Idol Worship Is Idle Worship

Transcript

GR 458
09/26/82
Idol Worship Is Idle Worship
Jeremiah 10:1-25
Gil Rugh

Chapter 10 is a well-known section because of its satirical treatment of idolatry. God describes how He sees the gods of this world. In some ways it is humorous except that it is too serious to be funny. It is very sarcastic. You hear much today about not making fun of other people’s religion or manner of worship, and yet we find in Jeremiah 10 the God of all the earth making fun of the idols and gods of the peoples of the world.

This section drives home the contrast between the true and living God and the idols of the world. It shows what happens with the idols that men make. Men want a god they can worship, but they want that god to be a god they can control. So they have a god they construct with their own minds and hands. Then they proceed to worship that god which means they are worshiping their own creation. All worship apart from the worship of the true and living God as revealed in the Scripture is worship of the creation and not of the Creator.

Not everyone who is worshiping idols has literally constructed an idol out of wood or metal. But multitudes of people are worshiping a god they have constructed out of their own thinking. This is what my god is like; this is what my god does. My god would not do this; my god would do this.

So often people’s gods are gods of their own creation. If my god is not the God who has revealed Himself in Scripture, then my god is a creation of my mind. How do I know if my God is the One who has revealed Himself in creation? I measure it by His revelation; it is there I find whether or not I am worshiping the true and living God. It is amazing that this satire on idolatry would be given to the people who proclaimed themselves to be the people of God--the people that God Himself had called to be His special possession. Yet they had deteriorated and degenerated into worshiping the creation of their own hands.

In chapter 10 God is speaking to Israel. This passage shows how God Himself sees the gods of this world. We need to be careful that we have God’s sensitivity and approach on these issues. “Hear the word which the Lord speaks to you, O house of Israel. Thus says the Lord, ‘Do not learn the way of the nations, and do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens although the nations are terrified by them’” (vv. 1,2). God is instructing His people: Do not get your religious instruction from the peoples of the world. Do not look around to see what others are doing to find out how you ought to worship God or what is acceptable to Him.

What is one of the criticisms of biblical Christianity? It is so narrow, so exclusive. That is exactly what God says in these verses. Do not get your religious knowledge from the nations of the world, from the peoples around you.

In verse 2 God says, “Do not be terrified by the signs of the heavens.” The things that go on in the heavens ought to have no effect on us. This is a broad statement and encompasses special things like an eclipse, shooting stars and astrology. These things were a major part of worship in the world, and things have not changed. You can still pick up astrology books and magazines and read the astrology charts in the newspapers. People plan their lives around the signs of the heavens. That has nothing to do with us. In fact, there is nothing to it. Sometimes even Christians develop a superstition about these kinds of things--idols, astrology, etc. There is nothing to them at all. They are empty.

He goes on in verse 3, “For the customs of the peoples are delusion.” Literally vanity, emptiness. There is nothing to them. They appear to be something that they are not. This is referring to their religious customs and practices. “Because it is wood cut from the forest, the work of the hands of a craftsman with a cutting tool” (v. 3). This refers to the idols they set up. They go out and cut down a tree. A craftsman takes a cutting tool, chisels away on it and makes a god. “They decorate it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers so that it will not totter” (v. 4).

It does not matter whether you have a golden idol or a cheap, wooden idol. You still do not have anything. Materially speaking, the golden idol would be worth more than the wooden idol. Spiritually speaking, neither one is of any value at all. If you have more money, it does not mean that you are able to construct more of a god. When you have a golden idol, you have something that a workman has crafted with his own hands. Is that any more valuable than a wooden idol that a craftsman has crafted with his own hands? If you have the work of your hands, all you have is the work of your hands.

Some people think I come down hard on other religions. I have to say that from studying Jeremiah I do not believe I have been hard enough. Note what God says at the end of verse 4: “They fasten it with nails and with hammers so that it will not totter.” This is a great god! If you do not nail him down he will fall over, so you have to be sure you fasten your god down tightly. You would not want him to get broken.

I love this next statement. “Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field are they, and they cannot speak; they must be carried, because they cannot walk! Do not fear them, for they can do no harm, nor can they do any good” (v. 5). A piece of wood is a piece of wood is a piece of wood! The same is true of a piece of gold or a piece of silver or whatever; it has not changed. It is just like a scarecrow that a farmer would put in a field. It is put there in a garden to scare away the birds. There is really nothing to that scarecrow. It is ridiculous. It is just something that has been made. It is a delusion. The scarecrow is placed in the field to fool dumb animals which would not know the difference between a delusion and reality.

