Week 31 Jeremiah 16
At the end of the chapter Jeremiah prays a short prayer with a question (and an answer):
Q: can people make their own gods?
A: the gods they make are not real gods at all.
If Jeremiah had been talking to actual people (not the Lord) it’s possible he might have asked ‘can you people make your own gods?’ and then he might have waited for an answer. (There were two possible answers. Either A) Yes we can make our own gods or B) No we can’t make our own gods.)
It’s also possible Jeremiah wouldn’t have waited for an answer because he knew most people would choose Answer A.
But either way I think what Jeremiah was actually asking was: can a guy make a real god? (that explains his comment: the gods they make are not real gods at all).
The gods that people were making were real-enough. But in the end they were still real-enough artificial gods. Genuine authentic honest-to-god fake gods. Fakely realistic substitutes.
Anyway the Lord told Jeremiah: now I’ll show them my power and might. This tips me off that Power and Might are a couple of key differences between a real-fake god and a real-real god.
The Lord has vast strength & Niagara’s of power and he’s not creatable or controllable by people.
By contrast the maker of a real-fake god gets to create & control whatever god he wants. Which seems like a nice advantage.
Note: quotes from Jeremiah 16:19-20 (NLT)