◄ Jeremiah 10:10 ►
But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and eternal King. The earth quakes at His wrath, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.
Study Bible
But the LORD
The term "LORD" in this context is derived from the Hebrew "YHWH," often vocalized as Yahweh. This is the covenant name of God, emphasizing His eternal existence and faithfulness to His people. In the historical context of Jeremiah, the Israelites were surrounded by nations worshiping false gods. This declaration sets Yahweh apart as the one true God, contrasting Him with the idols that were prevalent in the surrounding cultures.

is the true God
The Hebrew word for "true" here is "אֱמֶת" (emet), which conveys the idea of faithfulness, reliability, and authenticity. In a world filled with deception and falsehood, this phrase asserts that Yahweh is genuine and trustworthy. Theologically, this underscores the monotheistic belief that God is not only real but also the ultimate standard of truth.

He is the living God
The phrase "living God" is significant in the Hebrew context, where "חַי" (chai) means alive or life-giving. Unlike the lifeless idols made of wood and stone, Yahweh is active and dynamic, involved in the lives of His people. This living nature of God is a source of hope and assurance, as He is not distant or detached but intimately engaged with His creation.

and the everlasting King
The term "everlasting" comes from the Hebrew "עוֹלָם" (olam), indicating perpetuity and eternal existence. As the "King," God is sovereign over all creation, ruling with authority and power. This phrase reassures believers of God's unchanging reign, providing stability and security in a world of temporal rulers and transient powers.

The earth quakes at His wrath
The imagery of the earth quaking is a powerful depiction of God's might and the seriousness of His judgment. The Hebrew word for "wrath" is "חֵמָה" (chemah), which conveys intense anger. This serves as a warning of the consequences of sin and rebellion against God. Historically, this reflects the reality of divine judgment that the Israelites experienced and serves as a reminder of God's holiness and justice.

and the nations cannot endure His indignation
The word "indignation" in Hebrew is "זַעַם" (za'am), which implies a strong displeasure or anger. This phrase highlights the universal scope of God's authority and the futility of resisting His will. It serves as a call to repentance and humility before God, recognizing that no nation or power can withstand His righteous judgment. This is a sobering reminder of the need for reverence and submission to God's sovereign rule.

Persons / Places / Events
1. The LORD (Yahweh)
The covenant name of God, emphasizing His eternal and unchanging nature. In Hebrew, "Yahweh" is often translated as "LORD" in English Bibles.

2. Jeremiah
A prophet in the Old Testament who conveyed God's messages to the people of Judah, warning them of impending judgment due to their idolatry and disobedience.

3. The Nations
Refers to the various peoples and kingdoms surrounding Israel and Judah, often depicted as being under God's sovereign rule and subject to His judgment.

4. The Earth
Represents the physical world that responds to God's power and authority, often used metaphorically to describe the impact of God's actions.

5. Indignation
God's righteous anger and judgment against sin and idolatry, demonstrating His holiness and justice.
Teaching Points
The True God
Recognize that the LORD is the only true God, distinct from idols and false gods. This truth calls for exclusive worship and allegiance to Him.

The Living God
Understand that God is not a distant or inactive deity but is alive and actively involved in His creation. This should encourage believers to seek a personal relationship with Him.

The Eternal King
Acknowledge God's eternal reign and sovereignty over all nations and creation. This provides comfort and assurance that God is in control, even amidst chaos.

The Power of God's Wrath
Be aware of the reality and seriousness of God's wrath against sin. This should lead to a reverent fear of God and a commitment to live righteously.

Endurance in God's Indignation
Reflect on the inability of nations to withstand God's judgment, prompting believers to rely on God's mercy and grace through Jesus Christ for salvation.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding God as the "true God" impact your daily worship and devotion?

2. In what ways can you cultivate a deeper relationship with the "living God" in your personal life?

3. How does recognizing God as the "eternal King" influence your perspective on current world events?

4. What steps can you take to ensure that you are living in a way that honors God and avoids His indignation?

5. How can the truths in Jeremiah 10:10 encourage you to share the gospel with those who do not yet know the living and true God?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Deuteronomy 4:39
This verse emphasizes the uniqueness and sovereignty of God, similar to Jeremiah 10:10, affirming that there is no other God besides Yahweh.

