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Not In Man Who Walketh - Jeremiah 10:23
Not In Man Who Walketh - Jeremiah 10:23
As we read through Jeremiah 7 -10, we begin to understand why God was so angry with His people. He not only has created mankind (and everything else!), but He has chosen to use Abraham's descendants to fulfill His purposes of saving humanity. He gave them a land and a covenant. He gave them a temple and a true form of worship. He provided and protected them, generation after generation.
"The temple, the temple of the LORD" became their rallying cry. This is the temple that Solomon had built 400 years earlier. In this temple, the Lord's glory had come and filled. Here God promised to 'meet with the people'. It, unfortunately, had become a talisman. No matter how they lived, God would protect them and Jerusalem because the temple was there!? NOT SO.
God had earlier given them the tabernacle, which was set up in Shilo when they took over the land. Because of their sin and rebellion, God had allowed it to be destroyed. NOW, He was going to destroy Jerusalem and the temple using the Babylonians.
Again, God points out that He wants not just outward religious ceremony, but a heart that was dedicated to serving Him. (read and reread 7:22-23!) Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. (7:24). "They did not listen to Me or incline their ear" (7:26). They turned away in continual apostasy, they held fast to deceit, they refused to return (8:5).
Hence, "The wise men are put to shame, they are dismayed and caught; Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord, And what kind of wisdom do they have? They refused to know God" (9:7). God proclaimed: "They have forsaken My law which I set before them, and have not obeyed My voice nor walked according to it, but have walked after the stubbornness of their heart and after the Baals, as their fathers taught them,” (9:13-14). "Even the stork in the sky Knows her seasons; And the turtledove and the swift and the thrush Observe the time of their migration; But My people do not know The ordinance of the Lord" (8:7).
YET, they did NOT give up on religion and the basic idea of 'a god' - they turned to the foolishness of idolatry! (ch. 10). In seeing their idolatry, God says: "But they are altogether stupid and foolish In their discipline of delusion—their idol is wood! (10:8) Again: "Every man is stupid, devoid of knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols; For his molten images are deceitful, And there is no breath in them" (10:14).
At THIS point, Jeremiah cries out: "I know, O Lord, that a man’s way is not in himself, Nor is it in a man who walks to direct his steps" (10:23). We have seen not only Jeremiah's generation but generation after generation that has turned away from God and His instruction only to descend into idolatry and immorality. Ah, the wisdom of men! Paul would speak of this pattern in Romans 1!
Who is the wise man? "Thus says the Lord, “Let not a wise man boast of his wisdom, and let not the mighty man boast of his might, let not a rich man boast of his riches; but let him who boasts boast of this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, justice and righteousness on earth; for I delight in these things,” declares the Lord" (Jer. 9:23–24)
Are you wise enough to lean upon the Lord and His word, or so foolish that you insist on going your own way?
Hugh DeLong
