JEREMIAH 10:1-5: A CHRISTMAS TREE?

It is not unusual, this time of year, for some to make inquiry as to the application of the aforementioned verse.  To some, this might seem to apply to having a Christmas tree in ones' home.  There are, however, some inherent problems with applying this verse to our practice of placing a tree in our homes.

First, this passage was written several hundred years before Christ's birth, so it could not be referring to a CHRIST-MAS tree.

Second, the practice of decorating trees did not come into practice for several hundred years after the birth of our Savior.

Thirdly, the correct application is that the nations were practicing idolatry.  Keil and Delitsch commentaries on the Old Testament, affirm this.

Warning against idolatry by means of a view of the nothingness of the false gods (Jer_10:1-5), and a counter-view of the almighty and everlasting God (Jer_10:6-11) and of His governing care in the natural world. This warning is but a further continuation of the idea of Jer_9:23, that Israel's glory should consist in Jahveh who doth grace, right, and justice upon earth. In order thoroughly to impress this truth on the backsliding and idolatrous people, Jeremiah sets forth the nullity of the gods feared by the heathen, and, by showing how these gods are made of wood, plated with silver and gold, proves that these dead idols, which have neither life nor motion, cannot be objects of fear; whereas Jahveh is God in truth, a living and everlasting God, before whose anger the earth trembles, who has created the earth, and rules it, who in the day of visitation will also annihilate the false gods.

Unless you are bowing down to your tree and you give respect to it as deity, there is nothing wrong with a Christmas tree or other harmless decorations.

—Paul