NOTES ON JEREMIAH 7                                                                                                   From December, 1998

These prophetic words of Jeremiah had an immediate fulfillment in his own generation as Judah was devastated, conquered, and taken in captivity to Babylon.  In these last days, the Lord is speaking the very same message again to us.

Jeremiah 7:1-11

          1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message:
          "`Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!" 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
          9 "`Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe" -- safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD.

 The Lord through the prophet Jeremiah exhorted His people to cease trusting in the Temple for their righteousness and spiritual security while they lived in every kind of sin.  They claimed the protection of the Temple for their salvation and for the sanctification of their lives, but did not worship God.

Today, Jeremiah again speaks forth this same Word to us.  The Lord has been calling us out of our idolatry for many years saying that the Church of today is like the Temple of Jeremiah’s day in every way.  That is very difficult for us to accept because we have become numbed by rampant sin both inside and outside the church. We can see the truth of our present condition only as God reveals it to us.  We must honestly and earnestly seek His heart and mind, and see through His holy eyes.
 
It is not profitable for us to debate or squabble over the specifics of this issue here, for the deception is great and goes deep; but each must seek God for himself and learn what the Holy Spirit is saying.  We cannot understand how far astray we have gone by our own reasoning.  It must be as Jesus said, “ He who has ears, let him hear” and, “for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”

Jeremiah 7:12-15

12 "`Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. 14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. 15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.'

At Shiloh the Israelites had departed from the Lord in their hearts, but attempted to invoke the benefit of His power by using the Ark of the Covenant in battle.  They were badly beaten, the Ark of the Covenant was captured, and the sons of the chief priest, Eli, were killed.  When the report of the rout came to Shiloh:

1 Samuel 4:17-22

17 The man who brought the news replied, "Israel fled before the Philistines, and the army has suffered heavy losses. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead, and the ark of God has been captured."
          18 When he mentioned the ark of God, Eli fell backward off his chair by the side of the gate. His neck was broken and he died, for he was an old man and heavy. He had led Israel forty years.
          19 His daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and near the time of delivery. When she heard the news that the ark of God had been captured and that her father-in-law and her husband were dead, she went into labor and gave birth, but was overcome by her labor pains. 20 As she was dying, the women attending her said, "Don't despair; you have given birth to a son." But she did not respond or pay any attention.
          21 She named the boy Ichabod, saying, "The glory has departed from Israel" -- because of the capture of the ark of God and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband. 22 She said, "The glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God has been captured."

The Hope of Israel was gone and the glory of the presence of the Lord had departed.  Likewise, God warned Jeremiah’s generation that if they did not reform their ways He would, as at Shiloh, remove His glory totally from the Temple.  Today, His Word to us is the same and He also speaks to us through the Prophet Isaiah saying

Isaiah 42:14&15

14 "For a long time I have kept silent,
                    I have been quiet and held myself back.
          But now, like a woman in childbirth,
                    I cry out, I gasp and pant.
          15 I will lay waste the mountains and hills
                    and dry up all their vegetation;
          I will turn rivers into islands
                    and dry up the pools.

Jeremiah 7:16-20

          16 "So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. 19 But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?
          20 "`Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground, and it will burn and not be quenched.

The Lord will bring judgment.  He has repeatedly poured out His Spirit only to have the church quench the fire.  We have enjoyed mighty moves of God but continued going our own way.  Earnest seekers have come into the church and God has been faithful to meet them despite the carnality of the religion.  We arrogantly presume this to be His endorsement and approval, instead it is demonstration of His long-suffering patience and mercy.  His love, however, is for His sheep and not for the “church” institution we have created.  It is beyond salvage, for the Lord says do not pray nor offer plea or petition for it.  There is a fire coming that will not be quenched, and it is the wrath of God.

Jeremiah 7:21-29

21 "`This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go ahead, add your burnt offerings to your other sacrifices and eat the meat yourselves! 22 For when I brought your forefathers out of Egypt and spoke to them, I did not just give them commands about burnt offerings and sacrifices, 23 but I gave them this command: Obey me, and I will be your God and you will be my people. Walk in all the ways I command you, that it may go well with you. 24 But they did not listen or pay attention; instead, they followed the stubborn inclinations of their evil hearts. They went backward and not forward. 25 From the time your forefathers left Egypt until now, day after day, again and again I sent you my servants the prophets. 26 But they did not listen to me or pay attention. They were stiff-necked and did more evil than their forefathers.'
          27 "When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer. 28 Therefore say to them, `This is the nation that has not obeyed the LORD its God or responded to correction. Truth has perished; it has vanished from their lips. 29 Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the LORD has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.

Today many in the church will reject this Word outright because they have conspired to agree that God no longer uses prophets.  The rest of the church will reject it for being “divisive”.  In fact, the division already took place when they departed from the Head, Jesus Christ, and worshipped other gods.  The Church no longer worships the God Who spoke through Jeremiah.  Today’s god is of their own creation, convenience, and comfort.  The glory has departed, yet they will fight to the death defending that their Church is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.  So nothing has changed from when the Lord said,
4 "Do not trust in deceptive words and say, 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD! ' "
and when He told Jeremiah,
27 "When you tell them all this, they will not listen to you; when you call to them, they will not answer.”
 
When confronted with this, each of us can comfortably say, “Amen!  I know a church like that!  God really needs to straighten them out.”  But, “ He who has ears, let him hear”,  God is saying this to each of us about ourselves and about our own churches.  Both history and prophecy teach us that only a small remnant will repent and turn to the Lord.  The rest shall know the terrible sword of His judgment.  There is no time or room for playing these deadly religious games any longer.  We must each repent and turn to Him anew with all our hearts, forsaking all else.

Duncan
posted July 10, 2018
(first published December, 1998)