{"id":19131,"date":"2022-09-24T07:51:23","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T12:51:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-jeremiah-71\/"},"modified":"2022-09-24T07:51:23","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T12:51:23","slug":"exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-jeremiah-71","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-jeremiah-71\/","title":{"rendered":"Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 7:1"},"content":{"rendered":"

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, <\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

1, 2<\/strong>. Absence from the LXX of all but “Hear ye of Judah” suggests the probability that the rest has been supplied by an editor from ch. 26.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

In Jer. 710 he addresses the people as they flocked into Jerusalem from the country, to attend the solemn services in the temple upon a fastday. Jehoiakim Jer. 26<\/span> had just ascended the throne, and was so incensed at this sermon that he would have put Jeremiah to death but for the influence of Ahikam. With the accession of Jehoiakim all hope of averting the ruin of the country had passed away. He represented the reverse of his fathers policy, and belonged to that faction, who placed their sole hope of deliverance in a close alliance with Pharaoh-Necho. As this party rejected the distinctive principles of the theocracy, and the king was personally an irreligious man, the maintenance of the worship of Yahweh was no longer an object of the public care. At this time upon a public fast-day, appointed probably because of the calamities under which the nation was laboring, Jeremiah was commanded by Yahweh to stand at the gate of the temple, and address to the people as they entered words of solemn warning. The whole sermon divides itself into three parts;<\/P>

In Jer. 710 he addresses the people as they flocked into Jerusalem from the country, to attend the solemn services in the temple upon a fastday. Jehoiakim Jer. 26<\/span> had just ascended the throne, and was so incensed at this sermon that he would have put Jeremiah to death but for the influence of Ahikam. With the accession of Jehoiakim all hope of averting the ruin of the country had passed away. He represented the reverse of his fathers policy, and belonged to that faction, who placed their sole hope of deliverance in a close alliance with Pharaoh-Necho. As this party rejected the distinctive principles of the theocracy, and the king was personally an irreligious man, the maintenance of the worship of Yahweh was no longer an object of the public care. At this time upon a public fast-day, appointed probably because of the calamities under which the nation was laboring, Jeremiah was commanded by Yahweh to stand at the gate of the temple, and address to the people as they entered words of solemn warning. The whole sermon divides itself into three parts;<\/P>

(1) It points out the folly of the superstitious confidence placed by the people in the temple, while they neglect the sole sure foundation of a nations hope. A sanctuary long polluted by immorality must inevitably be destroyed Jer. 7:28:3<\/span>.<\/P>

(2) complaints follow of a more general character, in which the growing wickedness of the nation and especially of the leaders is pointed out Jer. 8:49:24<\/span>.<\/P>

(3) lastly the prophet shows the possibility of averting the evils impending upon the nation Jer. 9:2510:25<\/span>.<\/P>

Jer 10:1-2<\/span>. The temple had several entrances 2Ch 4:9<\/span>; and the gate or door here mentioned is probably that of the inner court, where Baruch read Jeremiahs scroll Jer 36:10<\/span>. The prophet stood in the doorway, and addressed the people assembled in the outer court.<\/P>

All ye of Judah – <\/B>Better, literally all Judah (compare Jer 26:2<\/span>).<\/P><\/p>\n

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:1-7<\/span><\/p>\n

Stand in the gate . . . and proclaim.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Boldness in preaching<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some preachers are traders from port to port, following the customary and approved course; others adventure over the whole ocean of human concerns. The former are hailed by the common voice of the multitude, whose cause they hold, the latter blamed as idle, often suspected of hiding deep designs, always derided as having lost all guess of the proper course. Yet, of the latter class of preachers was Paul the apostle. Such adventurers, under God, this age of the world seems to us especially to want. There are ministers now to hold the flock in pasture and in safety, but where are they to make inroads upon the alien, to bring in the votaries of fashion, of literature, of sentiment, of policy, and of rank? Truly, it is not stagers who take on the customary form of their office and go the beaten round of duty, and then lie down content; but it is daring adventurers, who shall eye from the grand eminence of a holy and heavenly mind all the grievances which religion underlies, and all the obstacles which stay her course, and then descend with the self-denial and faith of an apostle to set the battle in array against them. (Edward Irving.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.<\/strong>—<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The character required in those the would worship God<\/strong><\/p>\n

The heathen had a notion that the gods would not like the service and sacrifice of any but such as were like themselves, and therefore to the sacrifice of Hercules none were to be admitted that were dwarfs; and to the sacrifice of Bacchus, a merry god, none that were sad and pensive, as not suiting their genius. An excellent truth may be drawn from their folly: he that would like to please God must be like God. (H. G. Salter.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Amend your ways and your doings.<\/strong>—<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Religion, the best security to Church and State<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>Religion, and the general practice of it in a nation, is the surest establishment of states and kingdoms.<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong>This is true in a natural way; because the duties of religion have a natural tendency to those things which are the foundations of that establishment, namely, peace, unity, and order.<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong>But besides a natural tendency in virtue and goodness to the establishment of states and kingdoms, as many as believe religion must likewise believe that the general practice of it in a nation will be always attended with a supernatural blessing from God. For this is the result of all the declarations of God, as to the manner and rule of His dealings with mankind, whether persons or nations, that as many as faithfully serve and obey Him, shall be assuredly intituled to His favour and protection.<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>In every nation it is the proper business of the civil magistrates, as such, to vindicate and maintain the honour of religion. And when I am speaking of authority, and the vigorous application thereof by the magistrate, I cannot omit one thing, which is a mighty enforcement of it, a good example; which, in its nature, is the most forcible way of teaching and correcting, and without which, neither the instructions of ministers, nor the authority of magistrates, can avail, to the effectual discouragement and suppression of vice.<\/p>\n


III. <\/strong>Without a serious regard to the moral and spiritual duties of religion, the greatest zeal in other matters, even though it be for the established worship of God, will not secure the Divine favour and protection, either to persons or nations. The external rites of religion are good helps to devotion, and proper means of maintaining order and decency in the public worship; and a zeal to preserve them, with a serious regard to those pious and wise ends, is very laudable: but to believe that zeal for them will atone for a neglect of the moral and spiritual duties of religion is a dangerous error. (E. Gibson, D. D.<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these.
<\/strong><\/p>\n

The folly of trusting in external privileges<\/strong><\/p>\n


I.<\/strong> <\/em><\/strong>We are to show the extreme folly of trusting to any religious privileges, while our hearts remain unrenewed and our lives unholy. On what ground can we rely on the continuance of Gods favour under such circumstances? Should we, because a friend had conferred many benefits upon us, and forgiven us many offences, be justified in supposing that there would be no limit to his endurance? Yet the Jews–and their case is not singular–seemed to claim a special right to the continued favour of God, in virtue of their religious privileges; not considering that those privileges were a free gift; that they might at any time be withdrawn, without a shadow of injustice; and that while they lasted they were intended to operate, not as inducements to presumption, but as motives to love and thankfulness and obedience. They had in themselves no spiritual efficacy. Neither the character of God, nor His promises, held out any ground of hope on which to build such a conclusion. It would not have been consistent with His holiness, or wisdom, or justice, that the sinner should escape under the plea of any national or personal privileges, however great. And His promises, both temporal and spiritual, were all made in accordance with the same principle. If ye walk in My statutes, and keep My commandments and do them . . . then I will walk among you, and I will be your God;. . .but if ye will not hearken unto Me, and will not do all these commandments,. . .I will set My face against you. The whole tenor of Gods providential dispensations is likewise to the same effect. And accordingly, the Jews, great as were their national mercies, found on numerous occasions that they were not exempt from the just displeasure of their Divine Governor. Yet, with all these proofs of Gods righteous judgments, their constant cry was, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord: they caught hold, as it were, of the horns of the altar with unhallowed hands; and, notwithstanding the threatenings of the Almighty, were ever prone to trust in those external privileges. At the very time when they were committing the grievous enormities of which the prophet Jeremiah convicts them, they were zealous for the outward worship of God, and boasted highly of their religious profession. But could any folly be greater than that of supposing that this insincere worship could satisfy Him who searcheth the heart and trieth the reins? The prophet forcibly points out the extreme folly and delusiveness of such expectations: Go, he says, unto My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first; and see what I did to it for the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called unto you, but ye answered not; therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by My name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. Having thus considered the extreme folly of trusting to external privileges, while the heart is unrenewed and the life unholy, we are–<\/p>\n


II. <\/strong>To show that this folly is too common in all ages; and that we ourselves, perhaps, are guilty of it. How many pride themselves in being zealous Protestants, or strict members of the Established Church, or regular attendants on public worship, while they live in the spirit of the world, and without any scriptural evidence of being in a state of favour with God! How many trust to the supposed orthodoxy of their faith; or to their zeal against infidelity, enthusiasm; while they are ignorant of the scriptural way of salvation, and indifferent to the great concern of making their calling and election sure! How many cherish a secret hope from the prayers of religious parents, the zeal and piety of their ministers. In short, innumerable are the ways in which persons deceive themselves on these subjects; fancying that the temple of the Lord is among them; and on this vain surmise remaining content and careless in their sins, and ignorant of all true religion. Now let us ask ourselves, in conclusion, whether such is our own case. On what are we placing our hopes for eternity? Are we resting upon anything superficial or external; upon anything short of genuine conversion of heart to God? True piety is not anything that can be done for us; it must be engrafted in us; it must dwell in our hearts, and show its blessed effects in our conduct. (Christian Observer.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CHAPTER VII <\/P>

Here begins another section of prophecy, ending with the ninth<\/I><\/P>

chapter. It opens with exhorting to amendment of life, without<\/I><\/P>

which the confidence of the Jews in their temple is declared<\/I><\/P>

vain<\/I>, 1-11.<\/P>

God bids them take warning from the fate of their brethren the<\/I><\/P>

Israelites, who had been carried away captive on account of<\/I><\/P>

their sins without any regard to that sacred place,<\/I> (Shiloh,)<\/P>

where the ark of God once resided<\/I>, 12-15.<\/P>

The iniquities of Judah are so great in the sight of God that<\/I><\/P>

the prophet is commanded not to intercede for the people<\/I>, 16;<\/P>

the more especially as they persisted in provoking God by their<\/I><\/P>

idolatrous practices<\/I>, 17-20.<\/P>

The Jewish sacrifices, if not accompanied with obedience to the<\/I><\/P>

moral law, are of no avail<\/I>, 21-24.<\/P>

Notwithstanding the numerous messages of mercy from the time of<\/I><\/P>

the exodus, the people revolted more and more; and have added<\/I><\/P>

to their other sins this horrible evil,<\/I> the setting up of their<\/P>

abominations in the temple of Jehovah; or, in other words, they<\/I><\/P>

have encumbered the Mosaic economy, which shadowed forth the<\/I><\/P>

glorious truths of Christianity, with a heterogeneous admixture<\/I><\/P>

of the idolatrous, impure, and cruel rites of heathenism;<\/I><\/P>

consequently, the whole land shall be utterly desolated<\/I>, 25-34. <\/P>

NOTES ON CHAP. VII<\/P>

<\/P>

Verse 1<\/span>. The word that came to Jeremiah<\/B><\/I>] This prophecy is supposed to have been delivered in the first year of the reign of<\/I> Jehoiakim<\/I>, son of Josiah, who, far from following the example of his pious father, restored idolatry, maintained bad priests and worse prophets, and filled Jerusalem with abominations of all kinds.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

See Jer 1:2<\/span>. This is the title of a new sermon, much of the nature of the former, which readeth to Jer 10<\/span>. <\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The word that came to Jeremiah<\/strong>,…. The Word of prophecy, as the Targum:<\/p>\n

from the Lord, saying<\/strong>; this begins a new prophecy. This verse, and the beginning of the next, are wanting in the Septuagint version.<\/p>\n

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The vanity of trusting in the temple. – <\/em> Jer 7:1<\/span>. “The word that came to Jeremiah from Jahveh, saying, <\/em> Jer 7:2<\/span>. Stand in the gate of the house of Jahveh, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Jahveh, all ye of Judah, that enter these gates to worship before Jahveh: <\/em> Jer 7:3<\/span>. Thus hath spoken Jahveh of hosts, the God of Israel, Make your ways and your doings good, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. <\/em> Jer 7:4<\/span>. Trust ye not in lying words, when they say, The temple of Jahveh, the temple of Jahveh, the temple of Jahveh, is this. <\/em> Jer 7:5<\/span>. But if ye thoroughly make your ways good, and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute right amongst one another; <\/em> Jer 7:6<\/span>. Oppress not stranger, fatherless, and widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither follow after other gods to your hurt; <\/em> Jer 7:7<\/span>. Then I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I have given unto your fathers, from eternity unto eternity. <\/em> Jer 7:8<\/span>. Behold, ye trust in lying words, though they profit not. <\/em> Jer 7:9<\/span>. How? to steal, to murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer odours to Baal, and to walk after other gods whom ye know not? <\/em> Jer 7:10<\/span>. And then ye come and stand before my face in this house, upon which my name is named, and think, We are saved to do all these abominations. <\/em> Jer 7:11<\/span>. Is then this house become a den or murderers, over which my name is named, in your eyes? I too, behold, have seen it, saith Jahveh. <\/em> Jer 7:12<\/span>. For go ye now to may place which was at Shiloh, where I formerly caused my name to dwell, and see what I have done unto it for the wickedness of my people Israel. <\/em> Jer 7:13<\/span>. And now, because ye do all these deeds, saith Jahve, and I have spoken to you, speaking from early morning on, and ye have not heard; and I have called you, and ye have not answered; <\/em> Jer 7:14<\/span>. Therefore I do unto this house, over which my name is named, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I have given to you and to your fathers, as I have done unto Shiloh. <\/em> Jer 7:15<\/span>. And cast you away from my face, as I have cast away all your brethren, the whole seed of Ephraim.”<\/p>\n

<\/em> Jer 7:2<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> The gate of the temple into which the prophet was to go and stand, is doubtless one of the three gates of the inner or upper court, in which he could stand and address the people gathered before him, in the outer court; perhaps the same in which Baruch read Jeremiah’s prophecies to the people, Jer 36:10<\/span> (Schmid, Hitz.). The gates through which the people entered to worship are those of the outer court. The form of address: All Judah, ye who enter, etc., warrant us in assuming that Jeremiah delivered this discourse at one of the great annual festivals, when the people were wont to gather to Jerusalem from the length and breadth of the land.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:3-4<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> Jer 7:3<\/span> contains the central idea of the discourse: it is only morally good endeavours and deeds that give the people a sure title to a long lease of the land. is not merely, amend one’s conduct; but, make one’s way good, i.e., lead a good life. The “ways” mean the tendency of life at large, the “doings” are the individual manifestations of that tendency; cf. Jer 18:11<\/span>; Jer 26:13<\/span>. “In this place,” i.e., in the land that I have given to your fathers; cf. Jer 7:8<\/span> and Jer 14:13<\/span> with Jer 7:15<\/span>, Jer 24:5-6<\/span>. Positive exhortation to a pure life is followed by negative dehortation from putting trust in the illusion: The temple, etc. The threefold repetition of the same word is the most marked way of laying very great emphasis upon it; cf. Jer 22:29<\/span>, Isa 6:3<\/span>. “These,” these halls, the whole complex mass of buildings (Hitz.), as in 2Ch 8:11<\/span>; and here has the force of the neuter; cf. Ew. 318, b<\/em>. The meaning of this emphatic way of mentioning the temple of the Lord is, in this connection, the following: Jerusalem cannot be destroyed by enemies, because the Lord has consecrated for the abode of His name that temple which is in Jerusalem; for the Lord will not give His sanctuary, the seat of His throne, to be a prey to the heathen, but will defend it, and under its protection we too may dwell safely. In the temple of the Lord we have a sure pledge for unbroken possession of the land and the maintenance of the kingdom. Cf. the like discourse in Mic 3:11<\/span>, “Jahveh is in our midst, upon us none evil can come.” This passage likewise shows that the “lying words” quoted are the sayings of the false prophets, whereby they confirmed the people in their secure sinfulness; the mass of the people at the same time so making these sayings their own as to lull themselves into the sense of security.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:5-7<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> Over against such sayings Jeremiah puts that which is the indispensable condition of continued sojourn in the land. , Jer 7:5<\/span>, after a preceding negative clause, means: but on the contrary. This condition is a life morally good, that shall show itself in doing justice, in putting away all unrighteousness, and in giving up idolatry. With begins a list of the things that belong to the making of one’s ways and doings good. The adjunct to , right, “between the man and his neighbour,” shows that the justice meant is that they should help one man to his rights against another. The law attached penalties to the oppression of those who needed protection – strangers, orphans, widows; cf. Exo 22:21<\/span>., Deu 24:17<\/span>., Jer 27:19<\/span>; and the prophets often denounce the same; cf. Isa 1:17<\/span>, Isa 1:23<\/span>; Isa 10:2<\/span>; Eze 22:7<\/span>; Zec 7:10<\/span>; Mal 3:5<\/span>; Psa 94:6<\/span>, etc. for ‘ is noteworthy, but is not a simple equivalent for it. Like , implies a deeper interest on the part of the speaker, and the sense here is: and ye be really determined not to shed innocent blood (cf. Ew. 320, b<\/em>). Hitz.’s explanation, that is equal to or , and that it her resumes again the now remote , is overturned by the consideration that is not at the beginning of the clause; and there is not the slightest probability in Graf’s view, that the must have come into the text through the copyist, who had in his mind the similar clause in Jer 22:3<\/span>. Shedding innocent blood refers in part to judicial murders (condemnation of innocent persons), in part to violent attacks made by the kings on prophets and godly men, such as we hear of in Manasseh’s case, 2Ki 21:16<\/span>. In this place (Jer 7:7<\/span>), i.e., first and foremost Jerusalem, the metropolis, where moral corruption had its chief seat; in a wider sense, however, it means the whole kingdom of Judah (Jer 7:3<\/span> and Jer 7:7<\/span>). “To your hurt” belongs to all the above-mentioned transgressions of the law; cf. Jer 25:7<\/span>. “In the land,” etc., explains “this place.” “From eternity to eternity” is a rhetorically heightened expression for the promise given to the patriarchs, that God would give the land of Canaan to their posterity for an everlasting possession, Gen 17:8<\/span>; although here it belongs not to the relative clause, “that I gave,” but to the principal clause, “cause you to dwell,” as in Exo 32:13<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:8<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> In Jer 7:8<\/span> there is a recurrence to the warning of Jer 7:4<\/span>, under the form of a statement of fact; and in Jer 7:9-11<\/span> it is expanded to this effect: The affirmation that the temple of the Lord affords protection is a sheer delusion, so long as all God’s commandments are being audaciously broken. , lit., to no profiting: ye rely on lying words, without there being any possibility that they should profit you.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:9<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> The query before the infin. absoll. is the expression of wonder and indignation; and the infinitives are used with special emphasis for the verb. fin.: How? to steal, kill, etc., is your practice, and then ye come….<\/p>\n

