As we read the text, we see the prophet Jeremiah warning the people against false trust. They had  turned from God,  forsaken Him the fountain of living water and were set on a course to destruction. They began to act like brutes and one could not look at them and say that they had any respect for themselves or even cared about their welfare.  They began to behave as if they hated themselves and given this kind of attitude, one could hardly expect that they would care for their fellow Jews. 

Jeremiah was the last major Old Testament prophet to bring a direct message from God to the southern kingdom of Judah. Throughout the last forty years or so that Judah remained a nation, Jeremiah faithfully took the words of God to the people.  

He was called to a very dangerous, difficult and strange ministry, for he ministered in a day of deepening decline.  It was so tough for him that he struggled, wept and often pleaded with God for his people. The more he pleaded the more God reiterated to him that He was determined to judge. 

Now it is quite common for people to tell God how to behave, how to carry out His work, how and when to deliver on certain of His’ promises.  We also want to choose the promises that God should live up to and we want to set the terms of their delivery. We rarely ever want to look at everything that God has said, to understand His nature and his way of acting and to accept God's approach. 

Chapter seven is the record of the first formal sermon that Jeremiah delivered to the people and interesting enough it was delivered at the gate of the Temple in Jerusalem.  This means that the sermon was delivered in the ear of the leadership of Israel and where both the faithful and unfaithful, the righteous and the hypocritical men of Judah came to worship.

The prophet was not invited to give his sermon.  He was an outsider, a rather strange, uninvited guest who was embarrassing everybody. The leadership, both religious and secular would have been ill at ease at this interruption of their sacred assembly and the people who God was about to declare hypocrites, would have been uncomfortable to pass by this fiery preacher.

Manasseh even set the horrible example of taking his own infant son and offering him as a burnt offering to the God Molech in a terrible ritual. He emptied the Temple of most of the things dedicated to Jehovah, and filled the Temple with idols, beast images and monstrous beings.

Male and female prostitutes, wizards and witches controlled the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This was fifty five years of spiritual and moral darkness in Judah. 2  Kings 21: 9, 16 summarizes the situation in Judah because of Manasseh’s horrible leadership as follows:

“Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than did the nations whom the Lord destroyed before the children of Israel…Moreover Manasseh shed innocent blood very much, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another; beside his sin wherewith he made Judah to sin, in doing that which was evil in the sight of the Lord”. 

Manasseh made Judah worse than the pagan nations and so Jeremiah delivered these words of God in 21: 11-14.

“Because Manasseh King of Judah hath done these abominations, and hath done wickedly above all that the Amorites did, which were before him, and hath made Judah also to sin with his idols:

Therefore thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whosoever heareth of it, both his ears shall tingle.

And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab: and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, and turning it upside down,

And I will forsake the remnant of mine inheritance, and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become a prey and a spoil to all their enemies.” 

Amazingly enough, Manasseh had a son who was just as bad as he was in his early days, but this awful son Amon had a child that was the total opposite to Amon himself and his grandfather Manasseh. The child came to the throne when he was eight years old and managed a spiritual turnaround in Judah. He did what was right in the eyes of God.   

Clearly this child with the corrupt parents had a deep longing for God and neither his abominable parents or idolatrous environment could stifle his yearning for God. At twenty-one years old when he was on the throne for thirteen years he began a massive campaign to eliminate pagan worship in Judah.  He tore down the shrines to Baal and Asherah and destroyed the places of sacrifices to Molech.  When the Temple was being cleaned on Josiah’s orders, an old scroll of the law was found and on examination Josiah to his great horror found that the nation had drifted very far away from God.  They discovered that no one in the nation had celebrated the Passover in the last hundred years, in fact since the days of Hezekiah. 

Josiah and his counsellors gave orders for a massive Passover celebration, one greater than any held previously. Every effort was made to turn the nation around, sacrifices were offered exactly as required, the priests did their tasks as stipulated and all the appropriate hymns were sung.  Everything was done to satisfy God, they thought. But suddenly there came Jeremiah yelling out to the people that they had better be careful, for God wanted more. 