That is what the gods of the world are. They can do no harm, and they can do no good. Sometimes Christians get confused, especially when studying demonic things. They think that if you have any kind of idol or a representative that could be connected with any of that, you had better get rid of it because there can be evil influences around it. Hogwash! I am not saying everybody ought to fill their houses with idols. If you have a piece of wood on a bookshelf that is constructed in the form of an idol or in the form of anything else, it is irrelevant. It is just a piece of wood.

I do not believe in the evil eye and hocus-pocus and all the other junk. I do not mind if people burn this stuff to get rid of it. That is fine. But we do no need to be afraid. There is a superstition that even Christians claim. But Jeremiah’s message from God is that they cannot do any harm; they cannot do any good. They are nothing but the creation of human hands. What makes an idol wrong is the worship people give to it. An idol is nothing; it is a piece of wood or a piece of metal.

Contrast that with verse 6: “There is none like Thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and great is Thy name in might.”

Look at some parallel passages, and then we will come back and see the balance in Jeremiah. Isaiah 40 gives the contrast of what God is like and what idols are like. “All the nations are as nothing before Him, they are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless. To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, a goldsmith plates it with gold, and a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot; he seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter” (Isaiah 40: 17-20). This has the same emphasis as Jeremiah. The people decorate it. The poor have to do with what they have, but they would want to find a piece of wood that does not rot, because it is no good to have a god that is rotting. If you have a little more money, get the precious metal. But in reality you still do not have anything.

Isaiah continues: “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the vault of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, scarcely have they been sown, scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, but He merely blows on them, and they wither, and the storm carries them away like stubble” (vv. 21-24). How many great and powerful men who were supposedly influencing the course of world events have been gone in an instant of time, even in our own generation? It shows how frail and weak man really is.

“‘To whom then will you liken Me that I should be his equal?’ says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars, the One who leads forth their host by number He calls them all by name” (vv. 25,26). That is amazing! We cannot even number the stars, yet God could tell you the names of each one. “Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power not one of them is missing” (v. 26). He keeps track of every single one of the billions of stars. He knows where they are, has ordained their function and calls them by name. Now you can see the difference. The best that frail, transitory man can do is make a god like himself--weak, frail, impotent. But there is only one true and living God.

Look at Isaiah 41:7: “So the craftsman encourages the smelter, and he who smoothes metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, saying of the soldering, ‘It is good’; and he fastens it with nails, that it should not totter.” Do you see that continual emphasis? The powerlessness of the gods is demonstrated by the fact that you have to be careful to brace them up. That weakness should be obvious.

In First Samuel chapter 5 the Philistines captured the Ark of the Covenant, the place where God manifested His presence. They brought it to their key city, Ashdod. “Then the Philistines took the ark of God and brought it to the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon” (v. 2). Dagon was the god of the Philistines. “When the Ashdodites arose early the next morning, behold Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. So they took Dagon and set him in his place again” (v. 3) Does that shake your confidence? Woops, my god fell down; excuse me while I stand him up again. “But when they arose early the next morning, behold, Dagon had fallen on his face to the ground before the ark of the Lord. And the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off on the threshold; only the trunk of Dagon was left to him” (v. 4). That really hurts. Now their god does not have a head or any arms.

You would think that would make an impression, that the Philistines would gather up Dagon and use him for firewood. Not at all. “Therefore neither the priests of Dagon nor all who enter Dagon’s house tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod to this day” (v. 5). The threshold became sacred. They would not even step on it because that was the place where their god lost his head. They missed the point that this was a god who was worthless and useless. They became even more superstitious. Do not step on the threshold; Dagon fell there and broke off his head. We think that is so ridiculous, but it shows how foolish the gods of men really are.

Isaiah records in Isaiah 44:6,7: “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, and there is no God besides Me. And who is like Me?’” He continues in verses 9-11: “Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men.” If you start out with what a mere man creates, what do you have? A reflection of that man.

“. . . Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame. The man shapes iron into a cutting tool, and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers, and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary” (vv. 11,12). He is talking about the frailty of the man who is creating this god. He gets hungry, tired, thirsty and weary. Isaiah continues, “Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes, and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house. Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak, and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow” (vv. 13,14).

Now Isaiah is going to point out that the same tree is used for a variety of things. “Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image, and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, ‘Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire.’ But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, ‘Deliver me, for thou art my god.’ They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend” (vv. 15-18). Do you see how ridiculous it is? You take the same tree and put half of it in the fireplace to keep yourself warm, and the other half you make into your god to protect and keep you. It is the same piece of wood! But men do not comprehend. They become very jealous for their god.

We did not complete the account in First Samuel 5, but the Philistines wanted to get rid of the Ark of the Covenant which is the presence of the God of Israel. They were not drawn to the God of Israel, but they felt they had to get rid of Him. Otherwise their god would be broken into pieces. They did not give up their god. They just looked for a way to avoid the true and living God. That is exactly the way people are today. They do not want to give up their religion or their way of worship, so they do not want to hear the truth and be confronted with the reality of the futility and vanity of worship apart from the true and living God.

