Baruch 6:17-32: a reflection

17For like a vessel that a man uses is worth nothing when it is broken, even so it is with their gods. When they are set up in the temples, their eyes are full of dust through the feet of those who come in. 18As the courts are secured on every side upon him who offends the king, as being committed to suffer death, even so the priests secure their temples with doors, with locks, and bars, lest they be carried off by robbers. 19They light candles for them, yes, more than for themselves, even though they can’t see one. 20They are like one of the beams of the temple. Men say their hearts are eaten out when things creeping out of the earth devour both them and their clothing. They don’t feel it 21when their faces are blackened through the smoke that comes out of the temple. 22Bats, swallows, and birds land on their bodies and heads. So do the cats. 23By this you may know that they are no gods. Therefore don’t fear them. 24Notwithstanding the gold with which they are covered to make them beautiful, unless someone wipes off the tarnish, they won’t shine; for they didn’t even feel it when they were molten. 25Things in which there is no breath are bought at any cost. 26Having no feet, they are carried upon shoulders. By this, they declare to men that they are worth nothing. 27Those who serve them are also ashamed, for if they fall to the ground at any time, they can’t rise up again by themselves. If they are bowed down, they can’t make themselves straight; but the offerings are set before them, as if they were dead men. 28And the things that are sacrificed to them, their priests sell and spend. In like manner, their wives also lay up part of it in salt; but to the poor and to the impotent they give none of it. 29The menstruous woman and the woman in childbed touch their sacrifices, knowing therefore by these things that they are no gods. Don’t fear them. 30For how can they be called gods? Because women set food before the gods of silver, gold, and wood. 31And in their temples the priests sit on seats, having their clothes torn and their heads and beards shaven, and nothing on their heads. 32They roar and cry before their gods, as men do at the feast when one is dead.

This passage mocks the idols of the nations with biting detail. They are covered in gold to look impressive, but their eyes are full of dust; birds and even cats land on their heads and they cannot shoo them away; if they fall over, they cannot pick themselves up; they must be carried from place to place because they have no feet. By all this, the writer says, you may know that they are not gods. Do not fear them.

Notice the argument. These objects, for all their gold and grandeur, are utterly helpless, unable to see, to move, to stand, even to protect themselves from a bird. They cannot do the smallest thing for themselves, let alone for anyone who prays to them. It is absurd, the writer insists, to fear or trust what cannot even keep itself upright. The living God, by contrast, sees, acts, moves, and saves.

The caution reaches past ancient statues to our own idols, the things we look to for security, meaning, or rescue that are, in truth, just as unable to deliver. Money, status, human approval, our own achievements, none of them can finally see us, save us, or hold us up; like the idols, they must be propped up and protected, and they cannot help in the day of real trouble. What lifeless thing have you been trusting or fearing as though it could do what only God can? Turn from the idols that cannot stand, and trust the living God who alone sees, acts, and saves.

Lord, the idols of the nations cannot see, or stand, or help themselves, and it is folly to trust or fear them. Show me the lifeless things I look to for security and rescue, that cannot actually deliver, money, status, approval, my own achievements. Turn me from the idols that cannot stand, to you, the living God who alone sees, acts, and saves.