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Context No. 516 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 11:6-13: in context

6The LORD said to me, “Proclaim all these words in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, saying, ‘Hear the words of this covenant, and do them. 7For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt, even to this day, rising early and protesting, saying, “Obey my voice.” 8Yet they didn’t obey, nor turn their ear, but everyone walked in the stubbornness of their evil heart. Therefore I brought on them all the words of this covenant, which I commanded them to do, but they didn’t do them.’” 9The LORD said to me, “A conspiracy is found among the men of Judah, and among the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 10They have turned back to the iniquities of their forefathers, who refused to hear my words. They have gone after other gods to serve them. The house of Israel and the house of Judah have broken my covenant which I made with their fathers. 11Therefore the LORD says, ‘Behold, I will bring evil on them which they will not be able to escape; and they will cry to me, but I will not listen to them. 12Then the cities of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem will go and cry to the gods to which they offer incense, but they will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. 13For according to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah; and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to the shameful thing, even altars to burn incense to Baal.’

God tells Jeremiah to proclaim the terms of the covenant through the towns of Judah, reminding the people how relentlessly he had pleaded with their ancestors from the day he brought them out of Egypt, rising early and urging, obey my voice. And they did not. Now the present generation has done the same, turned back to other gods, and God says something that quantifies just how far the idolatry has spread. According to the number of your cities are your gods, Judah, and according to the number of the streets of Jerusalem you have set up altars to burn incense to Baal. A god for every town, an altar on every street. The idolatry is not a scattered failing; it is the fabric of the whole society, one false god for every place a person might live.

And then God names the emptiness at the center of it. When disaster comes, he says, the people will cry out to me, but I will not listen, and they will go and cry to the gods to whom they burn incense, but those gods will not save them at all in the time of their trouble. There is the exposure. All these gods, one per city, all this expensive, pervasive devotion, and in the hour of real need not one of them can do anything. The very things they had multiplied and served, an altar on every corner, turn out to be utterly unable to help when everything falls apart. They had filled their lives with gods that could not save.

That presses me to count my own altars. I may not build shrines, but I have my own multiplied gods, the many things I quietly serve and turn to for security, comfort, and meaning, a functional god for every corner of my life. And Jeremiah's question is whether any of them can actually save me when the crisis comes. When my life truly falls apart, the things I have poured my devotion into, money, status, control, approval, will stand there as useless as Baal. How many gods have I set up, one for every street of my life, and when real trouble comes, which of them will be able to save me?

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