The “christmas tree” in Jeremiah 10

The following is from Charlene Midling Ruttan, USA

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Some Christians (not all) who condemn the use of a ‘Christmas Tree’ will use Jeremiah 10.

They point to the verses of: 3 & 4. They go as far as to say you are not saved & serving a false god though ‘True Saints’ will celebrate the Lord’s Birth, Resurrection, & Burial. Looking at the whole context of chapter 10 we see that there is more to it than cutting the tree down and decorating it.

In verse 4 it says… They deck it with silver & with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

Now when comparing scripture upon scripture look at… Habakkuk 2:19 it says… Woe unto him that says to the wood, Awake; to the dumb stone, Arise, it shall teach! Behold, it is laid over with gold & silver, and there is no breath at all in the midst of it.

Now consider the reading of the other verses in Jeremiah 10 that speak of the ‘Skillful Men’ who worked on the Tree. Which includes verses… 5,8,9,14,15. That’s five verses being left out.

Believe it or NOT! These are ‘Idol/Totem Poles’ spoken in Jeremiah 10. Let’s look at these verses together PLEASE…

In verse 5 it says… They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne (transported/carried), because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good.

Idol/Totem poles stand upright & people worship them as gods & they are afraid of them, even though they cannot move, speak, nor do no harm or good (Habakkuk 2:18).

In verse 8 it talks about the TRUCK of the Tree which is called: ‘The STOCK’… The stock is a doctrine of Vanities.

The STOCK is referring to the trunk or woody stem of a living tree or shrub, one into which a graft (scion) is inserted. The truck of the pole shows the history of the family. Which was an individual’s ancestry or line of descent.

This video above explains the nature of the ‘Idol/totem poles’ that were used as gods outside or in the homes of the Native Americans of the northwest Pacific coast who CARVED magnificent vertical columns in cedar, commonly known as “totem poles.”

Randy Hoyt will discuss how, when, and why these poles were CRAFTED; explore their relationship to a tribe’s TRADITIONAL STORIES and myths; and examine what anyone working in a CREATIVE PROFESSION can learn from these exquisite WORKS OF ART.

Start this video@1:50 the making of a totem pole within family traditions.

In Hosea 4:12 it shows that God’s people looked to the ‘stock of a tree’ for counsel which says…

‘My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declares to them: for the spirit of prostitutions has caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God’.

In v.9 says… Silver spread into plates is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the workmen, and of the hands of the founder: blue and purple is their clothing: they are all THE WORK OF CUNNING MEN.

This site gives a history of ‘Cunning folks’…

Here we have the book of Exodus & 2 Chronicles that speak of carving that of wood done by ‘Cunning men’.

Exodus 35:33 And in the cutting of stones, to set them, and in CARVING OF WOOD, to make any manner of cunning work.

Exodus 35:35 Them hath he filled with wisdom of heart, to work all manner of work, of the engraver, and of the cunning workman, and of the embroiderer, in blue, and in purple, in scarlet, and in fine linen, and of the weaver, even of them that do ANY work, and of those that devise cunning work.

In 2 Chronicles 2:7 says… Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave with the CUNNING MEN that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide.

In verse 14 it says… Every man is brutish in his knowledge: every founder is confounded by the GRAVEN IMAGE (Idol/totem poles): for his MOLTEN IMAGE is falsehood, and there is no breath in them (Habakkuk 2:18).

This verse speaks of a ‘Graven/Molten Image’. A Graven Image is a CARVED IDOL or representation of a god used as an object of worship. Molten images are define as made by melting and casting the substance or metal of which the thing is FORMED. So, we have a Carved & Formed Image.

In verse 15 it says… They are vanity, and the WORK OF ERRORS: in the time of their visitation they shall perish.

The Lord promises that everything will BURN in the Day of his WRATH. These Idol poles or Images will perish.

As you can SEE this is NOT speaking of a ‘Christmas Tree’. When you read it in FULL ‘Context’ of the Chapter. It wasn’t a Standing tree in the heathens homes it was cut down, Carved & Formed into an Idol & adorned w/silver and gold (Exo.34:12-17; Isaiah 44:14-19).

May the Peace of God rest upon you all Shalom