A god for every city and an altar for every street. Don’t know why that’s what popped this morning, but it did.

I’m reading Jeremiah 10 and 11 and hovering over the prophetic word as the LORD pleads with His people, “Learn not the way of the nations” (10:2). Ways which are idolatrous ways. Customs which are vain customs (10:3-5). And then the Spirit leads Jeremiah to do a side-by-side comparison, comparing the LORD, “the living God and the everlasting King (10:10), with the “stupid and foolish” idols, the works of the craftsman and the goldsmith (10:8-9). Bottom line? There is no comparison for “there is none like You, O LORD” (10:6).

But the people wouldn’t listen. Their hearts were hardened. Their eyes blind, and their ears deaf, and their brains on autopilot. And the idol industry flourished in Judah.

For your gods have become as many as your cities, O Judah, and as many as the streets of Jerusalem are the altars you have set up to shame, altars to make offerings to Baal.

(Jeremiah 11:13 ESV)

A god for every city. An altar for every street. That’s a whole lot of idolatry going on!

So much so that the “way of the nations” must have seemed pretty commonplace for the people of God. As the saying goes, it had become “the air they breathed.”

And as I read it, I try and connect it. Is it really possible to have that many idols spread around town and spread throughout the land? Or is just Jeremiah using some prophetic license to employ some prophetic hyperbole?

And the cultural equivalent that comes to mind is “expressive individualism.” The belief that true meaning is found in expressing inner feelings; that identity is founded in psychological convictions; that human fulfillment is realized by fulfilling personal desires; that being authentic is found in being one’s self. And that, it seems to me, is idolatry — replacing the Creator with a created thing.

The way of our world is the way crafted by our own wisdom in order to make our own way. And if that is left to each man and to each woman, then it seems we too have a god in every city and an altar for every street and an idol in every home. And that’s a lot of idols! Perhaps the idol industry is flourishing in our land as well.

And rather than point the finger, I feel like I need to confess a failure. Rather than be quick to judge others, I need to be thoughtful in self-examination. Because, in our world, “expressive individualism” IS the air we breathe and it would be foolish to think it hasn’t invaded, at least to some degree, the inner workings of His church.

And so, I pray Jeremiah’s prayer . . .

I know, O LORD, that the way of man is not in himself,
       that it is not in man who walks to direct his steps.
Correct me, O LORD, but in justice;
       not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing.

(Jeremiah 10:23:24)

The way of man is not in himself . . . Correct me, O LORD . . .

Test my heart, Father. Deal with its idolatries.

Not in judgment, but in justice. Not through condemnation but through consecration.

For the price for my sinful idolatry has already been paid in full on Calvary’s cross. And the remedy for my wrongful worship is found not in myself but “in Him”, found in my union with Your Son. What’s more, the power to remove the “stupid and foolish” things I have set up on the street corners of my life comes not from my might nor by my strength but by Your Spirit.

Cleanse my home. Purify my heart.

By Your grace. For Your glory.