Jeremiah began his preaching and calling the people to repentance in the years when Josiah ruled and he warned the people that if they did not turn to the Lord and worship him in truth, God would judge them. 

When one reads the first six chapters of the book of Jeremiah it is clear that he knew that getting rid of pagan shrines and altars would not automatically make the people good.  He knew and preached that though there were massive outward changes, the reformation was only skin deep; there were no real inward change. 

So Jeremiah changed from preaching up and down the streets and went to the very heart of the city of Jerusalem to deliver his message. The situation was volatile.  Here were leaders and people steeped in sin.  Here was a young King desperate to cleanse his nation and save his people and into this mix God threw his young prophet with a most unpleasant message for everyone concerned. 

We wish we had more men like Jeremiah, however were they to come forward, they would also be opposed by awful people. The only consolation can be that there is the godly remnant, who desperately want reform and to whom a godly man can appeal.  The remnant are the only ones who love.  The others are full of hate; hate for themselves and hate for others.  So Jeremiah faced those who hated, the majority, as well as those who loved, the small minority. 

Those who hate might appear pious, but they don't mean themselves any good and they certainly don't mean their fellow brethren any good and that is why this chapter is so relevant for professing believers today.

THE TEXT

Verses 1-10.  Jeremiah was an uninvited preacher, but the word of the Lord came to him with certain instructions. Note that the word of the Lord is to be unchallenged.  It is to be accepted, difficult though it might be.  This was a commissioning by God. 

In this time of revival, joy, enthusiastic celebration, great excitement and emotion, with the ‘feel good factor’ running high that this was what God wanted and since it was being done everything was OK.  When everybody came out to enjoy the newly renovated, remodelled, cleaned up sanctuary, the orders came to Jeremiah from God to go and interrupt everything before the service could begin. 

Jeremiah was now to give not his, but God's opinion on worship and the style of living that God desired. He was sent to stand at the gate of the Lord's house.  This place belonged to God, which meant that it was a venue for only the pure worship of God. God owned it and everything that went on inside was to be dictated by God, it was no ordinary place. We are told that not only did the place belong to God but the message also belonged to God.  The direct word from God was to be delivered to the men of Judah that were going there to worship. Since they were going to God's house one could rightly presume that they were interested in seeking God, in hearing from God and worshiping God.  Their very attendance indicated that they knew about God and knew about the covenant and its terms.   

Verse two makes it clear that every person of Judah that was going to the temple to worship the Lord came under the ownership of God. It is helpful to realize that the word used for “worship” describes prostrating oneself on the floor before their sovereign. Jeremiah was saying to the men of Judah, when a person comes to the sanctuary to “worship”, that person is acknowledging that they have a sovereign, that he is in control, that they are dependent on him, that they desire to obey God’s words and that this sovereign demands certain things from his “worshippers”. As Paul tells us: “You are not your own, you are bought with a price”.

When we step into a church to worship we are making an important statement.  We are admitting that we have a certain level of knowledge about the truth and that we are prepared to live according to that truth.  If we are found doing the opposite, we deserve the wrath of God.  So it can be a dangerous thing to even go to church.  It is better to keep away if we have no intention of hearing from God, obeying him and being his ambassador. 

For Jeremiah there were no words of congratulations for reforming the Temple and getting rid of the garbage, the prostitutes and the wizards. There were words of warning however. He was saying that in that time there was extreme and very present danger.  

Style without substance meant danger said the prophet.  An empty religious image leads to death. There were many faults and errors. They were playing religious games, doing mere rituals. The men of Judah had to thoroughly change. They had to give up all they were doing. The prophet then listed their sins.

-stop oppressing the alien, the fatherless or the widows (the vulnerable who could not protect themselves)

-begin practicing common justice (no partiality)

-stop shedding innocent blood

-stop following after other gods that would only hurt them

-stop trusting in deceptive words

-stop stealing

-stop murdering

-stop committing adultery

-stop swearing falsely (committing perjury)

-stop burning incense to Baal

-stop doing abominations.