Psalm 18:31
Highlights God as the only true rock and refuge, paralleling the declaration of God as the true and living God in Jeremiah 10:10.

1 Thessalonians 1:9-10
Describes turning from idols to serve the living and true God, echoing the call in Jeremiah to recognize God's supremacy over false gods.
Sermons
One True and Living God Excludes All Possibility of AnothJeremiah 10:10
The Personality of the DeityH. Ware, D. D.Jeremiah 10:10
What Men Fear and What They Ought to FearD. Young Jeremiah 10:1-12
Hearing the Word of the LordW. Stevens.Jeremiah 10:1-16
IdolatryS. Conway Jeremiah 10:1-17
People
Jacob, Jeremiah, Tarshish
Places
Tarshish, Uphaz, Zion
Topics
TRUE, Able, Age-during, Angry, Elohim, Endure, Eternal, Eternity, Everlasting, Fear, Indignation, Nations, Quakes, Shake, Shaking, Tremble, Trembles, Trembleth, Truth, Wrath
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Jeremiah 10:10

     1025   God, anger of
     1080   God, living
     1130   God, sovereignty
     1150   God, truth of
     1155   God, truthfulness
     1205   God, titles of
     1436   reality
     1461   truth, nature of
     4203   earth, the
     5790   anger, divine
     5973   unreliability
     8275   honesty
     9122   eternity, and God

Jeremiah 10:3-10

     5272   craftsmen
     8771   idolatry, objections

Jeremiah 10:8-10

     4345   metalworkers

Library
May 16. "It is not in Man that Walketh to Direct his Steps" (Jer. x. 23).
"It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps" (Jer. x. 23). United to Jesus Christ as your Redeemer, you are accepted in the Beloved. He does not merely take my place as a man and settle my debts. He does that and more. He comes to give a perfect ideal of what a man should be. He is the model man, not for us to copy, for that would only bring discouragement and utter failure; but He will come and copy Himself in us. If Christ lives in me, I am another Christ. I am not like Him, but I have the …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

Possessing and Possessed
'The portion of Jacob is not like them--for He is the former of all things: and Israel is the tribe of His inheritance. The Lord of Hosts is His name.'--JER. x. 16, R.V. Here we have set forth a reciprocal possession. We possess God, He possesses us. We are His inheritance, He is our portion. I am His; He is mine. This mutual ownership is the very living centre of all religion. Without it there is no relation of any depth between God and us. How much profounder such a conception is than the shallow …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

An Instructive Truth
"O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps."--Jeremiah 10:23. This declaration follows after Jeremiah's lamentation over the Lord's ancient people, who were about to be carried captive into Babylon. The prophet speaks of a fact that was well known to him. It is always well, brethren, to know the truth, and to know it so certainly that you are able to remember it just when you most need it. There are some people, who are very much like …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 50: 1904

Dwight -- the Sovereignty of God
Timothy Dwight was born at Northampton, Massachusetts, in 1752. He graduated from Yale in 1769, served as chaplain in the army during the Revolutionary War and was chosen president of his university in 1795. He died, after holding that office for twelve years, in 1817. Lyman Beecher, who attributed his conversion to him, says: "He was of noble form, with a noble head and body, and had one of the sweetest smiles that ever you saw. When I heard him preach on 'the harvest is passed, the summer is ended, …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 3

Of the Exercises of a Religious Man
The life of a Christian ought to be adorned with all virtues, that he may be inwardly what he outwardly appeareth unto men. And verily it should be yet better within than without, for God is a discerner of our heart, Whom we must reverence with all our hearts wheresoever we are, and walk pure in His presence as do the angels. We ought daily to renew our vows, and to kindle our hearts to zeal, as if each day were the first day of our conversion, and to say, "Help me, O God, in my good resolutions, …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

Of Hiding Our Grace under the Guard of Humility
"My Son, it is better and safer for thee to hide the grace of devotion, and not to lift thyself up on high, nor to speak much thereof, nor to value it greatly; but rather to despise thyself, and to fear as though this grace were given to one unworthy thereof. Nor must thou depend too much upon this feeling, for it can very quickly be turned into its opposite. Think when thou art in a state of grace how miserable and poor thou art wont to be without grace. Nor is there advance in spiritual life …
Thomas A Kempis—Imitation of Christ

