Creatures or the Creator?
As we have seen already, God’s people had been called out to be different from the nations around them, which were all steeped in paganism, idolatry, and false teachings. So many of the warnings in the first five books of Moses were especially against following the practices of their neighbors. Instead, the Israelites were to be witnesses to the world of the truth about the Lord as Creator and Redeemer. Unfortunately, so much of Old Testament history is the story of how they were often lured into the very practices that they were warned against.
Read Jeremiah 10:1–15. What is the Lord telling His people here? If this same warning were given today, in our time and culture and context, how might it be written?
Jeremiah is telling the people what they should have already known: these pagan gods are nothing but human creations, figments of people’s own demonically warped imaginations. This is a prime example of what Paul, writing centuries later, meant when he wrote about those who “changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen” (Rom. 1:25).
Notice in this verse how Paul contrasts the creation and the Creator. This same contrast is presented in these verses in Jeremiah, which talk about the impotence and weakness of these “gods” in contrast to the true One. All through these texts Jeremiah is trying to show the people how foolish and silly it is to put their trust in these things, which are incapable of doing anything. All this in contrast to the Creator God, who not only created the world but sustains it by His power (see Heb. 1:3).
However ancient these texts, the message is still so relevant. We might not be tempted to bow down and worship man-made statues; nor are most of us dismayed or worried about the signs in the heavens. Instead, though, it’s still so easy to put our trust in things that can no more save us than these idols could save Judea on the day of judgment.
What are some things that, if we are not careful, we come to trust more than we should?
Lección de Escuela Sabática Adventista para Adultos
4to trimestre 2015 “Jeremías”
Lecc. 7 – La Crisis Continúa
