Jer 10:1-13 Learn not the Ways of the Heathen

[Study Aired May 30, 2021]

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:
Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
Jer 10:4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jer 10:5  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.
Jer 10:6  Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is  great in might.
Jer 10:7  Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms,  there is none like unto thee.
Jer 10:8  But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.
Jer 10:9  Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
Jer 10:10  But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Jer 10:11  Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
Jer 10:12  He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Jer 10:13  When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

Our study today begins with these words:

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

Christ informed us that very few have been given eyes which can see or ears that can hear His words concerning the mysteries of the kingdom of God:

Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them [“The multitudes” of Christians] it is not given.
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.

Understanding that Christ did not want the multitudes to see and hear and understand and be converted reveals to those who have been given eyes to see and ears to hear the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, that Christ did not come to save the world at this time. He certainly did come to save the world, but He will do so only in the order in which He planned it to be accomplished “before the world began”.

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

Tit 1:2  In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began;

Here is that “order” in which all men will be saved:

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
1Co 15:23  But every man in his own order: [1] Christ the firstfruits; [2] afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming. [“The first resurrection” (Dan 12:13, Rev 20:6)]
1Co 15:24  [3] Then cometh the end, [The great white throne judgment “when the thousand years are expired” and Satan leads mankind into one last rebellion against God (Rev 20:7-15)] when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
1Co 15:25  For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet.
1Co 15:26  The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.
1Co 15:27  For he hath put all things under his feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him.
1Co 15:28  And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him,  that God may be all in all.

At this present time, Christ has purposely blinded the multitudes of Christians and is dragging to Himself a select few with whom, and through whom, He will save all men of all time through the fiery great white throne judgment/lake of fire/second death’:

Rev 20:7  And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
Rev 20:8  And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Rev 20:9  And they went up on the breadth of the earth,  and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
Rev 20:10  And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.
Rev 20:14  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.
Rev 20:15  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.

Christ spoke to the multitudes in parables lest they should see any of these “mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”. That being the case, the first verse of this chapter is addressed specifically to us, if we have been given eyes that see and ears that hear His words:

Jer 10:1  Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

Hearing the Lord’s Word infers that we are doing what those words command. James admonishes us:

Jas 1:22  But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

Isaiah tells us this about those to whom the Lord looks to become “kings and priests” to rule the kingdoms of this world with Him during that thousand-year reign.

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look,  even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

Isa 66:5  Hear the word of the LORD, ye that tremble at his word; Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name’s sake, said, Let the LORD be glorified: but he shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed.

We are all first babes in Christ before we mature enough to “tremble at His Word”. There were two things about “the Word of the Lord” which made the church and society of Christ’s day “hate [Him, and] cast [Him] out” of their synagogues. Here are those two things:

Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because [1] he not only had broken the sabbath, but [2] said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

Christ did not break just the weekly sabbath. He also broke the laws concerning the annual holy days when He failed to appear in Jerusalem on the first day of the feast of tabernacles as commanded in the law of Moses:

Lev 23:33  And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
Lev 23:34  Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, The fifteenth day of this seventh month shall be the feast of tabernacles for seven days unto the LORD.
Lev 23:35  On the first day shall be an holy convocation: ye shall do no servile work therein.

Christ was not there for that “first day… holy convocation”:

Joh 7:1  After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for he would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill him.
Joh 7:2  Now the Jews’ feast of tabernacles was at hand.
Joh 7:3  His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.
Joh 7:4  For there is no man that doeth any thing in secret, and he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou do these things, shew thyself to the world.
Joh 7:5  For neither did his brethren believe in him.
Joh 7:6  Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready.
Joh 7:7  The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth,  because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.
Joh 7:8  Go ye up unto this feast: I go not up yet unto this feast; for my time is not yet full come.
Joh 7:9  When he had said these words unto them, he abode still in Galilee.

Joh 7:14  Now about the midst [Greek: mesoo, middle] of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.

