Jeremiah 10:1 - Meaning and Application

The prophet Isaiah, when he spoke about the captivity in Babylon, also warned against idolatry and showed how foolish idol worship is. He did this not only because Babylon would tempt the Jews toward idolatry, but also because their sufferings there were meant to cure them of it. In the same way, Jeremiah warns people here against the idol customs of the nations, not only for those who had gone to Babylon, but also for those who stayed behind. If people were convinced and turned back by God’s word, the rod, meaning the judgment, might be avoided, and this warning is written for our instruction too.

First, the people of God are solemnly told not to copy the customs of the nations. Let the house of Israel hear and accept this word from the God of Israel: do not learn the way of the heathen, do not approve it, do not treat it lightly, and certainly do not imitate it or grow used to it. Do not let their customs slip in among you unnoticed or mix with your worship. It is unworthy of those taught by God to learn the ways of the nations, or to think they can worship the true God with the same rites and ceremonies used for false gods. See (Deuteronomy 12:29-31).

One common pagan practice was to worship the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars. They gave them divine honor and expected help from them. So when they thought the signs in the sky were good or bad, they felt encouraged or discouraged by their gods. That made them watch eclipses, planetary movements, and other unusual events with fear and anxiety. They would stop their business if anything seemed to predict harm. If it only thundered on their left side, they felt almost as if they had been struck by thunder. God did not want his people to be frightened by signs in the sky, or to honor the stars as gods, or to torment themselves with predictions based on them. Let them fear the God of heaven and trust his providence. Then they do not need to dread the signs of heaven, for the stars in their courses do not fight against those who are at peace with God. The nations are frightened by these signs because they know no better, but the house of Israel should not be.

Second, there are several good reasons for this command. The first is that the way of the nations is foolish and absurd, and even common reason condemns it. The laws and customs of the nations are pure emptiness, and they cannot stand up to careful thought. This point is repeated often here, as Isaiah also made clear. The Chaldeans, the people of Babylon, prided themselves on their wisdom and thought they were better than everyone around them, but the prophet shows that they, and all who worship idols and look to them for help, are foolish and without sense.

Think about what the idol is. It was originally only a tree cut from the forest. A craftsman shaped it by hand, cutting and smoothing it into form, as in (Isaiah 44:12). But in the end it was still only a block of wood, more fit for a gatepost than an object of worship. To hide the wood, people covered it with silver and gold, or with gold and silver ornaments. They fastened it in place with nails and hammers so it would not fall, be taken away, or stolen, (Jeremiah 10:4). The image might stand upright and even look noble, standing as straight as a palm tree (Jeremiah 10:5), as if it were ready to speak. But it cannot speak. It is a silent thing. It cannot move even one step to help anyone. If it ever needs to be carried, someone else must carry it in procession, because it cannot go on its own.

So the warning fits here: do not fear them any more than you fear the signs of heaven. Do not fear making them angry, because they can do no evil. Do not fear losing their favor, because they cannot do any good either. And if you think the problem is fixed by making the idol from better materials, you are only fooling yourself. An idol made of gold or silver is no better than a wooden god. The wood is, in truth, a teaching of emptiness, (Jeremiah 10:8). It teaches lies about God. It is a lesson in emptiness, because it is only wood.

The idols of gold and silver likely had wood underneath as a base, with silver brought from Tarshish, across the sea, and gold from Uphaz, or pure gold, (Psalm 21:3). Much art and labor went into them. These were not made by ordinary craftsmen, as the wooden idols were, (Jeremiah 10:3). Skilled workers made them, and the engraver finished the work after the founder. The wooden idols may have had only patches of silver and gold, but these were covered with silver and gold all over. To make them seem fit for kings, they were dressed in blue and purple, the colors of royal clothing, (Jeremiah 10:9). This may impress ignorant worshippers, but it does not improve the idol at all.

What is the idol in the end? The prophet says in (Jeremiah 10:14) that they are falsehood. They are not what they claim to be, only a great deception. People worship them as if they were the gods who give breath, life, and understanding, but these things have no life in them. There is no breath in them, no spirit in them. They are not alive, not inhabited by any divine power, as their worshippers suppose. They are so far from being gods that they do not even have the life of a beast.

They are emptiness and the work of error, (Jeremiah 10:15). If you examine their use, you will find they are useless. No help can come from them, and no trust should be placed in them. They are a deceitful work, a work of illusions, or even a mockery. They trick the people who trust in them, or rather, those people make fools of themselves. If you look more closely, you find that idolatry comes from the worst sort of mistakes, from the confused thinking of people who claimed to be wise. These idols are the product of a deluded mind, and the errors that produced them are passed on to their worshippers.