Jer 7:10<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> Breaches of almost all the commandments are specified; first the eighth, sixth, and seventh of the second table, and then two commandments of the first table; cf. Hos 4:2<\/span>. Swearing falsely is an abuse of God’s name. In “offer odours to Baal,” Baal is the representation of the false gods. The phrase, other<\/em> gods, points to the first commandment, Exo 20:3<\/span>; and the relative clause: whom ye knew not, stands in opposition to: I am Jahveh your God, who hath brought you out of Egypt. They knew not the other gods, because they had not made themselves known to them in benefits and blessings; cf. Jer 19:4<\/span>. While they so daringly break all God’s commands, they yet come before His face in the temple which Jahveh has chosen to reveal His name there. ‘ is not: which bears my name (Hitz.); or: on which my name is bestowed, which is named after me (Graf). The name of Jahveh is the revelation of Himself, and the meaning is: on which I have set my glory, in which I have made my glorious being known; see on Deu 28:10<\/span> and Amo 9:12<\/span>. We are saved, sc. from all the evils that threaten us, i.e., we are concealed, have nothing to fear; cf. Eze 14:16<\/span>, Eze 14:18<\/span>; Amo 3:12<\/span>. The perfect denotat firmam persuasionem incolumitatis <\/em>. Chr. B. Mich. By changing into , as Ewald, following the Syr., reads, the sense is weakened. ‘ is neither: as regards what we have done, nor: because = while or whereas ye have done (Hitz.), but: in order to do that ye may do. with the infin<\/em>., as with the perf<\/em>., has never the signif., because of or in reference to something past and done, but always means, with the view of doing something; English: to the end that. The thought is simply this: Ye appear in my temple to sacrifice and worship, thinking thus to appease my wrath and turn aside all punishment, that so ye may go on doing all these (in Jer 7:9<\/span> enumerated) abominations. By frequenting the temple, they thought to procure an indulgence for their wicked ongoings, not merely for what they had already done, but for what they do from day to day.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:11<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> To expose the senselessness of such an idea, God asks if they take the temple for a den of robbers? “In your eyes” goes with : is it become in your eyes, i.e., do ye take it for such? If thieves, murderers, adulterers, etc., gathered to the temple, and supposed that by appearing there they procured the absolution of their sins, they were in very act declaring the temple to be a robbers’ retreat. , the violent, here: the house-breaker, robber. I, too, have seen, sc. that the temple is made by you a den of thieves, and will deal accordingly. This completion of the thought appears from the context.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:12-14<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> The temple is to undergo the fate of the former sanctuary at Shiloh. This threat is introduced by a grounding , for. This for<\/em> refers to the central idea of the last verse, that they must not build their expectations on the temple, hold it to be a pledge for their safety. For since the Lord has seen how they have profaned and still profane it, He will destroy it, as the sanctuary at Shiloh was destroyed. The rhetorical mode of utterance, Go to the place, etc., contributes to strengthen the threatening. They were to behold with their own eyes the fate of the sanctuary at Shiloh, that so they might understand that the sacredness of a place does not save it from overthrow, if men have desecrated it by their wickedness. We have no historical notice of the event to which Jeremiah refers. At Shiloh, now Seiln<\/em> (in ruins) the Mosaic tabernacle was erected after the conquest of Canaan (Jos 18:1<\/span>), and there it was still standing in the time of the high priest Eli, 1Sa 1:1-3<\/span>; but the ark, which had fallen into the hands of the Philistines at the time of their victory (1 Sam 4), was not brought back to the tabernacle when it was restored again to the Israelites. In the reign of Saul we find the tabernacle at Nob (1Sa 21:2<\/span>.). The words of Jer 7:12<\/span> intimate, that at that time “the place of God at Shiloh” was lying in ruins. As Hitz. justly remarks, the destruction of it is not to be understood of its gradual decay after the removal of the ark (1Sa 4:11<\/span>; 1Sa 7:1<\/span>.); the words imply a devastation or destruction, not of the place of God at Shiloh only, but of the place Shiloh itself. This is clearly seen from Jer 7:14<\/span>: I will do unto this house (the temple), and the place which I gave to your fathers, as I have done unto Shiloh. This destruction did not take place when the Assyrians overthrew the kingdom of the ten tribes, but much earlier. It may, indeed, be gathered from Jdg 18:20<\/span>, Jdg 18:31<\/span> (see the comment. on this passage), that it was as early as the time of Saul, during a Syrian invasion. By the destruction of the place of God at Shiloh, we need not understand that the tabernacle itself, with its altar and other sacred furniture (except the ark), was swept away. Such a view is contradicted by the statement in 1Ch 21:29<\/span>; 2Ch 1:3<\/span>, according to which the tabernacle built by Moses in the wilderness was still standing at Gibeon in David’s time, and in the beginning of Solomon’s reign; cf. with 2Ch 1:5<\/span>, when the brazen altar of burnt-offering is expressly mentioned as that which was made by Bezaleel. Hence it is clear that the Mosaic tabernacle, with its altar of burnt-offering, had been preserved, and consequently that it must have been moved first from Shiloh to Nob, and then, when Saul sacked this town (1 Sam 22), to Gibeon. The destruction of the place of God in Shiloh must accordingly have consisted in this, that not only was the tabernacle with the altar carried off from thence, but the buildings necessary in connection with the maintenance of the public worship which surrounded it were swept away when the city was plundered, so that of the place of the sanctuary nothing was left remaining. It is clear that about the tabernacle there were various buildings which, along with the tabernacle and its altars, constituted “the house of God at Shiloh;” for in 1 Sam 3 we are told that Samuel slept in the temple of Jahveh (1Sa 3:3<\/span>), and that in the morning he opened the doors of the house of God (1Sa 3:15<\/span>). Hence we may gather, that round about the court of the tabernacle there were buildings erected, which were used partly as a dwelling-place for the officiating priests and Levites, and partly for storing up the heave-offerings, and for preparing the thank-offerings at the sacrificial meals (1Sa 2:11-21<\/span>). This whole system of buildings surrounding the tabernacle, with its court and altar of burnt-offering, was called the “house of God;” from which name Graf erroneously inferred that there was at Shiloh a temple like the one in Jerusalem. The wickedness of my people, is the Israelites’ fall into idolatry in Eli’s time, because of which the Lord gave up Israel into the power of the Philistines and other enemies (Jdg 13:1<\/span>; cf. 1Sa 7:3<\/span>). “These deeds” (Jer 7:13<\/span>) are the sins named in Jer 7:9<\/span>. is a continuation of the infinitive sentence, and is still dependent on . Speaking from early morn, i.e., speaking earnestly and unremittingly; cf. Gesen. 131, 3, b<\/em>. I have called you, i.e., to repent, and ye have not answered, i.e., have not repented and turned to me.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:15<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> I cast you out from my sight, i.e., drive you forth amongst the heathen; cf. Deu 29:27<\/span>; and with the second clause cf. 2Ki 17:20<\/span>. The whole seed of Ephraim is the ten tribes.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

A Call of Repentance.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD>

B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 606.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE>

      1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD<\/B>, saying,   2 Stand in the gate of the LORD<\/B>‘s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD<\/B>, all ye of<\/I> Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD<\/B>.   3 Thus saith the LORD<\/B> of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.   4 Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD<\/B>, The temple of the LORD<\/B>, The temple of the LORD<\/B>, are<\/I> these.   5 For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour;   6 If<\/I> ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt:   7 Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever.   8 Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.   9 Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not;   10 And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?   11 Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it,<\/I> saith the LORD<\/B>.   12 But go ye now unto my place which was<\/I> in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.   13 And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD<\/B>, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not;   14 Therefore will I do unto this<\/I> house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh.   15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even<\/I> the whole seed of Ephraim.<\/P>

      These verses begin another sermon, which is continued in this and the two following chapters, much to the same effect with those before, to reason them to repentance. Observe,<\/P>

      I. The orders given to the prophet to preach this sermon; for he had not only a general commission, but particular directions and instructions for every message he delivered. This was a word<\/I> that came to him from the Lord,<\/I> v.<\/span> 1<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. We are not told when this sermon was to be preached; but are told, 1. Where it must be preached–in the gate of the Lord’s house,<\/I> through which they entered into the outer court, or the court of the people.<\/I> It would affront the priests, and expose the prophet to their rage, to have such a message as this delivered within their precincts; but the prophet must not fear the face of man, he cannot be faithful to his God if he do. 2. To whom it must be preached–to the men of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord;<\/I> probably it was at one of three feasts, when all the males from all parts of the country were to appear before the Lord in the courts of his house, and not to appear empty:<\/I> then he had many together to preach to, and that was the most seasonable time to admonish them not to trust to their privileges. Note, (1.) Even those that profess religion have need to be preached to as well as those that are without. (2.) It is desirable to have opportunity of preaching to many together. Wisdom chooses to cry in the chief place of concourse,<\/I> and, as Jeremiah here, in the opening of the gates,<\/I> the temple-gates. (3.) When we are going to worship God we have need to be admonished to worship him in the spirit,<\/I> and to have no confidence in the flesh,<\/I> Phil. iii. 3<\/I><\/span>.<\/P>

      II. The contents and scope of the sermon itself. It is delivered in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,<\/I> who commands the world, but covenants with his people. As creatures we are bound to regard the Lord of hosts,<\/I> as Christians the God of Israel;<\/I> what he said to them he says to us, and it is much the same with that which John Baptist said to those whom he baptized (Mat 3:8<\/span>; Mat 3:9<\/span>), Bring forth fruits meet for repentance; and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father.<\/I> The prophet here tells them,<\/P>

      1. What were the true words of God, which they might trust to. In short, they might depend upon it that if they would repent and reform their lives, and return to God in a way of duty, he would restore and confirm their peace, would redress their grievances, and return to them in a way of mercy (v.<\/I><\/span> 3<\/span>): Amend your ways and your doings.<\/I> This implies that there had been much amiss in their ways and doings, many faults and errors. But it is a great instance of the favour of God to them that he gives them liberty to amend, shows them where and how they must amend, and promises to accept them upon their amendment: “I will cause you to dwell<\/I> quietly and peaceably in this place,<\/I> and a stop shall be put to that which threatens your expulsion.” Reformation is the only way, and a sure way to ruin. He explains himself (v.<\/I><\/span> 5-7<\/span>), and tells them particularly,<\/P>

      (1.) What the amendment was which he expected from them. They must thoroughly amend;<\/I> in making good,<\/I> they must make good their ways and doings;<\/I> they must reform with resolution, and it must be a universal, constant, preserving reformation–not partial, but entire–not hypocritical, but sincere–not wavering, but constant. They must make the tree good, and so make the fruit good, must amend their hearts and thoughts, and so amend their ways and doings. In particular, [1.] They must be honest and just in all their dealings. Those that had power in their hands must thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour,<\/I> without partiality, and according as the merits of the cause appeared. They must not either in judgment or in contract oppress the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow,<\/I> nor countenance or protect those that did oppress, nor refuse to do them justice when they sought for it. They must not shed innocent blood,<\/I> and with it defile this place<\/I> and the land wherein they dwelt. [2.] They must keep closely to the worship of the true God only: “Neither walk after other gods;<\/I> do not hanker after them, nor hearken to those that would draw you into communion with idolaters; for it is, and will be, to your own hurt.<\/I> Be not only so just to your God, but so wise for yourselves, as not to throw away your adorations upon those who are not able to help you, and thereby provoke him who is able to destroy you.” Well, this is all that God insists upon.<\/P>

      (2.) He tells them what the establishment is which, upon this amendment, they may expect from him (v.<\/I><\/span> 7<\/span>): “Set about such a work of reformation as this with all speed, go through with it, and abide by it; and I will cause you to dwell in this place,<\/I> this temple; it shall continue your place of resort and refuge, the place of your comfortable meeting with God and one another; and you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever,<\/I> and it shall never be turned out either from God’s house or from your own.” It is promised that they shall still enjoy their civil and sacred privileges, that they shall have a comfortable enjoyment of them: I will cause you to dwell here;<\/I> and those dwell at ease to whom God gives a settlement. They shall enjoy it by covenant, by virtue of the grant made of it to their fathers, not by providence, but by promise. They shall continue in the enjoyment of it without eviction or molestation; they shall not be disturbed, much less dispossessed, for ever and ever;<\/I> nothing but sin could throw them out. An everlasting inheritance in the heavenly Canaan is hereby secured to all that live in godliness and honesty. And the vulgar Latin reads a further privilege here, Jer 7:3<\/span>; Jer 7:7<\/span>. Habitabo vobiscum–I will dwell with you in this place;<\/I> and we should find Canaan itself but an uncomfortable place to dwell in if God did not dwell with us there.<\/P>

      2. What were the lying words of their own hearts, which they must not trust to. He cautions them against this self-deceit (v.<\/I><\/span> 4<\/span>): “Trust no in lying words.<\/I> You are told in what way, and upon what terms, you may be easy safe, and happy; now do not flatter yourselves with an opinion that you may be so on any other terms, or in any other way.” Yet he charges them with this self-deceit arising from vanity (v.<\/I><\/span> 8<\/span>): “Behold,<\/I> it is plain that you<\/I> do trust in lying words,<\/I> notwithstanding what is said to you; you trust in words that cannot profit;<\/I> you rely upon a plea that will stand you in no stead.” Those that slight the words of truth, which would profit them, take shelter in words of falsehood, which cannot profit them. Now these lying words were, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.<\/I> These buildings, the courts, the holy place, and the holy of holies, are the temple of the Lord,<\/I> built by his appointment, to his glory; here he resides, here he is worshipped, here we meet three times a year to pay our homage to him as our King in his palace.” This they thought was security enough to them to keep God and his favours from leaving them, God and his judgments from breaking in upon them. When the prophets told them how sinful they were, and how miserable they were likely to be, still they appealed to the temple: “How can we be either so or so, as long as we have that holy happy place among us?” The prophet repeats it because they repeated it upon all occasions. It was the cant of the times; it was in their mouths upon all occasions. If they heard an awakening sermon, if any startling piece of news was brought to them, they lulled themselves asleep again with this, “We cannot but do well, for we have the temple of the Lord among us.<\/I>” Note, The privileges of a form of godliness<\/I> are often the pride and confidence of those that are strangers and enemies to the power of it. It is common for those that are furthest from God to boast themselves most of their being near to the church. They are haughty because of the holy mountain<\/I> (Zeph. iii. 11<\/span>), as if God’s mercy were so tied to them that they might defy his justice. Now to convince them what a frivolous plea this was, and what little stead it would stand them in,<\/P>

      (1.) He shows them the gross absurdity of it in itself. If they knew any thing either of the temple of the Lord<\/I> or of the Lord of the temple,<\/I> they must think that to plead that, either in excuse of their sin against God or in arrest of God’s judgment against them, was the most ridiculous unreasonable thing that could be. [1.] God is a holy God; but this plea made him the patron of sin, of the worst of sins, which even the light of nature condemns, Jer 7:9<\/span>; Jer 7:10<\/span>. “What,” says he, “will you steal, murder, and commit adultery,<\/I> be guilty of the vilest immoralities, and which the common interest, as well as the common sense, of mankind witness against? Will you swear falsely,<\/I> a crime which all nations (who with the belief of a God have had a veneration for an oath) have always had a horror of? Will you burn incense to Baal,<\/I> a dunghill-deity, that sets up as a rival with the great Jehovah, and, not content with that, will you walk after other gods<\/I> too, whom you know not,<\/I> and by all these crimes put a daring affront upon God, both as the Lord of hosts<\/I> and as the God of Israel?<\/I> Will you exchange a God of whose power and goodness you have had such a long experience for gods of whose ability and willingness to help you you know nothing? And, when you have thus done the worst you can against God, will you brazen your faces so far as to come and stand before him in this house which is called by his name<\/I> and in which his name is called upon–stand before him as servants waiting his commands, as supplicants expecting his favour? Will you act in open rebellion against him, and yet herd among his subjects, among the best of them? By this, it should seem, you think that either he does not discover or does not dislike your wicked practices, to imagine either of which is to put the highest indignity possible upon him. It is as if you should say, We are delivered to do all these abominations.<\/I>” If they had not the front to say this, totidem verbis–in so many words,<\/I> yet their actions spoke it aloud. They could not but own that God, even their own God, had many a time delivered them, and been a present help to them, when otherwise they must have perished. He, in delivering them, designed to reduce them to himself, and by his goodness to lead them to repentance; but they resolved to persist in their abominations notwithstanding. As soon as they were delivered (as of old in the days of the Judges) they did evil again in the sight of the Lord,<\/I> which was in effect to say, in direct contradiction to the true intent and meaning of the providences which had affected them, that God had delivered them in order to put them again into a capacity of rebelling against him, by sacrificing the more profusely to their idols. Note, Those who continue in sin because grace has abounded, or that grace may abound, do in effect their idols. Note, Those who continue in sin because grace has abounded, or that grace may abound, do in effect make Christ the minister of sin. Some take it thus: “You present yourselves before God with your sacrifices and sin-offerings, and then say, We are delivered,<\/I> we are discharged from our guilt, now it shall do us no hurt; when all this is but to blind the world, and stop the mouth of conscience, that you may, the more easily to yourselves and the more plausibly before others, do all these abominations.<\/I>” [2.] His temple was a holy place; but this plea made it a protection to the most unholy persons: “Has this house, which is called by my name<\/I> and is a standing sign of God’s kingdom of sin and Satan–has this become a den of robbers in your eyes?<\/I> Do you think it was built to be not only a rendezvous of, but a refuge and shelter to, the vilest of malefactors?” No; though the horns of the altar were a sanctuary to him that slew a man unawares, yet they were not so to a wilful murderer, nor to one that did aught presumptuously, Exo 21:14<\/span>; 1Ki 2:29<\/span>. Those that think to excuse themselves in unchristian practices with the Christian name, and sin the more boldly and securely because there is a sin-offering provided, do, in effect, make God’s house of prayer a den of thieves, as the priests in Christ’s time, Matt. xxi. 13<\/span>. But could they thus impose upon God? No: Behold, I have seen it, saith the Lord,<\/I> have seen the real iniquity through the counterfeit and dissembled piety. Note, Though men may deceive one another with the appearances of devotion, yet they cannot deceive God.<\/P>

      (2.) He shows them the insufficiency of this plea adjudged long since in the case of Shiloh. [1.] It is certain that Shiloh was ruined, though it had God’s sanctuary in it, when by its wickedness it profaned that sanctuary (v.<\/I><\/span> 12<\/span>): Go you now to my place which was in Shiloh.<\/I> It is probable that the ruins of that once flourishing city were yet remaining; they might, at least, read the history of it, which ought to affect them as if they saw the place. There God set his name at the first,<\/I> there the tabernacle was set up when Israel first took possession of Canaan (John xviii. 1<\/span>), and thither the tribes went up; but those that attended the service of the tabernacle there corrupted both themselves and others, and from them arose the wickedness of his people Israel;<\/I> that fountain was poisoned, and sent forth malignant streams; and what came of it? No; God forsook<\/I> it (Ps. lxxviii. 60<\/span>), sent his ark into captivity, cut off the house of Eli that presided there; and it is very probable that the city was quite destroyed, for we never read any more of it but as a monument of divine vengeance upon holy places when they harbour wicked people. Note, God’s judgments upon others, who have really revolted from God while they have kept up a profession of nearness to him, should be a warning to us not to trust in lying words.<\/I> It is good to consult precedents, and make use of them. Remember Lot’s wife;<\/I> remember Shiloh and the seven churches of Asia; and know that the ark and candlestick are moveable things, Rev 2:5<\/span>; Mat 21:43<\/span>. [2.] It is as certain that Shiloh’s fate will be Jerusalem’s doom if a speedy and sincere repentance prevent it not. First,<\/I> Jerusalem was now as sinful as ever Shiloh was; that is proved by the unerring testimony of God himself against them (v.<\/I><\/span> 13<\/span>): “You have done all these works,<\/I> you cannot deny it:” and they continued obstinate in their sin; that is proved by the testimony of God’s return and repent, rising up early and speaking,<\/I> as one in care, as one in earnest, as one who would lose no time in dealing with them, nay, who would take the fittest opportunity for speaking to them early in the morning,<\/I> when, if ever, they were sober, and had their thoughts free and clear; but it was all in vain. God spoke, but they heard not,<\/I> they heeded not, they never minded; he called them,<\/I> but they answered not;<\/I> they would not come at his call. Note, What God has spoken to us greatly aggravates what we have done against him. Secondly,<\/I> Jerusalem shall shortly be as miserable as ever Shiloh was: Therefore I will do unto this house as I did to Shiloh,<\/I> ruin it, and lay it waste, v.<\/I><\/span> 14<\/span>. Those that tread in the steps of the wickedness of those that went before them must expect to fall by the like judgments, for all these things happened to them for ensamples.<\/I> The temple at Jerusalem, though ever so strongly built, if wickedness was found in it, would be as unable to keep its ground and as easily conquered as even the tabernacle in Shiloh was, when God’s day of vengeance had come. “This house” (says God) “is called by my name,<\/I> and therefore you may think that I should protect it; it is the house in which you trust,<\/I> and you think that it will protect you; this land is the place,<\/I> this city the place, which I gave to you and your fathers,<\/I> and therefore you are secure of the continuance of it, and think that nothing can turn you out of it; but the men of Shiloh thus flattered themselves and did but deceive themselves.” He quotes another precedent (v.<\/I><\/span> 15<\/span>), the ruin of the kingdom of the ten tribes, who were the seed of Abraham, and had the covenant of circumcision, and possessed the land which God gave to them and their fathers, and yet the idolatries threw them out and extirpated them: “And can you think but that the same evil courses will be as fatal to you?” Doubtless they will be so; for God is uniform and of a piece with himself in his judicial proceedings. It is a rule of justice, ut parium par sit ratio–that in similar cases the same judgment should proceed.<\/I> “You have corrupted yourselves as your brethren<\/I> the seed of Ephraim<\/I> did, and have become their brethren in iniquity, and therefore I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast them.<\/I>” The interpretation here given of the judgment makes it a terrible one indeed; the casting of them out of their land signified God’s casting them out of his sight, as if he would never look upon them, never look after them, more. Whenever we are cast, it is well enough, if we be kept in the love of God; but, if we are thrown out of his favour, our case is miserable though we dwell in our own land. This threatening, that God would make this house like Shiloh, we shall meet with again, and find Jeremiah indicted for it, ch.<\/I><\/span> xxvi. 6<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

JEREMIAH – CHAPTER 7<\/strong><\/p>\n

JEREMIAH’S MESSAGE AT THE TEMPLE<\/p>\n

GATE (7:1-8:3)<\/p>\n

INTRODUCTION: It will be impossible to grasp the full force and significance of this tremendous message unless one considers it against the background of Josiah’s efforts toward reformation, and the re-establishment of the ancient religious order in Judah. With his whole heart, this young king yearned to serve the Lord in an acceptable way. He realized that Judah had wandered far from Jehovah – especially so following the discovery, in the temple, of the Book of the Law (2Ki 22:13<\/span><\/strong>). His reform movement was designed to destroy such idolatry as had turned the hearts of his people away from Jehovah, their God, (see 2Ki 22:3-7<\/span><\/strong>; 2Ki 23:21-23<\/span><\/strong>; 2Ch 34:8-13<\/span><\/strong>; 2Ch 35:1-19<\/span><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

