Finding True Comfort Among Empty Idols

Hear the word that GOD has spoken to you, O House of Israel! Thus said GOD:Do not learn to go the way of the nations,And do not be dismayed by portents in the sky;Let the nations be dismayed by them! For the laws of the nations are delusions:For it is the work of a craftsman’s hands.He cuts down a tree in the forest with an ax, He adorns it with silver and gold,He fastens it with nails and hammer,So that it does not totter. They are like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch,They cannot speak.They have to be carried,For they cannot walk.Be not afraid of them, for they can do no harm;Nor is it in them to do any good. O ETERNAL One, there is none like You!You are great and Your name is great in power. Who would not revere You, O Sovereign of the nations?For that is Your due,Since among all the wise of the nationsAnd among all their royaltyThere is none like You. But they are both dull and foolish;[Their] doctrine is but delusion; It is a piece of wood, Silver beaten flat, that is brought from Tarshish,And gold from Uphaz,The work of a craftsman and the goldsmith’s hands;Their clothing is blue and purple,All of them are the product of skilled workers. But the ETERNAL is truly God—A living God,The everlasting Sovereign.At God’s wrath, the earth quakes,And nations cannot endure such rage. Thus shall you say to them: Let the gods, who did not make heaven and earth, perish from the earth and from under these heavens. [God] made the earth by might,Established the world by wisdom,And with understanding stretched out the skies. When [God] bellows, There is a rumbling of water in the skies;Vapors rise from the end of the earth,Lightning accompanies the rain,And wind is brought forth from God’s treasuries. Every mortal is proved dull, without knowledge;Every goldsmith is put to shame because of the idol,For their molten images are a deceit—There is no breath in them. They are delusion, a work of mockery;In their hour of doom, they shall perish. Not like these is the Portion of Jacob—The One who formed all things,With Israel as a permanent possession—Whose name is GOD of Hosts. Gather up your bundle from the ground,You who dwell under siege! For thus said GOD: I will fling away the inhabitants of the land this time: I will harass them so that they shall feel it. Woe unto me for my hurt,My wound is severe!I thought, “This is but a sicknessAnd I must bear it.” My tents are ravaged,All my tent cords are broken.My children have gone forth from meAnd are no more;No one is left to stretch out my tentsAnd hang my tent cloths. For the shepherds are dullAnd did not seek GOD;Therefore they have not prosperedAnd all their flock is scattered. Hark, a noise! It is coming,A great commotion out of the north,That the towns of Judah may be made a desolation,A haunt of jackals. I know, O ETERNAL One, that mortals’ road is not theirs [to choose],That people, as they walk, cannot direct their own steps. Chastise me, O ETERNAL One, but in measure;Not in Your wrath, lest You reduce me to naught. Pour out Your wrath on the nations who have not heeded You,Upon the clans that have not invoked Your name.For they have devoured Jacob,Have devoured and consumed him,And have laid desolate his homesteads.

Jeremiah 10:1–20 contrasts the silent, lifeless idols of the nations with the living, sovereign God who made the heavens by wisdom. The passage calls sufferers away from the empty comforts of human-made religion toward the comfort of knowing the One true God, whose voice shakes the earth but whose presence sustains His people.