I remember the first time I read through the book of Jeremiah many, many years ago. I remember thinking "he could be talking about the modern times" and crying along side his words for the nations and the chaos...
And each time since, I think the world can't get much worse and really nothing has changed...it is still chaos in many ways, and plus we get the chaotic news faster now...
I can hold in my hand a piece of manmade equipment which connects me usually effortlessly to anywhere in the world, as well as updates in new languages the Jesus Film...this morning it is up to 1646 mother languages...it started a 1340 when I got the app...
This little idol that people wait for with baited breath...is useful and worshiped at the same time, it is a tool...
Then I look around, wondering what else manmade has turned into idols...and the list is almost limitless...where do I spend my time, what do I look at first, how do I treat it, the list goes on...
So I was humored by the phase..."a scarecrow in a cucumber field or a melon patch" depending on the translation ....in Jeremiah 10...he describes how the idols are build by men, worships by men...when the Creator of all is desiring our worship...who is living, loving, eternal, deserving of worship...thank YOU...
What do I idolized..?
Hear what the Lord says to you, people of Israel.
This is what the Lord says: “Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the heavens, though the nations are terrified by them. For the practices of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel.
They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter.
Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk.
Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.”
No one is like you, Lord; you are great, and your name is mighty in power. Who should not fear you, King of the nations?
This is your due. Among all the wise leaders of the nations and in all their kingdoms, there is no one like you.
They are all senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols.
Hammered silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from Uphaz. What the craftsman and goldsmith have made is then dressed in blue and purple— all made by skilled workers.
But the Lord is the true God; he is the living God, the eternal King.
When he is angry, the earth trembles; the nations cannot endure his wrath. “Tell them this: ‘These gods, who did not make the heavens and the earth, will perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’”
But God made the earth by his power; he founded the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens by his understanding.
When he thunders, the waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth.
He sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.
Everyone is senseless and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols.
The images he makes are a fraud; they have no breath in them. They are worthless, the objects of mockery; when their judgment comes, they will perish.
He who is the Portion of Jacob is not like these, for he is the Maker of all things, including Israel, the people of his inheritance — the Lord Almighty is his name.
Jeremiah 10:1-16
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