The people of Judah loved their young king and desired to please him. Thus, in outward form, they carried out his instructions relative to the destruction of the idol-groves, the cleansing of the house of God, the manifestation of great liberality toward the repair of the temple and the restoration therein of Israel’s ancient form of worship. But, their hearts were not in it; nothing therein was changed! They rejoiced in the temple ONLY because they regarded it as a sort of fetish (or charm) that made them SAFE IN THEIR SINS!<\/p>\n

It is against this background that one must consider Jeremiah’s message at the gate of the temple.<\/p>\n

As the crowning event of Josiah’s reformation of the national religion, there was being observed a Passover such as the nation had not experienced since the days of Samuel. It was a tremendous affair, wherein the king, and various others within the nation, had made liberal contributions toward the national celebration. (The 41,000 animals that were slain were provided by Josiah, the priests and Levites.) The casual, undiscerning observer might have concluded that there had been a mighty spiritual awakening <\/strong>in the land; but the man of God could see through the facade. Thus, his shocking unveiling of the CORRUPTED HEART OF THE NATION, and his call to genuine repentance!<\/p>\n

Vs. 1-7: AMEND YOUR WAYS!<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Jehovah, the covenant-God of Israel, commands Jeremiah to stand in the gate of the Temple, in Jerusalem, and there to proclaim His word to a hypocritical people who are entering the temple to worship Him, (vs. 1-2).<\/p>\n

2. The Lord of hosts, and God of Israel <\/strong>calls upon Judah to AMEND her ways and actions, (vs. 3, 5, Jer 4:1<\/span><\/strong>; Jer 18:11<\/span><\/strong>; Jer 26:13<\/span><\/strong>); her prosperity is contingent upon an obedient response to that call.<\/p>\n

3. They must NOT rejoice in the temple as a guarantee that the divine presence therein will assure their security; here was a message wherein Jeremiah risked his very life, for the religious zealots in Judah would consider such a thing blasphemous!<\/p>\n

a. The PAID PROPHETS have assured them of their safety in the temple – even while they walked in rebellion against the Lord, and spoke LYING WORDS! (comp. Mic 3:9-12<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

1) “We are God’s ‘chosen people’ – possessing His law and His temple; thus, He will not permit any evil to come upon US!” Such was their attitude.<\/p>\n

2) And the word of Jeremiah could not penetrate this deeprooted, self-destructive conceit.<\/p>\n

b. To so prostitute the use of the temple will assure ITS DESTRUCTION -AND THEIRSI (vs. 9-11,14).<\/p>\n

4. But, God still lays down certain conditions under which He will spare them – causing them to dwell securely in the land given, by covenant, to their ancient fathers, (vs. 5-7; Jer 4:1<\/span><\/strong>; Deu 4:40<\/span><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

a. They must completely amend their ways, (Jer 4:1-2<\/span><\/strong>; Isa 1:19<\/span><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

b. They must truly execute justice between a man and his neighbor, (Jer 21:12<\/span><\/strong>; Jer 22:3<\/span><\/strong>; 1Ki 6:11-13<\/span><\/strong>).<\/p>\n

c. They must cease their oppression of the stranger, the fatherless and the widows.<\/p>\n

d. They must not shed innocent blood, nor walk after other gods.<\/p>\n

e. To continue in such sin will be to their own hurt.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES. 1. Chronology of the chapter.<\/strong> Keil<\/em> regards chaps. 7 to 10 as later addresses, delivered during Josiahs reign. Bagster<\/em> places an interval of merely two years between chaps. 6 and 7, dating this B.C. 610, two years before Josiahs death. The A.V. places it ten years after Jehoiakim became king. But Dahler, Graf, Naeg., Lange, Hend., and Dr. Payne Smith identify this chapter with chap. 26. (cf.<\/em> the corresponding verses, Jer. 7:2<\/span>; Jer. 7:13-14<\/span>, with Jer. 26:2<\/span>; Jer. 26:5-6<\/span> respectively), and, therefore, date chap. 7 in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim.<\/em> Yet identity of verses is not itself conclusive of chapters being synchronous, for the book abounds in repetitions of theme and language. Besides (as Keil<\/em> points out) there is no trace in this discourse, chap. 710, of the hostility towards Jeremiah which became so impetuous and implacable in Jehoiakims days (contrast this address with chap. Jer. 26:14-15<\/span>, sq.<\/em>). However, this chapter depicts such idolatrous degradations as agree more with the relapse under Jehoiakim than with the reforms of Josiahs reign (see Jer. 8:9<\/span>; Jer. 8:18<\/span>; Jer. 8:21<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jehoiakim came to the throne B.C. 608. Assyrian chronology changes that date to B.C. 589.<\/p>\n

2. Cotemporary Scriptures:<\/strong> 2Ki. 23:34-37<\/span>; 2Ch. 36:4-5<\/span>; cf.<\/em> Habakkuk 1<\/span>. Ezekiel lived through the epoch of Josiahs death, the abject dethronisation of Jehoahaz, and Jehoiakims installation as king; but his prophecies date after the first group of captives had been carried into Babylon.<\/p>\n

3. National History.<\/strong> B.C. 605 [Assyrian date, 586]. Josiah had fallen in battle with Pharaoh Necho at Megiddo (2Ki. 23:29-30<\/span>). Jehoahaz had reigned three months, and now Jehoiakim was kingPharaoh Necho having placed him on the throne of Judah as vassal king, and laid the land under tribute to Egypt (2Ki. 23:33<\/span>; 2Ki. 23:35<\/span>). During, his wicked and abject reign the nation hastened back to idolatry and vice.<\/p>\n

4. Cotemporaneous History.<\/strong> Two years before Josiahs death Nineveh was wrested from Egypt by the combined assault of the Medes (under Cyaxares) and Babylonians (under Nabopolassar)these two rising empires being intent on crushing the despotism of the Pharaohs. Against this Babylonian usurper Pharaoh Necho marched B.C 608; and by successful war at Charchemish, recovered a temporary Egyptian ascendancy. This ascendancy terminated finally in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when Nebuchadnezzar led his fathers forces against Necho, vanquished Egypt, and inaugurated the Chaldean dominion. Cf. Critical Notes<\/em> on chap. 1.<\/p>\n

5. Geographical References.<\/strong> Jer. 7:12<\/span>. Shiloh<\/em>, situate north of Bethel, in tribe of Benjamin (Jdg. 21:19<\/span>), distinguished as being the first sacred resting-place of the ark, and therefore the centre of the nations worship. Ark abode there for a period of cir.<\/em> 300 years (Jos. 18:1<\/span>; 1Sa. 4:3-4<\/span>). Scene of Samuels call, and Elis judgeship. Must have been a populous town then; still existed in the reign of Jeroboam I. (1Ki. 14:2<\/span>); but in Jeremiahs time it had sunk to a mean village. Divine displeasure over idolatry led to its degradation from historic eminence. Dr Robinson traced its site in the Arabic Seilun. Jerome wrote, At Silo, where once was the tabernacle and ark of the Lord, there can scarcely be pointed out the foundation of an altar. Jer. 7:31<\/span>. Valley of the Son of Hinnom,<\/em> skirting the western base of Mount Zion, and meeting the valley of Jehosaphat; a most picturesque scene, with gardens, groves, and cool refreshing shade; regarded as the temple of Palestine. Jerome<\/em> says, The valley of Hinnom was watered by the springs of Siloam, and was pleasant and well wooded; and at this day delightful gardens are situate there (cf. Personal References<\/em> below). The high places<\/em> of Tophet were artificial mounts on which sacrificial altars were reared, on the heights on the south side of the valley, and facing Mount Zion.<\/p>\n

6. Personal References.<\/strong> Jer. 7:15<\/span>. Ephraim<\/em>, put for Israel, the ten tribes God had cast out. Their having had the ark so<\/em> long did not protect them from banishment; nor would Judah, escape, though possessing the Temple (Jer. 7:4<\/span>). Jer. 7:18<\/span>. Queen of Heaveni.e.,<\/em> the moon. She was revered as a deity by Persians and Syrians. Her name was a fem form of , Molech,<\/em> or , Molech.<\/em> In Babylonia her name was Molatta.<\/em> She was regarded as the wife of Molech or Baal, the king<\/em> of heaven. The sun and moon were worshipped thus as being the generative powers of nature. Jer. 7:31<\/span>. Tophet<\/em>, perhaps a contemptuous name given by Jeremiah to their god, Baal [see Literary Criticism<\/em> on chap. Jer. 3:24<\/span>]; or else not a proper name at all, the word Tophet meaning merely a thing or place of abhorrence;<\/em> and any place where human sacrifices were offered was stigmatised as a Tophet, or place of horror (See Addenda to chap. Jer. 5:31<\/span>, High Places of Tophet<\/em>). Jer. 7:31<\/span>. Son of Hinnom,<\/em> a name without traceable personal identification. Mentioned in connection with the valley so early as in Jos. 15:8<\/span>. Possibly he was some ancient or fabulous hero. The valley called Vale Ben-Hinnom<\/em> in the Old Testament, is sometimes in Heb. shortened into Ge-Hinnom,<\/em> ; is rendered by the LXX. ; and hence the New Testament name Gehenna.<\/em> To end the idolatrous abominations practised there, Josiah had poured into the valley the citys refuse and corruption, to consume which perpetual fires were kept burning. From the torturous fires of Molech, and the ever-burning fires to consume the loathsome refuse cast into it, Gehenna became suggestive and figurative of the place of eternal torment.<\/p>\n

7. Manners and Customs.<\/strong> Jer. 7:18<\/span>. Make cakes to queen of heaven:<\/em> probably specially prepared for her worship, made round and flat like the disc of the moon, and burnt to her honour, with added libations. Jer. 7:21<\/span>. Burnt offerings<\/em> were wholly consumed upon the altar fire; sacrifices<\/em> were in part eaten by the offerers. This Eating the flesh was regarded as a reconciliation meal, God and the offerer dividing and sharing the sacrifice. Jer. 7:29<\/span>. Cut off thine hair:<\/em> the ancient sign of mourning (cf.<\/em> Job. 1:20<\/span>; Mic. 1:16<\/span>). Lamentation on high places (cf.<\/em> Isa. 15:2<\/span>; Jdg. 11:37-38<\/span>). Jer. 7:30<\/span>. Abominations in the house;<\/em> this refers to what Manasseh had done (2Ki. 21:3-5<\/span>), and of which sacrifice the people had never repented, notwithstanding Josiahs external reforms. Jer. 7:31<\/span>. Burn sons and daughters in the fire:<\/em> probably not burnt alive, but first slain (see Eze. 16:21<\/span>). Jer. 7:34<\/span>. Voice<\/em> (or sound<\/em>) of the bridegroom and bride:<\/em> an allusion to the musical procession with which the bridal pair were accompanied through the streets; a custom still, in many parts of the East, among the Jews.<\/p>\n

8. Literary Criticisms.<\/strong> Jer. 7:3<\/span>. I will cause you to dwell<\/em>. Hend.<\/em> would give to the Piel form of the verb a continuative force, I will still cause you to dwell:<\/em> for they were already there; and this is no promise of re-occupancy. Blayney<\/em> and the Vulgate<\/em> adopt, I will dwell with you. Speakers Com.,<\/em> I will let you dwell. Jer. 7:4<\/span>. Temple of the Lord are these<\/em>, i.e.,<\/em> the sacred buildings<\/em> of the Temple (Hend.)<\/em> Or, as the pronoun is masc., some think the Jews themselves.<\/em> But the Jews boasted in their material edifices, and were not sufficiently spiritual to claim for themselves a personally indwelling God. Jer. 7:7<\/span>. For ever and ever,<\/em> lit. to from eternity and unto eternity: the strongest Heb. formula for perpetuity. The antecedent may be either, I gave the land,<\/em> or I will cause you to dwell.<\/em> Jer. 7:9<\/span>. Will ye steal,<\/em> &c.;<\/em> a succession of infinitives. What! to steal, to murder, &c. Jer. 7:10<\/span>. We are delivered to do all,<\/em> &c., i.e.,<\/em> by Temple attendances and observances We are secured against evil consequences while we continue to sin; no harm will come to us. It expresses daring self-justification, and blasphemous self-assurance. (Comp. Noticeable Topics,<\/em> end of chap. Sermon by Horton<\/em>). Jer. 7:12<\/span>. Set My name at the first,<\/em> i.e.,<\/em> in the first period of the Jewish commonwealth. (See above, Geographical References.<\/em> Shiloh). Jer. 7:18<\/span>. Queen of heaven, margin<\/em> of A. V. frame, or workmanship of heaven. The Syriac and LXX so translate; although in corresponding verses (chap Jer. 44:17-19<\/span>), the LXX render the word queen . The Vulgate has regina cli<\/em> in every instance. Jer. 7:22<\/span>. For I spake not<\/em>, &c.,<\/em> if this be taken as a denial of their Divine institution,<\/em> it must be understood as stating that God imposed moral duties (Jer. 7:23<\/span>) at an earlier date than He instituted the sacrificial code (cf.<\/em> Exo. 15:26<\/span>; Exo. 19:5<\/span>, with Deuteronomy 5, 6<\/span>). Or as a repudiation<\/em> of their sacrifices<\/em> it suggests their repulsiveness to God when alone, unattended with performance of the higher obligations: I spake not that sacrifices might be presented, while moral duties were at the same time refused. The words may be rendered, I spake not to your fathers for the sake of<\/em> (A.V. concerning) burnt offerings, &c., they were not the primary results God sought; He desired not sacrifices, but spiritual obedience. Jer. 7:24<\/span>. Went backwards<\/em>, lit. were<\/em> backwards, i.e.<\/em>, their faces turned from Me (Psa. 78:57<\/span>). Jer. 7:28<\/span>. Truth<\/em> (see criticisms on the word, chap. Jer. 5:3<\/span>). Jer. 7:29<\/span>. Cut hair<\/em>, a diadem<\/em> (2Sa. 1:10<\/span>). The Nazarites hair<\/em> so called (Num. 6:7<\/span>, rendered consecration<\/em>) as being the symbol of his consecration to God, ergo<\/em> of his royalty and dignity: and hence, leaving the primary meaning, the long, unshorn hair<\/em> of a woman. This diadem she must cast away, for she is no longer consecrate to God: she has violated her sanctity and forfeited her alliance with Jehovah.<\/p>\n

HOMILETIC OUTLINES ON SECTIONS OF CHAPTER 7<\/em><\/p>\n

Verses<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:1-7<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Righteous requirements and gracious promise.<\/p>\n

Verses<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:8-15<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Demoralising trust placed in external piety.<\/p>\n

Verses<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:16-20<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Indignity done to God in uniting His worship with idolatry.<\/p>\n

Verses<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:21-28<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Reliance on the value of outward religious service refuted.<\/p>\n

Verses<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:29-34<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Retribution for idolatrous abominations.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:1-7<\/span>. RIGHTEOUS REQUIREMENTS AND GRACIOUS PROMISE<\/p>\n

Jehoiakim, an irreligious king; consequently the maintenance of divine worship was not now, as when Josiah reigned, an object of public care and royal encouragement. Probably this concourse in the temple assembled on a public fast-day. Jeremiah commissioned to use the opportunity for making known Gods revulsion from a form of godliness, not having the power thereof.
1. Express communication from Jehovah:<\/em> word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord. 2. Proclaimed in a solemn scene:<\/em> stand in the gate of the Lords house. 3. Addressed to a vast audience:<\/em> hear, all Judah. 4. Relating to professedly godly persons:<\/em> that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. 5. Spoken with the weight and sanction of Highest Authority:<\/em> not the outcome of his own patriotic fervour, or pious solicitude, but Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. 6. Summoning to thorough reformation:<\/em> amend, &c. (Jer. 7:4<\/span>). 7. Granting gracious permission and opportunity:<\/em> the door of hope not closed, the day of grace prolonged.<\/p>\n

I. In what Divinely approved piety consists.<\/strong> God leaves them in no uncertainty as to what He demands of man: we do not grope in darkness towards truth; are not left to conjectures and adventures. This is the way, walk ye in it. The wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein. Here is urged both a refusal and a requirement.<\/p>\n

1. Repudiation of superficial piety<\/em> (Jer. 7:2<\/span>; Jer. 7:4<\/span>). Mere entering sanctuary, formal worship, pride in religious externals. Not they who say unto Me, Lord, Lord, &c. (Addenda to chap, Jer. 7:4<\/span>, Ecclesiasticism<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

2. Delineation of essential righteousness<\/em> (Jer. 7:5-6<\/span>). Personal goodness, justice and mercy to others, fidelity to God. Compare our Lords reply to question, What do to inherit eternal life? (Luk. 10:27<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. To what extent true reformation must be carried.<\/strong> Thoroughly thoroughly (Jer. 7:5<\/span>). With resolution, with sincerity, with completeness. Note what it embraces; self,<\/em> amend, &c.; others,<\/em> execute judgment, &c.; God,<\/em> no other gods.<\/p>\n

1. Personal renewal:<\/em> waysi.e.,<\/em> general principles and methods of life: doingsi.e.<\/em>, separate and minute deeds. Entire change of self. Neither circumcision, &c., but a new creature.<\/p>\n

2. Uprightness of conduct:<\/em> specially acting justly and mercifully. We are created in Christ Jesus unto good works.<\/p>\n

3. Cessation from wrong:<\/em> and this wrong is of three formsharming the weak, hurting ourselves, and dishonouring God (Jer. 7:6<\/span>).<\/p>\n

III. With what rewards godliness is encouraged.<\/strong> Civil and sacred privileges (Jer. 7:7<\/span>).<\/p>\n

1. Present advantages.<\/em> In this place; Jerusalem or temple; where holy comforts and favours cluster, the meeting-place of God. Godliness hath the promise of the life which now is.<\/p>\n

2. Imperishable prospects.<\/em> This land for ever. Begotten to a lively hope, to an inheritance incorruptible, and fadeth not away.<\/p>\n

IV. To what disasters irreligion tends.<\/strong> The conditional promise implies a possible reverse, dark and sad.<\/p>\n

1. Loss of boasted heritages.<\/em> Not dwell in this place; the temple and city, with all civil and religious advantages forfeited; exiles.<\/p>\n

2. Banishment from God Himself.<\/em> Removed from land into captivity. To be cast out from where God dwelt, Zion, equivalent to a Jew to being banished from Him who dwelt in Zion. Depart from Me, ye cursed. Punished with everlasting destruction, from the presence of the Lord, and the glory of His power.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:8-15<\/span>. DEMORALISING TRUST PLACED IN EXTERNAL PIETY<\/p>\n

A startling truism that evil simulates good.<\/em> Satan himself takes the form of angel of light in order to cover his own hideousness and deceive others. Sinners hide conscious wrong by pretentious righteousness. Two results:<\/p>\n

1. Self-deception.<\/em> A dangerous device to assume a mock piety. Deceivers come to deceive themselves. Reflex action of insincerity: believe a lie, and thus ignore danger while courting and hastening to destruction. Wicked taken in their own net, fall into pit digged for others, are hung on gallows themselves prepared for different use.<\/p>\n

2. Self-degradation.<\/em> Pretence of goodness blinds sinners to the revulsion and awfulness of iniquity: conscience seared. Evil looks less heinous to sinners themselves when clothed with the garb of pietism. Licence is thus given to iniquity, and sin grows at once bolder, self-excusing, shameless, and runs unchecked to vile excesses. Christ pronounced those men worst and most hopeless who robed villainy with piety (Mat. 23:25-33<\/span>).<\/p>\n

I. The attitude of devotional sincerity<\/strong> (Jer. 7:10<\/span>). 1. In right place:<\/em> this house. 2. In right posture:<\/em> stand before Me. Ye outwardly appear righteous unto men (Mat. 23:28<\/span>). Judged of at that moment, all seemed well. But what manner of men were they when away from Gods house? Life has two sides: most men seem good when in holy scenes<\/em> and on sacred occasions; what is their conduct elsewhere? Moreover, there may be vast difference in a mans outer and inner life;<\/em> and God looks within; so that even when standing piously before Him they may be loathsome in His sight. Attitude<\/em> is not everything.<\/p>\n

II. The subtlety of religious delusions.<\/strong> 1. False trusts:<\/em> in lying words (Jer. 7:9<\/span>), and this house wherein ye trust (Jer. 7:14<\/span>). Ready to believe in smooth words of lying prophets<\/em> (Jer. 7:31<\/span>), or to rest upon mere cant phrases<\/em> (Jer. 7:4<\/span>), or to repose on religious externals<\/em> (Jer. 7:14<\/span>). 2. Presumptuous assurance:<\/em> We are delivered (Jer. 7:10<\/span>)i.e.,<\/em> having performed our religious observances in the temple, we have atoned for past<\/em> sins, and are free to start afresh.<\/em> Romanists assume the same licence: attend mass, and so leave all burdens behind, and gain liberty for indulgences in sin. Protestants, too, who attend the Sacrament and return to worldliness. They also who trust in penitent prayers, and excuse themselves in wrong: sin that grace may abound. God hates every false way.<\/p>\n