A Wise Desire
I remember once going to a chapel where this happened to be the text, and the good man who occupied the pulpit was more than a little of an Arminian. Therefore, when he commenced, he said, "This passage refers entirely to our temporal inheritance. It has nothing whatever to do with our everlasting destiny: for," said he, "We do not want Christ to choose for us in the matter of heaven or hell. It is so plain and easy that every man who has a grain of common sense will choose heaven; and any person …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

"And Hereby we do Know that we Know Him, if we Keep his Commandments. "
1 John ii. 3.--"And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments." This age pretends to much knowledge beyond former ages, knowledge, I say, not only in other natural arts and sciences, but especially in religion. Whether there be any great advancement in other knowledge, and improvement of that which was, to a further extent and clearness, I cannot judge, but I believe there is not much of it in this nation, nor do we so much pretend to it. But, we talk of the enlargements of …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Hear the Word of the Lord, Ye Rulers of Sodom, Give Ear unto the Law of Our God, Ye People of Gomorrah,"
Isaiah i. 10, 11, &c.--"Hear the word of the Lord, ye rulers of Sodom, give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah," &c. It is strange to think what mercy is mixed with the most wrath like strokes and threatenings. There is no prophet whose office and commission is only for judgment, nay, to speak the truth, it is mercy that premises threatenings. The entering of the law, both in the commands and curses, is to make sin abound, that grace may superabound, so that both rods and threatenings …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

How Christ is the Way in General, "I am the Way. "
We come now to speak more particularly to the words; and, first, Of his being a way. Our design being to point at the way of use-making of Christ in all our necessities, straits, and difficulties which are in our way to heaven; and particularly to point out the way how believers should make use of Christ in all their particular exigencies; and so live by faith in him, walk in him, grow up in him, advance and march forward toward glory in him. It will not be amiss to speak of this fulness of Christ …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Meditations for Household Piety.
1. If thou be called to the government of a family, thou must not hold it sufficient to serve God and live uprightly in thy own person, unless thou cause all under thy charge to do the same with thee. For the performance of this duty God was so well pleased with Abraham, that he would not hide from him his counsel: "For," saith God, "I know him that he will command his sons and his household after him that they keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

"For if Ye Live after the Flesh, Ye Shall Die; but if Ye through the Spirit do Mortify the Deeds of the Body, Ye Shall Live.
Rom. viii. s 13, 14.--"For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." The life and being of many things consists in union,--separate them, and they remain not the same, or they lose their virtue. It is much more thus in Christianity, the power and life of it consists in the union of these things that God hath conjoined, so that if any man pretend to …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Creation
Q-7: WHAT ARE THE DECREES OF GOD? A: The decrees of God are his eternal purpose, according to the counsel of his will, whereby, for his own glory, he has foreordained whatsoever shall come to pass. I have already spoken something concerning the decrees of God under the attribute of his immutability. God is unchangeable in his essence, and he-is unchangeable in his decrees; his counsel shall stand. He decrees the issue of all things, and carries them on to their accomplishment by his providence; I …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

God's Sovereignty and Prayer
"If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us" (1 John 5:14). Throughout this book it has been our chief aim to exalt the Creator and abase the creature. The well-nigh universal tendency now, is to magnify man and dishonour and degrade God. On every hand it will be found that, when spiritual things are under discussion, the human side and element is pressed and stressed, and the Divine side, if not altogether ignored, is relegated to the background. This holds true of very much of the …
Arthur W. Pink—The Sovereignty of God

Jeremiah
The interest of the book of Jeremiah is unique. On the one hand, it is our most reliable and elaborate source for the long period of history which it covers; on the other, it presents us with prophecy in its most intensely human phase, manifesting itself through a strangely attractive personality that was subject to like doubts and passions with ourselves. At his call, in 626 B.C., he was young and inexperienced, i. 6, so that he cannot have been born earlier than 650. The political and religious …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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