Charles Spurgeon Commentary Jeremiah 1:15-16

"For, lo, I will call all the families of the kingdoms of the north, saith Jehovah; and they shall come, and they shall set every one his throne at the entrance of the gates of Jerusalem, and against all the walls thereof round about, and against all the cities of Judah. And I will utter my judgments against them touching all their wickedness, in that they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, and worshipped the works of their own hands." — Jeremiah 1:15-16 (ASV)

God tells Jeremiah that he was about to destroy Jerusalem because of the people's sin. He was not merely to foretell their doom, but he was also to tell the reason for it – that it was the result of their sin, and especially of the sin of idolatry, to which mankind is always exceedingly prone.

It is most difficult to keep people to pure spiritual worship – the worship of the unseen God in spirit and in truth. They will get away, if they can, to some outward form or another. They will take the very bread of communion and worship it, or the image of the bleeding Saviour and make an idol of that.

Somehow or other, they will have something visible or tangible as the object of their adoration. People will fall into idolatry of one kind or another even today; and this is a God-provoking offense. May the Lord, in his mercy, graciously keep all of us perfectly clear from it!