Scarecrows in Cucumber Fields

Scarecrows in Cucumber Fields

My journey through the chronological Bible in the ESV continues to be nothing short of amazing. The truths of God’s Word are popping out at me all over the place. One of those pop-out moments happened again this morning reading through Jeremiah.

In chapter ten, the Lord describes the idols of the nations as being “trees cut from the forest.” They are like “scarecrows in a cucumber field” needing “to be carried for they cannot walk.”

I was contemplating that imagery this morning and thinking about how ridiculous it is to worship something that you’ve made with your own hands. How can the guy who just cut down the tree and then shaped it with precision into his “god” never stop to recognize the lunacy of his actions? And then as I continued down this trail of thought, it struck me that I do it all the time. We do it all the time.

No, we’re not living in a primitive culture where we literally chop down a tree, call it something like “Arzon the Great” and bow in reverential awe to it three times a day. Yet, we construct idols all the time don’t we?

For many of us, it’s the flat-screen 42” LCD monitor fixed to our living room walls. For others, it’s the bucket of bolts sitting in our driveway that our wallets and time so respectfully pay their homage. Maybe it’s our career. Maybe it’s a relationship. Maybe it’s football. (ouch!) Maybe music. (double ouch!)

Whatever it is, we do it. We fashion these scarecrows with our own hands. We feed them. We nestle them. We seek fulfillment and satisfaction in them. And yet, they never truly satisfy do they? They don’t have ears to hear the affections that we lavish on them.  They don’t have eyes to see the way they have captured our attention. They don’t have feet to walk. They don’t have hands to work. They are lifeless objects and ideas that we’ve so whimsically placed value upon, while never seeing the folly or irony of the fact that they are valueLESS. In the grand scheme of things, these objects or ideas can do no more for your soul then polishing a terd will make it become a priceless gem!

What scarecrows in cucumber fields are you placing value on that absolutely do not matter? What is it that has stolen your affections lately? What false idols made of either hands or imagination have captured your thoughts?

Remove them.

Dethrone them.

Destroy them.

And recover Jesus as the only recipient of your complete affection.