Today

Look at the word “make” in this verse. In the Hebrew it is a very common word. It means to do or to fashion something with your hands. It is the same word God uses in Exodus 20:4: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.”

That one word shows the problem Jeremiah is pointing out. A man takes wood or gold and makes a god. But the thing he made can never be greater than the man who made it. It cannot give him what he does not have himself. That is why Jeremiah calls them “no gods” at all.

The true God is the opposite. We did not make Him. He made us. Psalm 100:3 says, “it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.”

Most of us have never carved an idol. But we can still make gods. We build our lives around a paycheque, a career, a relationship, our good name, or our own plans. We look to them for peace and safety. Then trouble comes, and they have nothing to give us. If you made it, it cannot save you.

Jeremiah knew this. Just before this verse he prayed, “O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction.” When trouble came, he did not run to something a man had made. He ran to the God who made everything.

So where do you run first? When the bad news comes, what do you reach for? Your answer may show you a god you did not know you had made.