Jeremiah told them that if they did ‘good’ in their ways, they would dwell in the land at ease and the Temple would remain. They would not be evicted or molested. They would have an everlasting inheritance. 

Jeremiah insisted that they had believed a lie. The deceptive words were that they could do all these abominations without any consequences. They had been deceived into believing the false teaching that simply because they were worshipping in God’s house they would be delivered from all harm.  They would be protected by simply going to church, going through the right motions and singing the right songs.   

They had been fooled into thinking that they did not have to be right spiritually with God or to do the things that God specifically desired.  They were tricked into believing that it did not matter if their lifestyle in the community, at home, or in the business world was totally contrary to the life of worship and behaviour noted in the covenant. They thought that judicial murder, oppression of the innocent, exploiting others, racial injustice, ripping off others, cheating, jettisoning all personal morality, was fine as long as they went the sanctuary regularly. 

Jeremiah faced these people who had gotten comfortable in their sins and told them that what they were doing were abominations, gross and hideous in the sight of God.  It fact, it was as Moses said in Deuteronomy 7:10. This kind of lifestyle was demonstrating hatred toward God. 

We are often warned that simply repeating biblical words will not keep a relationship with God.  In the same way you can tell your spouse fifty times a day that you love him or her but that won't keep our marriage going if we do not act in a way to prove that we do love. 

So being in the right place of worship, and using the right words for worship, can often be a respectable front for a corrupt self. 

Jeremiah was asking the people whether or not they thought that God knew exactly what was going on. Did they not know that God knew that they were trusting only in outward ritual, public performance! Did they not known that God could see further than their outward appearance!

Verse 11.    In every age professing believers have been called on to examine their attitude towards the ‘House of God’. Understanding the term ‘God's house’ is extremely important, for it deals with what think of ‘the life of faith’. Clearly the men of Judah had a particularly warped view of what God's house was, what it meant and what God’s house revealed about His nature. 

Their problem with understanding God had led to their neglect of the “house of God”, a place which was part of their covenant relationship. The ‘House of God’ is the place that God dwells. God is holy, and where He dwells is holy.  One cannot expect that this holy God will support sin, for that would be contrary to his nature. He will not support contradictions in doctrine and behaviour.  There must be word and deed.   

One's treatment of God's house, as well as what goes on there says a lot about who a person is, for one must have the right spiritual attitude to properly experience the opportunities for the life of faith which comes from being in the House of God. “This house” refers to the Temple of the Lord in the city of Jerusalem, in the Nation of Judah, the place where God dwelt. God asked a very important question. How could they be so brazen, as to imagine that they could sin with abandon and yet come into the house that belonged to him.  

They had been told they were to separate themselves from sin, worship God in spirit and truth at all times and they were also told when they were to come before him.  This was a holy place and holy people had to be holy wherever they were. Despite the fact that this was the house of God, the people treated it like a house of sin and this was known to the residents of Jerusalem.  The people who dwelt outside the city also knew that the Temple was the place where God was and they knew exactly what was going on there.   

Disobedience and its consequences are in view. From the earlier verses we can see that their sins have been compounded.  In general, they are worshipping other gods, they have moved away from protecting the poor, weak, widowed, and orphaned.  Justice has no place in their courts.  Furthermore, they called on the Lord in a vain manner.  They visited the Temple ritually three times a year and though they referred in their conversations to the Temple of the Lord as if the temple was central to their lives, they did not honour it, but they abused it and all that it represented.   

The “den of robbers” that Jeremiah refers to represents the place where robbers and thieves resort after doing their evil. They would come for rest and relaxation and the sharing of their ill-gotten gains.  Robbers and thieves live in a world where they do what they want and live as they please, riding roughshod over others to gain prosperity and power.  They oppress those that cannot defend themselves and take advantage of others who are weak.  They then go to their den for they feel safe in that place. 

This is the image that Jeremiah placed in front of the men of Judah, and it was very unpleasant. He was accusing them of being like thieves and robbers who during the week did everything that was wrong; who cursed, practiced partiality, stole, murdered and displeased God, but on the Sabbath they happily attended the place that God regarded as His sanctuary.   

