Jeremiah 10:1-16.  Yesterday we saw that God is not just in the destroying and punishing business but that he wants us to change.  God exercises lovingkindness (faithfulness to his loving promises), justice (fairness) and righteousness (living the right way; God’s way) on the earth.  Because he loves us and wants us to return to him God warns us.  But as we saw he will apply the consequences of our disrespect and rebellion eventually, but not until he does all he can to get our attention and give us an opportunity to return to him.  There is a plan and he is patiently working through it.

Today’s reading is more of that same kind of warning. Years ago an author named John Milton wrote a book called Paradise Lost.  That is an appropriate way to describe the first half of the story we find in the Bible; mankind (in the persons of Adam and Eve) lived in a harmonious relationship with God in the creation he created for us.   If I could sum up the whole Bible I would say it’s the story of Paradise lost and regained.  It tells us of our broken relationship with God and how that problem is fixed.  The Paradise (living together with God in a happy or harmonious relationship) lost in Genesis is restored in the Revelation (for more see “The Old Testament Connection”).

Since the problem is about a relationship that we willingly violated the solution also involves our wills.  There were absolute consequences for our disobedience, disrespect, and rebellion.  It’s like God was saying if you love me you will …  Adam decided to do the thing God had told him would offend him; he chose to break the relationship by disregarding God’s standards.  The warning God gave to Adam was that that type of action (called sin in the Bible, a term that means “to miss the mark” or bulls eye) would cause a permanent break in the relationship.  The idea of death is the idea of separation, physical death is the separation of our bodies and our spirit or soul.  That was part of the consequence of Adam “sinning”.  But the more important consequence was the “spiritual” death he (and we) experience because of sin; the separation of our soul or spirit from God.  Because God is pure he cannot just look the other way and forget about the price of our sin; he is faithful to all that he decides.  His solution was not to ignore the consequence but to pa the price himself.  That is why Jesus left the honor he had in Heaven as God, and became a man; the infinite God-man.  As the infinite God–man he was uniquely qualified to pay the infinite price for our sins.  That is what he did when he died on the cross and God the father turned his back God the Son, Jesus (Matthew 27:47).

Back to the will.  Jesus provided the solution to our separation from God but it is up to us to accept the solution, remember it’s about a relationship, a love relationship, and God is not going to force us to love him, if he did it would cease to be love and would become slavery. So we must choose.  In order to choose we need to understand about God and his standards and our broken relationship, that is what a lot of the Bible is about.  It also shows us through various events that Jesus is not just a way back to God but the only way.

In today’s reading it is very clear that mankind spends a lot of time trying to find other ways to fix our broken relationship with God.  It seems very clear that mankind is aware of God.  We spend a lot of time inventing gods because we know deep inside of us that there must be a supreme being that is in control.  After we invent these “gods” we then spend a lot of time trying to make them happy.  This of course implies that we know something is wrong and that it in some way relates to our actions.  In verse 1 God is talking to the “house of Israel”, probably a reference to Judah but the words apply to all mankind (Israel’s job in the big plan was to be an example to the world).  You might want to notice that in verse one that the word LORD is in all capitals, in sore translations the translators wond use the personal name of God that he gave to Moses in the book of Exodus, Yahweh, it’s  sign of respect that so they use all Capitals for LORD when they come to God’s personal name, Yahweh.  That is the case in verse 1, so God is being very clear with us about who he is in this reading.   In verse 2 God tells them (and us) not to go “the way of the nations”.  In verses 3-5 we are told what that way is; making up gods, useless fake gods.  That is what I was talking about above.  In verse 2 God also tells us that the nations were afraid of what they saw going on in the universe around them, they were aware there is some sort of problem with their existence and they were also aware that it relates to God (though their solution involves god not God).

In verses 6-10 Jeremiah gets very clear about this distinction between god(s) and God (Yahweh the one true God).  In verses 6-7 Jeremiah tells God that he realizes that he is active and capable.  He also hints at the fact that all people should recognize his power and existence (see Romans 1:19-20).  Jeremiah is very clear that this message is for more than the kingdom of Judah, notice he mentions the “nations” and all their “kingdoms”, the word for “nations” is almost always used for people other than Israelites.  Jeremiah not only contrasts the power of God with the powerless fake gods (verses 4-5) he also pokes fun at the men who create the fake gods, they think they are so wise but really they are stupid and foolish.  The word for stupid can be translated burned up or wasted, their minds are empty and useless in how they think about God.  I like the word for foolish, in Hebrew is is Cawsal or kacal, sounds like the sound a crow makes to me, maybe it sounded that way to the Israelite people too, a descriptive sound that fit the empty noise of the worlds foolish worship of sticks and stones.  In verse 8 we see that the world works hard at making up gods and honoring them (it is a “discipline”, a word that involves teaching and learning, work in other words.  And in verses 9-10 we also see that the world spends a lot of money on their made up gods.

In verses 11-15 Jeremiah contrasts the real work of the real God.  Not only did God create the universe (v. 12) but he set up the rules it runs by (v. 12) and he is personally involve in the ongoing activity in it (v. 13).  In verses 14-15 Jeremiah repeats the idea that the makers of the false gods (idols) are stupid and the idols are powerless. Can God make things any clearer for us?  Well yes, in verse 16 all the ideas about God are summed up.  He is the personal God of Jacob (another name for Israel, see “What’s in a Name?”) a reference to the Israelite or Jewish people.  He is the creator God and his personal name is Yahweh.  That’s pretty clear.

I like it that God is so clear.  He communicates with us about who he is, what he has done, what he expects, what will happen when we defect from him, how to get back with him, it’s all there.  And it’s not just in the Bible either, God uses his creation along with our ability to reason to inform us of his existence.  He also uses our conscience.  God is very clear and yet we make up our own gods, how stupid.  But God loves us and wants a relationship with us anyway, so much so that he became a man and dies to deal with the forever consequences of our defection.  The question is how will we respond?  Will we make up our own gods to fill the empty place in our hearts or will we accept his love and forgiveness and take the one true path, Jesus?  The choice belongs to each of us.  Don’t be stupid and foolish, choose wisely.

God thank you for loving me in spite of my disobedience.  Thank you for taking the punishment for my disobedience and rebellion.  Thank you for making a way back to you.  Thank you for making that path clear.  Thank you for helping me see it.  Let me be a wise servant of yours and help others see the path and follow it.  Thank you for giving me a choice.  Thank you.