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What
Is the Meaning of Jeremiah 10?
What
is the teaching of Jeremiah 10?
Jeremiah 10 is about the futility of worshiping idols and the importance
of worshiping the true God above all.
Let’s go through it in more detail below.
The
first part of Jeremiah 10 is an attack on idolatry and paganism. God warns His people to not be afraid of
signs in the sky (verse 1), which may well be an attack on some kind of
astrology and/or fear that people would have about witnessing solar eclipses.
Verses
2-5 describe how worthless it is to worship idols. They are intrinsically inferior to the workmen who made them
since they can’t talk or walk, yet they worship them.
Verses
6-10 make a contrast between the greatest of the true God as compared to
idols. The idols may look impressive,
being made of silver and gold at times, but they still are inferior to the
metalworkers who made them. The true
God is so much more powerful than they are.
Verse
11 reveals that these gods represented by idols will be destroyed.
Verses
12-13 exalt the true God by mentioning He is the Creator and that He has far
more power than anyone else, including by His control of the weather, such as
storms.
Verses
14-15 not only proclaim how worthless that these idols or statues of false gods
are, but that those who make them are shamed by them. These idols will be destroyed.
Verse
16 draws a sharp contrast to these idols by exalting the true God, Jehovah, the
God of Israel.
Verses 17 to 22 describe how Judah, the southern kingdom, will be punished for its sins by God. It explains why this will be the case also, such as because the shepherds (religious leaders) aren’t inquiring of God. In general, the people of Judah are sinning, so they will be punished by a great power from the north. Here it isn’t named, but we know from other texts, such as Daniel 1 and Jeremiah 52, that it is Babylon as led by Nebuchadnezzar.
Verses
23-25 are Jeremiah’s prayer to God in this context. He petitions God very humbly, such as by asking God to not
destroy him and admitting that a man can’t direct his own steps. His main request is in verse 25, in which he
asks God to punish the (gentile, idolatrous) nations that don’t know Him. He doesn’t want Judah, his nation, to be
punished (or punished any further) by implication. These gentile nations have destroyed the people of Israel, but
are idolatrous also, so Jeremiah asks God to punish them also.
So
here the meaning of Jeremiah 10 has been reviewed, which concerns avoiding
idolatry and worshiping the true God above all.
Eric
Snow
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