I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 10-12.

    The prophet belittles those who make idols and then worship them as gods. I used to think that this was an obsolete practice, that no one worshiped idols made by human hands as gods, but I know now several people who do that very thing. They spend time reconstructing the worship practices which were abandoned by their ancestors, claiming they are returning to that religion. Those I have spoken with about it acknowledge that they can never fully reconstruct what their ancestors believed or practiced because the records are incomplete. Yet they claim their religion is more “genuine” than Christianity (or Judaism), for which there is thorough documentation of the beliefs and practices of our predecessors. They even admit that the gods they worship did not make the heavens and the earth, yet they will not consider worshiping the God which did.

    I had a point to make when I started the previous paragraph, I am not sure I made it. Jeremiah tells us that God called on the people of Judah to obey Him, but they would not. Instead they turned to the idols of the people around them and ones which they themselves created. Today, God is calling on us to obey Him and all too many of us are turning to gods of our own devising rather than doing so. Judah’s multiplicity of gods failed to save them when disaster struck and the same will be true today. If we do not turn to God and obey His decrees when times are good, He will not save us when disaster strikes. God instructed Jeremiah to stop praying for the people of Judah because He would not aid them. There comes a point where we should stop praying for people who refuse to do God’s will. Actually, that is not quite true. There comes a point where we should stop praying for God to save people from the consequences of their sins. We should never stop praying that people repent and turn to God for His salvation. As Jeremiah points out at the end of this passage, everyone has the opportunity to declare that God is their God and to obey Him. Those who do, no matter who they were before that, or what they did, become the People of God.