Bible Commentaries

CHAPTER 10

The Vanity of Idols

1. Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven (Jeremiah 10:1-5)

2. The contrast: The vanity of idols and the Lord, the King of Nations (Jeremiah 10:6-18)

3. The affliction of the prophet and his prayer (Jeremiah 10:19-25)

Jeremiah 10:1-5. The heathen paid attention to the signs of heaven, such as eclipses, comets, meteoric showers, etc. They were dismayed at these things. All they did, their customs and observances in connection with idol worship, was nothing but vanity.

Jeremiah 10:6-18. Idols are nothing, but the Lord God of Israel is all. He is the King of Nations, who rules over all. He is the true God, the living God, the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth trembles and the nations shall not be able to abide His indignation. He made the earth by His power; He established the world by wisdom; He stretched out the heavens by His discretion. But what is man? Brutish in his knowledge.

Jeremiah 10:19-25. Here we see how Jeremiah identified himself with the afflictions and sorrows of Jerusalem. In his prayer he pleads that the judgment might be only for correction and not for a complete and perpetual consummation. “O LORD correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.” He calls for judgment upon the nations. Well may we see in pleading Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, who is afflicted in Jerusalem’s affliction, who identified himself with his people, a type and picture of Him who is greater than Jeremiah.