The apostle Paul was well aware of these facts when He wrote:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

The apostle Paul had met Christ on the road to Damascus. At that meeting Paul was physically blinded to graphically make him and us aware of just how blind we all are to the Word of the Lord, and how we must be taught to “tremble at His word”, including His Words which said:

Mat 12:6  But I say unto you, That in this place is one greater than the temple.

Mat 12:8  For the Son of man is Lord even of the sabbath day.

The apostle Paul knew the doctrine of Christ even though he was not one of the original twelve apostles, and it was with that knowledge he was given to instruct us:

Gal 4:1  Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child [Greek: nepios, infant], differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all;
Gal 4:2  But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father.
Gal 4:3  Even so we, when we were children [nepios], were in bondage under the elements [Greek: stoicheion, principles, rudiments] of the world:

We will examine these two Greek words, ‘nepios’ and ‘stoicheion’, in a moment, but first we need to go on to our next verse to discover how these two words will contribute to understanding the judgment we are enduring as it is revealed to us here in Jeremiah ten:

Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

What does the Lord mean by, “Be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them?” This fear includes the fear which false astrologers place upon how the stars line up in the heavens and ‘blood moons’ and astrological signs. This fear also includes the “dismay… at the signs of the heavens” which is experienced by those who observe “the customs of the people” which customs are all built around “the signs of the heavens” like the weekly sabbath and the holy days and the new moons. Many ‘Christians’ literally fear to miss going to church on Sunday. This is clarified in the very next verse:

Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

“The customs of the people” revolve around “the signs of the heavens” in the previous verse. The cutting of a tree is done for the purpose of observing “the customs of the people”. That was and is as true of the Jewish customs of the law of Moses as it was and is of the pagan holidays of the nations around Israel. Both the Pagan holidays and the holy days given to Israel by the Lord were designed to keep those nations in bondage to “the weak and beggarly elements” of this world. Christ came to deliver us out from under that bondage, and when He, as our example which we must follow, broke those customs, the people of the church of His day wanted to kill Him for doing so:

Mat 12:1  At that time Jesus went on the sabbath day through the corn; and his disciples were an hungred, and began to pluck the ears of corn, and to eat.
Mat 12:2  But when the Pharisees saw it, they said unto him, Behold, thy disciples do that which is not lawful to do upon the sabbath day.

Joh 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

1Pe 2:21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

Clearly Christ is telling us that the keeping of days, months, times and years, are idols of our hearts which we keep and observe to avoid being rejected of our families and our friends and the entire society in which we live. This is true in every culture on earth. Every holy day and every holiday demand our submission to “the customs of the people”. It may not be direct physical idolatry but it is definitely an “idol of the heart “which is what physical idolatry symbolizes. “His molten image is falsehood…” (Jer 10:14) and this:

Eze 14:3  Son of man, these men have set up their idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face: should I be enquired of at all by them?
Eze 14:4  Therefore speak unto them, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity before his face, and cometh to the prophet; I the LORD will answer him that cometh according to the multitude of his idols;

While this next verse outwardly refers to the construction of a physical idol decked with silver and gold it also typifies the expense we put into “observ[ing] days, months times and years”:

Jer 10:4  They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.
Jer 10:5  They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

False doctrines are false, regardless of how many people believe them. The doctrine of eternal torment will torment no one when they die because “the dead know not anything (Ecc 9:5). Those ‘idols of our hearts’ destroy our relationship with Christ, but they have no power in the realm of Truth. So much for our “idols of the heart”.

When the Lord toppled the idol of Dagon, the god of the Philistines, Dagon could not even right himself, much less harm anyone. Instead, the Philistines had to place Dagon back on his pedestal:

1Sa 5:2  When the Philistines took the ark of God, they brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
1Sa 5:3  And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the earth before the ark of the LORD. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again.
1Sa 5:4  And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of the LORD; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands were cut off upon the threshold; only the stump of Dagon was left to him.
1Sa 5:5  Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon’s house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod unto this day.

