The Maker of Ears
There is none like you, O LORD you are great, and your name is great in might.
Who would not fear you, O King of the nations?
For this is your due;
for among all the wise ones of the nations
and in all their kingdoms
there is none like you.
They are both stupid and foolish;
the instruction of idols is but wood!
Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish,
and gold from Uphaz.
They are the work of the craftsman and of the hands of the goldsmith;
their clothing is violet and purple;
they are all the work of skilled men.
But the LORD is the true God;
he is the living God and the everlasting King.
At his wrath the earth quakes,
and the nations cannot endure his indignation.
Thus shall you say to them: “The gods who did not make the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens.”
It is he who made the earth by his power,
who established the world by his wisdom,
and by his understanding stretched out the heavens.
When he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens,
and he makes the mist rise from the ends of the earth.
He makes lightning for the rain,
and he brings forth the wind from his storehouses. (Jer. 10:6-13)
The first thing Angie did when I got back from my wagon trip with the girls (see below) was to put in the video of her sonogram. The first frames said it all. The technician had it spelled out one letter at a time: “I….AM…..A……BOY….”
But then came all the fascinating stuff: young Luke clearly sucking his thumb, and moving around, and crossing his delicately formed little feet. Incredible!
In the midst of all the evolution vs Christianity debates of recent times, what convinces it for me is looking at one of my granddaughters’ little ears. I don’t know why it is the ear, especially. (Both girls have very cute ears, contrasted, say, from their Grandpop’s big Flanery ears.) But something about the artistic way each little ear is formed is so appealing. So clearly designed by a Great Artist who understands symmetry and beauty and utility.
In Jeremiah’s day it blew his mind that anyone could be so stupid as to think that pieces of wood–that had to be carried yet–could be an object of worship. They couldn’t even propel themselves around, much less anything in the created world. But the LORD: He is the one who made the earth by His power, and established the world by His wisdom.
The intellectual elite of our culture don’t bow down to pieces of wood or stone. Rather, they boldly proclaim that the although the world and all that is in it looks designed for a purpose, it isn’t. My granddaughter’s ear is the product of blind chance which conforms to the laws of physics–wherever they came from. And so is my emotion at looking at her ear and feeling such an affection for her and for the way she is designed and for the soul that is her inside that incredibly complex system we call “her body.” Little Lydia, age 2, is learning how to put together sentences. “Please cut out the tree from the play doh, Grandpop,” is a typical one. How did she learn to say that? No one knows. Even the smartest linguist throws up his hands and mutters under his breath, “hard wired.” I.e, “DESIGNED.”
So is there an analog between the idolators of Jeremiah’s day, and the atheistic materialists of ours? First, let me say that except for the grace of God there go I. I spoke below of a potential disappointment with God in the death of my precious wife. I can see how I could be driven toward atheism by the impact of that blow on my life. “What kind of God would take away someone like her through the sufferings of cancer?” But of course, even in saying that I would be admitting that something called love really exists. The love I had for her, and she for me, was REAL. It wasn’t a “meme” leftover from the destructive forces of natural selection. It was in fact the most real thing in my life (and I think in hers). We loved each other with a love that grew each day, and which was both so obvious to us both, yet so complex, that a scientific explanation is impossible. Science does have its limits!
But back to my question: what about the idol-makers of Jeremiah’s day and the materialists of ours? The parallel I see is that they both worship something they have made themselves. The idol-maker the “god” that he himself had chiseled from a log; the materialist the elaborate theory (a.k.a dogma) that he has erected with his colleagues, and which he defends–not with the scientific method, which allows for falsification–but with the zeal of a religious convert. John Calvin, following the Apostle Paul, said that in knowing something about ourselves, we know something about our Creator, because we are created in His image. It takes a mighty act of will to deny that image that lurks inside us.
Jeremiah was quite clear about the fate of the idol-makers of his day. The idols and their makers will perish from the earth and from under the heavens. His warning still stands. The Day of the Lord is coming, and for those who have made idols of either kind, it won’t be a “nice day.” As for me I will continue to gaze in awe at those incredible pictures of my unborn grandson, and at those delicate beautiful ears of my granddaughters.