III. The degradations of spiritual falsity.<\/strong> The delusion that sin may be continued with impunity or easily escaped acts as an encouragement to every form of wrong. Hypocrites, who make external ceremonies a kind of expiation, readily fall into the seductions of sin, and follow the enticements of their own evil hearts. To what depths did these sink! 1. Glaring immoralities<\/em> (Jer. 7:9<\/span>). 2. Revolting idolatries<\/em> (Jer. 7:9<\/span>). 3. Ecclesiastical profanities<\/em> (Jer. 7:11<\/span>).<\/p>\n

IV. The futility of sacred messages.<\/strong> I spake unto you, rising up early, &c. (Jer. 7:13<\/span>). 1. Instructions and admonitions<\/em> were not withheld: thus God did His part to restrain and rectify them. 2. Invitations to true religion<\/em> were sent: I called you: thus they were allured and entreated as well as warned. 3. Indifference and insensibility<\/em> marked their conduct: they were without disposition to repent, without desire for holiness; so they trifled still by offering to God a ceremonial piety, but refusing practical godliness. Note: The most potent and urgent messages from God are neutralised by the carnal security in which hypocrites entrench themselves.<\/p>\n

V. The overthrow of sinners and their subterfuges<\/strong> (Jer. 7:14-15<\/span>). 1. Zion seemed a secure possession.<\/em> They trusted in it; relied upon the fact that God had given it in covenant with their fathers; they deemed it inalienable and imperishable (Psa. 132:14<\/span>). Yet, being used for evil ends (Jer. 7:11<\/span>), and made a delusive trust (Jer. 7:4<\/span>; Jer. 7:14<\/span>), it had lost its worth in Gods sight, and should come to ruin as Shiloh had done. Nothing retains its sacredness<\/em> or its security<\/em> when prostituted to purposes of falsehood and impiety. 2. Judah believed herself safe from banishment.<\/em> David was of Judah; God had made special promises to this royal tribe. Messiah was to come of it. Judah arrogated to herself a safety Israel did not possess. But no privileges or promises screen the guilty from judgment. Gods special plans never interfere with His common laws. Sinners are condemned, wicked shall not escape; and these laws will not be suspended, even though we seek to hide ourselves behind covenants and decrees.<\/p>\n

Application: Delusion works demoralisation. Demoralisation ensures destruction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:16-20<\/span>. INDIGNITY TO JEHOVAH IN UNITING HIS WORSHIP WITH IDOLATRY<\/p>\n

Seest thou what they do? (Jer. 7:17<\/span>). The sight was abhorrent to God. They had professed to accept Him as their Lord, by standing before Him in His house (Jer. 7:10<\/span>); but their conduct outside the temple, in the very streets of Jerusalem, as well as throughout the cities of Judah, was flauntingly audacious and provoking. Such hypocrisy was loathsome to God.<\/p>\n

Compromises<\/em>, combining Gods worship with idolatrous practises, incense Jehovah. They dishonour Him, rob worship of all worth, render religion a mockery and homage a vanity. By their compromises they wronged and provoked God; for<\/p>\n

1. They divided His glory,<\/em> by raising idols to equality with Him. 2. They degraded His glory,<\/em> by lowering Him to equality with them. For by sharing worship between God and other gods, they treated Him as worthy no more homage than they.<\/p>\n

I. Mans astounding insolence towards Jehovah.<\/strong> Their idolatrous conduct had as its motive<\/em> malice; and as its end,<\/em> that they might provoke God to anger (Jer. 7:18<\/span>). They aimed at that result. But, in so doing, men may ignite a fire they would fain yet cannot quench. 1. The Divine anger is a solemn reality.<\/em> 2. Mans conduct is capable of provoking the anger<\/em> of the Almighty! 3. Indignity to God evokes indignation<\/em> from God. Wonderful mans power! Terrible this dire abuse of it!<\/p>\n

II. Outrages done to God revert on the sinner<\/strong> (Jer. 7:19<\/span>). Which means, Is it Me they provoke; or will they not rather provoke themselves to wrath against themselves, and to confusion and shame? 1. They injure themselves more than they incense God.<\/em> 2. They will bear the heavier consequences<\/em> of their wickedness. God is dishonoured<\/em> and provoked thereby, but they ensure destruction<\/em> to themselves and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. Sinners will then be wrathful with themselves;<\/em> gnashing of teeth: and reap shame<\/em> for every dishonour they have done to the Lord.<\/p>\n

III. Pitiful intercession refused on their behalf<\/strong> (Jer. 7:16<\/span>). Jeremiah was compassionate, and ready to interpose with prayers: but, 1. God corrects the prophets mistaken charity.<\/em> Piety before patriotism; what is due to God<\/em> before unthinking intervention on the behalf of wrongdoers. Pity must not blindly interpose to prevent justice. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? 2. God directs attention to their guilty deeds.<\/em> Seest thou, &c. (Jer. 7:17<\/span>). Jehovah sees; and He fathoms the depths of malice which prompt mens hostile actions.<\/p>\n

IV. Anger provoked in God will be assuredly poured out (<\/strong>Jer. 7:20<\/span><\/strong>). 1. As a deluge, in fulness and fury:<\/em> poured out. 2. Falling upon the whole people:<\/em> on the offenders<\/em> themselves (man), and their treasures<\/em> (this place, on beasts, trees, fruits). 3. Unquenchable in its ravaging work:<\/em> for it will be a deluge of fire, and will burn inextinguishably. Who will dwell with the everlasting burnings? Flee to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:21-28<\/span>. RELIANCE ON THE VALUE OF OUTWARD RELIGIOUS SERVICE REFUTED<\/p>\n

Jeremiah swept this false security utterly from beneath them: their ceremonial observances were worthless in themselves,<\/em> except as an expression of spiritual homage and loyalty, and were without Divine sanction,<\/em> except as they were accompanied by practical godliness. He appeals to the original covenant of God with them, and affirms: i. That the moral code was primarily given;<\/em> the ceremonial laws followed at a later date, and as a concession to their weakness, when, by the worship of the golden calf, they had proved themselves unworthy of, and unfitted for, a purely spiritual dispensation. ii. That the moral code was of primary importance.<\/em> God could readily dispense with sacrificial offerings if their practical obedience were maintained; but however lavish their sacrifices, all were repulsive if obedience was withheld.<\/p>\n

HENRYSee with what contempt God here speaks of their ceremonial service (Jer. 7:21<\/span>). Go on in, and add to, your sacrifices, and eat flesh, for that is all the good you will obtain from them; no other benefit while you live in disobedience!<\/p>\n

I. He shows them that obedience was the only thing He required of them<\/strong> (Jer. 7:22-23<\/span>). He appeals to the original contract when they were first formed into a people (Exo. 15:26<\/span>). The condition of their being Gods people was, If you will obey my voice indeed (Exo. 19:5<\/span>). Afterwards He gave them ceremonial institutions, as trials of their obedience, and assistances to their repentance and faith. The Levitical law begins thus, If any man of you will bring an offering (Lev. 1:2<\/span>; Lev. 2:1<\/span>), as if intended rather to regulate<\/em> sacrifice than to require it.<\/p>\n

II. He shows them that disobedience was the only thing which offended Him<\/strong>. They broke Gods commandments in their conversation, while observing them, in some instances, in their devotion (Jer. 7:24-25<\/span>). 1. They set up their own will in competition with Gods.<\/em> Hearkened not, nor inclined their ear to Gods<\/em> laws; and made their own counsels<\/em> their guide, and evil imaginations<\/em> became their law. 2. If they began well, they did not proceed,<\/em> but soon flew off: went backward. 3. When God sent messages to them by His prophets, they were still disobedient<\/em> (Jer. 7:25<\/span>). As deaf to the prophets as they were to the law (Jer. 7:26<\/span>). 4. Their practice and character were still the same:<\/em> worse, and not better, than their fathers. (a<\/em>.) Jeremiah can himself witness to their disobedience (Jer. 7:27<\/span>). (b<\/em>.) He must therefore own they deserved Gods displeasure and abandonment to destruction (Jer. 7:28<\/span>). Notorious for their obstinacy, incapable of receiving or uttering truth: false both to God and man.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:29-34<\/span>. RETRIBUTION FOR IDOLATROUS ABOMINATIONS<\/p>\n

Cut off thine hair, &c. (see Lit. Crit. supra<\/em> on Jer. 7:29<\/span>): both as a token of extreme woe, and also of the loss of the consecrated character.<\/p>\n

I. A mournful occasion for bitterest grief<\/strong> (Jer. 7:29<\/span>). 1. Loss of holiness entails loss of happiness. 2. Rejection by God and abandonment to His wrath suggest alarming calamities. Spiritual,<\/em> in that the soul loses her light, her security, her comfort, her hope; and temporal,<\/em> in that protection, promises, benefactions, are all forfeited and alienated. A desolate case! Yet not loss of God alone,<\/em> but the positive woes of His wrath.<\/em> All good things withdrawn, all evil things threatened.<\/p>\n

II. A revolting spectacle of impious desecration<\/strong> (Jer. 7:30-31<\/span>) 1. Insulted<\/em> God to His face in His own house by their abominations.<\/em> A loathsome intrusion upon and pollution of sacred scenes. Equally so when sin is cherished in our hearts (Eze. 14:4<\/span>). 2. Practised the most heinous atrocities in their idolatrous homage<\/em> (Jer. 7:31<\/span>). Deeds so dreadful as never to have come into the mind of God. Mans fertility in wicked inventions.<\/p>\n

III. A terrible visitation of righteous judgments<\/strong> (Jer. 7:32-33<\/span>). 1. Slaughterers<\/em> (of their own children) shall be visited with slaughter<\/em> (from the Chaldeans) 2. The scene of cruel death<\/em> (of helpless infants) shall be burdened with the dead;<\/em> the victims of the avenging sword should be more than graves could inter. 3. Ravaging beasts of prey would usurp the very spot where now living men assembled<\/em> for idolatrous ceremonies; so complete would be the devastation of human life. Ge-Hinnom, a figure of hell.<\/em> (See Personal Allusions<\/em>, Jer. 7:31<\/span>, above.)<\/p>\n

IV. A woful desolation of happy scenes<\/strong> (Jer. 7:34<\/span>). 1. All joy silenced in the now cheerful streets.<\/em> 2. All life departed from now crowded cities.<\/em> 3. All beauty and fertility swept from the now luxuriant soil;<\/em> the land desolate. Music, life, and fertility: these symbolise the sum of Divine favours:<\/em> Gods choicest benefactions. Their loss portrays illimitable woe. So utterly does sin reverse all the blessedness of life and the hopes of religion.<\/p>\n

HOMILETIC OUTLINES ON SUCCESSIVE VERSES OF CHAPTER 7<\/em><\/p>\n

Jer. 7:1-2<\/span>. Preliminary Notes<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Though the people were rioting in idolatry they yet visited Gods temple; and even came thither from all Judah (Jer. 7:2<\/span>): all the cities of Judah (Jer. 26:2<\/span>). This discourse must have been delivered on a public feast-day or fast-day, for on no ordinary occasion would so representative an assembly be convened. Probably it was an assembly specially summoned; the apathy and alienation of the people being too settled to allow of their coming together in such vast numbers from distant cities, unless called to Jerusalem by royal edict, or impelled to come in consequence of national calamities. The occasion was well suited for a searching and solemn appeal to the national conscience. Jeremiah seems to have stood in the inner gate, and faced the crowds as they thronged in at the outer gates into the open court. He detained them there with his faithful discourse ere they passed through the gate, where he himself stood, into the inner court, where worship was performed and sacrifice offered. He thus stood between them and further religious mockeries, calling them to pause, reflect, and repent.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:2<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> A COMMISSION TO PREACH<\/p>\n

Certainly, this is not running without being sent. Some mistake their avocation,rush to a charge which God has not committed to them. The result: Things without life, giving sound. Nothing higher than that; words, but no word,no definite message for men from God. How different when the speaker must<\/em> testify the truth Divinely intrusted to him! (Rom. 10:15<\/span>). Jeremiahs case is identical with that of every true preacher (Jer. 7:1<\/span>).<\/p>\n

I. The Divine regulation of the preachers work.<\/strong> 1. The scene<\/em> of the preachers labour: stand in the<\/em> gate, &c., definitely localised by God. 2. The opportunity:<\/em> ye that enter,<\/em> the very hour fixed by God, as they were entering; an auspicious and appropriate moment. 3. The audience:<\/em> all ye of Judah, and ye of Judah that enter;<\/em> extensive, yet limited; for the Gospel and truth are for all<\/em>, yet only for those who will hear<\/em>. 4. The topic:<\/em> this word, definite and direct. Many themes might fill our thoughts and our speech, but God has something to say, and we cannot but speak the things, &c. Note its origin<\/em> (Jer. 7:1<\/span>). (Addenda to chap. 7, The Preacher.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

II. The preachers performance of his Divine commission.<\/strong> Like Jeremiah, who subordinated himself and his powers to Gods requirements, he fulfils his charge. 1. In literal obedience.<\/em> Stands where he is directed, speaks what he is commanded. 2. With fearless ardour.<\/em> Proclaimed; not cowardlily whispered it, nor humbly apologised for it. 3. As Jehovahs witness<\/em> (Jer. 7:3<\/span>): an ambassador, a spokesman for God and in His name. It makes obedience easy, though the duty be onerous and dangerous, to realise that there is a solemn Authority behind us and our words.<\/p>\n

III. The practical lessons of this prophetic incident.<\/strong> (See Preliminary Notes on Jer. 7:1<\/span>, above.) 1. Large audiences<\/em> present special opportunities; and a preacher, like Wisdom, cries in the chief places of concourse. 2. Professedly religious<\/em> persons need the preachers word. Simply because they enter gates to worship does not show them beyond error and without need of earnest ministrations. 3. Before men worship,<\/em> they require solemn and special warning; need be summoned to pause and know what worship God accepts and demands (Php. 3:3<\/span>). 4. God discerns the spirit,<\/em> as well as the attitude, of those who enter His temple for outward worship. 5. He sends messages<\/em> according to the condition of the people: warning for those in error, consolation for the sad, calls for the weary, &c. Hence, hearers should seriously take heed to what they hear:<\/em> for the message suggests Gods estimate of them and their needs.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:3<\/span>. (See on Jer. 7:5-7<\/span>.) Your ways,<\/em> = general lines of conduct, common habits, prevailing laws of feeling, thought, and practice. Your doings,<\/em> = the separate and individual acts which, by frequency and repetition, form habits. I will cause you to dwell, i.e.<\/em> peaceably, protected from the spoiler and from captivity. It promises nothing new, but pledges the continuance of the blessings long enjoyed (Jer. 7:7<\/span>). In this place,<\/em> primarily, the temple, as the central joy and privilege of Israel; and, secondarily, the land, of which the temple is the ornament and glory.<\/p>\n

Theme:<\/em> SINNERS SUMMONED TO SELF-IMPROVEMENT. Thus saith the Lord, Amend your ways!<\/em><\/p>\n

Faulty conduct is to be rectified. God asks practical righteousness; correcting the wrong of our life, culturing the good and the godly.
Unwarrantable to teach that human virtue and goodness are nothing to God, are, indeed, repulsive to Him. He hath shown thee, O man, what is good: and both summons to attempt it, and approves its attainment.<\/p>\n

Equally unscriptural to teach that God bids men desist from effort to rise out of evil into a good and godly life (Isa. 55:6-7<\/span>; Rom. 8:13<\/span>). True, no self-improvement can save a soul. Jesus alone saves. But there is room for the free action of a man to cease from evil and do good both before and after his conversion to Christ.<\/p>\n

This Divine call<\/p>\n

I. Marks out the prevailing faultiness of an irreligious life.<\/strong> Both your ways and doings, in large and small matters, in principles and practices. Yet, observe, here is no call to abandon<\/em> altogether their course of life, but to alter<\/em> it; remedy the errors and mistakes and blemishes. Ceremonialism not itself wrong and forbidden, but it should be accompanied by practical righteousness. 1. The direction of the life<\/em> may not be wholly wrong:<\/em> not required to reverse or abandon their ways, but amend them. 2. Yet good deeds may be performed in an evil manner:<\/em> life, a series of faults, in spirit and method. 3. So a life ostensibly good may be repulsive to God:<\/em> so much so, as to threaten the loss of God and the holy city.<\/p>\n

II. Sanctions mans resolute efforts to rectify his faults.<\/strong> Amend. So far from repudiating mans endeavour to reform his wrongs, and acquire virtue and goodness, God here calls to it. Hence it is: 1. Possible to man. 2. Approved by God.<\/em> 3. Incumbent on each.<\/em> (Mar. 10:20-21<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

III. Pledges Gods beneficent recognition of mans diligent reform.<\/strong> 1. This implies a terrifying alternative:<\/em> that, neglecting the duty of rectifying existing evils, God would outlaw them. 2. This covenants a gracious recompense:<\/em> that, redeeming the time, and living soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world, He would retain them in His merciful favour, and give them a perpetual heritage in Canaan. For this end, the grace of God hath appeared (Tit. 2:11-15<\/span>); and Christ gave Himself for us; and to such rectitude of life men are to be exhorted with all authority.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:4<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> SANCTIMONIOUS SELF-DELUSIONS.<\/p>\n

When religious sincerity is absent from the heart, all religious words upon the lips, whether pious talk or sanctuary exercises, are lying words<\/em>. Generally, too, when the hearts religion is false, the lip religion is more emphatic: it utters itself with a threefold fervour<\/em>. Hollow things emit most sound. So The temple of the Lord, thrice over: words<\/em> must speak out lustily when the consciousness bears no witness. Mighty rivers flow in silence; shallow streams compensate for their poverty by making more noise.<\/p>\n

First,<\/em> Concerning lying words.<\/p>\n

I. They falsify Gods character:<\/strong> implying that God would not destroy His temple, though profaned; that He connived<\/em> at their criminality: their sins would not lead the glory to depart, or the sanctuary to be destroyed.<\/p>\n

II. They delude mens souls:<\/strong> allure to false trusts, import a vain hope between a sinner and the punishment of sin. The temple promised them a guarantee against and an asylum from ruin, thus encouraging presumption and iniquity.<\/p>\n

III. They pervert sacred things:<\/strong> Gods house<\/em> was abused,became a rendezvous of villainy, evil felt itself secure there. Gods altar<\/em> was perverted; instead of its sacrifices being regarded as a surrender of sin, they were offered to condone and license sin. Gods covenants<\/em> were misused. He had, indeed, promised to dwell for ever in Zion, and to give His people a lasting heritage and resting-place there; but they ignored the conditions of this promise, that they should be a holy people, and keep unstained His holy sanctuary.<\/p>\n

Thus sinners allow themselves to continue in sin that grace may abound; silence, rebukes of conscience by boasting the cleansing blood of Christ; make the cross an asylum for sin rather than a resting-place from sin.<\/p>\n

Second,<\/em> Concerning trusting in lying words.<\/p>\n

The triple repetition of the temple of the Lord may express the intense feeling, the vigorous assurance, with which this confidence in their safety, because they had the sanctuary among them, was cherished. The triple utterance seems to denote intensity<\/em>. (Comp. also Isa. 6:3<\/span>; Jer. 22:29<\/span>.) Or, the repetition may suggest the frequency<\/em> with which this boast of possessing Gods temple was heard among them. Henry<\/em> says, It was the cant of the times. If they heard an awakening sermon, they lulled themselves asleep again with this, We cannot but do well, for we have the temple of the Lord among us. It is common for those who are farthest from God to boast themselves most of their being near to the church.<\/p>\n

Jeremiahs remonstrance against this delusive and sanctimonious cry suggests, concerning the Jews<\/p>\n

I. A preference for peaceful prophesyings.<\/strong> Most probably this illusory boast in having the temple was the theme of false prophets,<\/em> who prophesied smooth things among them (comp. Mic. 3:11<\/span>). The sentence looks like a quotation from the teachings of one of these deceitful leaders; which was speedily caught up into popular currency, and become the answering retort whenever Jeremiah denounced the people or foretold the coming woes. They sought to drown his serious words with this mocking boast. They desired only to hear what flattered them, even though it beguiled them.<\/p>\n

II. A repose on false securities.<\/strong> This audacious appeal to the temple may be thus interpreted: The temple of the Lord<\/em> in Jerusalem has been consecrated as His abode;<\/em> therefore, enemies shall not conquer and capture the city; we are, therefore, safe within its shelter. The temple of the Lord<\/em> is the throne of His glory;<\/em> and He will not vacate His throne for heathen to possess it; an invincible stronghold have we; we are, therefore, safe under its strong protection. The temple of the Lord<\/em> has been given in covenant<\/em> to His people; it cannot therefore be alienated. Gods word may not fail; we, therefore, are safe in enjoyment of covenanted blessings. Thus men say still, We are in the church! We have been baptized! We are the elect! Refuges of lies.<\/p>\n

