Jeremiah 2:11
Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
The contrast stands at the center: surrounding peoples hold fast to their deities even though those deities are not truly divine, while God's professed people trade away their glory for what yields no benefit. That glory is God himself, the true God, together with the honor of belonging to him and possessing him as the source of life. The trade is abandonment of the Lord as the fountain of living waters and of wisdom and counsel, replaced by hewn-out, cracked containers that cannot retain water. It is reckoned as two evils that call forth astonishment in heaven.
Setting aside God's Word for human instruction is such an exchange, for rejecting the living Word cuts off the true source of life and leaves only what cannot satisfy or sustain. The same exchange occurs when those claiming to belong to God uphold a false sabbath, forsaking the Lord as fountain of living waters for something without sanctity or sustaining power, a course tending toward submission to Rome. It also occurs through conformity to the world and through employing God's resources to advance human ability and reputation contrary to his guidance, including failure to uphold firmly the pure principles of the publishing work.
In that publishing setting the unprofitable change takes the concrete form of restricting and repressing individuals, stamping God's work and cause with human injustice, and exhibiting bigotry rather than love, a kind of work God will neither approve nor accept. Keeping the glory there means displaying the religion of love and letting light shine in good works that bring glory to the Father in heaven. Persistence in injustice invites God's exposure of human folly and unrighteousness.
Leaders who resist messages of correction and proudly persist in a wrong course likewise abandon God's way in exchange for worthlessness, and are left to their own perverted thinking. Distrust of God as counsellor in practical affairs is the same faithlessness, turning from his wisdom and counsel to the advice of people who do not trust, love, fear, and obey God and to the wisdom of the world. That reliance dishonors God and depends on false guides, endangering those who follow it with being misled, ruined, and drawn into false paths, difficult places, and an unbuilt road off the ancient paths. The reason is that those unconnected with God are connected with God's enemy, and Satan works through them; the course is as inquiring of foreign gods and offering on a foreign altar, as turning aside to inquire of the god of Ekron when there is a God in Israel, as forgetting God, burning incense to emptiness, and hewing out broken cisterns that hold no water.
The verse also lays bare the folly of restless craving for empty display and outward things, a misplaced longing that wrong training in youth can foster. Happiness is not located in show but in a simple, well-ordered home where each member bears suitable responsibilities.