God says through Isaiah in chapter 46, “To whom would you liken Me, and make Me equal and compare Me, that we should be alike? Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh silver on the scale hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; they bow down, indeed they worship it. They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; they set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; it cannot deliver him from his distress” (vv. 5-7).

Turn back to Jeremiah 10 for the contrast. “There is none like Thee, O Lord; Thou art great, and great is Thy name in might. Who would not fear Thee, O king of the nations? Indeed it is Thy due! For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like Thee. But they are altogether stupid and foolish in their discipline of delusion--their idol is wood!” (vv. 6-8) The word translated discipline is the word for instruction. He is saying that they get their instruction from vanity or emptiness because their god is a piece of wood. What can they learn from a piece of wood that they themselves made? The priests of these religions come and say this is what our god wants us to do, but their god is a piece of wood so their instruction is emptiness.

The contrast continues in verses 9 and 10: “Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of a craftsman and of the hands of a goldsmith; violet and purple are their clothing; they are all the work of skilled men. But the Lord is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.”

Do you have the contrast fixed in your mind? The gods of the world are nothing. You have nothing to be afraid of from the gods that men proclaim. We need have no superstitious fear about pieces of wood, pieces of metal, books, etc. There is no power of evil hovering around them. At a future time we will consider the forces of the demonic world behind idol worship, but the idols themselves are nothing. The true and living God is everything.

God is going to destroy all these other gods. The description is given in verses 11-14, “Thus you shall say to them, ‘The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.’ It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom; and by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain, and brings out the wind from His storehouses. Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge” (vv. 11-14). People really get offended when you use that kind of language. What does God say? Men are stupid, devoid of knowledge.

“Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols; for his molten images are deceitful, and there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of mockery; in the time of their punishment they will perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these; for the Maker of all is He, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; the Lord of hosts is His name” (vv. 14-16).

Believers need to be careful, because we think we ought to respect other people’s religions and forms of worship. I cannot respect what God does not respect. Who gave me the prerogative to say do not speak unkindly of other people’s worship and gods? Am I going to tell God how He should speak? He tells me how to speak! He says they are stupid. It is a cause of shame that people should worship anything other than the true and living God.

You may object, But people claim they are worshiping the true and living God. Israel claimed that too. The measurement is, Do they worship Him in spirit and in truth? Is their worship according to the Word of God? Do they come in faith believing that the Son of God is God’s provision for their salvation through His death and resurrection? If not, they are worshiping a delusion. They are stupid. They are fools. They are shamed by their worship, and they are destined for destruction.

There is something significant here which we saw in Isaiah as well. The constant evidence offered for the greatness of the true and living God is His work of creation. According to verse 12, “It is He who made the earth by His power, who established the world by His wisdom; and by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.”

Where have men launched great assaults on the creative character of God? Go to the average universities of this country. Do they proclaim the doctrine that God created the heavens and the earth? The big fuss in schools today is whether or not you should even be allowed to teach creation. What have they done? They have replaced God, and they are even trying to dismantle the evidence that God has given for His own greatness and power. When you look at the heavens, you are not to see the handiwork of God. You are to see the results of chance! When you look at the created world, you are not to see the power of God displayed. You are just to see the natural outworking of some freak accidents. What are they doing? They are attacking the very character of God.

So we see that things have not changed. Men do not want to believe there is an almighty God who has brought it all into existence, who controls it all by His power. So they replace Him. Some of these are very religious people. They do not believe the Scripture, the evidence that God gives of Himself. I am not saying there is no one at our universities who believes in creation. I am sure there are a few who do.

We need to be careful. Even Christians begin to cringe. They back up and say, I am being unscientific, so maybe I should make an adjustment. Does it really matter if God created it? It totally matters! The whole Scripture collapses upon itself if God is not who He says He is, doing what He says He does. Christians need to be more bold in standing for the testimony that God has given of Himself.

The result of false worship is always judgment. That is the theme of Jeremiah. If you are not worshiping the true and living God as He has instructed, then you are destined for doom and destruction.

You have to understand that judgment is appointed for those who worship any other god in any other way. Verse 17 says, “Pick up your bundle from the ground, you who dwell under siege!” He is telling them to pick up their little bundle of belongings because they are on their way to exile. The Babylonians are coming, and they are going to defeat the people. They will carry them away into bitter exile.

What about all these gods they have? They are no good. You might as well put that piece of wood in your knapsack too; maybe you will need a fire to keep you warm! “For thus says the Lord, ‘Behold, I am slinging out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will cause them distress, that they may be found’” (v. 18). The picture is of a slingshot, and they are going to be propelled out by God in judgment.