III. A vaunting over external sanctities.<\/strong> Men in all ages have evinced a proneness to attribute to external and ceremonial circumstances a virtue which does not inhere in them (Hend<\/em>.). Because, forsooth, these Jews presented themselves thrice a year in this temple,<\/em> they imagined they had done all Jehovah required of them: He could not withdraw His favour from such a pious nation! Or, because within the temple the sacrifices and ceremonies went on continually,<\/em> they were doing all that was required by Him, and were entitled to His gracious regard. Or, because as a nation they maintained by their contributions<\/em> the temple fabrics and ministries, they had purchased a right to Divine care and blessings: These temple edifices were only kept up at great cost; how generous<\/em> have we been for Gods cause, how deserving therefore are we (comp. Zep. 3:11<\/span>). God accepts no substitute for personal holiness. Punctilious outward observance, lavish and ceaseless sacrifices, free bestowment of wealth,<\/em> all are repudiated when they are made the boast of the proud and the excuse of impiety. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 7:4<\/span>, Ecclesiasticism<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:5<\/span>. Theme<\/em>: THOROUGHNESS. If ye will thoroughly<\/em> amend, and thoroughly<\/em> execute judgment.<\/p>\n

Over against their self-delusive words (Jer. 7:4<\/span>), Jeremiah places the indispensable requirements of Jehovah: not an outward<\/em> ceremonial piety, but a personal religious life; not a partial<\/em> and evasive obedience, but a righteousness all-inclusive and practical,thoroughly<\/em> (Luk. 11:42<\/span>). Only when temple-worship (Jer. 7:2<\/span>) is the expression<\/em> of sincere and sanctified hearts, and is attended and attested<\/em> by works of righteousness, is it accepted of God. He asks that our whole life, equally in sacred and secular scenes, towards God and towards men, be holiness unto the Lord.<\/p>\n

I. The largeness of the Divine outgoings toward men<\/em> justifies His demand for thoroughness.<\/strong> He who asks thoroughness should himself so act, or there is inconsistency in the demand. But certainly in the lavishment of Gods gifts, the beneficence of His dealings, the wealth of His covenanted promises, and His faultless fidelity in fulfilling His word, He had done all things<\/em> thoroughly<\/em> for Judah.<\/p>\n

In general, and with universal application, it stands that: 1. There is no incompleteness in Gods works,<\/em> or paucity in His provisions for human good<\/em>. Look out on nature, look into revelation, ponder redemption, and all show Gods works and ways for man to be lavish, perfect, thorough. 2. There is no neglect by God of one side of human need while attending to the other<\/em>. He did not overlook their temporal good while working for their spiritual, nor vice versa<\/em>. Judah had been thus one-sided; but not God. Ergo<\/em>, as Gods ways with men are characterised by thoroughness, He is justified in asking and entitled to receive thoroughness in mans response of obedience and love. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 7:5<\/span>, Thoroughness.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

II. The sphere and action of religion compasses our whole life with thoroughness.<\/strong> There is no part or phase of our life which escapes the control of religion; so that he who is truly<\/em> religious, responsive to the dictates and demands of religion, is thoroughly<\/em> religious. Thus:<\/p>\n

1. It claims and controls the whole of our nature and faculties<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2. It asserts an empire over every act of our life,<\/em> whatsoever we do<\/em>.<\/p>\n

3. It extends its sway to, and utters its counsels upon, all the relationships and duties of society<\/em>. (See Jer. 7:5-6<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

4. It reaches all along the path of our life, from birth into eternity<\/em>. Religion is thorough in its comprehensive rule over, and directions for, the life of man.<\/p>\n

III. The response which God receives from man should be distinguished by thoroughness.<\/strong> Wherever else man practises reservation, here he should hold back no part of the price. Our godliness should be thorough if it is to be happy<\/em> to ourselves or honouring<\/em> to God.<\/p>\n

1. It is the natural issue of honest acceptance of religion<\/em>. The heart that finds and resolves for Christ, and obeys its own instinctive promptings, cannot yield a mere partial response.<\/p>\n

2. It is the inevitable return of filial gratitude<\/em>. How much owe I unto my Lord? Ye are not your own; body, soul and spirit are the Lords.<\/p>\n

3. It is the essential law of piety<\/em>. God deserves all. Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, &c., and neighbour as thyself. He who responds rightly yields himself fully to all the claims of God (Rom. 12:1<\/span>).<\/p>\n

IV. The piety which refuses full obedience to God is a lamentable violation of the sacred law of thoroughness<\/strong>. Christ says, I would thou wert cold or hot. He loathes the lukewarm. He Himself held nothing back from us;<\/em> gave Himself, His life, His redemption, His perfect virtue, all for us; what shall we render unto the Lord? Less than all for Christ is wholly undeserving.<\/p>\n

1. It is a mean return for the grace we have received<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2. It is a worthless fulfilment of religious obligations<\/em>. God abhors a compromising piety, a divided heart.<\/p>\n

3. It is a discreditable exhibition of godliness<\/em>. Degrades piety in the eyes of scoffers, and evokes swift rebuke. (Comp. Act. 5:1-11<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Thine am I by all ties;<\/p>\n

But chiefly Thine,<\/p>\n

That through Thy sacrifice,<\/p>\n

Thou, Lord, art mine:<\/p>\n

By Thine own cords of love, so sweetly wound
Around me, I to Thee am closely bound.<\/p>\n

Only in full dedication of our love to God<\/em> and life for men<\/em> in Christs name, can we approach the standard of godly thoroughness.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:5-6<\/span>. Comments<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In thus particularising the evils they must discard, the prophet (1.) implies<\/em> that justice and equity were violated, that cruelty and perfidiousness, fraud and rapine, prevailed amongst them; and (2.) enjoins<\/em> upon them the observance of the moral law as evidence of their sincere repentance and loyalty to God. He thus demanded fruits meet for repentance, which would make their religion a practical reality, not a mere lofty sentiment.<\/p>\n

Shedding innocent blood<\/em> refers (1.) To judicial murders (condemnation of innocent persons). (2.) To violent attacks on prophets and godly men, as in Manassehs case (2Ki. 21:16<\/span>).Keil<\/em>. (Comp. chap. Jer. 26:15<\/span>; Jer. 26:23<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Innocent blood<\/em> probably points with indignant emphasis to the murder and sacrifice of infants to Molech (Jer. 7:31<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:7<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> THE EVERLASTING INHERITANCE. I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.<\/p>\n

I. Its duration conditional.<\/strong> God covenants with men for an inalienable heritage; but the terms require that they do not themselves alienate it by unfaithfulness and apostasy.<\/p>\n

II. Its forfeiture possible.<\/strong> Mens sins neutralise sacred covenants. No standing in grace but our sin may overthrow. We may lose our securest and most boasted possessions.<\/p>\n

III. Its continual enjoyment desired<\/strong>. (1.) By God;<\/em> for He gave the inheritance to them, and pleads with them to retain it. (2.) By man;<\/em> for as the Jews valued and hoped to keep their land, so we desire to preserve for ourselves a place in grace, and obtain an eternal home in the promised land. But desire<\/em> is not sufficient; obligations must be fulfilled. If<\/em> ye amend, &c., then<\/em> will I cause you to dwell in this land, &c. (Addenda to chap. 7, Covenant<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Note the terms of their everlasting possession of Canaan, in the original<\/em> covenant<\/em> (Gen. 17:8<\/span>): I will be their God. But instead, they walk after other<\/em> gods (see Jer. 7:6<\/span>); hence the covenant was broken, and the gift reverted to its Donor.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:8<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> INJURIOUSNESS OF FALSE THEORIES.<\/p>\n

These lying words were either teachings of delusive prophets, or their own unwarantable arguments. (See on Jer. 7:4<\/span>, above.) They cannot profit, i.e.,<\/em> they tend to mischief.<\/p>\n

Calvin<\/em> remarks that their words of falsehood turned to a contrary end what God had instituted. Services performed in the temple<\/em> were designed to preserve unity of faith among the whole people. Sacrifices<\/em> were intended to show the people: 1. They deserved the death<\/em> which victims endured. 2. Expiation was only by blood,<\/em> typical of the blood of Jesus Christ. But there was no repentance for sin, no true appropriation of sacrificial meritfor they were not led to holy faith; nay, their ceremonies licensed them to freer sin. Thus they were lying words, when the signs were separated from their end.<\/p>\n

Dealing dishonestly with God brings delusions upon ourselves; and the three steps are: 1. Wilful dishonesty<\/em>. 2. Self-delusion<\/em>. 3. Inevitable destruction<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:9-10<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> DETESTABLE GUILT UNDER SANCTION OF RELIGION.<\/p>\n

Will ye steal, murder, &c., and come and stand before Me, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations<\/em>?<\/p>\n

An outcry of Divine revulsion and indignation. In the presence of such profanity even God stands appalled; and utters Himself in exclamations of horror: What! to steal? to murder? &c<\/em>. And yet come and stand before Me<\/em> in this house!<\/p>\n

1. What appalling criminality is here! Surely such sins could only have been perpetrated in some dark place of the earth, full of the habitations of cruelty. But lo! in Jerusalem!<\/em>in the very centre of sacred revelations and holy privileges.<\/p>\n

2. What treachery against Jehovah is here! Surely the result of ignorance; they knew not what they did; for had they known the right, they never could have done such wrongs (Jer. 7:10<\/span>), insulted God and polluted His house. Alas! they knew the right; but sinned thus foully amid fullest light, and notwithstanding the persuasions and protests of Gods prophet. Consider, with amaze:<\/p>\n

I. Into what revolting iniquities godly men may relapse<\/strong> (Jer. 7:9<\/span>). Yes, godly men; for they believed,<\/em> and boasted<\/em> themselves such (Jer. 7:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

1. The glaring enormity of their sins<\/em>. Set forth in two trios: (a<\/em>.) Violation of civil laws and domestic decencies: steal, murder, commit adultery; outraged the security of property, sacredness of life, sanctity of homes. (b<\/em>.) Violation of sacred laws and Divine obligations: swear falsely, incense to Baal, walk after other gods. Swear falsely may mean perjury, or be an allusion to former charges (comp. Jer. 4:2<\/span>, Jer. 5:2<\/span>), of swearing by false gods<\/em>. Then this second trio of crimes points to their idolatrous oaths,<\/em> idolatrous homage,<\/em> idolatrous service:<\/em> swear, burn incense, walk after.<\/p>\n

2. The special aggravation of their guilt<\/em>. They knew better; their guilt was wilful, habitual, and persistent; their sins were manifold; they committed themselves to evil fearlessly, without restraint, in open shamelessness; they did not even shun the worst and most horrible forms of sinviolence to property, life, and virtue; they wronged each other and then insulted God. (a<\/em>.) Rejection of Gods laws. (b<\/em>.) Outrage of social rights and happiness. (c<\/em>.) Adoration presented to that abominable thing, Baal. (d<\/em>.) Substitution of unknown<\/em> deities in Gods stead: thus they deserted Jehovah notwithstanding all they knew of His grace, miraculous favours, and resplendent glories, and sought out idols of whom they knew nothing. Thereby they injured their own selves, their happiness, peace, and safety; to your own hurt (Jer. 7:6<\/span>). Wrong always avenges itself upon wrongdoers<\/em>. (Comp. Heb. 10:26<\/span>, sq.<\/em>).<\/p>\n

II. Unto what audacious effronteries<\/strong> and excuses hypocrisy may attain.<\/strong> (Jer. 7:10<\/span>; cf<\/em>. Eze. 23:39<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

1. Their detestable attitude of piety<\/em>. There was no piety in their hearts, yet there they stand in their brazen hypocrisy before Me, as though having done nothing offensive, and having no cause for confusion of face.<\/p>\n

2. Their insolent pollution of holy scenes<\/em>. In this house, where such godly kings and worshippers have done true homage; where your pious king Josiah so recently restored religious services. Which is called by My name,which bears My name (Hitzig<\/em>); on which my glory rests (Keil<\/em>). In the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High these polluted hypocrites dared to come!<\/p>\n

3. Their blasphemous language of self-extenuation<\/em>. We are delivered, &c.; i.e.,<\/em> by our temple sacrifices we have atoned for our sins, and therefore are free to start afresh upon new courses of wickedness (Speakers Com<\/em>.) We are discharged from our guilt; now it shall do us no hurt (Henry<\/em>). We have appeased Gods wrath by our offerings, and turned aside all punishment for our sins, now we may go on again in doing abominations. Their standing before God and service in the temple, were put in substitution for the holy living<\/em> God required, and used as an excuse for continuance in sin,<\/em> and as a guarantee against threatened punishment<\/em>. (Addenda to chap. 7, Insolent profanity<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

[They thought themselves freed from guilt when they had offered their sacrifices, and at liberty again to be immoral and idolatrous. We might think such a state of infatuation impossible, but it has existed among those calling themselves Christians, and exists now. Gataker<\/em> mentions a common saying among ignorant Papists, We must sin to be shriven, and shriven to sin. The turning of the grace of God into lasciviousness is the same thing.Ed. of Calvin<\/em>.]<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:11<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> ROBBERY IN THE SANCTUARY.<\/p>\n

It was no mere conjecture, an exaggerated supposition. Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord. The charge points to:<\/p>\n

I. The robbery of the temple services of their cleansing design.<\/strong> By such miscreants as you are (Jer. 7:9<\/span>), consorting here and coming here with the design to secure immunity to sin and impunity from punishment, ye rob My temple of its true end, its services of their significance and intention, and make this house an asylum for malefactors,a robbers retreat. There they comforted themselves in their iniquities, acquired fresh assurance in sinning, and used the place designed to terminate sin, by expiating it on the altar<\/em> and extinguishing it in the heart,<\/em> as a shelter for encouraging, licensing, and fortifying themselves in iniquity.<\/p>\n

II. The spoliation of its services of their acceptableness to God<\/strong>. They were fragrant and well-pleasing to Him as expressions of penitence for sin and the return of the soul in humility and faith to Him; but abhorrent when, as now, they were used superstitiously as convenient external methods for quieting the conscience and licensing crime. Better that there be no temple and no sacrifices, than that men should use them so perversely. Thus they robbed the services of all worth to God, and made them an evil savour to Him.<\/p>\n

III. The discredit cast upon Jehovahs holiness and glory<\/strong>. These vile worshippers, encouraging their profanity in Gods very house, virtually made God the patron of their enormities. So all who use Christianity as a cloak for their sins, or as a convenient expiation of daily evils, which are neither repented of nor abandoned, make Christ a minister of sin. Religion is thereby travestied, and the holy Lord degraded,His character is contaminated. It was charged upon Christ, Friend of publicans and sinners<\/em>, as implying He Himself was no better than those who gathered around Him, ignoring the fact that Christ only befriended sinners in order to save them from further sinning.<\/p>\n

IV. The withholding from God of His true deserts<\/strong>. He desired not sacrifice; the sacrifices of God are a broken heart and contrite spirit. He asked not ceremonial homage, but the adoration of the reverent soul; not altar-services, but life obedience. Will a man rob God? Yes: see Mal. 1:7<\/span>; Mal. 1:10<\/span>; Mal. 1:13-14<\/span>; Mal. 3:8<\/span>. So do all who offer Him the mere form of godliness; hymns sung without heart, prayers offered with spiritless routine, service rendered without joyous love, gifts bestown without grace in the heart, profession made where there is no true piety behind; the flippant cry, Lord, Lord! but not doing the things that He commands; the Olivet Hosannah! followed by the Pretorium Crucify Him! the impulsive testimony, I will go with Thee to prison and judgment, ending in, I know not the man. Heartless piety is a robbery of the best and most prized offerings which the holy God can receive.<\/p>\n

V. The grief and indignation of God over such profanity.<\/strong> Behold, even I have seen it. His eyes behold, and His eyelids try the children of men. The fair show in the flesh carries well with men, but Jesus, when He found the leafy<\/em> tree fruitless, cursed it!<\/em> I hate robbery for a burnt-offering. (Addenda to chap. 7, Sacrilege<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Note: The limestone ranges of Palestine were full of inaccessible caves, whither robbers sheltered themselves securely from the penalties of their violent deeds. In like manner, these robbers sought refuge in the sanctuary from the consequences<\/em> of guilt, but were in no disposition to abandon their evil ways:<\/em> for they loved the gains and indulgences of unrighteousness, the pleasures of sin.<\/p>\n

Den of robbers;<\/em> words adopted by Christ in upbraiding the defilers of the temple (Mat. 21:13<\/span>), and suggesting the parallel in the spiritual prostitution and moral degradation of Jerusalem in Jeremiahs days and our Lords time. The like evil state merited like condemnation, and led on to like disasters and overthrow.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:12-14<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> VIOLATED SANCTUARIES DOOMED.<\/p>\n

No place, however sacred, Shiloh or Jerusalem, will be spared from overthrow, when wickedness has desecrated its sanctity. Jehovah Himself will overturn and overturn where His reign is impeded and His holiness impugned by profanity. Nothing evil shall escape, because, forsooth, it once bore a better character. Shiloh,<\/em> Gods first resting-place, falls into disrepute because of iniquity. Even angels,<\/em> who kept not their first estate, were outcast from their former dignity and blessedness. Israel,<\/em> though once holiness to the Lord (Jer. 2:3<\/span>), was banished into captivity. The righteousness of the righteous man<\/em> shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression (Eze. 33:12<\/span>). Violated sanctuaries are overthrown.<\/p>\n

I. A historic fact<\/strong> (Jer. 7:12<\/span>). 1. Easily verified:<\/em> Go to Shiloh and see. 2. Fully accounted for:<\/em> On account of the wickedness, &c. 3. Gods own work:<\/em> See what I did<\/em> to it. Where I set My name at the first, there see My work of desolation. For God will let no profaned thing stand.<\/p>\n

II. A present peril<\/strong> (Jer. 7:13-14<\/span>).<\/p>\n

1. No exemption because of special favour<\/em>. Shiloh was Gods first resting-place; it had, therefore, the tender charm<\/em> of being His earliest abode, and the honour<\/em> of antiquity.<\/p>\n

2. Like provocations evoke like consequences<\/em> (Jer. 7:13<\/span>). The evils which came upon my people Israel will not be evaded by Judah if Jerusalem is desecrated by abominations as Shiloh was by wickedness.<\/p>\n

3. No self-assurance of immunity will avert the result<\/em>. This house wherein ye trust<\/em> (Jer. 7:14<\/span>), and of whose security ye boast (Jer. 7:4<\/span>), will perish notwithstanding. Our confidence will be of no avail.<\/p>\n

III. A symbolic truth.<\/strong> Pass from material fabrics to the larger application, and1. There are temples still which bear Gods holy name,<\/em>not only sanctuaries, but ecclesiastical systems and sects,<\/em> on which Christians pride themselves, and of which they boast (Jer. 7:4<\/span>). And there are personal shrines,<\/em> believing hearts, where Christ has rested; and many, many are the Christian hearts wherein His Spirit still dwells, as truly as in the house at Shiloh and temple at Jerusalem (2Co. 6:16<\/span>; Eph. 2:21-22<\/span>). 2. Gods indwelling presence may be alienated and lost<\/em>. Not a safe theory that once a Christian always a Christian. 3. To retain the Divine presence we must maintain the holiness which becometh His house.<\/em> 4. There are souls which have known the light and love of God now desolated<\/em>. Like ancient Shiloh and beautiful Jerusalem, and the graceful churches of Asiaforsaken: so Judas<\/em> and Demas,<\/em> and those who have made shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. (See Heb. 10:38<\/span>.) And if any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are (1Co. 3:16-17<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:13<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> GODS EARNESTNESS IN DEALING WITH SINNERS.<\/p>\n

The earnestness and activity which prophets exhibited in seeking to rouse the nation to realise and avert the nearing destruction, God appropriates to Himself: it was Jehovah Himself earnest and active. His prophets were but channels along which the Divine fervour flowed. It was God who rose early and spake. Shows<\/p>\n

I. Deep solicitude.<\/strong> Rising up early, I spake, I called. 1. Apprehensive of Judahs danger. 2. Anxious for Judahs salvation. 3. Awake to Judahs help. God did not, does not, wait till entreated to act for imperilled sinners good: He rises early, ere men realise peril, and seeks to save.<\/p>\n

II. Zealous effort.<\/strong> Solicitude does not remain passive: rises<\/em> and calls<\/em>. 1. God is astir when efforts are made for human weal:<\/em> Rising up. 2. God works at most auspicious hours:<\/em> Early; while opportunity is yet before the sinner, and when his heart is most open to sacred influences. 3. God Himself speaks to man by those He sends:<\/em> I spake. He is too concerned individually in mans welfare to stand apart from endeavouring to rescue and help.<\/p>\n

III. Incessant ministries<\/strong>. Rising up early and speaking, a metaphor for ceaseless vigilance and endeavour. (Comp. Jer. 25:4<\/span>, Jer. 26:5<\/span>, Jer. 29:19<\/span>.) 1. Abundantly<\/em>. 2. Assiduously<\/em>. 3. Continuously<\/em>.<\/p>\n

IV. Pleading appeals.<\/strong> Gods messages<\/em> were characterised by the same qualities as His efforts;<\/em> they were earnest and fervent also. 1. Direct<\/em> in their aim: Spake to you.<\/em> 2. Diverse<\/em> in their tone: I spake,<\/em> with quiet solemnity; I called,<\/em> with urgent importunity.<\/p>\n