We have to examine ourselves to see whether or not we are behaving the same, treating the Sabbath and our sanctuary today as Judah did then.  After we have committed our sins, come Sabbath we go to the church and hope that being there will protect us from God’s wrath.   

They further believed that by calling on the name of the Lord and mentioning the temple, they could continue on their path of sin. Their actions showed that they were not the children of God.  All their actions betrayed them and God himself was a witness against them.  From their actions (theft, murder, adultery, idolatry), God had to deal with them personally.  They thought that the temple that they profaned would be their protection.  God was angry, because they continued in the sin, despite the warnings and continued requests to repent.   

They seemed to have thought that God had pardoned their sin or did not mind their sin.  God was only being long suffering and trying to give them the opportunity to repent. Since the people persisted in sin, especially in the temple, the Lord likened the Temple to a den where thieves gathered.  God has himself said that he will be a witness against them, “Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord”.

The people consistently disobeyed God on many levels.  It wasn’t only the people of this current time and place that pushed God to the limits of his mercy, so did their fathers and forefathers.  God had time and time again delivered the people from their enemies, giving them the opportunity to see that he was a good God, however his actions however fell to the wayside.   

They must have believed that due to the presence of the Temple, they were under the grace of God, so that they could continue to do these sins without repercussions.  According to the testimony of God, he accuses the people of turning his temple into a sanctuary for vile offenders, a temple of sin and house of Satan. 

Jesus used this same phrase many years later when he came to Jerusalem, entered the temple and drove out all those conducting business in the temple. He overturned the tables of the money-changers and those that sold sacrificial doves and refused to allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple.  Mark 11:15-17 records his words where He told them that the Temple was a place of prayer but they had made it a den of thieves. 

Once again the people of God had reached a point where judgment had to come and God had reached a point where He was ready to judge. Grace was no longer sufficient to cover their sins. The consequences were horrible for the people went into exile and endured tremendous suffering. 

The people deceived themselves and perhaps others with their form of worship, but God could not be deceived and as such called them out before him to answer for their sins. 

We also note that the Apostle Paul warned Timothy that there were many people in the church who held a form of religion, but denied the supernatural power of God. Their religious performance might have been great, but the lives they lived were terrible and corrupt, no content, no substance, just style.

Verse 12.   Judah was doing evil, but they looked to the temple as a place that was so holy and was so important to God, that He would not cause it to be torn down.  God however decided to show them otherwise. God wanted them as well as us to understand that once they had begun the life of faith they had to continue along the path.  If there was no continuation of faith, if disobedience ruled, there would be terrible consequences.

There is no such thing as continuing in sin that grace may abound.  Continuing in sin is rebellion against God.  His house should not provide protection to unholy persons.  It will not be a refuge or a sanctuary for wilful sinners. 

So God sent them on a field trip to show them what he had done to the sanctuary that had been at Shiloh.  At this time God’s mind was set in terms of what he would do.  Their pleas to God to spare the temple would not be heard.  God pointed out that the sanctuary at Shiloh was destroyed due to the sin of the people at Shiloh. 

They knew that because of the sins of the leaders and the people, God had allowed the Philistines to capture the Ark of the Covenant, decimate the armies of Israel, destroy Shiloh and the tabernacle there and make the city a pile of rubble. The priesthood of Eli and his family had been cut off.

Anyone travelling the main road from Jerusalem to Galilee in the north of Israel would have to pass by Shiloh and they would see the pile of rubble and weeds.  So the destruction of Shiloh was no secret. The men of Judah knew that God had established Shiloh, He had appointed Eli and there the words of God were spoken. A lifestyle of evil and disobedience to the word of God had developed at Shiloh.  Eli had been warned several times but he allowed evil in his family and in the nation to flourish.  The consequence of disobedience was destruction. 

The warning is that when leaders do wickedness and allow wickedness they are bringing their followers into destruction. It is important to realize that it is most dangerous to begin in faith and not continue in faith. James says if that is our problem. We will be like a person who looks at his face in the mirror and after looking at himself goes away and forget immediately what he had looked like.

