Jeremiah 10: 1 – 25
All dressed up and nowhere to go
1 Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the LORD: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. 3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 4 They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. 5 They are upright, like a palm tree, and they cannot speak; They must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.” 6 Inasmuch as there is none like You, O LORD (You are great, and Your name is great in might). 7 Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You. 8 But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. 9 Silver is beaten into plates; It is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the metalsmith; Blue and purple are their clothing; They are all the work of skillful men. 10 But the LORD is the true God; He Is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation. 11 Thus you shall say to them: “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.” 12 He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion. 13 When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens: “And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, He brings the wind out of His treasuries.” 14 Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; For his molded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 15 They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish. 16 The Portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of hosts is His name. 17 Gather up your wares from the land, O inhabitant of the fortress! 18 For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will throw out at this time the inhabitants of the land, and will distress them, that they may find it so.” 19 Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is severe. But I say, “Truly this is an infirmity, and I must bear it. 20 My tent is plundered, and all my cords are broken; My children have gone from me, and they are no more. There is no one to pitch my tent anymore or set up my curtains. 21 For the shepherds have become dull-hearted, and have not sought the LORD; Therefore, they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered. 22 Behold, the noise of the report has come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, a den of jackals. 23 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. 24 O LORD, correct me, but with justice; Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing. 25 Pour out Your fury on the Gentiles, who do not know You, and on the families who do not call on Your name; For they have eaten up Jacob, devoured him and consumed him, and made his dwelling place desolate.
Many of us a familiar with today’s topic. I think most of us at a point in our lives experienced this first hand. We were prepared for an event all dressed up and ready to go and then it failed to materialize.
The phrase was used in 1913 when a threesome wrote a song for the show ‘The Beauty Shop’ and called the song, ‘When you’re all dressed up and no place to go’.
In the town of Thermon, Maryland a tombstone bares this phrase and is very close to the truth of today’s chapter. It reads, ‘Here lies an atheist. All dressed up and no place to go.’
Our Great and Wonderful Living God challenges the Israelites to think. They were gathering in their secret shrines where sexual wantonness was the major draw in these religious endeavors. The people would make little statues of stone or metal and then dress them up. The people would pray and bow down to these man-made objects that were never real or alive. Obviously, they were all dressed up but had nowhere to go.
This passage, in a sequence of verses, compares the futility of idols with the greatness of YHWH. They are introduced here to expand on what has been said in 9.24 about ‘understanding and knowing YHWH’. To bring out what understanding and knowing YHWH means he compares Him in a fourfold way with other so-called gods. Jeremiah sees it as important that the people of Judah fully recognize just Who and What YHWH Is. He Is not just the greatest of all gods. He Is the God Who Is totally and uniquely different.
So, the idols are seen to be manmade, whereas YHWH Himself made everything. The idols are all like each other (there is little to choose between them) while YHWH is incomparable. The idols are made of earthly materials while YHWH Is the everlasting King before Whom the earth trembles. The idols are devoid of life while YHWH Is the LIVING everlasting King. And yet He has chosen Israel as His inheritance.
We can gain from this a recognition of why God so forcefully condemned representations of Him in any physical form. The utilization of a physical form immediately degrades Him to the level of these false gods, or even to a caricature of Himself. Think how many people think of God as an old man with a white beard because of artistic representations of Him. All such representations bring Him down to the level of His creation. And it can soon result in the undiscerning worshipping the image instead of God Himself. Of course, if we want to control Him, or control people through Him, or minimize His effectiveness in our lives once we have left the site of the image, or want to avoid too much moral application, it is a good idea to make an image of Him. Then at least we can delude ourselves, thinking that by using an image we have got God where we want Him, there to be called on when we feel like it, and to be ignored at other times. But thereby we miss the force of what Jeremiah is saying, that God is not like that. He is the living God, Who cannot be limited to His creation, Who observes us all in the all the details of our daily lives, and before Whom we are all accountable for what we do within those daily lives.