V. Barren results.<\/strong> Ye heard not, ye answered not. 1. Heedlessness of the heavenly word<\/em>. 2. Resistance of Divine importunity<\/em>. 3. Abuse of the abundant grace.<\/em> 4. Provocative of merited wrath<\/em> (Jer. 7:14<\/span>). When speaking<\/em> is fruitless, God acts:<\/em> Therefore will I do,<\/em> &c.<\/p>\n

God is earnest, do not stay:
Thou mayst perish een to-day.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:15<\/span>. Theme<\/em>: RUINED NATIONALITIES.<\/p>\n

How do Jehovahs majesty<\/em> and might<\/em> stand out upon our thought when we see Him dealing thus with whole nations! What magnitude! To Him the nations are but as a drop in the bucket: it awes and solemnises us to see God lifting up an entire kingdom, Ephraim, and casting it out of sight, from their land and their God; and now declaring He will do similarly with Judah. Who will not fear before Him?<\/p>\n

All your brethren:<\/em> whose were the covenants, and promises, and fathers, as much as they are yours; yet their sacred ancestry and privileges afforded them no protection.<\/p>\n

The whole seed of Ephraim: i.e.,<\/em> the ten tribes; superior, therefore, in numbers, resources for defence, and power of resistance. Yet all proved worthless when Gods disfavour was incurred. Profaned places and profane people God abhors and will reject.<\/p>\n

I. There is comprehensive breadth in Gods proceedings<\/strong>. Moves with majestic tread, controls great nations with His will, determines the fate of empires with a word. Greater still: He loved the world<\/em>, and will judge all peoples and nations<\/em>.<\/p>\n

II. There is appalling magnitude in Gods overthrows.<\/strong> The whole ten tribes outcast from Him: now Judah to be swept away in contempt! For casting out is an act of contempt as well as violence. What mighty empires are wrecks! Great Babylon, Nineveh, Rome, God stamped them into dust.<\/p>\n

III. There is solemn forewarning in Gods judgments.<\/strong> God proceeds uniformly in the administrations of His justice. What He did to Israel for her wickedness, He will do also for Judah if her cause of condemnation be equal (Jer. 7:14<\/span>). The experiences of others stand as an admonition and a warning. Like sins incur like sentences (Luk. 13:2-5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:16<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> INTERCESSORY PRAYER FORBIDDEN.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah did sometimes check himself in uttering direful prophecies, and betake himself to passionate and mournful prayer; stopped short, as it were, Gods word of doom to man, and interposed mans word of pleading to God. (Comp. Jer. 14:7-9<\/span>; Jer. 14:19-22<\/span>, Jer. 18:20<\/span>.) What preacher has not likewise interrupted proclamation with invocation? Who, that carries dark tidings, has not paused first near God in the anguish of prayer? Pity, patriotism, piety,<\/em> all conspire often to drive the prophet from his feet to his knees (comp. 1Sa. 12:23<\/span>.) (Addenda to chap. 7, Intercessory prayer<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

I. A specification of the varied aspects of prayer<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

General petitions:<\/em> Pray. Supplicatory entreaty<\/em> (with loud voice and pathos): Lift up cry. Importunate pleading:<\/em> Make intercession.<\/p>\n

[There are three<\/em> things forbidden. Be not an intercessor<\/em> (i.e.,<\/em> undertake not their cause as one who mediates between a judge and a criminal); nor a deprecator of evils<\/em> (i.e.,<\/em> lamenting their woes, and crying suppliantly for mercy); nor a solicitor of favours<\/em> (i.e.,<\/em> entreating Me to deal graciously with them). Interceding mercy, lamenting evils, entreating favours.Ed. of Calvin<\/em>.]<\/p>\n

II. The power of earnest prayer Divinely acknowledged.<\/strong> He bids Jeremiah restrain it, refrain from it. It would stand in Gods way as a barrier, a hindrance. Thus with Moses (Exo. 32:10<\/span>). Let Me alone! pleads God. The Almighty is both restrained<\/em> and constrained<\/em> by the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man (Num. 11:2<\/span>; Num. 14:13-20<\/span>; Num. 16:22<\/span>).<\/p>\n

III. Prevailing intercessory prayer is dependent on conditions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1. The slate of the people must be remediable<\/em>. 2. The hour of hope must not have been lost<\/em>. When Moses prevailed<\/em> the people were but stepping into the Theocracy; they sinned, but it was through lack of training and knowledge. Now they had known all inducements to godliness, nothing more could be done to keep them right; God had exhausted His resources of persuasion upon them. In this condition neither the intercession of Moses, Samuel, or Jeremiah could avail for them (see chap. Jer. 15:1<\/span>). Their day of grace was gone. (See also Joh. 5:16<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

IV. No prayerful outcry may interpose to stay Gods imperative justice.<\/strong> And now their case demanded retribution, for every persuasive had been abused. The Intercessor could plead, Let be this year also! and was heard, because there were yet other remediable processes availing; Till I dig about it, &c. But if after that it continued fruitless, Cut it down! This was Judahs case.<\/p>\n

God here forbids prayer for them, for they have sinned unto death,<\/em> therefore, pray not for their life, the life of their souls (1Jn. 5:16<\/span>). See here: 1. That Gods prophets are praying men<\/em>. 2. That Gods praying prophets have a great interest in heaven,<\/em> how little soever they have on earth. 3. It is an ill omen to a people when<\/em> God restrains the spirits of His ministers and people from praying for those condemned. 4. Those that will not regard good ministers preaching cannot expect any benefit by their praying<\/em>. If you will not hear us when we speak from God to you,<\/em> God will not hear us when we speak to Him for you<\/em>.Henry<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:17-18<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> UNABASHED APOSTASY.<\/p>\n

Not hidden from gaze, but in open streets, shameless! Though Jehovahs temple rose in dignity before their eyes, and even threw its colossal shadow across the streets where they practised their idolatries, they were not restrained, neither could they blush.<\/p>\n

I. Religious devotion the secret of general and tireless activities<\/strong>. Though erroneous, nevertheless it impels to service and sacrifice as nothing else can do. Much more should it inspire diligence when true. All hands to the work. And both hands earnestly, for much to be done.<\/p>\n

1. Enlists all ages and sexes<\/em>. 2. Incites each to appropriate effort<\/em>. 3. Combination in service effects speedy results and sure success<\/em>.<\/p>\n

II. Noble energies lavished upon ignoble superstitions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For what end was all this? Alas! look out upon heathen scenes,<\/em> where devotees squander years, treasures, life; and for what? Look also on votaries of pleasure, pursuers of wealth, &c.; the eager lives with which modern civilised society<\/em> is full; for what end do men live and labour?<\/p>\n

III. Prostituted homage awakens the indignation of God.<\/strong> For here it was not done in ignorance, but wantonly and wilfully.<\/p>\n

1. Perversion of the true aim and design of mans being<\/em>. God made man for Himselfa jealous God. 2. Ignores Gods claim on human service, loyalty, and love<\/em>. He merited their trust and devotion. 3. Enslaves mens soul in ruinous vices<\/em>. O Israel! destroyed thyself. 4. Provoking Heavens wrath by despising His love<\/em>. Deliberate design, that they may provoke, &c. What a reversion of our true relation<\/em> to God, and our experience<\/em> at His hand; for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ!<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:19<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> REFLEX CONSEQUENCES OF SIN.<\/p>\n

They harmed themselves more than God (cf<\/em>. Deu. 32:16<\/span>; Deu. 32:21<\/span>; Job. 35:6<\/span>; Job. 35:8<\/span>; Pro. 8:23<\/span>): for<\/p>\n

i. They forfeited present consolation and assurance<\/em>. There is no place to the wicked.<\/p>\n

ii. They entailed future confusion and calamity<\/em>. Shame would come, and with it ruin.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:21<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> SACRIFICES CONTEMNED AND COUNTERMANDED.<\/p>\n

Put your burnt-offerings<\/em>, &c. I<\/em> will not accept them. Take away your burnt-offerings which ye are about to lay upon Mine altar as a whole burnt-sacrifice to Me. I will have none of them (comp. Jer. 6:20<\/span>); put them on your own tables, and eat them yourselves. They are not burnt-offerings, holy to God, but are mere flesh, to be eaten by men. So our Lord said to the Jews concerning the temple, Your<\/em> house (it is no longer Gods,<\/em> for ye have profaned it by your sins, and therefore He has forsaken it) is left unto you<\/em> desolate.Wordsworth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:22<\/span>. I SPAKE NOT CONCERNING SACRIFICES.<\/p>\n

The apparent contradiction between this statement and the fact that the Mosaic institutes abound in sacrificial enactments may be removed in two ways:
i. That moral obligation was inculcated upon the Hebrews before the sacrificial code<\/em> (cf<\/em>. Exo. 15:26<\/span>; Exo. 19:5<\/span>). Then follows the proclamation of the moral code, amidst all the solemnities of Sinai. Not till afterwards<\/em> were regulations given respecting sacrifices, which properly belonged to the Levitical law. Hence God reminds them here, I spake not in the day<\/em> that I brought them out of Egypt.<\/p>\n

ii. It is not unusual for the Hebrews to express in absolute terms what is to be understood relatively and comparatively<\/em>. Thus to hate, = to love less<\/em> (Gen. 29:30-31<\/span>; Mal. 1:2-3<\/span>). According to this idiom the meaning will be: That ritual observances were regarded by God as matters of secondary importance (see Luk. 14:26<\/span>; Mat. 10:37<\/span>; Hos. 6:6<\/span>; 1Sa. 15:22<\/span>); and that when these are substituted for moral duties and supreme love to Himself, God retorts with merited reprobation (comp. Hend<\/em>.). Similarly our Lord states negatively<\/em> what was of inferior importance:<\/em> Labour not<\/em> for the meat which perisheth; but for that which endureth (Joh. 6:27<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Calvin<\/em> thinks Jeremiah seems to speak too contemptibly of sacrifices; for they were seals of Gods grace, and had been instituted to lead men to repentance of sin, and to realise they merited the death which the victim endured. But it is true that God commanded nothing respecting mere sacrifices for their own sake;<\/em> it was never His will to be served with mere external rites; His design<\/em> in instituting them was to remind the Jews of their sin, and also to show to them the way of reconciliation.<\/p>\n

Venema<\/em> suggests that there is a repudiation of sacrifices as the basis of Gods covenant with His people<\/em>. Obedience and not sacrifice was the condition of this sacred relationship. God did not say, If you sacrifice to Me, I will be your God; but, If you obey My voice, I will be your God and you shall be My people.<\/p>\n

Evidently the antithesis, Not<\/em> concerning sacrifice. But this thing, Obey!<\/em>points to the basis and terms of the Sinaitic covenant;<\/em> and what is here affirmed is, that when that covenant was made and entered into, obedience<\/em> was the supreme and essential factor in that covenant. To withhold obedience, therefore, and to substitute mere sacrifice, was to withhold that on which the continuance of Gods covenant relationship absolutely depended. In Amo. 5:25<\/span>, God reminds them that for forty years He dispensed altogether with sacrifices, ergo,<\/em> they could not be of primary importance.<\/p>\n

Note: Hitzig, Graf,<\/em> and others find in this passage proof that Jeremiah was ignorant of that part of the Pentateuch which contains sacrificial enactments;<\/em> that at his time nothing was known of the legislation on sacrifice given by God on Sinai. This gives them an argument for denying that Moses was the author of the middle books of the Pentateuch, and for ascribing their authorship to Ezra. But this is manifestly a wresting the Scriptures. No canon of criticism can sustain such an interpretation of these words. They do not deny the Divine authority of sacrifices, but assign to them a subservient place. (Addenda to chap. 7, Sacrifices<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:22-23<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> SACRIFICES SUBSTITUTED FOR OBEDIENCE<\/p>\n

An external piety offered to God, while righteousness and true holiness are withheld.<\/p>\n

I. Men are constantly adopting expedients by which to evade obedience.<\/strong> Obedience<\/em> entails self-conquest, and daily service, and a surrendered life; sacrifice<\/em>, on the contrary, is soon offered, and costs less. 1. An easier offering<\/em>. 2. A shorter process<\/em>. 3. A smaller surrender<\/em>.<\/p>\n

II. God prefers an obedient life to any sacrificial oblation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Obedience is preferable to sacrifice: 1. As denoting a better spirit<\/em>. 2. As involving a fuller compliance<\/em>. 3. As containing a gentler law<\/em>not suffering, but service. For I desired mercy, not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than burnt-offerings. And to love Him with all the understanding, &c., is more than all whole burnt-offering and sacrifice<\/em>. Jesus saw that he answered discreetly,<\/em> and said, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God!<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:24<\/span>. God had commanded them (Jer. 7:23<\/span>), Walk ye in all the way, &c.; but instead, they walked in the counsels and in the imaginations (properly, stubbornness<\/em>) of their evil heart. (See on chap. Jer. 3:17<\/span>.) The result was: they moved in a totally opposite direction<\/em> from that in which God designed. Note: Gods way<\/em> for us is not merely deserted,<\/em> but positively reversed,<\/em> when we follow our own way<\/em>. (Comp. Isa. 53:6<\/span>; Heb. 3:12<\/span>.) To pursue our counsels we have to turn our back upon both God and His commands.<\/p>\n

Theme<\/em>: BACKWARD.<\/p>\n

On going backward in regard to the great matter of practical religion.<\/p>\n

I. Illustrations of going backward in regard to religion<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

An advanced state of religious knowledge, of moral purity, of spiritual power may be attained, from which men may go backward. Illustrations:
1. From the history of the Jewish nation<\/em>. Compare best days of Solomon, when temple was dedicated, with these when Jeremiah preached at gate. National mind darkened, conscience enfeebled, heart hardened<\/em>. People gone backward in Divine knowledge, moral rectitude, devout feeling (Isa. 1:3-4<\/span>; Isa. 1:21-23<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2. Churches<\/em> may go backwarde.g., Galatia<\/em> (Gal. 3:1-3<\/span>; Gal. 5:7-8<\/span>), Ephesus<\/em> (Rev. 2:4<\/span>), Sardis<\/em> (Rev. 3:1<\/span>).<\/p>\n

3. Individual life<\/em> furnishes saddest illustrations. (a<\/em>.) Brought up in Christian home; go back into thoughtlessness, dissipation, and infidelity. (b<\/em>.) Awakened by the power of truth, and gained a place in the household of faith; go backward and make shipwreck of faith and good conscience. (c<\/em>.) Trod noblest heights of Christian service; go backward to stagnation and ease. Demas hath forsaken, &c. (2Ti. 4:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. Consider, for conviction and warning, some of the causes of this going backward.<\/strong> Negatively: (1.) God never causes a human being to go backward<\/em> from what is pure and good and true. (2.) Nor must the charge be laid at the door of men<\/em> or of Satan<\/em>. 1. The primary cause of retrogression<\/em> must be sought in man himself, in his inclination<\/em> to the things which are behind; in spiritual feebleness<\/em>. 2. The secondary causes<\/em> are temptations; the lusts, pleasures, and gains he desires to enjoy. 3. His weakness in yielding results from neglect of the means of strength,<\/em> the Word of God, prayer, means of instruction and grace.<\/p>\n

III. Contemplate some consequences of going backward<\/strong> in regard to religion. Jewish history full of records of misery, affliction, desolation, conquest, captivity,<\/em> which resulted from apostasy. But what are the consequences of apostasy from Christian profession and life? 1. The displeasure of the great God<\/em> (Heb. 10:38<\/span>). 2. Such as turn back are liable to sink into the very lowest depths of irreligion<\/em> (2Pe. 2:20-22<\/span>). 3. Experience of deepest remorse and reproach of conscience<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(1.) Stand fast in the Lord. (2.) Despair not, but return.Rev. R. Ann, Christian World Pulpit<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:24-29<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> DISOBEDIENCE TO GODS WORD.<\/p>\n

I. Its cause.<\/strong> 1. Not neglect on Gods part to make known<\/em> His Word to men (Jer. 7:25<\/span>). 2. Not the imperfect performance by the preacher<\/em> of his duties (Jer. 7:27<\/span>); but, 3. The hardness of mens hearts;<\/em> who (a.<\/em>) walk after their evil imaginations and counsels (Jer. 7:24<\/span>); (b.<\/em>) do not hear or believe (Jer. 7:28<\/span>), and do not wish to improve (Jer. 7:26<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. Its consequences.<\/strong> 1. Increasing moral corruption<\/em> (Jer. 7:24<\/span>; Jer. 7:26<\/span>). 2. Rejection on the part of God<\/em> (Jer. 7:29<\/span>).Naeg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:25-28<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> SAD CHARACTERISTICS OF AN UNBELIEVING EPOCH.<\/p>\n

i. Contempt of the preaching of the Divine Word<\/em>.<\/p>\n

ii. Stiff-neckedness in respect to the visitations of Divine chastisements<\/em>.<\/p>\n

iii. Increase of wickedness in spite of all the warnings of the past.From Lange<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Theme:<\/em> A PEOPLE RIPE FOR DESTRUCTION. When?<\/p>\n

i. When it despises the visitations of Divine grace<\/em> (Jer. 7:25<\/span>).<\/p>\n

ii. When it hardens itself in unbelief<\/em> against Gods Word and voice (Jer. 7:26-27<\/span>).<\/p>\n

iii. When in spite of Divine judgments it departs the more into sin<\/em> (Jer. 7:26<\/span>; Jer. 7:28<\/span>).Idem<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Theme:<\/em> ISRAEL A WARNING EXAMPLE OF PREVAILING UNBELIEF.<\/p>\n

Their example is admonitory to us in our own times.
i. With respect to their ingratitude<\/em> for Gods gracious visitations.<\/p>\n

ii. With respect to their opposition<\/em> to the true friends of the nation.<\/p>\n

iii. With respect to their frivolity<\/em> in view of inevitable destruction.Idem<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:27<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> GODS FOREKNOWLEDGE OF THE SINNERS REFUSAL OF HIS WORD.<\/p>\n

The infinitely perfect God knows all things. Ignorance incompatible with His originating and governing power. This true not only of material things, but of mind, thoughts, and actions of all His intelligent and moral creatures. So that all we freely do is known to Him, and His government is adapted to all such creatures. Jeremiah is to tell Judah Gods will, make known His Word; yet it is added, They will not hearken. We understand their condition as described Jer. 7:23-24<\/span>; Eze. 2:7<\/span>. But there is a peculiarity in telling them, and yet knowing they will not regard.<\/p>\n

I. Seek for instances illustrative of text,<\/strong> where God knew His Word would not be regarded, nor His messages answered.<\/p>\n

1. The original transgression of our first parents<\/em>. Gods Word clear, easy, distinct; yet He knew how they would act; saw hearts.<\/p>\n

2. The old world<\/em>. He saw rise of evil and progress; yet Noah preached 120 years, built ark; Spirit strove.<\/p>\n

3. Pharaoh,<\/em> Moses and Aaron are sent, miracles wrought, Gods messages proclaimed, demands enforced; yet He knew Pharaoh would harden his heart and sin to his destruction.<\/p>\n

4. Jews as a nation<\/em>. How prophets and holy men went to them. John also and Christ Yet God knew their unbelief and cruelty. Christ referred to this in His own ministry; He declared their obstinacy and ruin. So that text is but one of many cases in Word of God.<\/p>\n

II. How can this be explained and defended?<\/strong> Unless God did know results such as described:<\/p>\n

1. He would be imperfect;<\/em> not the all-wise, infallible God, and He could not govern His world. But His perfect knowledge of the future<\/p>\n

2. Does not make Him the cause<\/em> of the rebellion He foretells. He does not predestinate it, but foreknows it. Just as He foreknew Noahs sin, yet did not make him drunk; murder of Abel, yet did not impel Cain to the deed, &c. The astronomer by calculation foreknows every visible and invisible eclipse of the year, but does not produce them<\/em>.<\/p>\n

3. He never influences men to do wrong<\/em> because He foresees it (Act. 2:23<\/span>). Though God designed His Son to be a Saviour, and hence a sacrifice, and foresaw the conduct of the Jews, they freely and wickedly crucified Him.<\/p>\n

4. There are many ends to be attained by God<\/em>. By His speaking, though He knows men will not hearken:<\/p>\n

(a<\/em>.) God exhibits His true desire for their salvation. He truly, earnestly calls. (b<\/em>.) He thereby treats men as reasonable and responsible beings. (c<\/em>.) He thus leaves them without excuse. I called, but ye refused, &c.<\/p>\n

