The Maker's Mark Text: Jeremiah 10:11
Introduction: The Ultimate Litmus Test
We live in a world that is chock full of gods. Our sophisticated, secular age imagines it has graduated from the crude idolatries of the past. We may not have a carved Baal in the town square or a golden calf in the lobby of city hall, but our world is nevertheless teeming with deities, rival claimants to the throne of the universe. They are the gods of the self, the gods of the state, the gods of mammon, the gods of sexual liberation, the gods of raw power. Every worldview, every philosophy, every political movement has a god at its center, something it declares to be ultimate. And because we are made in the image of God, we are inveterate worshippers. The question is never whether we will worship, but only what, or whom, we will worship.
Into this crowded pantheon, the prophet Jeremiah lobs a stick of dynamite. He provides us with a simple, devastatingly effective, and universally applicable litmus test for sorting out the one true God from the legion of impostors. It is a test that any child can understand, and yet it is one that the most brilliant pagan philosopher cannot get around. It is the ultimate intellectual and spiritual reality check. It is the maker's mark.
This verse is unique in the book of Jeremiah. It is written in Aramaic, the common language of international diplomacy and commerce at the time. The reason for this is that God was giving His people a portable creed, a pithy, memorable, and devastating declaration that they could carry with them into exile in Babylon. They were about to be immersed in a culture saturated with the most impressive idolatry the world had ever seen. The Babylonian gods were not rustic, backwoods deities; they were the gods of a global superpower, with magnificent temples, elaborate rituals, and the full backing of the state. So God gives His people a sharp, two-edged sword, a statement in the language of their captors, that they could wield against any and every idol they encountered. This was not a defensive, cowering whisper; it was a confident, public declaration of war.
This verse is the final court of appeals. All other arguments, all other claims to power, all other demands for allegiance, must come to this bar and be judged. It establishes the foundational distinction in all of existence, the Creator/creature distinction. There are only two kinds of things in the universe: God, who made everything, and everything else. And any god that falls into the second category is no god at all.
The Text
Thus you shall say to them, "The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth will perish from the earth and from under the heavens."
(Jeremiah 10:11 LSB)
The Divine Indictment
The verse is a direct command from God to His people. "Thus you shall say to them." This is not a suggestion for their private meditation. It is a mandated public testimony. They are to speak this truth into the teeth of the prevailing idolatrous culture. And what is the message? It is a simple, declarative sentence that functions as both an indictment and a verdict.
"The gods that did not make the heavens and the earth..." (Jeremiah 10:11a)
Here is the indictment. The test is straightforward: did you make this? Did you create the heavens and the earth? Can you point to the galaxies, the mountains, the oceans, the intricate dance of molecules, and say, "That was Me"? If the answer is no, then you are disqualified from the outset. You are not God. You are, at best, a creature, and at worst, a complete fiction.
This is the great dividing line. On one side stands the Triune God of Scripture, Yahweh, who in the beginning created the heavens and the earth (Gen. 1:1). He spoke, and it was so. He is the uncreated Creator, the self-existent ground of all being. On the other side of that line is everything else without exception. This includes the sun, moon, and stars, which ancient peoples worshipped. It includes the great beasts of the earth and the leviathans of the deep. It includes the most powerful kings and emperors, from Nebuchadnezzar to Caesar to the modern heads of state who imagine themselves to be sovereign. It includes the abstract deities of our own day: the god of Progress, the god of Science, the god of Equality, the god of Self-Esteem. We simply ask them, "Did you make the heavens and the earth?" The silence that follows is deafening.
The apostle Paul makes the same argument at the Areopagus in Athens. Surrounded by a forest of idols, he declares, "The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands" (Acts 17:24). The right to rule is inextricably tied to the act of creation. If you made it, you own it. If you own it, you get to set the rules. Making rights are ruling rights. Because our God is the Creator, He is therefore the Lord, the absolute sovereign. Any other so-called god is a pretender, a usurper, a cosmic squatter.
These gods that did not make the heavens and the earth are themselves part of the creation. They are either carved from a tree that God made, or forged from metal that God made, or are demonic pretenders who are themselves created beings in rebellion. Or, as is most common today, they are concepts and desires that arise from the minds of men, minds that God made. They are all downstream from the great act of creation. They are manufactured goods, not the manufacturer. To worship them is the height of absurdity. It is for the pot to worship a different pot, instead of the potter.
