Jeremiah 10:1-17, Good Terms for Idols (3)

We hope you are encouraged by each day’s lead passage.  Isa. 44, was somewhat humorous, only because idolatry is so idiotic.  Jer. 10 is profound comparing the true and living God with false gods.  Note the big issue: “who created everything?”

“He who kills a bull is as if he slays a man;
He who sacrifices a lamb, as if he breaks a dog’s neck;
He who offers a grain offering, as if he offers swine’s blood;
He who burns incense, as if he blesses an idol.
Just as they have chosen their own ways,
And their soul delights in their abominations, (Isa. 66:3)

·       The context here concerns the heart of the worshiper.  Isa. 66:2 calls for a poor and … contrite spirit.  Verse 3 describes, essentially, a party atmosphere.  They do not take their actions seriously.

·       “Idol” is the Heb. aven.  This is another term that emphasizes the vanity or emptiness of the idol, although it also is a term that refers to trouble and pain.  We have seen both these ideas as properly linked to idols.

But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish;
A wooden idol is a worthless doctrine. (Jer. 10:8)

·       “Wooden idol” is simply the Heb. term ets, meaning a piece of wood.  It refers to an idol because it is related to a “doctrine” or discipline for life.  Since this discipline centers around a piece of wood, it is “worthless.”

·       “Worthless” is the Heb. hebel.  Of the seventy-three times this term is used in the OT, half are in Ecclesiastes.  It is the word “vanity,” which is described as grasping the wind (e.g. Ecc. 1:14).  We can say that everything the Preacher (in Ecclesiastes) attempts, in trying to find meaning in life “under the sun” (i.e. without God) is a form of idolatry.  Deut. 32:21a uses this term for idols: They have provoked Me to jealousy by what is not God; they have moved Me to anger by their foolish idols.  While in the belly of the fish, Jonah confessed, Those who regard worthless (shav) idols forsake their own Mercy (2:8).   

Now Laban had gone to shear his sheep, and Rachel had stolen the household idols that were her father’s. (Gen. 31:19)

·       This is the first reference to idols in the OT.  The Heb. teraphiym refers to idols that were used in a household.  While this is before the Ten Commandments, there is every indication that this was an improper way to serve God.  All the uses of this term (15 times in OT) are negative.  It is used 3 times in this story, and 5 times in Judges 17-18.  Later in Genesis (35:2) Jacob would command the household to get rid of the foreign gods before they went to Bethel to worship the true and living God.