1 Hear the word which the LORD speaks to you, O house of Israel. 2 Thus says the LORD: “Do not learn the way of the Gentiles; Do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven, for the Gentiles are dismayed at them. 3 For the customs of the peoples are futile; For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. 4 They decorate it with silver and gold; They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple. 5 They are upright, like a palm tree, and they cannot speak; They must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.”
The importance of the message being delivered here is initially brought out by the dual reference to YHWH as speaking. It is a special dual call to the house of Israel to hear His word. The lesson being emphasized is that they are not to learn the way of the nations or the customs of the peoples, because they are nothing but a puff of wind. And this includes being dismayed at ‘the signs of the heavens’, which ‘the nations are dismayed at’. Isaiah had spoken of ‘those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at the new moons predict what will befall you’ (Isaiah 47.13) as a warning against using astrology to predict events. These were practices which were common throughout the Ancient Near East and especially in Babylon to which several exiles had already gone and such signs could cause great terror. But Israel were to pay no heed to them.
This warning is a necessary introduction to his contrasts of YHWH with idols. Nothing seemed more convincing to ‘heathen’ minds than the signs in the skies. Surely these were evidence of the activities of the gods? So that argument is immediately dismantled. In fact, He says, such signs and portents are false and unreliable. To take any notice of them is to grasp after a puff of wind, for they do not affect issues one way or another. And it is this very folly that leads on to idolatry. There was a right way to discern the skies, and that was by recognizing that, ‘the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows His handywork, day unto day issues speech, and the night unto night reveals knowledge’ (Psalm 19.1-2). It is through this that we learn of His ‘eternal power and Godhead’ (Roman 1.20) because from their overall impression we gain the concepts of beauty, design and purpose and recognize that they reveal a beautiful, intelligent and purposeful God. But once we go beyond that without special revelation we are getting involved with fantasy.
His first emphasis is on the fact that idols are merely man-made. What they are not is divine.
YHWH goes on to deal with another aspect of the customs of the nations, the worship of idols that they have made for themselves. As explained above this is being used by Jeremiah in preparation for contrasting such idols with YHWH in a series of four contrasts. Such idols, He points out, are man-made. Their existence commences when the forester cuts down a tree with his axe, part of which is then decked with silver and gold and fastened with nails and hammers so that it will not move or fall over (Isaiah 41.7). In other words, it cannot support itself, and if left to itself it would collapse. Nor, being of turned work like a pillar made from a tree, do such idols speak. Furthermore, they cannot ‘go’ on their own with the result that they have to be carried wherever they do go. Thus, they can work neither evil things (storms) nor good things (rain). In consequence they can be seen to be helpless and useless.
In contrast with the man-made idols is the One Who Is great above all things, the incomparable King of the Nations
6 Inasmuch as there is none like You, O LORD (You are great, and Your name is great in might). 7 Who would not fear You, O King of the nations? For this is Your rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You
Thus, YHWH stands out alone. There is none like Him, something stressed in both the first and the last lines. For He Is great, and His Name (representing His essential being and attributes) Is great in might. He Is king of the nations, Lord of the world, and worthy to be looked on with awe, something which is in fact His due. In all the world there are none as wise and kingly as He.
In contrast to YHWH idols are but gilded tree stumps, covered in gold and silver and clothed in blue and purple. They are man’s attempt to give an impression of glory, hoping that it will at least deceive the innocent.
8 But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. 9 Silver is beaten into plates; It is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the metalsmith; Blue and purple are their clothing; They are all the work of skillful men.
The series of contrasts of YHWH with idols continues with a further mocking of idols. In fact the wise of the nations are simply like brute beasts and are foolish, something brought out by the fact that they receive their instruction from a tree trunk! The further different materials from which they are made are brought from different parts of the world, silver plate from Tarshish (possibly Spain or Sardinia), gold from Uphaz. The craftsman and goldsmith then bring the different materials together, after which they are clothed in blue and purple (the colors of royalty) to try to give them some kind of royal status.
In this second description of YHWH we learn that He Is the true God, the living God, Who Is the everlasting King at Whose wrath the whole earth trembles, the One Whom none on earth can resist. Note especially that this is the second emphasis on His kingship and His Lordship over the nations. What a contrast with their mute gods.
