The Maker of All vs. a Work of Mockery Text: Jeremiah 51:15-19
Introduction: Two Realities
We live in a world that is at war. This is not, first and foremost, a war of nations or politics, though it certainly spills into those arenas. The fundamental conflict, the one that undergirds all others, is a war over reality itself. There are only two options on the table. Either the universe is the handiwork of a personal, transcendent, all-powerful God, or it is the accidental byproduct of impersonal, mindless forces. Either we live in a cosmos, an ordered creation, or we live in a chaos, a cosmic fluke signifying nothing.
Jeremiah, prophesying against the staggering might and idolatrous pride of Babylon, brings this conflict into the sharpest possible focus. Babylon was the world's superpower. Her gods were legion, her temples were magnificent, and her confidence was absolute. She was the city that dwelt on many waters, rich in treasures. From a human perspective, her reality seemed unshakable. But the prophet Jeremiah is tasked with pulling back the curtain to show the Babylonians, and Israel, the truth of the matter. He is to show them the Wizard of Oz, and reveal that the great and powerful Babylon is, in fact, a fraud propped up by nothing.
The argument Jeremiah lays out is a collision of two worldviews. On the one hand, you have the God of Israel, the Maker of all things, whose power is displayed in the very fabric of the heavens and the earth. On the other hand, you have the gods of Babylon, graven images, molten lies, works of mockery that cannot breathe, think, or act. This is not a contest between equals. It is an infinite qualitative distinction. It is the difference between the artist and a child's crude finger-painting of the artist. The issue is not merely that Israel has a better God; the issue is that Israel has the only God, and all other contenders are nothing more than a pathetic joke.
This passage is a dose of divine satire. It is a blast of cosmic ridicule aimed at the high-minded foolishness of man. And we must understand that this ancient argument is as relevant today as the moment Jeremiah penned it. Our culture is just as steeped in idolatry as ancient Babylon. Our idols may be less frequently made of gold and wood, and more frequently made of ideologies, ambitions, political saviors, or the worship of the self. But the diagnosis is the same: we have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. This passage calls us to see the world as it truly is, to see the staggering power of the one true God and the laughable impotence of every idol that would seek to usurp His throne.
The Text
It is He who made the earth by His power,
Who established the world by His wisdom,
And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens.
When He gives forth His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth;
He makes lightning for the rain
And brings forth the wind from His storehouses.
All mankind is senseless, devoid of knowledge;
Every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image,
For his molten images are a lie,
And there is no breath in them.
They are vanity, a work of mockery;
In the time of their punishment they will perish.
The portion of Jacob is not like these;
For the Maker of all is He,
And of the tribe of His inheritance;
Yahweh of hosts is His name.
(Jeremiah 51:15-19 LSB)
The Unrivaled Creator (v. 15-16)
Jeremiah begins by establishing the identity of the true God. He is not one power among many; He is the source of all power, the architect of reality itself.
"It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom, And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens." (Jeremiah 51:15)
This is a direct assault on the Babylonian creation myths. As we saw in Genesis, pagan creation stories are filled with conflict, chaos, and gods who are themselves part of the cosmic furniture. But the God of the Bible stands utterly apart from and over His creation. Notice the Trinitarian echoes here. He creates by His power, establishes with His wisdom, and stretches out the heavens with His understanding. This is not a brute, blind force. This is personal, intelligent, and purposeful. The power is the Father's will, the wisdom is the Son, the eternal Logos, and the understanding is the Spirit who brings order from chaos. The entire Godhead is involved in the work of creation.
Because He made it, He owns it. And because He made it with wisdom and understanding, it is an intelligible and orderly universe. This is the foundation for all science, all logic, and all meaning. If the universe is an accident, there is no reason to expect it to be orderly or for our minds to be able to comprehend it. But because it is the product of a wise and understanding God, we can study it and expect to find patterns, laws, and beauty. Every scientist who conducts an experiment is, whether he admits it or not, borrowing from this foundational biblical presupposition.
The prophet continues, describing God's ongoing, active rule over His creation.
"When He gives forth His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain And brings forth the wind from His storehouses." (Jeremiah 51:16)
God did not just create the world and then step back to watch it run like a clockmaker. He is immanent. He is actively involved in every moment. His voice, the same voice that said "Let there be light," continues to govern the weather. The storm is not the result of a temperamental weather-god. It is the voice of Yahweh. The clouds, the lightning, the rain, the wind, these are not chaotic forces. They are His servants, dispatched from His storehouses at His command. He holds the lightning in His hand. He tells the wind where to blow.
This is a polemic against the nature-worship that was so central to paganism. The Babylonians had gods for the storm, gods for the wind, gods for the rain. Jeremiah is saying that all these so-called deities are unemployed. The one true God runs the entire operation. He is the CEO of the cosmos, and He manages every detail. This is a profound comfort for the believer and a terrifying reality for the rebel. The God we serve is not an abstract principle; He is the one who commands the storm.
