What A Contrast
Reading Jeremiah 51:15-19, the main idea emerges in your first reading: This is
a simple but bold contrast between God and false “deity” (idolatry).
God “made the earth by his power,” and He “founded the world by his wisdom.” As
we read in Genesis and all through Scripture, God “stretched out the heavens by
his understanding.”
The Creator’s activity is described in these terms: “When he thunders, the
waters in the heavens roar; he makes clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He
sends lightning with the rain and brings out the wind from his storehouses.”
Side note – while writing this I have the TLC channel on and they are airing
their “Curiosity” series. Stephen Hawking has just affirmed “there is no God,”
and his follow up – no eternity. A panel of theologians and scientists are
discussing Hawking’s affirmation - - while I’m reading Jeremiah’s affirmation!
I’m grounding my faith and hope in Jeremiah, believing not only that he wrote
this, but that he wrote what is evident in the natural universe. I cannot –
intellectually or emotionally – accept the idea that our world and our existence
just happened. I cannot attribute something to nothing.
Back to Jeremiah 51 - immediately after the affirmation of the prophet, of God’s
creative power, there is this vivid account of idolatry: “Every man is senseless
and without knowledge; every goldsmith is shamed by his idols. His images are a
fraud; they have no breath in them. They are worthless, the objects of mockery;
when their judgment comes, they will perish.”
What a contrast. God, the Creator of the universe – against the picture of man’s
futile creativity of that which has no power. Actually Jeremiah is repeating
here what he wrote earlier.
But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and
the everlasting King. At his wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot
endure his indignation. 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.
(Jeremiah 10:10-15,ESV)
God is described by his sovereignty, power, and wisdom; and the stupidity of men
that trust in idols, and the vanity of them, are exposed, to convince the
Babylonians that the Lord, who had determined on their destruction, would surely
effect it, and that it would not be in the power of their idols to prevent it.
John Gill
By Warren E. Berkley
The Final Page
From Expository Files 18.9; September 2011