Conclusion:<\/em> (1.) Mans free agency is his glory. (2.) Gods infinite goodness is undoubted. (3.) Our duty is most manifest; to hear, obey, believe. (4.) Thus men will be finally inexcusable, having had means employed for their restoration to holiness and God.J. Burnes, D.D<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Comments<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But they will not hearken unto thee<\/em>. Howbeit, speakwhether they will hear, or whether they will forbearfor a testimony against them.Trapp<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It was a most grievous trial to the prophet<\/em> to know that his words would pass away with the air and produce no good. His mind must have been greatly depressed; for he doubtless laboured for the good of his own nation. Yet his sympathy and sorrow (for he loved his nation and felt great grief in declaring Gods coming judgments) did not prevent him from executing in a bold manner and with unshaken zeal what God had committed to him. God then declares to his servant what would be the issue, in order that he might not cease to execute his office with invincible courage, even if no fruit appeared.Calvin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:28<\/span>. This is a nation that obeyeth not,<\/em> &c. Rather, This is the<\/em> nation. Israel occupies so unique a position among all nations that for it to disobey God is marvellous. (See Isa. 1:3<\/span>; Jer. 2:11<\/span>)Speakers Com<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The prophet is not here bidden to address the Jews, but to pronounce on them a sentence<\/em>, that the whole world might know how base and detestable had been their contumacy, and how abominable their impiety.Calvin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Truth<\/em> is perished. The ancient versions and the Targum<\/em> render (truth) by , fides,<\/em> faith or fidelity. (See on chap. Jer. 5:3<\/span>.) Their conduct was utterly perfidious toward man as well as God.<\/p>\n

Is cut off from their mouthi.e.,<\/em> their language has become wholly insincere, mere mockery, profession without intention; their lips flippantly used Jehovahs name, and could swear by Him (chap. Jer. 5:2<\/span>); but duplicity, falsity, was their settled habit in speech as in practice. No truth remained in either their word or deed.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:29<\/span>. Comments<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Cut off thine hair<\/em>. The word rendered hair is nzer,<\/em> and signifies a crown<\/em>. From it the Nazarites<\/em> obtained their name, for their hair was the badge of their consecration to God, their crown (Num. 6:5<\/span>; Num. 6:7<\/span>). Cutting off<\/em> this hair was equivalent to abandonment of the consecrated character. Her profanation entailed the loss of her crown (comp. Lam. 5:16<\/span>); her dignity, as well as her adornment and beauty (1Co. 11:15<\/span>) were forfeit.<\/p>\n

Neumann<\/em> would retain the literal interpretation of the word, and regard the command as implying the abandonment by Judah of national dignity, the total forfeiture of the crown;<\/em> for her royalty, the kingly office, was lost entirely to the nation in the Babylonish captivity, never again restored.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:29-34<\/span>. Here is<\/p>\n

I. A loud call to weeping and mourning<\/strong> (Jer. 7:29<\/span>). Jerusalem had been1. A joyous city;<\/em> now she must take up lamentation. 2. A consecrated city;<\/em> now she must cut off her hair, in token both of sorrow and slavery; she must be degraded, separated from<\/em> God, as she had been separated to<\/em> Him. It is time for those who have lost their holiness to lay aside their joy.<\/p>\n

II. Just cause given for this great lamentation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1. The sin of Jerusalem<\/em> appears here very heinous<\/em> (Jer. 7:30<\/span>). Two things charged upon them in their idolatry: (a<\/em>.) They were very impudent<\/em> in it towards God,<\/em> and set Him at defiance (Jer. 7:30<\/span>). (b<\/em>.) They were very barbarous<\/em> in it towards their own children<\/em> (Jer. 7:31<\/span>). (Addenda to chap. Jer. 7:31<\/span>, High places of Tophet<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

2. The destruction of Jerusalem<\/em> appears here very terrible<\/em>. General misery (Jer. 7:29<\/span>). Sin makes those the generation of Gods wrath who had been the generation of His love. He disowns them. And He will give them up to the terrors of their own guilt. (a<\/em>.) Death shall triumph over them<\/em> (Jer. 7:32-33<\/span>). So great shall be the slaughter that even the spacious valley of Tophet shall not be able to contain the slain. (b<\/em>.) Joy shall depart from them<\/em> (Jer. 7:34<\/span>). God can soon mar the mirth of the most jovial, and make it to cease; which is a reason why we should rejoice with trembling (with reverence<\/em>).Henry<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:30<\/span>. They have set their abominations in the house<\/em>. So do those now that broach heresies in the Church.Trapp<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:31<\/span>. Theme:<\/em> SINFULNESS OF WILL-WORSHIP. Which I commanded them not<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hence it is justly concluded that i. To add<\/em> anything to Gods Word (as of necessity to salvation), and to enforce<\/em> it as an article of saving faith;<\/em> and ii. To propose anything as an object of worship<\/em> which God has not authorised, is hateful in His sight. Here, therefore, is a solemn protest against the worship<\/em> of the Virgin Mary,<\/em> the invocation of saints and angels,<\/em> and other like acts of will-worship (Col. 2:23<\/span>), as prayers for the dead<\/em>. What is not commanded in Scripture is, therefore, forbidden<\/em> as an object of worship.Wordsworth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The purpose of God was to teach His people both unto whom<\/em> they should offer sacrifice, and what<\/em> sacrifice was to be offered. To burn their sons in fire unto Baal He did not command<\/em> them; He spake no such thing, neither came it into His mind;<\/em> therefore this they ought not to have done. The prophet chooses rather to charge them with the fault<\/em> of making a law unto themselves,<\/em> than with the crime of transgressing a law which God made. For when the Lord hath once Himself precisely set down a form of executing that wherein we are to serve Him, the fault appeareth greater to do<\/em> that which we are not,<\/em> than not to do that which we are, commanded<\/em>.Hooker, Eccles. Pol., quoted in Wordsworth<\/em>.<\/p>\n

On creating objects of superstitious homage<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

God here cuts off from men every occasion for evasions, since He condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised<\/em>. There is, then, no other argument needed to condemn superstitions<\/em> than that they are not commanded<\/em> by God; for when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to His commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle were adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground. When God says that it never came into His mind,<\/em> He suggests that men assume too much wisdom<\/em> when they devise what He never requirednay, what He never knew.Calvin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:30-34<\/span><\/p>\n

i. Sacrilege<\/strong> (Jer. 7:30<\/span>), and ii. Superstitions<\/strong> (Jer. 7:31<\/span>), would entail iii. Slaughter<\/strong> (Jer. 7:32-33<\/span>) and iv. Sorrow<\/strong> (Jer. 7:34<\/span>); joy silenced, homes solitary, and the land spoiled. The wages of sin is death. (Addenda to chap. Jer. 7:32<\/span>. Punishment<\/em>)<\/p>\n

NOTICEABLE TOPICS IN CHAPTER 7
Topic:<\/em> THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH (Jer. 7:3-7<\/span>).<\/p>\n

I. The Church externally<\/strong>. Fulfils beneficent purposes, administers external benefits. 1. What are her ministries? The Word, sacrament, &c. 2. How far are her external ministries essential? Romanism and Protestantism reply differently. 3. What reasons have we for guarding against danger? The Church may be overestimated (Jer. 7:4<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. The Church internally.<\/strong> Her true constitution and character are indicated. 1. It is essentially a community of saints and true believers (Jer. 7:5-7<\/span>). 2. Its existence is manifested(a.) In the holy walk of its members (Jer. 7:3<\/span>; Jer. 7:5-6<\/span>). (b<\/em>.) In the blessings of the Divine presence (Jer. 7:3<\/span>; Jer. 7:7<\/span>).Naeg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Topic:<\/em> EXTERNAL ECCLESIASTICISM (Jer. 7:8-15<\/span>).<\/p>\n

An earnest warning against mere outward adherence to, and trust in, church ordinances and services, unaccompanied by practical piety and heart religion.<\/p>\n

I. Its essence.<\/strong> 1. False confidence in church testimony (Jer. 7:8<\/span>). 2. Delusive trust in the unconditional saving efficacy of sanctuary rites (Jer. 7:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. Its consequences.<\/strong> 1. Demoralisation (Jer. 7:9-10<\/span>). 2. Desecration of the holy (Jer. 7:11<\/span>). 3. Destruction of the offenders (Jer. 7:12-15<\/span>).Idem<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Topic:<\/em> ABUSE OF RELIGION: IMMORALITY JUSTIFIED BY TEMPLE OBSERVANCES (Jer. 7:9-10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Nothing more usual among hypocrites than to mingle and confound in their lives what is commendable and what is sinfulvirtue and vicepalliating their wickedness with some pretences and appearance of goodness. Here they attended upon the ordinances of the temple, and from them drew a licence to sinful courses, crying, The temple of the Lord, &c. (Jer. 7:4<\/span>).<\/p>\n

I. Their abominable hypocrisy.<\/strong> Consisting in their profaneness,<\/em> in theft, murder, &c. (Jer. 7:9<\/span>); and their formality,<\/em> in coming and standing before God in His house. These words may be taken in a sense<\/p>\n

i. Absolutely and positively<\/em>. This question, Will ye steal, &c., has included in it an assertion,<\/em> ye do so; and an accusation,<\/em> for by Gods direction Jeremiah charged upon this people their guilt in these respects. Regard this profaneness and formality as meeting in the same persons. 1. Their consistency;<\/em> they may<\/em> go together, it is possible. Men may steal, &c., and yet come before God in His house; and men may stand before God, &c., and yet be guilty of such crimes. The reason<\/em> is, that bare external works of religion<\/em> have no changing or improving influence upon the heart<\/em>. On the other side, corrupt affections,<\/em> which tend to such wicked practices, do not restrain men from external performance<\/em> of religious duties. It is no impediment to wrong-doing now and then to go to church; yea, frequenting ordinances may give licence to lust. 2. Their concomitancy:<\/em> they do<\/em> go together. No rare business for profane men to be at the duties of religion. There is double ground<\/em> for it. (a<\/em>.) To blind the eyes of men<\/em>. (b<\/em>.) To stop the mouth of conscience<\/em>. All this shows a sad and miserable condition. Its relevancy to Popery,<\/em> which encourages outward attendance upon ordinances, yet lets loose the lusts which war against the soul.<\/p>\n

ii. Interrogatively and expostulatory<\/em>. Will ye steal, and come and stand, &c.? The Lord calls this people to an account for this admixture of profaneness and formality. This expostulation has a double emphasis with it.<\/p>\n

1. How can ye do so<\/em> in regard of yourselves<\/em>? How satisfy your minds and consciences with such kind of doings? God appeals to their own judgment<\/em>, can ye think it fitting? This is the great unhappiness of hypocrites and formalists, they are condemned of themselves. Their actions were incongruous<\/em> and repugnant<\/em>.<\/p>\n

2. How can ye do so<\/em> in regard of Me?<\/em> Can ye think to please Me<\/em> by such ways? The Lord thus not only argues with them, but reproves them. (a<\/em>.) He taxes them for their formality<\/em> in that they thought to propitiate Him by their bare external performances. He requires<\/em> external duties of religion; their actions<\/em> in this respect were good, but their affections<\/em> were bad (comp. Isa. 29:13<\/span>; Mat. 15:8<\/span>; Eze. 33:31<\/span>). This was odious in Gods sight, as a piece of sacrilege<\/em>robbing God of His due; of dissimulation<\/em>pretends to worship, but denies God the frame of his heart, although He desires truth in the inward parts; and it is un rofitable<\/em>neither bettering the heart, nor restraining from evil practices. (b<\/em>.) He taxes them for their presumption,<\/em> in that they durst approach Him in their sinful indulgence (comp. Isa. 1:11-12<\/span>; Isa. 56:3<\/span>; Psa. 50:16-17<\/span>; Lev. 10:3<\/span>). Here is an aggravation of their sinfulness;<\/em> for there is a trespassing upon God in His majesty<\/em>to come before Him in such vile habits showed they did not much regard Him; and there is a suspicion of God in His wisdom<\/em>they think He will not see or take notice of their vileness, and assay to flatter Him by some fair pretences. Also, here is an intimation of their greater danger<\/em>. Will ye do it? Dare ye be so bold? Do ye consider the hazard ye run? There are three sorts of judgments<\/em> which are commonly consequent upon such daringly guilty conduct: Spiritual<\/em>become more hardened and confirmed, increase their corruptions; Temporal<\/em>He inflicts grievous calamity on such, of which Scripture supplies instances: Eternal<\/em>the vengeance of everlasting destruction; hypocrites have their portion in the lake, &c. The greater sin has always the greater danger.<\/p>\n

II. Their notorious stupidity.<\/strong> And say, We are delivered to do all these abominations! Different translations. The Septuagint<\/em> (and Arabic) read the words thus: We have withdrawn or abstained from all,<\/em> &c., i.e<\/em>., they impudently deny their manifest wickedness. The Syriac<\/em> thus: Deliver us, because we have abstained,<\/em> &c.; more impudent still, not only to deny their notorious guilt, but also plead innocency as meritorious of preservation. But there are other translations specially to attend to. The Chaldee<\/em> paraphrase (with which agrees the Geneva<\/em> and Old English<\/em> translation): We are delivered, though,<\/em> &c. The rendering of St. Jerome<\/em> and the Vulgate: We are delivered, because,<\/em> &c. The authorised English version:<\/em> We are delivered, that we may<\/em>, &c., i.e<\/em>., it is lawful to commit, &c.<\/p>\n

1. Their security<\/em> and insensibleness of their present condition in regard of sin: We are delivered, though<\/em> we commit, &c.; making their iniquities no hindrance to their preservation, as in Isa. 28:15<\/span>. There is a various ground for this carnal security: (a.) A false conceit in them of the mercy and indulgency of God<\/em> (Psa. 9:7<\/span>). (b.) A freedom and preservation from judgment and punishment at the present<\/em>. We are<\/em> delivered, and therefore shall be<\/em> (Ecc. 8:11<\/span>). (c.) Carnal refuges and reliances:<\/em> they think it impossible they will be punished; and the Lord in this expostulation, Do ye say so? implies, Ye are mistaken<\/em> in saying so.<\/p>\n

2. Their stupidity;<\/em> according to the reading, We are delivered, because,<\/em> &c. Thinking that not only shall they receive no hurt in their sins, but that they shall have good for them; that the more they abound in abominations, the more they shall abound in deliverances (comp. Jer. 44:17<\/span>). Our iniquities are advantageous to us!<\/p>\n

3. Their incorrigibleness and persistency,<\/em> or their ingratitude and perverse improvement of Gods deliverances and preservations of them: We are delivered to commit them,<\/em> i.e.<\/em>, as an opportunity for the more free commission of them. As if God had delivered them on purpose that they might continue in sin. This is met by the remonstrance<\/em> of the text: Will ye say so? What a fearful thing is this! Such a mood calls for heaviest judgments, for they are the worst of sinners: means are perverted<\/em> and mercy is abused;<\/em> they are not bettered by Gods spiritual physic, and His goodness, which should lead to repentance, is turned into an occasion of wantonness. God will surely bring His dire woes on such, and make them at last and effectually to know that they are not delivered to commit all these abominations.Th. Horton, D.D.,<\/em> A. D. 1678.<\/p>\n

Topic:<\/em> WHAT CAN CHILDREN DO FOR GOD? (Childrens Sermon<\/em>): The children gathered wood<\/em> (Jer. 7:18<\/span>).<\/p>\n

A description here of honours which heathen pay to their gods. Though these idols were such stupid things, every one works for them. Should not, therefore, every one do work for our God? He is better than idols; and had done for us great things; and for such a God you ought to work.<\/p>\n

I. God is setting up a kingdom in this world.<\/strong> A very glorious and gracious kingdom: righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost Righteousness<\/em>teaches us to do justice; peace<\/em>to love peace and pursue it; joy<\/em>God makes all happy who come into His kingdom.<\/p>\n

II. God expects us all to work to set up this kingdom.<\/strong> Christ came to set it up; ministers preach and labour for it; missionaries go to heathen; all Gods people aid. Every one has something to do; and God expects each should do it.<\/p>\n

III. Children can do something to set up this kingdom.<\/strong> The children did something when Christ rode into Jerusalem; spread garments and cried Hosanna! 1. You can pray;<\/em> that God would make you subjects of this kingdom. 2. You can talk;<\/em> speak to others about Jesus, pardon, God, heaven. 3. You can work;<\/em> give to missionary society, deny yourselves to send Bibles to heathen.<\/p>\n

IV. Children are always happy when trying to set up this kingdom.<\/strong> Why? Because make others happy. Angels are happy because they are employed in making others happy. God is happy, for He blesses every one. And, when we act like God, we ourselves are happy.<\/p>\n

V. God will never forget the labours of little children for Him<\/strong>. When children wanted to come to Jesus, He noticed their disposition, and said, Never prevent a child from coming to Me! then took in arms and blessed. When they sang in temple, He noticed their song, and said, Hearest thou what these say! Josiah was only eight years old when he became king; and, because he was a good boy, it is put down in the Book of God that he gave money to the priests to build Gods house, and did everything in his power to serve God. God loves everything done for Him by children, because it is a proof of their obedience and love. May He give you His Holy Spirit and bless you, make you willing to labour for Christ now, that have His approval when you die, and dwell with Him in heaven.James Sherman,<\/em> A. D. 1844.<\/p>\n

Topic:<\/em> SACRED OVERTHROWS; MONUMENTAL WARNINGS. See what I did to Shiloh<\/em> (Jer. 7:12<\/span>).<\/p>\n

The world is full of historic overthrows: Nineveh, Babylon, Rome, Herculaneum; each with an admonitory lessonthat its peculiar guiltiness evokes Heavens curse. But even holy edifices<\/em> are among the ruins; though sanctioned both by antiquity and Divine authority. Sin shakes the strongest foundation, and the structure falls. Confidence in the inalienable sacredness<\/em> and therefore security<\/em> of a place is a delusion against which the ruins of holy scenes admonish us. Sacredness does give security; but if the former is lost, the latter is forfeit. Henry<\/em> remarks:<\/p>\n

I. Shiloh was ruined, though it had Gods sanctuary in it,<\/strong> when by wickedness it profaned that sanctuary. There God set His name at the first (Jos. 18:1<\/span>); but sin arose. Was it protected by its having the tabernacle? God forsook it (Psa. 78:60<\/span>); and we read of the city afterwards only as a monument of Divine vengeance upon holy places when they harbour wicked people. It is good to consult precedents and make use of them. Remember Lots wife; remember Shiloh, and seven Churches of Asia; and know that the ark and candlestick are movable things (Rev. 2:5<\/span>; Mat. 21:43<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. Shilohs fate would be Jerusalems doom,<\/strong> unless speedy and sincere repentance prevent it not. 1. Jerusalem was as sinful as ever Shiloh was<\/em> (Jer. 7:13<\/span>). 2. Jerusalem should be as miserable as ever Shiloh was<\/em> (Jer. 7:14<\/span>).<\/p>\n

The tabernacle and the sanctuary at Shiloh have disappeared; so also the temple built by Solomon, and the Ark of the Covenant itself; and even the temple re-erected without the ark by Zerubbabel; so too the temple of Herod. All the places consecrated by the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ and the ministry of His apostles have been destroyed, and given up to the abomination of desolation: Jerusalem, with the Mount of Olives and Golgotha, Bethlehem, Nazareth, the whole of Palestine, Asia Minor and Greece, became Christian, and yet fell a prey to the Crescent. All the less may Rome count on perpetuity, since the chair of Peter rests not on Divine, but on arbitrary human institution.Naeg<\/em>.<\/p>\n

ADDENDA TO CHAP. 7: ILLUSTRATIONS AND SUGGESTIVE EXTRACTS<\/em><\/p>\n

Jer. 7:4<\/span>. Proclaim there this word<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The preacher.<\/p>\n

He that negotiates between God and man,
As Gods ambassador, the grand concerns
Of judgment and of mercy, should beware
Of lightness in his speech. Tis pitiful
To court a grin when you should woo a soul:
To break a jest when pity should inspire
Pathetic exhortation; and address
The skittish fancies with facetious tales
When sent with Gods commission to the heart.<\/p>\n

COWPER.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:4<\/span>. The temple of the Lord!<\/em> Ecclesiasticism.<\/strong> They clung with a desperate tenacity to the hope that the local sanctity of Jerusalem was a sufficient safeguard against all calamities; and repeated, with that energy of iteration which only belongs to Eastern fanatics, the very name of the temple of Jehovah as an all-sufficing talisman.Stanley, Jewish Church.<\/em><\/p>\n

It is much easier to give oneself to a church or a sect than to God.Toplady<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Men seem to think, Only let me get into the Church that has apostolicity, and catholicity, and orthodoxy! An organised institution I believe in; but the New Testament idea of a Church was a moral society of those who had a common faith, hope and love. That Church which is most positive about its apostolicity, that thinks there is no other Church but itself in the world, is a mere crustaceous, not a spiritual, Church. And that Church which has the most altars, the most vestments, the most externalities, the most things that appeal to the lower nature of men, which has the most physical embodiment, and therefore occupies the largest space in mens sight, is farthest from the true spiritual Church.Beecher<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:5<\/span>. Thoroughness<\/strong>. I have tried for twenty years to be a half-way Christian, said a business man on whom lifes cares pressed heavily, and over whom worldly allurements were very powerful, and find it is impossible; we must be at one or the other extreme. And as for myself, I am determined to do my whole duty, and be a complete Christian.<\/p>\n

