Jeremiah 10b. Genuine hand-made idols.

 We left the party last week in the middle of a performance by the prophet Jeremiah. To remind us; Jeremiah warns the people about being overly-impressed by the idols of the Babylonians who have defeated them. The temptation is to think that the idols are real and powerful. The results of warfare in those days was thought to be a statement about whose god was stronger. So the temptation would be for the Israelites to think that they need a new god.

 In fact, Judah’s defeat was a punishment by YHWH and not a conquest by the Babylonian gods. This warning makes sense if it is in a letter sent to the elite exiles who were carried off to Babylon in 597. It would be a letter of encouragement to keep the faith. 

 Jeremiah’s performance is made up of rapid alternations between prophetic critique and psalms of praise. We have read through two cycles; below is the beginning of the third.  

10: 11. 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.

One observation that you cannot see, unless you look at the footnotes in your English Bible, is that this verse is not written in the Hebrew language. The rest of the scroll of Jeremiah is in Hebrew. None of the ancient copies of Jeremiah have a Hebrew verse at this point; they all confirm that this verse was originally written in Aramaic. 

 What is going on? First, let me tell you that, while this is unusual, it is not unique in the Old Testament. The vast majority of the Old Testament books are written in Hebrew and only Hebrew. However, a few sentences in Aramaic are also found in both Ezra and Daniel. These two books were written after the 70 year exile when the Israelites who were living in Babylon had to learn Aramaic. Aramaic became their primary language; only a few old people and Bible scholars remembered the Hebrew language after a while. 

 The scribe Baruch began to write down Jeremiah’s preaching prophecies long before the Babylonian army arrived, and then Jeremiah kept preaching right into the period of the exile. The first captives were sent off in 597 and consisted mostly of the elite in Jerusalem. It was probably to these exiles that Jeremiah sent a letter in the form of a scroll of his prophecies up to this point. 

 If that is so, does Jeremiah use Aramaic here for a reason? I think so. If he is writing to exiles who are in the process of learning this new language, then he may be encouraging them to speak Aramaic so that their captors will understand their claims about their god YHWH. This implies a kind of witness, a mission to Babylon not to dismiss YHWH just because Judah acted stupidly. 

 Why do they need encouragement? Listen to one of the Psalms/songs from that period.

“By the rivers of Babylon—   

there we sat down,

and there we wept   

when we remembered Zion.

On the willows there   

we hung up our harps.

For there our captors   

asked us for songs,

and our tormentors asked for mirth, saying,   

“Sing us one of the songs of Zion!”

How could we sing the LORD’s song   

in a foreign land? (Psalm 137: 1-4).

 How indeed? You have to look to slave literature to get the feeling, the pathos of being brought captive to a foreign land to serve as a slave. Then you would understand release from captivity in songs like: “Swing down sweet chariot, stop and let me ride,” or “Steal away, steal away to Jesus” or sayings like, “Free at last, free at last, thank God I’m free at last.”

10: 12-13.

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 brings out the wind from his storehouses.

The message that Jeremiah wants the exiles to give to their captors’ is that their gods, who are false to begin with, are hand-made trinkets. They are not the Creator. YHWH is the Creator of all that they experience in this world: the sky, the stars, the sun and moon, the land and sea, and the plants and animals. What they worship is only the creation. 

10: 14-15.  

Everyone is stupid and without knowledge;   

goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols,

for their images are false,   

and there is no breath (spirit) in them.

They are worthless (empty), a work of delusion;   

at the time of their punishment they shall perish.

 Point well taken, as anyone who has ever watched Funniest Home Videos knows, there are some pretty stupid people out there. The people that Jeremiah has in mind here, though, are specifically the artisans who make idols. Worse yet are the people who pay them for their work. A lot of money is spent and attention given to detail, but in the end, when destruction comes, the idol just sits there. No help at all.

10: 16.  

The portion (cheleq) of Jacob is not like these,   

for he is the one who formed all things,

and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance (nachalat);   

the LORD of armies is his name.

 You don’t want the idol that is hand-made, you want the one who made the hand. The use of the legal terms translated above indicates a deeper truth. At the time, Israel belonged to God and God belonged to Israel. They were bound to each other.

Good thing, too, because YHWH is ‘the Lord of Vast Armies (Hosts)’. As Elisha said to his servant to whom the armies of the Lord had just been revealed: “Do not be afraid, for there are more with us than there are with them” (II Kings 6: 15-17). Remember that.