Reading: Jeremiah 10-13, Psalm 16

Idols. What comes to mind when you think of idols? I always get an Indiana Jones-type adventure scenes in my head. An intrepid explorer runs out of an ancient jungle covered temple with a priceless relic in hand. I think I liked Indiana Jones partly for the ridiculous humor but mostly because the title character was both an adventurer and a nerd. Those movies were relevant to my interests on multiple fronts. Anyway. Idols.

What are idols? Here in Jeremiah, and in many prophets of the Hebrew Scriptures, they are accused of being nothing but wood or stone, trees or sky. They are empty, not alive, unable to answer. It seems absurd to worship something you made with your own hands, as the Bible points out on several occasions. On the other hand, let’s not get too caught up in our recency bias when we consider the intelligence of ancient humans. They were no more foolish than we, and I’m quite sure understood that their rock or wooden figures were nothing more than that: stone or wood. It was what they claimed to represent that mattered to them, and some of them took that quite seriously. Perhaps the modern world equivalent to some of the ancient cultural idols would be a national flag. Much is made of the flags of countries, while the people carrying them around fully understand that these are just pieces of cloth. It is what they represent that matters.

So what did the idols that God is so upset about in the book of Jeremiah represent? There are a whole bunch of interesting and juicy stories about ancient near eastern religions that we could talk about now, but I don’t think that’s the point. The point is that they were something other than the God of Israel, and they were being worshiped by the people of Israel. Yes, the Canaanite deities were pretty bad. Well, really awful, in fact. But the heart of God’s complaint against them is that they are not him. The message Jeremiah brings to the people is about the covenant that Israel was in with their God. They were to worship none but Yahweh, the God of Israel. Yet here they are worshiping idols. That they are stones and wood is not the problem, it is that they are not God. Say to them, The gods who did not make the heavens and the Earth shall perish from the Earth and from under the heavens.

This should make us stop and consider our own systems of trust and loyalty. For me, as a Christian, I have given allegiance to Jesus as King under a new covenant. Yes, we are jumping way ahead, but I think it’s worth it this time, though we won’t spend long here. The new covenant is much, much better than the one Jeremiah is bringing lawsuit about in chapter 11, but it is no less binding: if I really accept Jesus as Lord and King, I am bound to ultimate dependence on him. The people of Israel were bound by their covenant to dependence on Yahweh, but they went to other powers instead. I am bound by the new covenant to dependence of Jesus. Do I go to other powers instead? Maybe not ones of wood or stone, but certainly ones that did not make the heavens and the Earth? I’ll just leave that there and we’ll come back to it later. Much later.

In today’s reading Jeremiah attacks the idolatry of the people, mourns over their destruction, brings a clear covenant lawsuit against the leaders in Jerusalem, and complains to God that the unrighteous are not punished. There are prophetic hints at the Messiah. There are great lines like if you have raced with men on foot and they have wearied you, how will you compete with horses? Tomorrow he will be burying his underwear. This guy is all over the place. How are we to make sense of him?

I think the book of Jeremiah is all about true and false prophecy. Who do you trust? Who do you listen to? Jeremiah makes a bold statement in his lament in chapter 10, one we should by now have come to expect from God’s true servants. I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself, that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. Here is Jeremiah’s declaration of dependence. I think this is one of the marks of the true prophet. He understands that he cannot direct himself, and that correction in his way comes from God alone. Idolatry is an attempt to find direction in something other than God. The attempt to direct oneself is the core of the human problem. The true prophet will make complaints like Jeremiah’s in chapter 12. He wants to the see the wicked punished and justice done, but admits you, O LORD, know me; you see me, and test my heart towards you. Jeremiah’s prophecies are true because he is, as much as he can, surrendering the human problem and trusting that God will do something to his heart condition. As we will see in the coming days, some of the things God will have Jeremiah do are… strange. He also says some dangerous things, that won’t all go well for him. But he is committed. Jeremiah really believes that the way of a man is not in himself.