For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman. For the customs of the peoplesThe Hebrew word for "customs" is "חֻקּוֹת" (chuqqot), which refers to statutes, ordinances, or practices. In this context, it highlights the practices of the surrounding nations, which are often rooted in idolatry and superstition. Historically, the Israelites were surrounded by pagan cultures whose religious customs were in stark contrast to the worship of Yahweh. This phrase serves as a reminder of the futility and emptiness of these practices compared to the living God. It calls believers to discernment and faithfulness, avoiding the adoption of practices that lead away from God’s truth. are worthless
The Hebrew term "הֶבֶל" (hebel) is used here, often translated as "vanity" or "emptiness." This word is famously used in Ecclesiastes to describe the fleeting and insubstantial nature of life without God. In Jeremiah 10:3, it underscores the futility of idol worship and the practices of the nations. From a conservative Christian perspective, this serves as a powerful reminder that anything outside of God’s will and purpose is ultimately empty and without lasting value. It encourages believers to focus on what is eternal and true. they cut down a tree from the forest
This phrase describes the initial act of idol creation, beginning with the cutting of a tree. The act of cutting down a tree for idol-making is a vivid illustration of the absurdity of worshipping created things rather than the Creator. In the ancient Near East, trees were often associated with sacred groves and idol worship. This imagery serves as a stark contrast to the biblical teaching that God is the Creator of all things and is not to be represented by any physical form. It challenges believers to recognize the folly of idolatry in all its forms. it is shaped with a chisel
The Hebrew word "מַעֲצָד" (ma'atzad) refers to a tool used for carving or shaping wood. This phrase highlights the human effort and craftsmanship involved in creating idols. It points to the irony that something made by human hands could be considered divine. From a conservative Christian viewpoint, this serves as a reminder of the limitations of human creativity when it is used to replace or misrepresent God. It calls believers to worship God in spirit and truth, recognizing His sovereignty and rejecting the worship of man-made objects. by the hands of a craftsman
The term "חָרָשׁ" (charash) refers to a skilled artisan or craftsman. This phrase emphasizes the human origin of idols, crafted by skilled hands yet devoid of life or power. In the biblical context, it underscores the contrast between the living God, who is the ultimate Creator, and lifeless idols made by human hands. For conservative Christians, this serves as a call to worship the true God, who is not the work of human hands but the Creator of all. It inspires believers to trust in God’s power and wisdom rather than in human ingenuity or creativity. Persons / Places / Events 1. JeremiahA major prophet in the Old Testament, known for his prophecies concerning the judgment of Judah and the call to repentance. 2. The PeoplesRefers to the pagan nations surrounding Israel, whose customs and practices were often contrary to the worship of Yahweh. 3. The CraftsmanRepresents those who create idols, shaping wood into objects of worship, highlighting the futility of idol-making. 4. The ForestSymbolizes the natural world, from which materials are taken to create idols, emphasizing the contrast between God's creation and man-made idols. 5. IdolatryThe central event or practice being critiqued, where people worship objects made by human hands instead of the living God. Teaching Points The Futility of IdolatryIdols are man-made and powerless, contrasting with the living God who is the Creator of all. Cultural DiscernmentBelievers are called to discern and reject cultural practices that lead away from true worship of God. The Unchanging Nature of GodUnlike idols, God is unchanging and eternal, deserving of our worship and trust. The Call to True WorshipWorship should be directed to God alone, who is spirit and truth, rather than to objects or images. Guarding Against Modern IdolatryIn today's context, idolatry can take many forms, such as materialism or the elevation of personal desires above God. Bible Study Questions 1. How does Jeremiah 10:3 challenge the cultural practices of the nations surrounding Israel, and what can we learn from this about engaging with our own culture? 2. In what ways do modern forms of idolatry manifest in our lives, and how can we guard against them? 3. How does understanding the futility of idols deepen our appreciation for the power and majesty of the living God? 4. What are some practical steps we can take to ensure our worship remains focused on God alone? 5. How do the additional scriptures connected to Jeremiah 10:3 reinforce the message of the futility of idol worship, and how can they be applied in our daily walk with God? Connections to Other Scriptures Isaiah 44:9-20This passage also critiques the making and worship of idols, emphasizing their futility and the foolishness of idol worship. Psalm 115:4-8Describes the idols of the nations as having mouths but not speaking, eyes but not seeing, highlighting their impotence. Acts 17:29Paul speaks against thinking of the divine nature as something shaped by art and man's devising, aligning with Jeremiah's critique of idols. 1 Corinthians 8:4-6Discusses the reality that idols are nothing and that there is only one God, reinforcing the message of Jeremiah 10:3. People Jacob, Jeremiah, TarshishPlaces Tarshish, Uphaz, ZionTopics Artificer, Artizan, Ax, Axe, Chisel, Craftsman, Customs, Cut, Cuts, Cutteth, Cutting, Delusion, Feared, Foolish, Forest, Hands, Peoples, Shapes, Statutes, Tool, Tree, Vain, Vanity, Wood, Woods, Worked, Workman, WorthlessDictionary of Bible Themes Jeremiah 10:3 4448 forests Jeremiah 10:2-3 5286 custom Jeremiah 10:3-4 4363 silver
5583 tools
5778 adorning Jeremiah 10:3-5 4333 gold
8748 false religion
8816 ridicule, nature of Jeremiah 10:3-6 1080 God, living Jeremiah 10:3-10 5272 craftsmen
8771 idolatry, objections Library May 16. "It is not in Man that Walketh to Direct his Steps" (Jer. x. 23).
