Jeremiah 7:1-29--Evil in the Land

Jeremiah 7:1-29
English Standard Version

Evil in the Land
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the LORD. 3 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’

5 “For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, 6 if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

8 “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? 11 Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the LORD. 12 Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things, declares the LORD, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14 therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim.

16 “As for you, do not pray for this people, or lift up a cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven. And they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 19 Is it I whom they provoke? declares the LORD. Is it not themselves, to their own shame? 20 Therefore thus says the LORD God: Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, upon man and beast, upon the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.”

21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. 22 For in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, I did not speak to your fathers or command them concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices. 23 But this command I gave them: ‘Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ 24 But they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. 25 From the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have persistently sent all my servants the prophets to them, day after day. 26 Yet they did not listen to me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.

27 “So you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you. You shall call to them, but they will not answer you. 28 And you shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the LORD their God, and did not accept discipline; truth has perished; it is cut off from their lips.

29 “‘Cut off your hair and cast it away;
    raise a lamentation on the bare heights,
for the LORD has rejected and forsaken
    the generation of his wrath.’

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Now God tells Jeremiah, a priest, to take the LORD's message directly to those worshiping in and serving in the Temple.  He tells them that they need to change their ways--I'm assume that would shock them since they thought that they were going through the motions and God would be pleased with them, but the LORD wants their hearts.  God promises that if they repent, He will save them and bless them once again.  However, not even the Temple will keep them safe if they do not repent.

God tells them specific things they need to do differently.  They need to treat each other justly, stop taking advantage of foreigners that are passing through their land or living among them, stop oppressing the widows and orphans, stop shedding innocent blood, and stop their worship of other gods.  If they do all these things, then the LORD will once again bless and defend them.

​The LORD lists the charges against them--they steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods which they do not know.  In summary, they are Law-breakers and not Law-keepers.  They have used the LORD's salvation of their people as a license to sin.  The LORD says that must stop, or He will put an end to it Himself.  You cannot say you love the king and then look for every opportunity to disobey His every command and swear allegiance to another nation.  It's the same with the LORD.  Our love for Him (if we have such love) requires our full allegiance and obedience--that is not to say we will never mess up, but there is a difference between an honest mistake and treason against king and country.

Jesus quotes from this passage when He drives out the money changes saying that indeed the house of the LORD which is supposed to be called "a house of prayer" has become "a den of robbers."  God reminds the people that the Tabernacle used to reside at Shiloh, but the LORD allowed that whole city with all of the descendants of Eli to be killed because of the wickedness within the family of the high priest (see 1 Samuel 2:12-4:22).  The priesthood and the Tabernacle did not save Eli and his sons.  What makes this generation think that God will not similarly judge them now that they live in Jerusalem and worship and minister in a Temple instead of a Tabernacle?  To the LORD, it is not really that different.  God says that He is going to do to the southern kingdom of Judah exactly what He has already done to the northern kingdom of Israel--they too will go into Exile since they have neither listened to the warnings of His prophets, nor have they learned from the examples of history or what is happening to their brothers in the northern 10 tribes.

Thought Jeremiah's role as a priest was to mediate and intercede for the people, God tells him not to do so this time.  Intercession is pointless, because they have hardened their hearts (and it appears God has also hardened their hearts so that they will not repent and face the judgment they deserve).  Life will go on without interruption.  People will continue to make sacrifices, gather wood for cooking their meals and to stay warm, and make dough for their daily bread.  They will not see it coming.  They will wake up thinking it is just another day, but in that day, judgment will come swiftly.

God tells them they can keep enjoying their portion of the sacrifices they make, but He is not pleased with them because He desires obedience, not sacrifice.  He goes back to the book of Exodus to remind them that at the Passover that He told them they would be His people if they loved and obeyed Him.  He did not give them the Law on Mount Sinai requiring all the different kinds of sacrifices to be made at the Tabernacle until 50 days later (at Pentecost--the Feast of Weeks, the day after 7 weeks after Passover).  God takes them back to that initial form of the covenant because the sacrifices mean nothing if they do not come from a heart that is in right relationship with the LORD.  Yet, the people then and the people of this time that Jeremiah spoke to could be described with the same words--rebellious, stubborn, and stiff-necked.  They were worthy of God's wrath.  If we are honest, we are much the same way many times.  None of us deserve God's mercy, grace, or favor.

The LORD tells Jeremiah that it is important for him to speak this message so that everyone hears it, even though the LORD tells him that no one will listen to or accept his words.  They will reject him because they have rejected the LORD and His message.  However, the people will be without excuse.  The message was given, but they would not listen to it.  They cannot blame God and say, "Why didn't you warn us?" God tells Jeremiah to start mourning for the people now.  He is to cut off his hair and raise lamentations for them in the hearing of all of them because they are a generation of people who will fall under the wrath of the LORD.