10 But the LORD is the true God; He Is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation.
So in contrast to the expensive tree stump, which was all dressed up and nowhere to go, is YHWH, the true God, the living God, the everlasting King seated in splendor, before Whose wrath the earth trembles, Whose indignation the nations cannot live with. It Is He Who Is the One Who Is truly worthy of worship.
The false gods are not only man-made but are also made of perishable materials. They are in no sense creators of Heaven and earth.
11 Thus you shall say to them: “The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”
YHWH then tells Jeremiah to remind Judah/Israel that it is not these gods who have made heaven and earth. They are indeed a part of the earth and will thus perish like all earthly things which are under the heavens.
There is only one God Who has made heaven and earth, and that is YHWH. He established them by His wisdom and by His understanding. And it is He also Who controls the activities of nature.
12 He has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion. 13 When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens: “And He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain, He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”
What a contrast with the earthiness and the perishable natures of these foreign gods Is the One Who has made the earth by His power, and established it by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens by His understanding. When He speaks the heavens are filled with tumultuous waters, constantly renewed from the earth, the rain is accompanied by His lightnings, and He produces winds from His treasuries. It is thus He Who Is the true storm God, not Baal, or Hadad, or any other, and all the resources of heaven and earth are under His control.
The skillful workmen who make idols are (theoretically) put to the blush when it is discovered that there is no life in them. They are unable to make an idol that has life. And they are unable to make one that does not perish when its time comes. They are thus all nothing but a puff of wind and a delusion.
14 Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge; Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image; For his molded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 15 They are futile, a work of errors; In the time of their punishment they shall perish.
The emphasis in Jeremiah’s fourth critique of idols is that they are without life and are a delusion which will perish. Men’s response towards them is simply an indication that man has become ‘brutish’, emphasizing his own connection with the animal world rather than with heaven (Romans 1.18-26). This brings out that such men are without the true knowledge, the knowledge of God. Such idols will only bring shame on their creators, the goldsmiths, and their worshippers, brutish men, for they represent falsehood and are without life. Thus, they are a vanity (a puff of wind) and a work resulting from men’s delusion, a work which will perish when such men are ‘visited’ by YHWH in judgment.
In vital contrast is the One Who molds and shapes all things, the One Who Is the portion of His people, the One Who Is Israel’s God of deliverance, the One Whose Name Is YHWH OF HOSTS, Lord of the hosts of heaven and the hosts of sun and stars, the Lord of all the hosts of the nations, and the Lord of the host of Israel.
16 The Portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of hosts is His name.
In total contrast to these idols is YHWH, the Portion of Jacob. He Is the One Who formed (molded, fashioned, determined) all things and chose Israel as His inheritance. And His Name is YHWH of hosts (controller of the hosts of heaven, the hosts of earth, and of all things - Genesis 2.1).
He has given Himself to His people as their ‘portion’, that is, as the most important thing allotted to them in His scheme of things. The idea here is that it was the Name of YHWH and His truth and covenant for which they were given responsibility, in return for which they received the assurance of His provision and protection.
In response Israel were the tribe of His inheritance, given responsibility to watch over it. There is here an indication of the two-way relationship between God and His people. He Is their God and their Father, they are His people and His children. He Is their Provider and Protector, they are responsible to watch over His interests, obeying Him and walking in His ways.
Having in verses 1-16 made clear YHWH’s superiority to the gods of the nations, and especially the great privilege that He had given to His people in making them His inheritance, He now makes clear that in spite of that fact He intends to sling them out of the land of His inheritance because they have forfeited the right to be there by their sins. This will result in their great grief at what has happened to them, something largely due to the failure of their shepherds. Consequently, the noise of the invasion is heard, and God’s people plead that He will not visit them with His anger but will rather chasten them and visit His anger on their destroyers.
17 Gather up your wares from the land, O inhabitant of the fortress! 18 For thus says the LORD: “Behold, I will throw out at this time the inhabitants of the land, and will distress them, that they may find it so.”
