The Book of Jeremiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God warns His people against adopting pagan religion: "Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven." The nations lived in fear of omens and astrology; God's people were not to. Why? Because "the customs of the people are vain", empty. Then, with biting sarcasm, Jeremiah describes how an idol is made. It starts as a tree, "one cutteth a tree out of the forest... with the axe." A craftsman shapes it, decorates it "with silver and with gold," and, crucially, fastens it "with nails and with hammers, that it move not", it has to be nailed down so it won't fall over. It stands "upright as the palm tree, but speak not"; it cannot talk, and "they must needs be borne, because they cannot go", it cannot even walk. The verdict is devastating: "Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good." An idol is utterly powerless, unable to help you or hurt you. It is a decorated log. Why fear or serve a god you have to carry?

Gospel Focus

Jeremiah's mockery of idols exposes the folly of every false god, ancient or modern. An idol is anything we make that we then serve, and it always ends the same way: "they must needs be borne, because they cannot go." A god you have to carry can never carry you. This is the great contrast the whole Bible draws, "they that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them" (Psalm 115:8). We become like what we worship, empty if we worship emptiness. And it is not only carved statues. Money, career, image, pleasure, and self are the idols we "deck with silver and gold," nail into place at the center of our lives, and then spend our strength carrying, only to find they "cannot do good." The gospel offers the exact opposite: a God who is not carried but who carries us, "even to your old age... will I carry you" (Isaiah 46:4), a Saviour who "was made flesh" not out of dead wood but living love. Do not fear the empty things the world fears, and do not spend your life hauling around gods that cannot save. Turn to the living God who carries His people.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Having emptied the idols, the prophet turns to worship. "Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might." The LORD is incomparable, and the fitting response is reverent fear: "Who would not fear thee, O King of nations?" Not a tribal deity but the King of all peoples, unmatched "among all the wise men of the nations." By contrast the idol-makers "are altogether brutish and foolish," and their product, "the stock" (the wooden idol), is "a doctrine of vanities", a teaching of emptiness. However costly the materials, silver from Tarshish, gold from Uphaz, royal blue and purple robes, it is still just "the work of cunning men," human craftsmanship dressed up as deity. Then comes the ringing declaration at the heart of the chapter: "But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king." Real, alive, eternal, three things no idol can ever be. And His power is not passive: "at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation." The dead idols do nothing; the living God shakes the earth.

Gospel Focus

"The LORD is the true God, he is the living God." This is the confession that runs through the whole Bible and finds its fullness in Christ. When Peter confessed Jesus, he said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" (Matthew 16:16), and the gospel calls people to "turn from these vanities unto the living God, which made heaven, and earth" (Acts 14:15), and "to serve the living and true God" (1 Thessalonians 1:9). The contrast could not be sharper: idols are dead, made, carried, and mute; our God lives, makes, carries, and speaks. And "there is none like unto thee" is the note of true worship, God is incomparable, in a category utterly His own. For the Apostolic believer, this one living God is the very God who was manifest in the flesh in Jesus, the "King of nations" before whom every knee will bow. The living God is not a distant abstraction but the One who came to us, died, and rose, proving Himself alive. Whatever "vanities" compete for your worship, none can compare with Him. Turn from the dead gods, and serve the living and true God, known to us in Jesus Christ.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Verse 11, the only verse in Jeremiah written in Aramaic (the international language), gives Israel a message to proclaim to the nations: "The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish." The test of a real God is simple, did he make heaven and earth? The idols did not, so they will vanish. But the LORD did: "He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion." He is Creator by power, wisdom, and understanding. And He still rules what He made: at His voice the waters gather in the sky, "he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures." Storms are His servants. Against this, human idol-makers are exposed again: "Every man is brutish in his knowledge... his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them." Idols are "vanity, and the work of errors" that "shall perish." Then the glorious contrast: "The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things." God's people do not possess a dead idol; their portion is the living Creator Himself, "The LORD of hosts is his name."

Gospel Focus

The test God sets in verse 11, the true God is the One who "made the heavens and the earth," leads straight to Christ. The New Testament declares that all creation was made through Jesus: "All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made" (John 1:3), and "by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth" (Colossians 1:16). The "former of all things" who exposes every idol is the same Lord who came in flesh. And notice the tender phrase "the portion of Jacob." God is not merely powerful; He gives Himself to His people as their inheritance and treasure. This is the believer's true wealth, "the LORD is the portion of mine inheritance" (Psalm 16:5), Christ Himself, "in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). The idols are something you own and must maintain; the living God is Someone who owns you and maintains you, and who gives Himself to you as your everlasting portion. When storms rage, remember that the God who "bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures" is your portion. The Creator of heaven and earth, revealed in Jesus, is not a burden you carry but the inheritance that is yours forever.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter closes as exile presses in. The people are told to "gather up thy wares", pack for deportation, for God will "sling out the inhabitants of the land." Then the prophet, speaking for the wounded nation, laments: "Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous," yet with submission, "this is a grief, and I must bear it." His "tabernacle" (tent, home) is "spoiled," his "children are gone forth," carried into exile, "and they are not." He names a chief cause: "the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD; therefore... all their flocks shall be scattered", failed shepherds scatter the sheep. As "a great commotion out of the north" advances, Jeremiah turns to God in three humble petitions. First, a confession of dependence: "the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." Second, a plea for measured discipline: "correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing." He accepts correction but begs it be mercy, not annihilation. Third, a cry that God's justice fall on the cruel nations "that know thee not." In grief, the prophet does the one right thing: he prays.

Gospel Focus

"O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps." This is one of the humblest and wisest confessions in Scripture, and it is deeply gospel. We are not self-sufficient; we cannot chart our own course or secure our own future. "A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps" (Proverbs 16:9). The proud believe they are the masters of their fate; the wise know they need God to guide every step, "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding... and he shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6). And Jeremiah's second prayer is a model for every believer under discipline: "correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger." He does not resent God's correction; he welcomes it, only asking that it be measured mercy. For those in Christ, that prayer is answered forever, God's wrath fell on Jesus, so all that remains for us is the loving correction of a Father, "whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth" (Hebrews 12:6), never condemning anger, "there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:1). Surrender your steps to the God who directs them, and receive His correction as a Father's mercy, not a Judge's fury.