The Senseless Idolater (v. 17-18)
After establishing the majesty of the Creator, Jeremiah turns his attention to the alternative: the absurdity of idolatry. The contrast is jarring and deliberate.
"All mankind is senseless, devoid of knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his graven image, For his molten images are a lie, And there is no breath in them." (Jeremiah 51:17)
This is a blunt diagnosis of the fallen human condition. Apart from God's revealing grace, man is "senseless." The word means brutish, like an animal. Despite all our intellectual pretensions, when we reject the Creator, we become fundamentally irrational. The prime exhibit of this irrationality is the idol. A man takes a lump of gold, a substance God created, and with his own God-given strength and skill, he fashions it into a figure. He then bows down to the work of his own hands and calls it a god.
Jeremiah points out the obvious: it is a lie. It is a fraud. There is "no breath in them." The God of Genesis breathed life into man; man cannot breathe life into a statue. The goldsmith is necessarily greater than the god he makes, and yet in an act of profound spiritual insanity, he inverts the relationship and worships the lesser. As Isaiah mocks so brilliantly, a man takes a log, uses half of it to warm himself and cook his dinner, and then bows down to the other half and says, "Deliver me, for you are my god!" (Isaiah 44:17). This is not just a mistake; it is a willful suppression of the truth in unrighteousness (Romans 1:18).
The verdict on these idols is utterly damning.
"They are vanity, a work of mockery; In the time of their punishment they will perish." (Jeremiah 51:18)
The word for "vanity" is the same word used throughout Ecclesiastes: hebel. It means vapor, a puff of air, utter emptiness. These idols are nothing. They are a "work of mockery," a joke. They are not just powerless; they are ridiculous. And they have an expiration date. When God comes to judge Babylon, these idols will not save the Babylonians. They will be smashed, melted down, and carried off as plunder. They will perish right along with their worshippers. To trust in an idol is to chain yourself to a corpse and hope it will pull you from the river.
The Incomparable Portion (v. 19)
The final verse brings the argument to its glorious conclusion. After demolishing the false gods, Jeremiah presents the true and living alternative.
"The portion of Jacob is not like these; For the Maker of all is He, And of the tribe of His inheritance; Yahweh of hosts is His name." (Jeremiah 51:19)
The "portion of Jacob" refers to the God whom Jacob's descendants inherit, the God who is their inheritance. He is not like "these." He is in a different category altogether. Why? "For the Maker of all is He." This is the fundamental distinction again: the Creator versus the created. The gods of the nations are part of the creation, fashioned by men from other parts of the creation. But the portion of Jacob is the one who made all of it. He is not on the list of existing things; He is the author of the list.
And just as God is Jacob's portion, Jacob's tribe is His inheritance. This is the language of covenant. God has chosen a people for Himself, not because they were impressive or mighty, but out of His sovereign good pleasure. This relationship is personal, exclusive, and eternal. You cannot have a covenant relationship with a block of wood.
Finally, He is given His covenant name, the name He revealed to Moses at the burning bush: "Yahweh of hosts is His name." Yahweh is the personal name of the covenant-keeping God. And "of hosts" means of armies. He is the commander of the armies of heaven. This is not some local, tribal deity. This is the sovereign Lord of all cosmic power, the general of innumerable angelic armies. The name itself is a declaration of war against all pretenders. The God of this tiny, exiled nation is the commander of the universe. Babylon's idols have no breath. Jacob's God commands legions.
Conclusion: The Maker or the Mockery
So what is the takeaway for us? The temptation of Babylon is the temptation of every human heart. It is the temptation to trade the infinite, living God for a finite, dead substitute. Our idols today may be more sophisticated. We worship at the altar of our careers, our political parties, our sexual identities, our personal autonomy. We fashion gods out of our own intellects and desires. But they are just as breathless, just as empty, just as much a work of mockery as any golden calf.
They are a lie. They cannot deliver. They promise freedom but bring slavery. They promise life but they are breathless. And in the time of judgment, they will perish, and they will drag their worshippers down with them.
But the portion of Jacob is not like these. The Maker of all has not left us to our senseless idolatry. He has invaded His creation in the person of His Son, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the ultimate expression of God's power and wisdom. "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible" (Colossians 1:16). He is the one who holds the wind in His storehouses, the one who stills the storm with a word.
And He came to smash the idols. He came to expose them for the frauds they are. On the cross, He absorbed the punishment that our idolatry deserved. He went into the darkness so that we might have the light. He who had all the breath of life gave up His breath, so that He might breathe true life into us, who were dead in our sins and chained to our breathless idols.
The choice before us is the same choice that was before Israel in Babylon. Will we trust in the works of our own hands, the mockeries we construct to make ourselves feel significant and secure? Or will we abandon our senselessness and turn to the Maker of all? Will we cling to our vanity, or will we cast ourselves upon the mercy of the one whose name is Yahweh of hosts? He is the only portion that satisfies, the only inheritance that lasts, and the only God who can save.