Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Jeremiah continues his plea to Judah today, and he opens with a reminder of what many,

but not all, of their idols really are.

It's a tree God made, cut down by a human God made, covered in gold God made.

It can't hear or speak or move.

That block of wood by itself can't do good or evil.

It's completely impotent, unless, and this is something the text doesn't quite dig into

here, unless an evil spirit attaches itself to the object.

And this is actually what the people are hoping for, although they aren't specifically seeking

evil spirits just forces of power.

In order to summon these forces of power, they do incantations, cut themselves, and perform

magic and rituals to try to get what they believe is a God to indowel the thing they've

just made.

They even make special outfits for the statues and take them on trips.

When you think about those statues and then you consider Yahweh, there is no comparison.

The people are worshiping these idols because they think it will give them safety and power

and happiness.

Most of us probably don't have a false God set up in our homes, but we certainly do look

to other things besides Yahweh for those same purposes.

Safety and power and happiness.

There's nothing wrong with those things, but when they take precedence in our hearts

and thoughts, they take our eyes off Yahweh.

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