That is how little the Lord thinks of physical idols. How much less must He think of spiritual idols of our hearts which affect the hearts and minds of men. How much less must He think of His people observing days, months, times, and years, against which he admonished His people Israel:

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

The holy spirit gives us this very same admonition in these verses in Galatians four:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements [Greek: stoikeion], whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? [Here is what is Paul is referring to as “weak and beggarly elements”]:
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Paul emphasizes the need to understand the Lord’s mind on this subject in these verses where that same Greek word ‘stoicheion’ is used in relation to the time we spend as spiritual babes (Greek: nepios, infants) in Christ:

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world [Greek: ‘stoikeion’, “days, months, times, and years”, (Gal 4:10-11)], and not after Christ.
Col 2:9  For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
Col 2:10  And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
Col 2:11  In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
Col 2:12  Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
Col 2:13  And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
Col 2:14  Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
Col 2:15  And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Col 2:16  Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:

This 16^th verse is often used to justify the keeping of “days, months, times and years”, when the exact opposite is its meaning, as is proven by verse 8 in this same chapter and by:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Col 2:17  Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of Christ.

The word ‘is’ is not in verse 17 above in the original texts, and what this verse is saying is that we are not to let carnal men judge us, but we are to let the body of Christ be our judge in these matters.

Romans 14 tells us to receive the weak in the faith who are still “esteem[ing] one day above another and are being careful to eat only herbs. These “carnal babes in Christ” have many customs and laws which dictate “touch not, taste not, nor handle” anything other than spiritual herbs which will never bring us to spiritual strength and maturity.

Col 2:18  Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
Col 2:19  And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.
Col 2:20  Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments [stoicheion] of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
Col 2:21  (Touch not; taste not; handle not;
Col 2:22  Which all are to perish with the using;) after the commandments and doctrines of men?

There it is as plainly as it can be written. We are to count ourselves as “dead with Christ from the rudiments, the stoichieon of the world [the] days, months, times, and years” which are “the customs of the people [which] are vain”.

let us examine how these verses accord with what Paul teaches us in Romans 14:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

Paul is contrasting “We then that are strong [in the faith]” (Rom 15:1) with “him that is weak in the faith”. He goes on to make it clear that those who are weak in the faith “eat only herbs [and] they esteem one day above another”.

Rom 14:2  For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs.
Rom 14:3  Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not [is weak in the faith] judge him that eateth [is strong in the faith]: for God hath received him.
Rom 14:4  Who art thou [who are weak in the faith] that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him [that is strong in the faith] stand.
Rom 14:5  One man [who is weak in the faith] esteemeth one day above another: another [who is strong in the faith] esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. [Don’t let the adversary convince you that it takes more strength to keep days than it takes to ‘esteem every day alike’]
Rom 14:6  He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.
Rom 14:7  For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself.
Rom 14:8  For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.
Rom 14:9  For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.

Verse nine is not telling us to equate ‘dying daily’ with being dead while we live in sin. All of these verses are focused mainly on those who are not spiritually “weak in the faith”, and they are simply instructions for how “We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak”:

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

Romans 14 does not instruct the spiritually strong to forgo their “meat of the Word”. Romans 14 teaches us to accommodate “him that is weak in the faith” without despising his weak and immature spiritual condition, while at the same time instructing the weak not to judge and condemn those who are given to “eat all things [and] esteem every day alike”.  Anyone can “esteem one day above another” because that is what the whole world does, but it takes a man who trembles at the word of God and is spiritually strong in that Word to “esteem every day alike”.  The spiritually strong in the faith are instructed to bear with the infirmities of the weak, and they who are weak in the faith are instructed against judging their spiritually strong brothers. It is very difficult for any brother who is “weak in the faith” to acknowledge his spiritual immaturity. All toddlers just naturally think they are adults.

