August 9
August 9
God mocks the complete inability of idols to do what only he as Creator King is able to do.
The Old Testament contains a bit of divine humor, mockery, and sarcasm. It is hard for us to mock another person and not to sin. But God, who is perfectly holy in every way and all of the time, can mock in a way that is righteous and pure. Few passages drip with more sarcastic humor than Jeremiah 10. God mocks the idols that have captured the hearts of his people. He compares their lifeless inability to his creation power and sovereign authority. It’s as though God were saying to his people, “Seriously, this is whom you have forsaken me for? Do you really understand who they are, compared to who I am?”
“Learn not the way of the nations,
nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens
because the nations are dismayed at them,
for the customs of the peoples are vanity.
A tree from the forest is cut down
and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman.
They decorate it with silver and gold;
they fasten it with hammer and nails
so that it cannot move.
Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field,
and they cannot speak;
they have to be carried,
for they cannot walk.
Do not be afraid of them,
for they cannot do evil,
neither is it in them to do good.”
There is none like you, O Lord;
you are great, and your name is great in might.
Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
For this is your due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations
and in all their kingdoms
there is none like you.
They are both stupid and foolish;
the instruction of idols is but wood! . . .
Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”
It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
Every man is stupid and without knowledge;
every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols,
for his images are false,
and there is no breath in them.
They are worthless, a work of delusion;
at the time of their punishment they shall perish. (Jer. 10:2–8, 11–15)
I have quoted this long passage so that you can more fully grasp the power of God’s idol-mockery. You have to nail idols to a post or else they’ll tip over; you have to carry them since they can’t walk; they are about as powerful as scarecrows in a cucumber patch, and they are stupid because they’re lifeless, made of wood.
May God’s mockery remind us that no idol could ever do what our Almighty Lord can do. He alone deserves our worship.