, most of us don’t have traditional idols in our homes. We don’t have elaborately decorated and painted statues that we kneel before, but we carry gadgets made by human hands that we bow our heads before far more than we bow before the Lord. We don’t think of something like our cell phones as an idol, but when we turn to an object like that for comfort, pleasure, wisdom, and entertainment more than we turn to the Lord, that is exactly what it has become!
Jeremiah compares the works of man’s hands with the reality and power of God. We should never be more focused on things that are made, more than we focus on the “Maker of all things!”
They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes, they will perish.
He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these,
for he is the Maker of all things,
including Israel, the people of his inheritance—
the Lord Almighty is his name.
Jeremiah 10:15-16
In view of the coming destruction from foreign nations, Jeremiah closes chapter 10 with a prayer,
“Lord, I know that people’s lives are not their own;
it is not for them to direct their steps.
Discipline me, Lord, but only in due measure -
not in your anger,
or you will reduce me to nothing.
Pour out your wrath on the nations
that do not acknowledge you,
on the peoples who do not call on your name.
For they have devoured Jacob;
they have devoured him completely
and destroyed his homeland.”
Jeremiah 10:23-25
Jeremiah’s prayerful desire is to receive godly correction and discipline and for the idolatrous nations to receive due punishment for their failure to acknowledge God and desire to destroy His people.
God’s people should expect times of correction and discipline. Revelation 3:19 tells us the words of Jesus who says, “Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.” When you find yourself in a season of correction, remember it is because God loves you! And in response to that love, the only appropriate thing to do is to repent. In other words, align your thoughts with God and not the values and ways of the world (another way of referring to “the nations”)!
Continually surrendering our ways to the Lord will help us follow the living God who loves us too much to let us chase after the idols who are bent on our destruction!