The holy spirit continues instructing us:

Rom 14:10  But why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou set at nought thy brother? for we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
Rom 14:11  For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.
Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Rom 14:13  Let us not therefore judge one another any more: but judge this rather, that no man put a stumblingblock or an occasion to fall in his brother’s way.
Rom 14:14  I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean.
Rom 14:15  But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

“Destroy him not with your meat” does not read ‘forsake your meat lest you offend your brother who is weak in the faith’. Again, while Paul is giving instructions to both “We that are strong” as well as “him that is weak in the faith”, his main focus is toward “we that are strong”, and he instructs us “destroy him not with your meat”. There is no hint at compromising the Word, but there is a command in this chapter to “bear with the weak” and never attempt to stuff strong meat down the throat of a “babe in Christ who must be fed with spiritual milk until he is capable of digesting “strong meat”.

Paul applied this principle in dealing with the immature Corinthians:

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

Look again in Hebrews 5 how Paul addresses those who are weak in the faith:

Heb 5:12  For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13  For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Heb 5:14  But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

“When for the time you ought to be teachers” tells us that there are some who are very slow to mature, and there are many who never spiritually mature in “this present time” (Rom 8:18). King Saul is a type of such a person. He was much older that the “strippling” who slew Goliath, yet King Saul was incapable of discerning good and evil, and was in fact a spiritual babe, as his sloppy understanding of the instruction he was given demonstrates:

1Sa 15:3  Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

This is a physical instruction to physically destroy everything pertaining to Israel’s enemy, Amelek. This is how we are to take these words today:

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Yes, we surely ought to “lay aside every sin that so easily besets us”, but apply those words personally and remember:

Rom 14:12  So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

Romans 14 ends with these words:

Rom 14:20  For meat destroy not the work of God. All things indeed are pure; but it is evil for that man who eateth with offence.
Rom 14:21  It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.
Rom 14:22  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.
Rom 14:23  And he that doubteth is damned if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.

These words: “whatsoever is not of faith is sin” apply both to “him that is weak in the faith [and] we that are strong”. Babes in Christ, which we all are to begin with, require time to mature and come to “tremble at My Word”. If we think we are strong in the faith, then we need to “bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves”.

That is the New Testament spiritual application of “utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” It is addressed inwardly to those who are mature enough and spiritually strong enough to receive it. However, like King Saul, at first we simply do not see the need to be that thorough in our obedience. Also, like King Saul we first bring the sacrifice of our own works and expect the Lord to appreciate our blatant disobedience. We may be willing to give up pagan holidays for “God’s holy days” as we reasoned in the World-Wide Church of God. But we were still keeping “days, months, times and years”, and our knowledge of the Father and His Son was impeded by our ignorance and our disobedience. It took decades before the Lord allowed me to see these very plain statements:

Mat 12:5  Or have ye not read in the law, how that on the sabbath days the priests in the temple profane the sabbath, and are blameless?

Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

‘Christ in us’ is the focus of this chapter of Jeremiah. He is our example in whose steps we must follow (1Pe 2:21):

Jer 10:6  Forasmuch as there is none like unto thee, O LORD; thou art great, and thy name is great in might.
Jer 10:7  Who would not fear thee, O King of nations? for to thee doth it appertain: forasmuch as among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like unto thee.

We all make light of the Lord’s instructions for the same reason King Saul did so:

1Sa 15:21  But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, to sacrifice unto the LORD thy God in Gilgal.

As in this story of King Saul’s presumptuousness, the Lord instructs us to destroy everything within ourselves which pertains to His enemies. Moses was given the same instructions concerning the enemies of the Lord’s people many years earlier:

Deu 20:16  But of the cities of these people, which the LORD thy God doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth:

Nevertheless, we all first follow in the steps of King Saul and bring a sacrifice to the Lord of the very thing He instructed us not to bring to Him. Our whole life is supposed to be “a living sacrifice unto God” (Rom 12:1). However, just like King Saul, we all first sacrifice to the Lord according to what we deem worthy of His acceptance and we are “deceiving our own selves” (Jas 1:22) that we are being obedient and we are bringing to him a proper sacrifice. After all, we are giving to Him the sacrifice we want to give Him. That is especially true when we want to offer Him “the customs of the people [which] are vain” (vs 3). That presumptuous spirit is the subject and the theme of this chapter of Jeremiah:

