Jeremiah 10:16
The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name. The portion of Jacob is not like them: for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance: The LORD of hosts is his name.
The portion belonging to Jacob is not like the idols, which are lifeless, powerless, and unable to act. The reason He is unlike them is that He is the former and maker of all things. The title portion of Jacob identifies the living and true Lord as Israel's God. The phrase rod of His inheritance means that Israel is the people assigned, allotted, and claimed as His inheritance. The verse gives His name as the Lord of hosts.
As Creator He is a personal, living God, not merely an impersonal force. He is the true God, the living God, and an everlasting King, whose wrath makes the earth tremble and whose indignation the nations cannot endure. He made the earth by His power, established the world by His wisdom, stretched out the heavens by His discretion, and commands the multitude of waters, vapors, lightnings, and wind. Creation expresses His character and reveals His power and wisdom, yet nature itself is not God and must not be worshiped; honor belongs to the Creator alone.
His creative power is the basis for reverence and worship, and the Sabbath commemorates that power and testifies to His existence, greatness, wisdom, and love. The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under heaven. Every maker of graven images is brutish and confounded, for the molten image is falsehood with no breath in it, mere vanity and error that shall perish at the time of visitation.
The verse expresses the confession of chastened and penitent Israel and Judah as they renew their covenant with Him. The verse warns His people not to learn the way of the heathen, be dismayed at the signs of heaven, follow heathen ways, turn from God to falsehood, or trust teachings that deny God. Those who profess truth yet drink at the polluted fountains of infidelity and draw others away from the pure cold waters are fools, though they claim to be wise.