The people are seen as undergoing siege and are not to hope for deliverance but are rather to gather together such possessions as they can, because it is YHWH’s personal assurance that He Is about to sling them out of His land, and will punish them severely enough for them to feel it. This time there will be no great deliverance, and the presence of the Temple will not save them.
‘That they may find.’ includes finding out the truth about themselves in their innermost hearts. Possibly it even includes the fact that in their need some might find YHWH.
19 Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is severe. But I say, “Truly this is an infirmity, and I must bear it.
The people thus express their grief and hurt at what is happening to them, but recognize that it is something that they must bear, an idea which expresses their acknowledgement that it is what they deserve.
20 My tent is plundered, and all my cords are broken; My children have gone from me, and they are no more. There is no one to pitch my tent anymore or set up my curtains.
In picturesque terms the people seen as a whole then prophetically describe their homes as like a tent that has collapsed with its tent ropes broken, and with the children who usually help with the erection of the tent having gone into exile and being as though they were no longer in existence. The consequence is that there is no one to re-establish their homes or make life bearable again.
21 For the shepherds have become dull-hearted, and have not sought the LORD; Therefore, they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
This situation in which they find themselves being due to the fact that their leaders (shepherds) have become like brute beasts rather than seeking YHWH for guidance as to His will. They have been materially minded rather than spiritually minded, seeking to images of things on earth rather than to YHWH in heaven. That is why they have not prospered (or ‘done wisely’) and why the people (their flock) have been exiled and scattered among the nations.
As a direct consequence of their sinfulness they become aware of the sound of approaching invaders.
22 Behold, the noise of the report has come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, a den of jackals.
Sure, enough what they have foreseen is about to come upon them. The news of impending invasion is brought to them by their spies, and a great commotion is heard out of the north country, an indication that the invaders are on the way. The “great commotion” is that of an avenging army on the march, accompanied by the clash of weapons and the stamping and neighing of war-horses. Their aim is to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a place only fit for habitation by jackals (which made their dens in ruins).
23 O LORD, I know the way of man is not in himself; It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps. 24 O LORD, correct me, but with justice; Not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.
Acknowledging that there is not in man the capability of properly directing his ways, or living rightly, the people call on YHWH to correct them. But their prayer is that He will not do it out of anger, but out of compassion and in a measured way, using His carefully weighed judgment, and thus by chastening rather than by destruction. They are clinging to the past hints that they yet have a future. Their aim may well be long term, recognizing that their chastening may have to be severe, but later their false prophets will suggest that it will not be very long, an impression they will seize on but which Jeremiah will have to correct. Their final fear is lest they be ‘brought to nothing’ i.e. be made so small that they are fading out of existence.
There is an important reminder here of man’s own incapacity to fulfil YHWH’s will, and of our need for correction and chastening. But there must be some doubt as to how genuinely they really felt it at this stage or wanted to be changed, otherwise they could have repented and have found mercy. It is rather expressing a hope for them in the long term.
25 Pour out Your fury on the Gentiles, who do not know You, and on the families, who do not call on Your name; For they have eaten up Jacob, devoured him and consumed him, and made his dwelling place desolate.
Meanwhile they pray that YHWH’s full anger will be reserved for the nations who do not know Him, or call on His Name, because of what they have done to YHWH’s people. This ‘doing’ is described in a threefold way as ‘devouring’ (repeated twice), ‘consuming’ and ‘laying waste’ their land, bringing out the severity of the coming judgment. This attitude must possibly be seen as expressing something of their complacency. They are still not convinced that YHWH’s judgment will come on them with such severity, while very much wanting Him to do it to the nations, and still seeing themselves, in spite of their blatant disobedience, as YHWH’s people. In a similar way today, many who have little time for God complacently believe that He will look after their interests in the end. They are possibly in for a rude awakening. Alternately it may be indicating the latent faith of the remnant who will return. Jeremiah no doubt meant it to be an indication that YHWH would finally restore His people, but only once they had learned a hard lesson.
