The nations are dismayed as they try to interpret the meaning of the star positions. This is a poor approach to problem solving. Knowing and having the help of the Creator of these things is better.
Without revelation from God’s Word, the Gentiles developed their own set of beliefs based on lies.
Some common “bad luck” beliefs are: Friday the 13th based on Norse mythology and false Good Friday beliefs; breaking a mirror based on Greek beliefs; walking under a ladder and having a black cat cross one’s path based on Middle Ages false beliefs; and opening an umbrella indoors which is based on an Egyptian belief that it insults the sun god.
Other objects like a horse’s shoe and rabbit’s foot were said to bring good luck but it wasn’t “lucky” for the horse or rabbit who lost these things.
The word “luck” comes from the Middle Dutch word “luc” a shortened form of “gheluc” meaning “happiness” or “good fortune.” It entered English around the late 15th century, likely as a gambling term. I associate “luck” with Lucifer. Lucifer is always trying to replace trust in God with something instead of God. The prefix “anti” also carries the meaning of “instead.” An antichrist can be anything that pretends to replace Christ as the Savior and Lord.
“The customs of the peoples are futile. For one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the ax. They decorate it with silver and gold. They fasten it with nails and hammers so that it will not topple.” Jeremiah 10:3-4
Some cut trees and shape them into idols that need to be propped up. God urges us not to do business with those who manufacture and sell idols.
“Commercialism had become the besetting sin of Judah. Money dictated their policies.” [1] Commercialism is a besetting sin of the last days. In Revelation 18:2-3, “Babylon... became a dwelling place of demons... the merchants of the earth became rich through the abundance of her luxury.”
Jeremiah 10:5: “Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak. They must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them. They can do no harm, nor can they do any good.”
The God who created the universe and sustains it helps us. He sent His Son into the world to save us. Jesus resurrected from the dead after being crucified and placed in a tomb for three days. No other founder of a religion did this. The Lord Jesus Christ is a miracle worker.
Jeremiah 10:6-7: “Inasmuch as 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 rightful due. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like You.”
In Revelation 15:4, those who have the victory over the beast sing the words of this song, “Great and marvelous are Your deeds, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are Your ways, King of the nations. Who will not fear You, Lord, and bring glory to Your Name? For You alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before You, for Your righteous acts have been revealed.” These are similar words to Jeremiah 10:6-7.
Jeremiah 10:8: “But they are altogether dull-hearted and foolish; a wooden idol is a worthless doctrine.”
Romans 1:21 speaks of idolators, “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God, or give Him thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”
God reveals Himself to us not through idols but through Word and Spirit. 2 Corinthians 4:18: “We do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”
In 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, it is written: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.”
Jesus Christ reveals His Kingdom to us to save us from our sins.
Jeremiah 10:9: “Silver is beaten into plates. It is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the metalsmith. Blue and purple are their clothing. They are all the work of skillful men.”
“Tarshish is in Spain and Uphaz is in India. Both places are far from Israel. Distance does not endue with supernatural powers. People place high value on silver and gold, but silver and gold cannot save a soul. It is amazing what craftsman do with precious metals, but superior design does not impart divine character. Royal garments are made from blue and purple cloth, but royal clothes are not vested with God’s wisdom.” [2]
Jeremiah 10:10: “The Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath, the earth will tremble, and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation.”
Jeremiah 10:10 compares with Revelation 20:11: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them.” Jeremiah declared that God’s wrath makes the earth tremble. Nations cannot endure His indignation!
In Hebrew 10:31, it is written, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
God is God. No matter what some may do to sabotage faith in Him, He remains God. No matter how people twist His Words or try to erase them, His Word is settled forever in the heavens. Stars, metal, and wood cannot transform a hateful heart into a loving one.
Jeremiah 10:11: “Thus, you shall say to them: ‘The gods that have NOT made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens.”
This passage is written in Chaldee. God instructed the exiles how to speak to the Babylonians. The words, “Thus shall you say to them,” are in Chaldee, the language of the Babylonians. Although they defeated the armies of nations, their gods were not God.” [3]
The Babylonians plundered Jerusalem’s gold, but they needed Jerusalem’s God more than Jerusalem’s gold. In 1 Timothy 6:17, Paul wrote to Timothy, saying, “Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to enjoy.”
Jeremiah 10:12: “He [God] has made the earth by His power, He has established the world by His wisdom, and has stretched out the heavens at His discretion.”
John 1:3 applies the attributes of God described in Jeremiah 10:12 to Jesus, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
Jeremiah 10:13: “When He utters His voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens: and He causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain He brings the wind out of His treasuries.”