Judah failed because they believed the lie that the presence of the temple, where they knew that God dwelled would guarantee their and their survival.  Clearly the did not understand the mind of God, and God was warning them about the consequences of disobedience.   

In the book of Revelation Jesus himself warned several churches that he was well prepared to take away the candlestick, that is, destroy the church, if they continued in their misbehaviour.  He warned her that he would kill the leaders and destroy the people in the church.  So let us take warning and avoid the unpleasant consequences of disobedience.  

God’s point was that the Ark and candlestick (reference the churches of Asia) are removable items.  God desires truth in worship, i.e. obedience.   Judah’s fate would be that of Shiloh’s if sincere repentance did not take place. God’s justice must act.  At this point          Jerusalem was as corrupt as Shiloh, which is what had precipitated the previously destructive action from God.   They had sinned, had done wickedness and worst of all they continued obstinately in their sin.

Verse 13. Despite the bad news and the gloom, God gave hope for redemption.

God called the people of Jerusalem to repentance. He is forever faithful and never stopped calling and reminding Judah that he loved her.  God is persistent and faithful and he keeps on speaking or calling even when people turn their backs on Him. He is merciful. 

As He called them to repentance and as part of His testimony against the people, God mentions that he had sent the prophets to them at every opportunity, so that they may hear their sins and how they could repent and return to God, where their sins would be forgiven.  God stated that he had sent prophets to the people as soon as they had sinned, he acted immediately in order to return his people to the right path: “rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not”.  

He mentions that they refused to heed his warnings time and time again, despite the number of prophets sent to them. No matter what state they were in, sober or drunken, God had taken steps to redeem his people.  The Scriptures repeatedly say that they would not come at his calling.   

When we continue to ignore God’s repeated efforts to turn us from sin, it further aggravates what we have done against him.  We have then compounded the sin against God.  He doesn’t need any more reason to act against us.  But now, he can use this as evidence against us when he must act due to his justice.  

We do recognize that once a person has slipped into a life of sin, it is difficult to change by their own strength but God says it's possible to change.  We can change the ways we think and behave.  God can change our stubborn hearts and our stubborn behaviour.  He is calling on us to simply turn to him.  All we need to do is say forgive me Lord, let Him do the leading and He will provide all the help we need. We do not need any miracle spring water, anointing with oil, to send special offerings to anybody or to ask for special prayers of anyone.  All you have to do is to talk to God and trust him. 

The construction of this particular temple in Jerusalem was stronger than that of Shiloh, but nevertheless, incapable of withstanding the judgment of God.  God will not allow anything connected to him to be used for any sinful purpose and that includes his people, or his properties. 

Verse 15.  So judgment was given as a consequence for disobedience.  God said he would cast them out of his sight as reprobates.  He would do to them exactly what He did to Shiloh, its leaders and the people.  They would be ruined though they had a place in the covenant. Their land would be taken away and they would all suffer and go into exile. 

God would not look on them in the sense of looking after them. He would not treat them favourably but would leave them to call on their other gods, their other friends.  God however warned that these other gods and other friends would do them hurt and not good.

CONCLUSION

We can imagine the terrible impact of all of this on Jeremiah.  He was heartsick.  God chose this time to tell him not to pray for his people anymore, for judgment was certain. God was saying that he had had enough and agony was about to happen.  But though He would not forget his people, they would have to undergo judgment and suffering.   

So let us now look at God's warning. When we begin to drift there will be consequences.  When we treat Sabbath lightly or when we desecrate the Sabbath or any other commandment there is no way to escape trouble. 

When we sow to the flesh, we will of the flesh reap corruption. 

Judgment does not necessarily mean that God has abandoned us.  Many of us will not listen to God or pay any attention to his word until we are hurting.   

God is wiser than we are.  Let us listen to Him.  Let us be warned of the consequences of disobedience! If we see a righteous man disobey the words of God do not be afraid of him.  Warn him of his sins or else his blood will be up on your head.