Jer 10:2  Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.
Jer 10:3  For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

My personal journey has taken me from an extremely strict Pentecostal church, where alcohol was of itself a sin, much like many think of guns here in the states. In the Pentecostal Churches of the 50’s and 60’s just touching a beer or a bottle of wine would have been unimaginable. Dancing, card games and theater going were all the devil’s instruments to keep me from going to heaven and to send me straight to an eternal ever-burning hell. However, the observance of Christmas, Easter and the 4^th of July were all wonderful ways of worshiping the Lord in the Pentecostal church.

In His time the Lord took me out of those blasphemous doctrines and into a much more self-righteous, but what I considered at that time, to be a more merciful church, the World Wide Church of God. This organization of men swapped the Pagan holidays for the more Biblical ‘holy days’ of the law of Moses. It is these days to which Galatians 4 refers:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Just a few verses later in this same chapter Paul asks:

Gal 4:21  Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

Earlier in the epistle to the Romans the apostle Paul made it clear that the law of Moses was really, as far as its ability to bring us salvation, nothing more than the spiritual equivalent of the laws of the Gentiles:

Rom 2:14  For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves:
Rom 2:15  Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;)

This is the Truth, and keeping Jewish holy days made me no closer to God than keeping pagan holidays. I was blatantly thumbing my nose at the example Christ had set for me, and I was as blissfully ignorant as King Saul of my presumptuous expectation that the Lord should feel honored that I was keeping days, months, times and years to Him. As Paul says in Romans 14:

Rom 14:5  One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.
Rom 14:6  He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks.

When we are in the grips of “the… vain… customs of the people” we read these two verses as if the first verse of this 14^th chapter and the first verse of the 15^th chapter are not even there. However, they are right there before our very blinded eyes:

Rom 14:1  Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.

Rom 15:1  We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves.

We read Romans 14:4-5 as if being “weak in the faith” were a strength to be desired, and we read Romans 15:1 as if it were telling us that being infirmed and spiritually weak and sickly were a desirable sacrifice to present to the Lord (Rom 12:1).

In my own experience, I finally gave up both the pagan holidays and the Jewish holy days, and yet I presumptuously retained the celebration of being made sin, by being made of “corruptible flesh and blood” (1Co 15:50). Sandi and I observed birthdays for the whole ten years we were following the greasy grace doctrines of the Concordant Publishing Concern.  We saw no need whatever to give up observing and celebrating our wedding anniversary. We saw nothing at all wrong with keeping Thanksgiving Day, mother’s day and father’s day. “Surely”, we reasoned, “the Lord did not really mean every day, month, time and year. Why, Thanksgiving Day was a day to give thanks to Him. Surely, we could keep these days and months and years if we were doing it in sacrifice to Him. After all we were doing it all just to glorify Him.” We thought we were giving our whole life to Him and that He would accept our offering of disobedience since we were doing it in sacrifice to Him.

All the while Sandi and I were just repeating the presumptuous sins of King Saul who also proclaimed just how thoroughly obedient He had been in serving the Lord:

1Sa 15:13  And Samuel came to Saul: and Saul said unto him, Blessed be thou of the LORD: I have performed the commandment of the LORD.

All the while, Christ remained faithful to His own words and not to ours. All the while He was asking us:

1Sa 15:14  And Samuel said, What  meaneth then this bleating of the sheep in mine ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

What then is this singing of ‘happy birthday’ and this greeting of ‘happy anniversary’, etc?

Our next verse gives us our true spiritual diagnosis of our spiritual health when we use the verses of scripture which instruct us to bear the infirmities of the weak for an excuse to bring to the Lord our own presumptuous sacrifices and expect Him to be pleased with us attempting to dictate to Him our agenda:

Jer 10:8  But they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities.

