Jeremiah 10

Jeremiah 10:1

THE FOOLISHNESS OF IDOLATRYIn this chapter we see that the people were substituting something for God. People have always had substitutes for God. Anyone who is not worshiping the true and living God has some substitute for Him. It may be that the person himself becomes his godthere are a great number of people who actually worship themselves. Others worship money and are willing to be dishonest to become rich. Others worship fame and will sell their honor in order to obtain some unworthy goal. There are many substitutes for God, and Jeremiah talks about this: People today are still doing what they did in the time of Jeremiah, trying to regulate their lives by the zodiac. They want to know what sign they were born under and all that nonsense. It is given out through our news media as though it were genuine! God warns, “Learn not the way of the heathen.” My friend, the astrology that is being promoted today is something which has been picked up from the pagan world.

Jeremiah 10:3

There are some folk who interpret Jeremiah’s denunciation of idolatry to be a condemnation of the modern Christmas tree. That is utterly preposterous and ridiculous. Jeremiah is not talking about Christmas treesnobody in his day had a Christmas tree! He is talking to his people about worshiping idols. “The customs of the people are vain"they are empty. Obviously Jeremiah is talking about idolatry. He is ridiculing with bitter irony the idolatry of his day. He reminds them that they go out to the woods, cut down a tree, shape it into an image, deck it with silver and gold, fasten it with nailsand that’s their god! It is like worshiping a scarecrow! Now, my friend, if at Christmas time you fall on your knees before your Christmas tree and worship it, Jeremiah’s warning could have reference to you.

But I don’t know of even an unsaved pagan in the country who worships a Christmas tree. They use it as a decoration, then throw it out with the trash when Christmas is over. Rather than worshiping a Christmas tree, the danger I see is the worship of self at Christmastimegetting everything possible for self.

Jeremiah 10:6

The Lord cannot be compared to anything. How ridiculous it is to turn from the true and living God to worship the things around you and get your leading from the zodiac!

Jeremiah 10:11

The gods of the heathen did not create the universe. Our God, the living God, created it.

Jeremiah 10:12

The stars are up there in their places because God put them there. He placed them where He wanted them. He didn’t ask you or me how we wanted them arranged. This is His universe, and He is the only One who is worthy of our worship. We may smile at the people of previous centuries who cut down a tree to make a god. We call ourselves intelligent and civilized; yet our people spend millions of dollars to try to discern their future by the zodiac, going to fortune-tellers and palm readers and all that sort of thing. If people today are so intelligent, why don’t they worship the living and true God and get into reality?

Jeremiah 10:23

No man can walk aright apart from the revelation of God in His Word. The minute a man turns from the Word of God, he is on a detour. That is our natural course. In fact, we begin that way. I used to take my little grandson for a walk around the block when he was learning to walk. He was a wonderful little fellow, but he wore me out because he wanted to walk up the sidewalk of every house we passed; and when we came to a driveway, he would want to run out in the street, and when we would get to a corner he would want to go the wrong way.

I have never seen a little fellow who wanted to go in as many wrong ways as he did. One day when we finally got home, I said to him, “Kim, you’re just like your grandfather. When he gets away from the Word of God, he always goes down a detour.” My friend, “it is not in man …to direct his steps.” We are dependent upon the omniscient God for direction in every area of our lives.