Idolatry

They have ears but cannot hear,

noses, but cannot smell.

They have hands but cannot feel,

feet, but cannot walk.

They cannot make a sound with their throats.

Those who make them are just like them,

as are all who trust in them.

Notice that phrase, “Those who make them are just like them.” Nothing subtle about that. Those who make idols out of scarecrows become like scarecrows. The deafness of the idols is transposed on the heart of the person who deifies them.

The idol has no value, and as such it is nothing like God.

Jeremiah 10:6-16

Here we have the main idea of the chapter. It’s found in verse 6. Simply stated, God is nothing like these false idols.

Derek Kidner describes this chapter as a polemic and a psalm (Message of Jeremiah, 56; Ryken, Jeremiah and Lamentations, 183). A polemic is a strong verbal rant against a wrong. A psalm is, of course, a song. Jeremiah has just dealt a blistering blow against the false idols, calling them out for what they are. The next section compares these idols against the living God.

The song is majestic (vv. 6-10). Unlike the weak idols, God is great, he is wise, he is the true God, and in his wrath the nations quake. The idols are beautiful and powerless; God is invisible and all-powerful.

This is the irony. The God who made all beautiful things is himself invisible. God created all beauty (Gen 1–2), yet God commands us not to create beautiful things to worship (Exod 20:4-6). The beautiful things he created are to be a stimulus for worshiping him (Ps 104). Idolatry is twisted ignorance inasmuch as the creation becomes the object of worship. Idolatry aborts the natural flow of worship through things to God. The material world is then a stimulus for worship.

Perhaps the best way to understand this is by reading Psalm 104. The psalmist praises nature for its glory, but the praise is in transit. It is praise that is moving up to where it belongs, to the Creator. This is how a God-fearing person relates to the universe.

Yet God has done something more profound. It is more profound than his material creation and sets him far apart from the false gods: he created his own people. Jeremiah writes,

Jacob’s Portion is not like these

because he is the one who formed all things.

Israel is the tribe of his inheritance;

the Lord of Armies is his name. (10:16)

The phrase Jacob’s Portion is a title for God that is only used here and in 51:19. “Jacob” was a synonym for the nation of Israel. So while nations had land and monarchies, the real portion, the real inheritance of Israel was God himself. Similarly the psalmist writes,

Lord, you are my portion and my cup of blessing;

you hold my future.

The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance. (Ps 16:5-6)

This reminds us of what Jesus said in Matthew 5:5: the humble will inherit the earth. Jesus’s words do not tell us from whom the humble will inherit the earth, but it is implied of course. God is the one who gives everything to those who humbly trust him. When the Lord is our portion, we really need nothing else. We especially do not need scarecrow idols that look nice but have no power.

Remember the scarecrow in The Wizard of Oz? He was perplexed because he did not have a brain. Oh, what he would do if he only had a brain!

In the end the scarecrow and his friends go to Oz. Of course they find that the wizard is an imposter. In the book he gives the scarecrow a brain, which proves to be fake. As the tale unfolds, the scarecrow finds that he already had all the brains he needed. He really did not need more brains. Rather, he needed confidence in what he already had. This then is another irony in the story. All the brains he needed were within him. The scarecrow becomes a metaphor for personal empowerment.

What we need cannot be given to us by the false gods of this world. What we need cannot be given to us by ourselves if we are only personally empowered to receive it. No, what we need can only be given to us by God. A God who is not distant but personal, a God who is not contrived but real, a God who is not pretense but authentic, a God who is not hiding but is actually granted to us—he is our portion. The things we idolize will continue to take from us until we realize how empty they really are. They are especially empty compared to the God who is our portion.

If Jeremiah could say God is our portion, how much more can we say he is ours, since “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,” calling us to abide in him and he in us (John 1:14)? He is our Portion. He lives in us, and we live in him. Therefore, every idol of my heart should be consumed in the white-hot heat of my love for him.

I stand with a heart on fire for him and hold all things as conduits to his praise, knowing always that these things do not have the power to hold me.