TWO GOOD PROPHETIC PUNCH LINES

“Like a scarecrow in a cucumber field, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.” —Jeremiah 10:5

We can appreciate the Hebrew prophets as performance artists.

As well as thundering denunciations of the powerful nations and people of their day, heartfelt sermons that begged the people to turn back to their God, reminders of their history as God’s people, and poetic descriptions of the restoration and future God promised, God often gave the prophets strange instructions for public stunts to get the people’s attention and to act out parables of His long-suffering love. Also, we can miss the humor found in various parts of the Bible. The limited understanding we have of a long-ago culture so unlike our own means that some of the best lines are literally lost in translation.

That is why we should appreciate them all the more when they are obvious to us. Challenging the idols of the surrounding nations that the people of Israel seemed perpetually tempted to worship by describing them as about as useful as “a scarecrow in a cucumber patch” was simply a good punch line. It is a vivid picture of an inanimate and powerless figure that could not speak, had to be moved from place to place, and could barely frighten birds.

So, if they cannot frighten the birds, why should they frighten us? This was a direct rejoinder to the fear that has always been so dominant in pagan and other unhealthy religions, including our own, when it loses sight of God and who He is.

This was Jeremiah’s ultimate punch line.

God was not merely an alternative god to those of the surrounding nations. He was—and is—something altogether different.

“No one is like you, LORD; you are great, and your name is mighty in power” (Jeremiah 10:6).