From this we can also judge the idolaters who worship these idols: they are altogether brutish and foolish.

People who make idols become like them, senseless and foolish, with no spiritual understanding. They have no real use of reason, because if they did, they would never bow down to such things (Jeremiah 10:14). Everyone who makes or worships idols has become brutish in knowledge, meaning they lack the very knowledge they should have had most clearly. In the light of nature, people can see God’s eternal power and divine nature in creation, yet they still become vain in their thoughts and refuse to keep God in mind (Romans 1:18, Romans 1:21). What they thought was wisdom, making many gods, was really the deepest folly. The world through its wisdom did not know God (1 Corinthians 1:21, Romans 1:22).

The maker of an idol is also trapped by it. Once he has made it in error, the image only confirms him in that error. He becomes confused and unable to free himself from the snare, or else he will one day be ashamed of what he has made. By contrast, the God of Israel is the only living and true God. Those who have him as their God do not need to go to any other, and to set up another in rivalry with him is the greatest insult possible.

Let the house of Israel hold fast to the God of Israel and worship him alone. He is unlike any other. The prophet turns from speaking with scorn about the idols of the nations to speaking with deep reverence about the God of Israel (Jeremiah 10:6, Jeremiah 10:7). None of the so-called gods of the nations, none of the dead men they turned into dead images, can compare with him. Some were honored for wisdom, like the greatest philosophers or leaders. Others were honored for rule and power, like their kings. But none of them is like the Lord. What is the fame of a man who invented a useful craft or founded a strong kingdom, compared with the glory of the Creator of the world, who forms the spirit of man within him? What is the greatness of the highest prince compared with the greatness of the one whose kingdom rules over all?

Jeremiah says, "Lord, you are great, and your name is great in power" (Jeremiah 10:6). God has all power, and he is truly known to have it. People’s reputation is often larger than their strength, but God’s name is as great as he really is. So who would not fear you, O King of the nations? Who would not choose to worship such a God rather than dead idols that can do nothing? Who would not be afraid to offend or leave a God whose name is so great in power? If people understood their own best interests, what nation would not fear him who is King over the nations?

There is something fitting and proper about worshiping God alone. It is right that he who is God alone should be served alone, that he who is Lord of all should be served by all, and that he who is great should be greatly feared and praised. His truth is as clear as the emptiness of idols (Jeremiah 10:10). Idols are the work of human hands, so it is plain enough that worshiping them is a mockery, and a serious insult to the One who made us. But the Lord is the true God, the God of truth. He is not a fake or a pretender, as idols are. He is truly what he has shown himself to be, and we can trust him without being deceived.

Look at him in himself, and he is the living God. He is life itself, has life in himself, and is the source of life for every creature. The gods of the nations are dead things, useless and powerless, but our God is living and has immortality. Look at him in relation to his creatures, and he is King, the absolute ruler over all. He owns them, governs them, and has the unquestionable right to command and direct them. As King, he protects them, provides for them, and keeps peace among them. He is an everlasting King. His kingdom has stood from eternity, and it will continue forever. The idols the nations call their kings are only of yesterday and will soon disappear. The kings of the earth who set them up will soon return to dust. But the Lord will reign forever, and his people will be under him for all generations.

No one knows the full power of his anger. That should make us stand in awe and never dare to rob him of the glory that belongs to him alone. When he is angry, the earth trembles, even the strongest kings of the earth. The earth itself, though it seems fixed, can quake when he wills, and the rocks can shake (Psalm 104:32, Habakkuk 3:6, Habakkuk 3:10). Even if the nations joined together against him, they would be completely unable not only to resist him, but even to endure his fury. They could not stand against it, and they could not bear its weight (Psalm 76:7, Psalm 76:8, Nahum 1:6).

He is also the God of nature, the source of all being, and all the powers of nature are under his command (Jeremiah 10:12, Jeremiah 10:13). The God we worship is the one who made heaven and earth and rules over both. So what cannot be seen in him is made plain by what can be seen. If we look back, we find that the whole world came from him as its first cause. Even among the Greeks, there was a saying that anyone who claims to be another god should first make another world. The heathen worship gods they made, but we worship the God who made us and all things.

The earth is enormous and filled with treasures below and more useful fruit above. God made it by his power, and it takes nothing less than infinite power to keep it hanging on nothing, as it does (Job 26:7). The inhabited world is also wonderfully fitted for human life and service. God established it by his wisdom, so it remains useful through constant change and yet keeps a steady order from one generation to the next.

