Lying Words: Jeremiah 7-10 (1)

Pray Psalm 33.13-17.
The LORD looks from heaven;
He sees all the sons of men.
From the place of His dwelling He looks
On all the inhabitants of the earth;
He fashions their hearts individually;
He considers all their works.
No king is saved by the multitude of an army;
A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.
A horse is a vain hope for safety;
Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength.

Sing Psalm 33.13-17.
(Truro: Shout, for the Blessed Jesus Reigns)
God from His throne looks down on men; He knows our works and made our hearts.
Let not Your Church, let none depend on strength or skill or human arts.

Read Jeremiah 7.1-27; meditate on verses 23-27.

Prepare.
1. What did God call on the people to do?

2. Why were the people being hypocritical?

Meditate.
Jeremiah’s fourth message to the people of Judah and Jerusalem was delivered “in the gate of the LORD’s house” (v. 1). Try to imagine this setting. The people were gathering for worship. They were doing what they’d done every Sabbath for as long as they could remember, assembling at the temple for offerings, prayers, singing, and everything that goes with worshiping the Lord.

As they went in, instead of a smiling usher, handing them a bulletin, they were confronted by Jeremiah, threatening the wrath of God, denouncing their worship, and calling on them to amend their ways (vv. 2, 3). The people were trusting in the externals of religion: “The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these” (v. 4). They were going through the motions of religion, but their daily lives were marked by sinful and idolatrous ways (vv. 5-10, 17-19). This was the kind of situation Asaph had warned about in Psalm 50, many years before Jeremiah’s day. By their hypocrisy, the people had made the house of God a “den of thieves” (v. 8) – and they were the thieves, stealing God’s glory by their grossly hypocritical lives.

Unless the people changed the paths they walked, they would not be allowed to continue dwelling in the land God had given them (vv. 3, 7). As God had dismantled the tabernacle at Shiloh, and replaced it with the temple, so now He would dismantle the temple, and cast the people out of His sight (vv. 12-15). A new “temple” would be coming, but only much later (cf. Jn. 2.19).

God instructed Jeremiah not to pray for the people (vv. 16-20). Prayer was of no use: His anger and fury were coming against them, “and it will burn and not be quenched) (v. 20).

God was not looking for “offerings or sacrifices” from His people – the mere externals of religion. He insisted that they listen to His Word and walk in the ways He reveals there (vv. 21-26). But they would not; and they would not listen to Jeremiah, either (v. 27). We can be certain that the prophet was beginning to be noticed, but not heard. Soon the powers-that-be would move to shut him up once and for all.

When people will not hear the Word of God, they don’t become merely indifferent to it; they hate it.

Reflect.
1. Why is the outward practice of faith – going to church, being involved, worshiping, and so forth – not what God is seeking from His people?

2. What did God promise His people if they would obey Him (v. 23)? Why is that such an important promise?

3. Apparently, the people had committed a sin unto death, since God did not allow Jeremiah to pray for them (cf. 1 Jn. 5.16). What was their sin?

He instructs both the people of Judea of that time and us today, who are seen to be constituted as the church. We are not to put our faith in the splendor of its buildings. Nor are we to put faith in its golden ceilings and decorated walls of marble. We are not to say “this is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” For the temple of the Lord is there where the true faith dwells, in holy living and the chorus of all the virtues. Jerome (347-420), Six Books on Jeremiah 2.32.2-4

Show me Your ways, O Lord, and I will walk in them today as I…

Pray Psalm 33.18-22.
Seek the Lord for His grace, Presence, and help in all the work that lies ahead of you today.

Sing Psalm 33.18-22
Psalm 33.18-22 (Truro: Shout, for the Blessed Jesus Reigns)
God watches those who fear His Name, who hope upon His grace and love;
He keeps their souls from death and shame who trust in Him Who reigns above.

God is our Helper and our Shield; upon us let Your grace descend!
We hope in You; to You we yield; we trust in Jesus to the end.

T. M. Moore

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Ancient Christian Commentary Series, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2006). All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).