Beginning in verse 19, Jeremiah identifies with all that goes on. “Woe is me, because of my injury! My wound is incurable. But I said, ‘Truly this is a sickness, and I must bear it.’ My tent is destroyed, and all my ropes are broken; My sons have gone from me and are no more. There is no one to stretch out my tent again or to set up my curtains” (vv. 19,20). Jeremiah will be involved in the judgment that he sees. He is not being punished by God, but he will suffer with the people as God’s judgment comes on them.

Note the reason given in verse 21: “For the shepherds have become stupid and have not sought the Lord; therefore they have not prospered, and all their flock is scattered.” The way that Satan still works today is for the shepherds, the religious leaders, to lead people astray. There is a movement abroad where even believers want to see if we can have some point of agreement. The shepherds are not leading people according to the Word of God. Therefore they are scattered with judgment. Should we be tolerant of that? We do not see the situation as serious as God sees it.

We do not have God’s perspective on the issue of religion and worship; the lines are not drawn clearly any longer. We want to erase the lines, but God’s lines are clear. We may not like it, but He does not particularly care. The God of all creation has not had to stop everything to come down and ask me, What do you think about this, Gil? Do you think this will be too hard? Is this line drawn too fast? He tells me how it is. The shepherds have become stupid. He is not talking about their IQ, but in the religious realm they are ignorant of the true and living God. So you have the disaster of the people being scattered to judgment.

“The sound of a report! Behold, it comes--a great commotion out of the land of the north--to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt of jackals. I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself; nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps” (vv. 22,23). A significant point in this entire section is that the sovereign God is in control of everything. Not just the created world of the planets and the earth, the elements of rain and lightning, but the personal destiny of human beings. The eternal God superintends it all. We fail to realize how powerful God really is. What an affront it is to the true and living God that people should be flocking to places today to worship gods. They fail to understand the almighty being that we are really dealing with. We ought to tremble in reverent fear before Him, awed by this God. Believers do not really pause and think of the God we serve. Otherwise we would reflect more of His character, more of His attitude in dealing with these situations. We think we have such big hearts when really we are reflecting a lack of appreciation for who God really is.

“Correct me, O Lord, but with justice; not with Thine anger, lest Thou bring me to nothing” (v. 24). Jeremiah admits the need for correction, but he says, “O God, do it gently or I will be reduced to nothing.” He recognizes that he needs to be chastened, but he also knows he is nothing before God. And if God does not restrain Himself, Jeremiah will be wiped away.

Jeremiah concludes this section by asking God to bring judgment on the nations that judge Israel. And that is exactly what God does. “Pour out Thy wrath on the nations that do not know Thee, and on the families that do not call Thy name; for they have devoured Jacob; they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation” (v. 25). God is going to use the Babylonians to judge Israel. But then He is going to judge the Babylonians for not worshiping Him. The Babylonians ought to see themselves as an instrument in God’s hands and submit themselves to God, but they did not. They were proud that they had conquered Israel.

Jeremiah’s prayer for Babylon’s judgment will be answered. How many of you have met a Babylonian lately? Not too many. How many of you have seen any of the gods of the Babylonians lately? Not unless you happen to pick up a history book that has a drawing or a picture of one in it or unless you have been to a museum. What has happened? God has wiped them all out just like He said He would. The tragedy is that the people of God have had to bear the chastening hand of God because of their rebellion against Him.

What is your God like? A few years ago there was a book entitled Your God Is Too Small. I think that is so true of believers. What is your God really like? Who is your God? You say, “Oh the God of the Bible, I am sure.” Have you ever recognized that what He says is true? That you are a sinner? Maybe a very religious sinner, but a sinner nonetheless because all of us are. Have you understood that this holy and living God provided His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on a cross to pay the penalty for sins? That He raised Him from the dead because the penalty had been paid? Have you ever recognized that truth for yourself personally? Have you believed that you are a sinner and that Jesus Christ the Son of God died for you? There is no way to be forgiven of your sins except by faith in Him. Not by church membership, baptism, circumcision, doing good, etc., but only by faith in Him. If you have not believed that, you are not worshiping the true and living God. You may be coming to church week after week going through the motions, but you are not worshiping the true and living God unless you do it according to His instructions. Those truths are the foundation for a personal relationship with His Son, Jesus Christ. If you are not worshiping according to that pattern, the end is destruction, ruin and ultimately eternity in hell.

If you have trusted Christ, do you really function consistently with His character? What do you think of as your God? Do you realize He has everything under control? Do you function with full assurance and confidence that you are His child being directed by Him? Are you confident that the affairs of this world and the turmoil of this life are under His control? If so, whatever He does is fine with you because your God has it all in His control.