Humankind has barely scratched the surface when it comes to understanding the wisdom and discretion with which God created the universe. God created all things with love. He orders the elements to work together in harmony to provide a livable climate for us. We need to understand God’s love, to understand rightly the universe which He created.
Jeremiah 10:14: “Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge. Every metalsmith is put to shame by an image. For his molded image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.”
They are dull-hearted because apart from God people only think in terms of profit and loss. God is love. His economy is based on love for one another. His love is at odds with the world’s selfish ambition. In Romans 1:22, God speaks of those who profess themselves to be wise, yet are fools.
Jeremiah 10:15: “They are futile, a work of errors; in the time of their punishment, they shall perish.”
God leaves no room for doubt. Idolatry is unequivocally wrong. Those who worship idols will perish. God is unlike them. God’s people are unlike them. Our inheritance comes from God.
In Jonah 2:8, Jonah declared, “Those who regard worthless idols forsake their own mercy.”
Jeremiah 10:16: “The Portion of Jacob is not like them, for He is the Maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The Lord of hosts is His Name.”
God promised to cleanse the land of idolatry in Zechariah 13:2: “It shall come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will destroy the names of idols out of the earth, and they shall be remembered no more: and I will take away the false prophets, and the unclean spirit out of the earth.”
Jeremiah 10:17: “Gather up your wares from the land, O inhabitant of the fortress!”
The people of Judah were about to be deported to Babylon.
Jeremiah 10:18: “For thus says the Lord: behold, I will throw out at this time the inhabitants of the land, and will distress them, that they may find it so.”
As Adam and Eve were evicted from the Garden of Eden after they sinned, so the people of Judah were evicted from the Promised Land and taken captive to Babylon.
Jeremiah 10:19: “Woe is me for my hurt! My wound is severe. But I say, ‘Truly this is an infirmity, and I must bear it.’”
God grieves the distance between Him and His children due to sin.
Jeremiah 10:20: “My tent is plundered, and all My cords are broken; My children have gone from Me, and they are no more. There is no one to pitch My tent anymore or set up My curtains.”
Jacob’s tent, meaning his people, have been robbed. The cords that held them upright are severed. There is no one to help them reset at this point.
Jeremiah 10:21: “For the shepherds have become dull-hearted and have not sought the Lord. Therefore, they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.”
The shepherds of Jerusalem were distant from God, and careless with the sheep entrusted to their care.
Jesus contrasted the difference between one who shepherds for profit’s sake and one who prophets for the sheep’s sake. In John 10:11, Jesus said, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep.”
Jeremiah 10:22: “Behold, the noise of the report has come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate; a den of jackals.”
Jerusalem rejected the voice of God. Jerusalem received the noise of an attacking army.
Jeremiah 10:23: “Oh Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.”
God had made numerous efforts to coax them in the right direction, but they refused to follow Him, so God had applied discipline to them.
Jeremiah 10:24: “O Lord, correct me, but with justice, not in Your anger, lest You bring me to nothing.”
In Psalms 6:1, King David prayed in a similar fashion, saying, “O Lord, do not rebuke me in Your anger, nor chasten me in Your wrath.”
The words of Jeremiah 10:24 relate with the words of Jesus in Matthew 10:20: “A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out, till He has brought justice through to victory.”
Jeremiah 10:25: “Pour out Your fury on the Gentiles, who do not know You, and on the families who do not call on Your Name. For they have eaten up Jacob, devoured him and consumed him and made his dwelling place desolate.”
Jeremiah prayed that the full tide of God’s wrath would be on the nations who were attacking his nation. They neither respected God nor God’s ways. They were exceedingly cruel.
In the Book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus Christ revealed to us two kingdoms, two cities, and two women. There is the Kingdom of Christ and the Kingdom of the Beast [the antichrist]. There is Heavenly Jerusalem and Babylon. There is the Bride of the Lamb and the Harlot Babylon.
The Lord wants all people to be saved and indeed, there will be people from every tribe and language worshipping before His throne, but He requires from each of us an invitation followed by an abidance in Him.
God invites us in the Scripture to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and be saved by Him.
Abiding in Christ involves an ongoing personal relationship with Him via prayer, Bible meditation and obedience to follow His Spirit’s leading.
In Revelation 22:17, “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come!’ And let him who hears say, ‘Come!’ And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.”
[1] Dr. Theo Laetsch, Bible Commentary Jeremiah, Concordia, Paperback Ed., 1965, ©, page 124
[2] Dr. Theo Laetsch, Bible Commentary Jeremiah, Concordia Paperback Ed.,1965, ©, page 124
[3] Jamieson Fausset Brown Commentary
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