How true those words are! I saw and heard the founder of CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, admit that he was certainly aware that Christmas and Easter were of Pagan origin, but he justified keeping these Pagan customs as if they were not “a doctrine of vanities” at all because, as he explained to his audience of Babylonian Christians (spiritual followers of King Saul), “We know that Christmas and Easter were originally pagan holidays but we have Christianized them, and we now keep these days to God and not to pagan gods.” Just like King Saul, this man thinks that God needs to get with his program and accept his sacrifice of blatant disobedience to the very clear instructions from our very Creator.

The Hebrew word translated as ‘stock’ here in verse 8 is H6086, ‘ets’, and it is almost always translated as either ‘wood’ or ‘trees’. It is the same word translated as ‘wood’ in this verse with which we are all familiar:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood [H6086: ‘ets’], and it shall devour them.

No expense is spared to keep these Pagan days “to our God” when we are in the grips of the great whore:

Jer 10:9  Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workman, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all the work of cunning men.
Jer 10:10  But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.
Jer 10:11  Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
Jer 10:12  He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
Jer 10:13  When he uttereth his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causeth the vapours to ascend from the ends of the earth; he maketh lightnings with rain, and bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures.

There we have the message of this part of our judgment. ‘The nations [which] shall not be able to abide His indignation” are all the idols of our hearts which we think the Lord should accept as pleasing to Him. We are told, “Learn not the ways of the heathen for they are vain… they are altogether brutish and foolish: the stock is a doctrine of vanities… But the LORD is the true God, he is the living God, and an everlasting king: at his wrath the earth shall tremble, and the nations shall not be able to abide his indignation.”

The founder of CBN the Christian Broadcasting Network, thinks the Lord is pleased with us Christianizing pagan holidays and bringing those pagan holidays in sacrifice to our Lord. What does the Lord Himself have to say about doing such a thing? We read this earlier, but it bears repeating:

Deu 12:29  When the LORD thy God shall cut off the nations from before thee, whither thou goest to possess them, and thou succeedest them, and dwellest in their land;
Deu 12:30  Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following them, after that they be destroyed from before thee; and that thou enquire not after their gods, saying, How did these nations serve their gods? even so will I do likewise.
Deu 12:31  Thou shalt not do so unto the LORD thy God: for every abomination to the LORD, which he hateth, have they done unto their gods; for even their sons and their daughters they have burnt in the fire to their gods.
Deu 12:32  What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

We must be incredibly careful that we do “not add thereto, nor diminish from” His Words:

Rev 22:18  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19  And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life [the first resurrection], and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
Rev 22:20  He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Yes, indeed, we are to bear with the infirmities and weaknesses and spiritual sickness of those who are weak in the faith, but we do so with this goal in mind:

Rom 15:5  Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
Rom 15:6  That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Rom 15:7  Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.

Christ did not die for us while we were yet in our sins so we could turn His chastening grace into lasciviousness. He died for us so we could fill up in our bodies what is lacking of His suffering “for His body’s sake, which is the church”:

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

That is our study for today. Here are our verses for our next study:

Jer 10:14  Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
Jer 10:15  They are vanity, and the work of errors: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.
Jer 10:16  The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.
Jer 10:17  Gather up thy wares out of the land, O inhabitant of the fortress.
Jer 10:18  For thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this once, and will distress them, that they may find it so.
Jer 10:19  Woe is me for my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is a grief, and I must bear it.
Jer 10:20  My tabernacle is spoiled, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth of me, and they are not: there is none to stretch forth my tent any more, and to set up my curtains.
Jer 10:21  For the pastors are become brutish, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Jer 10:22  Behold, the noise of the bruit is come, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah desolate, and a den of dragons.
Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.
Jer 10:24  O LORD, correct me, but with judgment; not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing.
Jer 10:25  Pour out thy fury upon the heathen that know thee not, and upon the families that call not on thy name: for they have eaten up Jacob, and devoured him, and consumed him, and have made his habitation desolate.

[The next study in this series is here.