Jeremiah 7:1-19, Defiling the Temple You Trust In

Where would you go if you wanted to communicate with a large percentage of your community? Yahweh told Jeremiah to go to the temple gate, the place where the people of Judah entered the court around the temple. Did he stand on a soapbox?

^7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh: ² “Stand in the gate of Yahweh’s house and there proclaim this message:

“‘Hear the word of Yahweh, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship Yahweh. ³ This is what Yahweh Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this land. ⁴ Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh!” ⁵ If you really make good your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the foreigner, 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 ancestors for ever and ever. ⁸ But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that won’t help you.

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”—only to go on doing 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 Yahweh.

¹² “‘Go now to My place in Shiloh where I first made my Name to dwell and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ While you were doing all these things, declares Yahweh, I spoke to you persistently, 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 ancestors. ¹⁵ I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your relatives from the people of Ephraim.’

¹⁶ “As for you, 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 to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke my anger. ¹⁹ But am I the one they are provoking? declares Yahweh. Isn’t it themselves they are hurting, to their own shame? (Jeremiah 7:1-19)

The temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem was the site Yahweh had chosen to “dwell” in, the place where Israel could meet with Yahweh, the place they could pray towards, a holy place where they could offer sacrifices to atonement, and so a place they felt Yahweh would always defend. But the people of Judah were not worshiping Yahweh here, or at least not exclusively so. They were worshiping Baal and his consort, Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven. And they were engaging in behavior that Yahweh had outlawed, injustice toward immigrants, orphans and widows, and killing innocent people.

So the temple was not a guarantee against Babylon’s attack. Yahweh would not defend the temple despite the peoples’ idolatry and injustice. When the tabernacle was at Shiloh in the days of the judges, and the people were in rebellion against Yahweh, Yahweh did not defend Shiloh (see 1 Samuel 4). Likewise, the temple of Yahweh is not some magic charm that will protect Judah from invasion. You cannot claim God’s protection when you are actively rebelling against Him. His temple cannot be a harbor for thieves, a protection for the disobedient.

If the people of Judah will repent of their disobedience and stop their false worship and unlawful behaviors, then God will defend them against invasion. Then He will allow them to live in the land He promised Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. If not, Judah will go the way of Ephraim, a designation for the northern kingdom, which perished in the Assyrian invasion a hundred years earlier. Carrying on as usual is to their own detriment. Only faithful obedience to Yahweh will bring salvation.

—

Discussion Questions:

1. Do you see anything in Evangelicalism like Israel’s trust in the temple?
2. What corrective would you make, based on this prophecy, to the saying, “The family that worships together stays together”?
3. Are there any sins that our churches are harboring?
4. Are we preaching enough on the problem of committing injustice?