Therefore the earth and the world belong to him (Psalm 24:1). The heavens are stretched out beyond anything we can measure, and it is by God’s wisdom that they stand as they do. He also directs the movements of the heavenly bodies for the good of this lower world. They declare his glory (Psalm 19:1), and they call us to declare it too, instead of giving to the heavens the honor that belongs to their Maker.

If we look up, we see God’s providence, his ongoing care and rule, as a continuing act of creation (Jeremiah 10:13). When he speaks, meaning when he gives the command, there is a great mass of water in the heavens that is poured out on the earth, whether as judgment or mercy, according to his purpose. When he speaks in thunder, rainstorms soon follow, with their many waters and their noise, as the margin reads, and as in the “noise of abundance of rain” (1 Kings 18:41). Yet God also does daily wonders in nature without noise. He makes the vapors rise from the ends of the earth, from every part of it, even the farthest places, and especially from lands near the sea.

All the earth pays this tribute of vapors because all the earth receives the blessing of rain. In that way, the moisture of the world keeps moving, like money in a kingdom or blood in a body, for the good of all. From those vapors come lightning for the rain, and the winds that God brings out of his treasures whenever they are needed, giving them in the right measure and for the right use, like payments from a treasury. All the weather is ready to serve God’s purposes, as if he had treasures of it that can never run out and can be drawn on at any time (Psalm 135:7; Job 38:22-23). God delights in these treasures. What idol of the nations can do anything like this?

There is no kind of weather that does not give us proof of the wisdom and power of the great Creator. This God is Israel’s covenant God, the God who binds himself to his people, and he is the true happiness of every true Israelite. So let the house of Israel cling to him and not leave him for idols. If they do, they are certainly choosing what is worse, because the portion of Jacob is not like the idols. Their rock is not like our Rock (Deuteronomy 32:31), and ours is not like their worthless mounds.

Those who have the Lord as their God have complete happiness in him. The God of Jacob is the portion of Jacob, meaning he is his all, and in him he has enough, both in this world and the next. In him we have a worthy portion (Psalm 16:5). If we are fully satisfied in God as our portion, he will take gracious delight in us as his people. He owns them as the rod of his inheritance, his own possession and treasure, among whom he lives and whom he uses for his service and honor.

This is the great comfort of all the Lord’s people, that the God who is theirs is the maker of all things, and so he is able to do all they need and give all they need. Their help stands in the name of the one who made heaven and earth. He is the Lord of hosts, the Lord over all the armies of heaven and earth. He has them all under his command, and he will put them to work for his people when needed. This is the name by which they know him, the name they first honor, and then use for their own comfort.

In this way, God’s people are happier than all others, happier indeed if they only understood their blessing. The gods the nations boast in, delight in, and assign themselves are empty and false. But the portion of Jacob is not like them.

After comparing the gods of the nations with the God of Israel, where there is no true comparison, the prophet speaks the certain doom of all those false gods. He also tells the Jews, in God’s name, to say this to idol worshipers, even if they are their masters and rulers (Jeremiah 10:11): “This is what you shall say to them: The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish.” Since they are not gods at all, but only steal the honor that belongs to the one who made heaven and earth, they will disappear. They will perish because they are worthless, and they will perish by God’s just sentence because they rival him. As gods, they will vanish from the earth, and from under these heavens, including every thing on earth and in the sky that people wrongly honor as divine, according to the order in the second commandment.

These words are in Chaldee in the original, not in Hebrew like the rest, so the Jews in exile would have them ready to say to the Chaldeans in their own language when the Chaldeans tempted them to idolatry. The meaning is this: “Do you urge us to worship your gods? We will not do that. They are false gods, because they did not make the heavens and the earth. So they have no claim on our worship, and we do not owe them anything, either for the earth’s produce or for the gifts that come from heaven, as we do to the God of Israel.” Early Christians said something like this when urged to worship such a god: “Let him make a world, and then he can be my god.”

As long as we have the one we should worship, the one who made heaven and earth, it is foolish to worship any other. These idols are also doomed gods. They shall perish. The time will come when people will no longer honor them as they do now, but will forget them, and they and their worshipers will fall together. The earth will no longer carry them, and the heavens will no longer cover them, but both will cast them off. This is repeated in Jeremiah 10:15, “In the time of their punishment they shall perish.” When God comes to deal with idolaters, he will make them tired of their idols and glad to be rid of them. They will throw them away to the moles and bats (Isaiah 2:20). Whatever turns against God and true religion will finally be brought down.