The Divine Verdict
The second half of the verse follows with the inescapable logic of the first half. Because these gods are not the Creator, they are subject to the Creator's laws, including the laws of decay and death. They are not eternal. They have an expiration date.
"...will perish from the earth and from under the heavens." (Jeremiah 10:11b)
This is the verdict. It is a death sentence. Notice the comprehensive nature of their destruction. They will perish "from the earth" and "from under the heavens." There will be no place left for them. They will be utterly and completely eradicated. Their memory will be blotted out. This is not a reformation; it is an annihilation. The true God does not share His glory with rivals (Isaiah 42:8). He does not negotiate a truce with idols. He destroys them.
This is a promise and a prophecy. History is the long story of God making good on this verdict. Where are the great gods of Babylon, Marduk and Bel? Where are the gods of Egypt, Ra and Osiris? Where are the gods of Greece and Rome, Zeus and Jupiter? They have perished. Their temples are ruins, their worshippers are dust. They are now nothing more than museum pieces and subjects for academic study. They had their day in the sun, they commanded the allegiance of millions, they were propped up by the might of empires, but because they did not make the heavens and the earth, they were weighed in the balances and found wanting. They have been swept into the dustbin of history.
And this verdict applies with equal force to the more sophisticated idols of our own time. The god of secular humanism, the god of Marxism, the god of utopian statism, they too will perish from the earth. Any system that places man, or the state, or any created thing at the center is building on sand. It is constructing a worldview that is at war with the fundamental grain of the universe. And reality always wins in the end. The God who made the heavens and the earth will not be mocked. Whatsoever a man, or a nation, sows, that will he also reap. If you sow to the idol of your own autonomy, you will reap the whirlwind of chaos and collapse.
This is a tremendous comfort for the people of God. When we are surrounded by the loud, proud, and intimidating idols of our age, we can have confidence. They look so powerful, so permanent. But they are all on death row. They are ghosts. Their doom is written. We do not have to be afraid of them. We are on the side of the Creator, and He has promised that the meek, those who trust in Him, will inherit the earth. The future does not belong to the idols; it belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom and for whom all things were created (Col. 1:16).
The Gospel Application
This verse is not simply a tool for dismantling paganism. It points us directly to the heart of the gospel. The ultimate idol, the original idol, is the self. The first sin in the garden was the desire to "be like God" (Genesis 3:5). Adam and Eve wanted to be their own creators, their own lawgivers, their own source of meaning. This is the root of all subsequent idolatry. Every false god is ultimately a projection of our own rebellious desire for autonomy.
And the verdict of this verse falls on us as well. Because we have made an idol of ourselves, we too deserve to perish from the earth and from under the heavens. We are creatures who have tried to usurp the throne of the Creator, and the wages of that sin is death.
But the good news of the gospel is that the Creator entered His creation to save us from this verdict. Jesus Christ, the eternal Word through whom the heavens and the earth were made (John 1:3), became a creature. He took on flesh and dwelt among us. The one who holds all things together by the word of His power allowed Himself to be held in a manger. The Lord of heaven and earth had no place to lay His head.
And on the cross, He took the perishing that we deserved. He was cut off from the earth. He endured the darkness under the heavens, the full weight of the Father's wrath against our idolatry. He died the death that all false gods and their worshippers deserve to die.
But because He is the Creator, death could not hold Him. He rose from the grave, demonstrating that He alone is the Lord of life. And through His resurrection, He began the work of a new creation. When we repent of our self-worship and put our faith in Him, we are made new creatures (2 Corinthians 5:17). The old idolatrous self is put to death with Christ, and we are raised to walk in newness of life.
The litmus test of Jeremiah 10:11 still stands. There is only one God who made the heavens and the earth. And there is only one name given under heaven by which we must be saved (Acts 4:12). That name is Jesus. All other gods will perish. All other saviors will fail. All other ground is sinking sand. Therefore, let us heed the command of the prophet. Let us say to the idols of our age, to the gods of power, pleasure, and pride: you did not make the heavens and the earth. Your time is short. You will perish. But our God, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, is the Creator of all things, and His kingdom will have no end.