10:1 You people of Israel, listen to what the Lord has to say to you.
Jehovah had another important message for Judah.
10:2 The Lord says, “Do not start following pagan religious practices. Do not be in awe of signs that occur in the sky even though the nations hold them in awe.
Jehovah warned Israel not to follow the astrological and occultic practices of the Gentiles.
10:3 For the religion of these people is worthless. They cut down a tree in the forest, and a craftsman makes it into an idol with his tools.
Jehovah would explain Gentile idolatry with satire. Gentiles go to a forest and cut down a tree. A skilled craftsman uses his tools to make the wood into an idol.
10:4 He decorates it with overlays of silver and gold. He uses hammer and nails to fasten it together so that it will not fall over.
The skilled craftsman decorates this idol with silver and gold. He fastens nails on its feet so that it will not fall over.
10:5 Such idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field. They cannot talk. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them because they cannot hurt you. And they do not have any power to help you.”
The idols are like a scarecrow in a cucumber patch. A scarecrow cannot talk, walk, or harm the crows. Therefore, the crows do not need to fear the scarecrow. Neither does the scarecrow have the power to help the crows. Again, Jehovah is telling the people of Judah that they are a bunch of bird-brain crows for fearing idols.
10:6 I said, “There is no one like you, Lord. You are great. And you are renowned for your power.
Jeremiah compares the majesty of God to the idols of Judah. There is no one in existence like Jehovah. He is great and powerful.
10:7 Everyone should revere you, O King of all nations, because you deserve to be revered. For there is no one like you among any of the wise people of the nations nor among any of their kings.
God, not idols, should be feared. God is the king of all nations. He deserves to be respected and feared. He is the only one who can send a person to hell. There is no one like God among the nations.
10:8 The people of those nations are both stupid and foolish. Instruction from a wooden idol is worthless!
It is foolish to have a piece of wood as one’s teacher. Who sits in front of a piece of wood with a pencil and notebook and says “teach me something”?
10:9 Hammered-out silver is brought from Tarshish and gold is brought from Uphaz to cover those idols. They are the handiwork of carpenters and goldsmiths. They are clothed in blue and purple clothes. They are all made by skillful workers.
Silver and gold was brought in from foreign nations to make these idols. They were made to look beautiful by skilled craftsmen.
10:10 The Lord is the only true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. When he shows his anger the earth shakes. None of the nations can stand up to his fury.
Idols are nothing, but Jehovah is the one true God. Idols are lifeless, but God is living. Idols are a piece of wood, but Jehovah is the everlasting King. Idols have no emotions, but the whole world shakes when Jehovah becomes angry.
10:11 You people of Israel should tell those nations this: ‘These gods did not make heaven and earth. They will disappear from the earth and from under the heavens.’
Jehovah wrote a song for the future of idolatry. In this song, the idols were not the ones who created the heavens and the earth. All of these idols would disappear.
It is important to note that this verse was written in Aramaic. It is the only verse in Jeremiah which was written in Aramaic. Aramaic was the language of Babylon. Babylon was the center of idolatry. This song was sung in the language of the idol worship center of the world. This may have been an ancient song which was sung by the Messianic Jews.
All idolatry began in Babylon through Nimrod. After the confusion of languages, this mystery religious system was taken into all of the languages of the world. In the Book of Revelation, Babylon is referred to as “the Mother of Harlots.” The city of Babylon will be rebuilt during the Great Tribulation and become the capital of the Antichrist. Jerusalem is the City of God, but Babylon is the City of Satan.
10:12 The Lord is the one who by his power made the earth. He is the one who by his wisdom established the world. And by his understanding he spread out the skies.
Jehovah, not the idols, is the true Creator of the heavens and the earth. It was not the chaos and randomness of nothing which created the world. It was the wisdom of Jehovah that established the world. There was no Big Bang. Using scientific axioms, zero times zero always equals zero. God was the one who spread out the skies.
10:13 When his voice thunders, the heavenly ocean roars. He makes the clouds rise from the far-off horizons. He makes the lightning flash out in the midst of the rain. He unleashes the wind from the places where he stores it.
Jehovah, not idols, is the one who controls nature. He controls all of the thunder, the ocean, the clouds, the lightning, the rain, and the wind. There is no such being as "Mother Nature." God is above His creation. He plans out and causes all weather patterns.