"It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jer. x. 23). United to Jesus Christ as your Redeemer, you are accepted in the Beloved. He does not merely take my place as a man and settle my debts. He does that and more. He comes to give a perfect ideal of what a man should be. He is the model man, not for us to copy, for that would only bring discouragement and utter failure; but He will come and copy Himself in us. If Christ lives in me, I am another Christ. I am not like Him, but I have the …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth Possessing and Possessed
'The portion of Jacob is not like them--for He is the former of all things: and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The Lord of Hosts is His name.'--JER. x. 16, R.V. Here we have set forth a reciprocal possession. We possess God, He possesses us. We are His inheritance, He is our portion. I am His; He is mine. This mutual ownership is the very living centre of all religion. Without it there is no relation of any depth between God and us. How much profounder such a conception is than the shallow …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture An Instructive Truth
"O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."--Jeremiah 10:23. This declaration follows after Jeremiah's lamentation over the Lord's ancient people, who were about to be carried captive into Babylon. The prophet speaks of a fact that was well known to him. It is always well, brethren, to know the truth, and to know it so certainly that you are able to remember it just when you most need it. There are some people, who are very much like …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 50: 1904 Dwight -- the Sovereignty of God
Timothy Dwight was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1752. He graduated from Yale in 1769, served as chaplain in the army during the Revolutionary War and was chosen president of his university in 1795. He died, after holding that office for twelve years, in 1817. Lyman Beecher, who attributed his conversion to him, says: "He was of noble form, with a noble head and body, and had one of the sweetest smiles that ever you saw. When I heard him preach on 'the harvest is passed, the summer is ended, …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 3 Of the Exercises of a Religious Man
The life of a Christian ought to be adorned with all virtues, that he may be inwardly what he outwardly appeareth unto men. And verily it should be yet better within than without, for God is a discerner of our heart, Whom we must reverence with all our hearts wheresoever we are, and walk pure in His presence as do the angels. We ought daily to renew our vows, and to kindle our hearts to zeal, as if each day were the first day of our conversion, and to say, "Help me, O God, in my good resolutions, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ Of Hiding Our Grace under the Guard of Humility
"My Son, it is better and safer for thee to hide the grace of devotion, and not to lift thyself up on high, nor to speak much thereof, nor to value it greatly; but rather to despise thyself, and to fear as though this grace were given to one unworthy thereof. Nor must thou depend too much upon this feeling, for it can very quickly be turned into its opposite. Think when thou art in a state of grace how miserable and poor thou art wont to be without grace. Nor is there advance in spiritual life …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ A Wise Desire
I remember once going to a chapel where this happened to be the text, and the good man who occupied the pulpit was more than a little of an Arminian. Therefore, when he commenced, he said, "This passage refers entirely to our temporal inheritance. It has nothing whatever to do with our everlasting destiny: for," said he, "We do not want Christ to choose for us in the matter of heaven or hell. It is so plain and easy that every man who has a grain of common sense will choose heaven; and any person …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855 "And Hereby we do Know that we Know Him, if we Keep his Commandments. "
1 John ii. 3.--"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." This age pretends to much knowledge beyond former ages, knowledge, I say, not only in other natural arts and sciences, but especially in religion. Whether there be any great advancement in other knowledge, and improvement of that which was, to a further extent and clearness, I cannot judge, but I believe there is not much of it in this nation, nor do we so much pretend to it. But, we talk of the enlargements of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning "Hear the Word of the Lord, Ye Rulers of Sodom, Give Ear unto the Law of Our God, Ye People of Gomorrah,"
Isaiah i. 10, 11, &c.--"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah," &c. It is strange to think what mercy is mixed with the most wrath like strokes and threatenings. There is no prophet whose office and commission is only for judgment, nay, to speak the truth, it is mercy that premises threatenings. The entering of the law, both in the commands and curses, is to make sin abound, that grace may superabound, so that both rods and threatenings …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. "
We come now to speak more particularly to the words; and, first, Of his being a way. Our design being to point at the way of use-making of Christ in all our necessities, straits, and difficulties which are in our way to heaven; and particularly to point out the way how believers should make use of Christ in all their particular exigencies; and so live by faith in him, walk in him, grow up in him, advance and march forward toward glory in him. It will not be amiss to speak of this fulness of Christ …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life Meditations for Household Piety.
1. If thou be called to the government of a family, thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thy own person, unless thou cause all under thy charge to do the same with thee. For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham, that he would not hide from him his counsel: "For," saith God, "I know him that he will command his sons and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety "For if Ye Live after the Flesh, Ye Shall Die; but if Ye through the Spirit do Mortify the Deeds of the Body, Ye Shall Live.
Rom. viii. s 13, 14.--"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The life and being of many things consists in union,--separate them, and they remain not the same, or they lose their virtue. It is much more thus in Christianity, the power and life of it consists in the union of these things that God hath conjoined, so that if any man pretend to …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning The Creation
Q-7: WHAT ARE THE DECREES OF GOD? A: The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he has foreordained whatsoever shall come to pass. I have already spoken something concerning the decrees of God under the attribute of his immutability. God is unchangeable in his essence, and he-is unchangeable in his decrees; his counsel shall stand. He decrees the issue of all things, and carries them on to their accomplishment by his providence; I …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity God's Sovereignty and Prayer
"If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us" (1 John 5:14). Throughout this book it has been our chief aim to exalt the Creator and abase the creature. The well-nigh universal tendency now, is to magnify man and dishonour and degrade God. On every hand it will be found that, when spiritual things are under discussion, the human side and element is pressed and stressed, and the Divine side, if not altogether ignored, is relegated to the background. This holds true of very much of the …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Jeremiah 10:3 NIVJeremiah 10:3 NLTJeremiah 10:3 ESVJeremiah 10:3 NASBJeremiah 10:3 KJV
Jeremiah 10:3 Commentaries
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