10:14 All these idolaters will prove to be stupid and ignorant. Every goldsmith will be disgraced by the idol he made. For the image he forges is merely a sham. There is no breath in any of those idols.
Those who worship idols are stupid and ignorant. Those who believe that nothing exploded into everything and evolved by random chance are stupid and ignorant. When Christ returns, every idol maker and every evolutionist will be disgraced because of their stupidity and ignorance. The images of idols are simply shams in order to make more profit for the goldsmith. Evolutionists are teaching lies for profit. There is no life in any of these idols. There is no truth in evolution.
10:15 They are worthless, mere objects to be mocked. When the time comes to punish them, they will be destroyed.
Idols are emptiness. They are nothing. They are mere objects to be mocked. When Christ returns, they will all be destroyed. They will all burn and melt away.
Evolution is an empty philosophy. It is bad science. It is human speculation which is to be mocked. When Christ comes, all Christ-rejecting evolutionists will continually burn in the Lake of Fire forever.
10:16 The Lord, who is the inheritance of Jacob’s descendants, is not like them. He is the one who created everything. And the people of Israel are those he claims as his own. He is known as the Lord who rules over all.”
Three of the Psalms teach that Jacob’s inheritance (or “portion” in other English translations) was God Himself. God is not like idols. Idols created nothing, but God created everything. Idols do not look after Israel, but God does. Idols rule over nothing, but God rules over all things.
10:17 Gather your belongings together and prepare to leave the land, you people of Jerusalem who are being besieged.
Judgment is coming to Judah. Therefore, the people of Judah need to be prepared to leave the land. They need to pack up their bags and be ready to leave their land. They will carry their belongings into Babylon and deliver their possessions to the enemy. They loved idolatry, so they would be taken into the land which is the origin and center of idolatry. The Babylonians would be besieging the city, so the people of Judah would need to be ready for deportation.
10:18 For the Lord says, “I will now throw out those who live in this land. I will bring so much trouble on them that they will actually feel it.”
God would sling Judah out of the land. Jehovah would deliver Judah into Babylon, which was the center of idolatry. The Jews would becomes so sick of idolatry that they would never worship idols again.
10:19 And I cried out, “We are doomed! Our wound is severe! We once thought, ‘This is only an illness. And we will be able to bear it!’
Jeremiah began to sing his own funeral song for Judah. Judah has a serious wound that would not be healed. Judah was sick and she could not heal herself. Jeremiah saw the destruction of Judah, so he must bear the grief as part of his prophetic call.
10:20 But our tents have been destroyed. The ropes that held them in place have been ripped apart. Our children are gone and are not coming back. There is no survivor to put our tents back up, no one left to hang their tent curtains in place.
Jeremiah sang about the tents of Judah being destroyed by the Babylonians.
10:21 For our leaders are stupid. They have not sought the Lord’s advice. So they do not act wisely, and the people they are responsible for have all been scattered.
The leaders of Judah were responsible for the destruction of Judah. They did not seek Jehovah’s advice, even though they had the urim and the thumin. They lacked knowledge of the mind of God, so they made foolish decisions. This lack of Bible doctrine would cause them to become scattered all over the world.
10:22 Listen! News is coming even now. The rumble of a great army is heard approaching from a land in the north. It is coming to turn the towns of Judah into rubble, places where only jackals live.
The invading army would come from the north. Jeremiah had not yet named this nation.
10:23 Lord, we know that people do not control their own destiny.
There were two different Hebrew words mentioned in this verse for “man.” The first “man” was אָדָם (adam), meaning the weak man from the dust. The second “man” was אּישׁ (ish), meaning the strong man, or the husband who dominates his wife. Neither the weak man or the strong man would be able to control his own destiny. It would not be in their power to determine what would happen to them.
10:24 Correct us, Lord, but only in due measure. Do not punish us in anger or you will reduce us to nothing.
Jeremiah prayed that Jehovah would discipline Judah.
10:25 Vent your anger on the nations that do not acknowledge you. Vent it on the peoples who do not worship you. For they have destroyed the people of Jacob. They have completely destroyed them and left their homeland in utter ruin.
Jeremiah prayed for full scale judgment upon the Gentile nations who attempted to devour Israel. The Gentiles would be rewarded or punished as to how they would treat the Jews. Those Gentiles with strong bible doctrine would love the Jews. Those Gentiles with weak bible doctrine would hate the Jews. Churches who hate the Jews will eventually teach replacement theology. Churches who love the Jews will teach dispensationalism.