A proud Indian chief became deeply convicted of sin, and, trembling under a sense of guilt, sought the missionary, and proffered his belt of wampum to be freed from his anguish of fear. No, said the missionary, Christ cannot accept such a sacrifice. The Indian departed, but soon returned offering his rifle and the skins he had taken in hunting. No, was the reply, Christ cannot accept such a sacrifice. Again the Indian went away, but with a troubled conscience once more returned, and offered his wigwam, wife, child, everything, for peace and pardon. No, was still the reply, Christ cannot accept such a sacrifice. The chief seemed oppressed with surprise for a moment; then, lifting up tearful eyes to heaven, he feelingly cried out, Here, Lord, take poor Indian too!Dictionary of Illustrations<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Place not thy amendment only in increasing thy devotion, but in bettering thy life. This is the damning hypocrisy of this age, that it slights all good morality and spends its zeal in matters of ceremony, and a form of godliness without the power of it.Fuller<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:7<\/span>. Covenant.<\/strong> Gods promises are with a condition, which is as an oar in a boat or stern of a ship, and turns the promise another way.Trapp<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The two Rabbis.<\/strong> A little while after the city of Jerusalem was destroyed, two Jewish rabbis were walking over its ruins. Both seemed affected at the mournful sight, but one wept, the other smiled. Turning to his companion, the one asked, How can you smile now, when you see our holy city laid low in ruins? Nay, replied the other, let me rather ask you, Why do you weep? I weep, said the first, because I behold around me the fearful judgments of the Almighty. Our beautiful city is no moreour holy temple is laid wasteour brethren, where are they now? All that, replied the other, is the reason why I smile. I see, like you, how sure Gods judgments are; but I can learn how true must be His promises. God hath said, I will destroy Jerusalem. I see He has; but He has also said, I will rebuild Jerusalem. Shall I not believe His word?<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:10<\/span>. Insolent profanity.<\/strong> The very heathen refused to admit any polluted person to their religious services. That saying of neas to his father, when he came from the war, is a clear proof: Tu genitor,<\/em> &c., Father, do you meddle with the sacrifices; but as for me, it is a sinful thing to touch them till I have washed myself in the fountain. This was an outward external rite amongst them for cleansing themselves. These heathen cried out to the people that came to sacrifice, All you that are unclean and profane, go far from these sacrifices. Not only the Word of God, but the very light of nature taught them not to meddle with holy things till they were sanctified.Caryl<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In the mystical sacrifices of Ceres, profane persons were excluded, the priest calling out, .<\/p>\n

I venerate the man whose heart is warm,
Whose hands are pure, whose doctrines and whose life,
Coincident, exhibit lucid proof
That he is honest in the sacred cause.<\/p>\n

COWPER.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:11<\/span>. Sacrilege<\/strong>. The spirit of God will not have holy things profaned. Belshazzar converted the consecrated vessels of the temple into instruments of luxury and intemperance. Herod polluted the sepulchres of saints by a sacrilegious search for treasures presumed to be hidden there, and God made fire to rise out of the earth and consume the searchers. Antiochus ransacked the temple of the Lord. Heliodorus emptied the treasures of their consecrated monies. Pompey defiled the Sabbath and the sanctuary. Crassus robbed the house of God of 10,000 talents. But inquire into the event of these insolences, and we shall find that true then of which later ages give many examples, that ruin is the child of sacrilege, that mischief setteth a period to the lives and designs of profane men.Bishop Reynolds<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:16<\/span>. Intercessory prayer.<\/strong> Luther had boundless confidence in the power and prevalency of prayer. At the time the Diet of Nuremberg was held, says Tholuck, Luther was earnestly praying in his own dwelling; and at the very hour when the edict granting free toleration to all Protestants was issued, he ran out of his house, crying out, We have gained the victory! Do you understand that? On another occasion, Melancthon was sinking into death through severe illness, and Luther entered his chamber. We cannot spare you yet! was Luthers exclamation to his dying friend; and then he threw himself upon his knees in wrestling prayer. Then, seizing Melancthons hand, he said, Be of good courage, Philip: thou shalt not die! After his recovery, Melancthon wrote to Camerarius, If Luther had not come to me, I should certainly have died; he recalled me from the gates of the grave.<\/p>\n

More things are wrought by prayer<\/p>\n

Than this world dreams of. Wherefore, let thy voice
Rise like a fountain for me night and day, &c.TENNYSONS Morte dArthur<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:22<\/span>. Sacrifices.<\/strong> Christ never despised sacrifice, but relatively He undervalued it. The idea of sacrifice among the Jews had taken precedence of humanity, justice, and right. (See Mat. 5:23-24<\/span>.) What does it mean but this, Do not think that sacrifice to God is the highest religious duty. Sacrifice depends for its value on preceding moral qualities. A principle is higher than the ordinance which you take to exhibit that principle. The life of religion in the soul is first in importance: the instruments by which you develop that life are of secondary consideration.H. W. Beecher<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:23<\/span>. Obedience<\/strong>. Some persons would make religion to consist of little else than a self-denying course of the practice of virtue and obedience. They make it a kind of house-of-correction work. But no! I love<\/em> the service of my God; like the bird, I fly on the wings of obedience to His holy will.Chalmers<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:31<\/span>. High places of Tophet<\/em>. In the parallel passages (Jer. 19:5<\/span>, Jer. 32:35<\/span>), Jeremiah substitutes the word Baal, thus identifying the two names. Probably Tophet was a contemptuous name for Baal, derived from , to spit out,<\/em> an object, therefore, of loathing. The word occurs in Job. 17:6<\/span>, and is rendered tabret, i.e<\/em>., I was as a contemptuous thing. And it is to be noticed that in the consecutive verses (Isa. 30:32-33<\/span>) the word occurs twice, and is rendered tabret and Tophet respectively. Dr. W. Smith affirms that the Hebrew words are nearly identical, and hence concludes that Tophet was probably the kings music-grove or garden, denoting originally nothing evil or hateful. But Ewald, Hitzig, Gesenius, and others, appeal to Isa. 30:33<\/span>, Fire and much wood; the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it, in favour of the meaning, place of burning,<\/em> from , to burn<\/em>. This beautiful valley Josiah defiled (2Ki. 23:10<\/span>), pouring into it all the filth of the city, till it became a foul and revolting scene. Others suggest its significance to be a drum, because that instrument was employed to drown the cries of victims who were caused to pass through the fire. To the worship of Molech a temple was dedicated in the valley of Hinnom, and infants sacrificed, to drown whose cries, when the little innocents were locked in the burning embraces of the brazen image, a loud flourish of trumpets and cymbals was constantly kept up, whence the place was called Tophet. Hezekiah and Manasseh, both slaves to this revolting superstition, immolated their sons to the savage divinity.Paxton<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:32<\/span>. Punishment<\/strong>. The seed holds in embryo the form into which, by an inviolable law, it will develop; the full development will be but an enlargement and likeness of the germ. Sin is thus embryonic; our guilty deeds will expand into results which will reflect in intensity their origin. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.<\/p>\n

Punishment is the recoil of crime; and the strength of the back-stroke is in proportion to the original blow.French<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CHAPTER SEVEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

SERMONS ON WORSHIP<\/p>\n

Jer. 7:1<\/span> to Jer. 8:3<\/span><\/p>\n

The dating of the materials in this section is a vexing problem. Laetsch assigns this section to the days of king Josiah early in the ministry of Jeremiah. However most commentators, on the basis of what they believe is a parallel passage in chapter 26, assign the section (or at least Jer. 7:1-15<\/span>) to the early days of King Jehoiakim. Though one dare not be dogmatic on this point the present writer feels there is nothing in this material that demands a date later than the reign of king Josiah.<\/p>\n

Whether the materials in Jer. 7:1<\/span> to Jer. 8:3<\/span> come from one of Jeremiahs discourses or from several of them is difficult to determine. In either case the theme of worship unifies the entire section. After a brief introductory note (Jer. 7:12<\/span>) the prophet speaks of (1) presumptuous worship (Jer. 7:15<\/span>); (2) pagan worship (Jer. 7:16-20<\/span>); (3) priorities in worship (Jer. 7:21-28<\/span>); and (4) polluted worship (Jer. 7:29<\/span> to Jer. 8:3<\/span>).<\/p>\n

INTRODUCTION Jer. 7:1-2<\/span><\/p>\n

TRANSLATION<\/strong><\/p>\n

(1) The word which came unto Jerusalem from the LORD, saying, (2) Stand in the gate of the house of the LORD and proclaim there this word. Say: Hear the word of the LORD all Judah who are entering these gates to worship the LORD.<\/p>\n

COMMENTS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Acting upon the definite instructions from the Lord (Jer. 7:1<\/span>) Jeremiah went to one of the eight gates of the Temple to deliver a blistering sermon on worship. He is to proclaim the word to all Judah who are entering these gates to worship the Lord (Jer. 7:2<\/span>). During the three annual festivals of Israel all the males were obligated to come to the Temple to worship (Lev. 23:1-44<\/span>; Deu. 16:1-17<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Later in his ministry Jeremiah preached a sermon similar to the one recorded here in chapter 7. Some commentators have identified this Temple Sermon with the sermon preached in chapter 26. Four points of similarity are generally pointed out: (1) Both sermons were preached at the same place, one of the gates of the Temple; (2) both seem to have been preached during some festival; (3) both sermons present the demands for national repentance; and (4) both sermons allude to the destruction of Shiloh. To conclude from this that the sermon of chapter 7 is identical with that of chapter 26 and to therefore assign chapter 7 to the reign of Jehoiakim is pressing the evidence too far. Jeremiah as well as others chose the Temple gates and courts as the location for public discourse.[173] It would be a priori likely that the prophet would select a festival on more than one occasion as the time to present his message. What better time to reach the masses? As for the theme of repentance, Jeremiah utilized it quite frequently. The allusion to Shiloh was a tremendous illustration that God is no respecter of religious shrines. Jeremiah probably utilized this historical note many times during his ministry. It is the feeling, then, of the writer that chapter 26 represents a later sermon of Jeremiah preached during the days of Jehoiakim. Chapter 7 represents an earlier sermon from the reign of good king Josiah.<\/p>\n

[173] Jer. 19:14<\/span>; Jer. 35:2<\/span>; Jer. 35:4<\/span>; Jer. 36:5-10<\/span>; Jer. 28:1<\/span>; Jer. 28:5<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

VII.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(1) This chapter and the three that follow form again another great prophetic sermon, delivered to the crowds that flocked to the Temple. There is nothing in the discourse which absolutely fixes its date, but the description of idolatry, as prevalent, and, possibly, the reference to the presence of the Chaldan invader in Jer. 8:16<\/span>; Jer. 10:22<\/span>, fit in rather with the reign of Jehoiakim than with that of Josiah; and from the special reference to Shiloh in Jer. 26:6<\/span>; Jer. 26:9<\/span>, as occurring in a prophecy delivered at the beginning of that reign, it was probably this discourse, or one like it, and delivered about the same time, that drew down that kings displeasure (see Jer. 7:14<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

1<\/strong>. The Temple and its Worship no Adequate Ground of Confidence.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:1<\/span><\/strong> to Jer 8:3<\/span>.<\/p>\n

VANITY OF TRUSTING IN THE TEMPLE, Jer 7:1-16<\/span>.<\/p>\n

2<\/strong>. <\/strong> Gate of the Lord’s house <\/strong> Comp. Jer 36:10<\/span>. Probably one of the three gates to the inner court. <\/p>\n

All Judah <\/strong> Probably spoken on the occasion of one of the annual feasts.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Judah Must Not Trust In The Presence Of The Temple For Security Because As A Result Of Their Evil Ways YHWH Intends To Do To The Temple What He Did To His House At Shiloh, Destroy It ( Jer 7:1-15<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> ).<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

As a result of the amazing deliverance of Jerusalem with its Temple from the Assyrians in the time of Hezekiah, and what had in contrast happened to neighbouring temples, the myth had grown up that the security of Jerusalem was guaranteed by the presence of the Temple among them. Their view had become that YHWH would not allow His Temple to be destroyed so that the Temple was inviolable. In consequence they had gained the false confidence that they too would be secure in Jerusalem, whatever their behaviour. In this passage therefore YHWH calls on Jeremiah to dispel that myth and make clear to all Judah that such dependence was totally false. Indeed the truth was that unless they repented He intended to do to the Temple precisely what He had done to His previous house at Shiloh (something that they had overlooked), allow it to be utterly destroyed.<\/p>\n

On the basis of Jer 26:1<\/span> it is accepted by many that these words were spoken at the commencement of the reign of Jehoiakim in around 609 BC. They argue that the similarities are too striking to be ignored. Others, however, disagree and argue that the similarities are not such as to demand that the incidents are the same and that Jeremiah might well have given the substance of this message a number of times, even in the time of Josiah. It is then especially pointed out that here there is no indication of a violent response by the priests, something which is very prominent in chapter 26. That is seen as indicating the restraining hand of Josiah. Furthermore, they say, here the message was given in the gate of YHWH’s house, while in chapter 26 it was in the court of YHWH’s house<\/p>\n

Jer 7:1<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH, saying,’<\/p>\n

For the idea behind these words see Jer 1:4<\/span>, (the word of YHWH came to me saying’); Jer 2:4<\/span>, (hear you the word of YHWH –); Jer 3:6<\/span>, (moreover YHWH said to me in the days of Josiah the king’). It was introductory to a new series of prophecies. And it stressed that what Jeremiah was proclaiming was the true word of YHWH.<\/p>\n

Judah Are Called On To Change Their Ways.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:2<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Stand in the gate of YHWH’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of YHWH, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship YHWH.’ ”<\/p>\n

Jeremiah was called on to stand in the gate of YHWH’s house. This was probably the gate that led into the inner court, (the court that would later become the court of the priests), and it may well have been seen as a place for the making of proclamations. He was probably looking outwards from the raised gateway towards the crowds gathered in the outer court, presumably during one of the main feasts of Israel.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:3<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Thus says YHWH of hosts, the God of Israel, ‘Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.’ ”<\/p>\n

His words commenced with a call from YHWH of hosts, as ‘the God of Israel’, addressed to what remained of ‘Israel’, requiring them to amend their ways, accompanied by an assurance that if they did so He would enable them to continue dwelling in the land, and in Jerusalem. So even at this point there was hope for them if they truly repented.<\/p>\n

‘In this place.’ That is, in this land, compare Jer 7:7<\/span>; Jer 7:20<\/span>. Alternately in context it might indicate the Temple, repointing the text to read, ‘I will dwell with you in this place’. For this place’ compare the stress in Deuteronomy 12<\/span> on ‘the place which YHWH your God will choose’.<\/p>\n

There Is No Point In Their Relying On The Inviolability Of The Temple.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Do not trust in lying words, saying, ‘The temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH, are these.’ ”<\/p>\n

But if they were to continue dwelling in the land it would be necessary for them to cease deceiving themselves into thinking that somehow the presence of the Temple of YHWH made Jerusalem inviolable, and that YHWH would not allow His holy hill to be approached by the enemy. There was no point in their continually saying, “‘The temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH, the temple of YHWH are these (miscellany of buildings)” as though that could keep the enemy at bay by continual emphasis, unless they also amended their ways, for such thinking was invalid. Compare Mic 3:11<\/span> where the heads of Judah, the priests and the prophets also erroneously claimed, ‘Is not YHWH in the midst of us? No evil will come on us.’<\/p>\n

The threefold repetition of ‘the Temple of YHWH’ possibly indicates Jeremiah’s weariness with constantly hearing the false prophets declaring Judah’s inviolability because of the presence of the Temple of YHWH in that he is bringing out that they keep on saying it again and again. ‘Are these.’ That is, are all these buildings, furniture and courts making up the Temple complex.<\/p>\n

Alternately it may be intended as a sardonic comparison with the ‘holy, holy, holy’ of the Seraphim as depicted in Isa 6:3<\/span> (and repeated in Rev 4:8<\/span>). Instead of drawing attention to the holiness of YHWH, they were concentrating their hopes on the physical presence of what was virtually a mascot. Indeed the words may have formed part of a self-comforting liturgy by which they assured themselves of their own security.<\/p>\n

One of the most remarkable evidences of the corruption of men’s hearts is that they can have a high estimate of ‘holy things’, and even of a holy God, and yet not recognise the demand that it lays on them to be equally ‘holy. (‘You shall be holy, for I am holy’). They have the ability to appreciate God’s holiness and believe that it offers them some kind of protection, especially from people ‘worse’ than they are, while at the same time excusing themselves from the need to be equally holy. As long as by their own standards they are not guilty of what they see as major sins (even when in fact they are, but they see it as excusable in their case) they consider that they have done all that can reasonably be expected of them, while at the same time being hard on those who stir up their consciences or do things that they cannot condone. They hate those who make them feel guilty and they ‘condone the sins they are inclined to, by condemning those they have no mind to.’ And then they think that all is well. They overlook the fact that at the centre of the Scriptural conception of the holiness of YHWH is the idea morally speaking that He is pure and beyond reproach, (as is revealed by His covenant), and that He requires the same of His people. They forget that, as Psalms 24<\/span> makes clear (compare also Psalms 15<\/span>), only what is truly pure and righteous is acceptable in His presence. It was because of this strange spiritual blindness that they were able in this situation to have a high view of The Temple and its importance to God, without it having any real moral effect on their lives. It was the folly of such thinking that Jeremiah was seeking to bring home to them.  On The Other Hand If They Do Amend Their Ways They Will Be Inviolate.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:5-7<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

“For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbour; if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own hurt, then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even for evermore.”<\/p>\n

What was needed was for them to genuinely amend their ways and doings, by submitting to God’s covenant and ensuring that people obtained true justice in the everyday affairs of life, that the more helpless in society were not oppressed or being taken advantage of (something very important to God – see Jer 27:19<\/span>; Exo 22:21<\/span> ff.; Deu 24:17<\/span> ff.; Isa 1:17<\/span>; Isa 1:23<\/span>; Isa 10:2<\/span>; Eze 22:7<\/span>; Zec 7:10<\/span>; Mal 3:5<\/span>; Psa 94:6<\/span>, etc.), that the blood of innocent people was not being shed (by judicial murder, by attacks on the righteous, including the prophets, and by general violence), and that idolatry, which could only cause them harm, was being put to one side. If they did this, walking in accordance with His covenant, He would then ensure that they were able to continue dwelling in the land continually for ever, the land which He had given to their forefathers from of old. The corollary was that being allowed to live in the land depended on covenant obedience.<\/p>\n

‘To your own hurt.’ This covered all the failures mentioned, not just the last one, compare Jer 25:7<\/span>.<\/p>\n

‘From of old even for evermore.’ This could theoretically be translated ‘from everlasting to everlasting.’ It could not be literally true, for the land had not existed from everlasting, nor would it exist for evermore. Thus it includes within it the seed idea of the new heavens and the new earth, where Abraham and his descendants will receive ‘a better country’ (Heb 11:10-14<\/span>), thus ensuring that His final promises of the land to them will be fulfilled in a way better than they could ever have dreamed of.<\/p>\n

But In Spite Of Their False Confidence This Will Not Apply If They Continue In Their Sins.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:8<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Behold, you trust in lying words, which cannot profit.”<\/p>\n

But the problem was that instead they believed in the words of false teachers and false prophets, words which said otherwise, giving them assurances based on false premises. Such words could not possibly be profitable for them, for they would simply hasten their destruction.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:9-10<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered,’ that you may do all these abominations?”<\/p>\n

The Hebrew text is a little more stark. ‘To steal, to murder and commit adultery, to swear falsely and to burn incense to Baal, and to walk after other gods that you have not known, and then you come and stand before me in this house which is called by My Name, and say “we are delivered” so that you may do all these abominations.’ The unspoken comment required is that ‘it is preposterous!’<\/p>\n

So the basic question was, did they really think that they could continue stealing, murdering, committing adultery, giving false testimony (for these four compare Hos 4:2<\/span> and Exo 20:13-16<\/span>), and burning incense to Baal in the Temple and in their high places, and walking after other gods, (compare Exo 20:3-5<\/span>) thus breaking so many of the stipulations in His covenant, and then come and stand before Him in the house which was called by His Name and claim that He would deliver them? If so they had a strange idea of YHWH, for He abominated all these things and would rather bring them into account for them.<\/p>\n

‘The house which is called by My Name.’ The fact that it was called by His Name made it ‘holy’, because it connected it with the very nature of God as revealed in His Name, so that only those who were compatible with God in that way could be welcomed there (Psalms 15<\/span>; Psalms 24<\/span>), simply because the behaviour of those who worshipped there reflected on His Name and reputation. To worship in YHWH’s house was a serious matter, for the worshippers of any god revealed by their lives the nature of that god. Thus in the house which was called by His Name unrepentant and disobedient sinners were not welcome (compare Isa 57:15<\/span>). It was for the true-hearted only.<\/p>\n

‘Burning incense to Baal.’ The burning of incense to Baal took place in all the high places and under every green tree. It was the popular expression of Canaanite worship similar to the burning of joss sticks at high places in many Asian countries today. I remember myself often going up the small mountain behind my flat in Hong Kong island, and coming to a natural sanctuary formed by a rock formation where joss sticks were still smouldering, left by local people. It was a ‘high place’ well known to all the locals, and indeed for miles around. But in Palestine ‘high places’ could also be artificial ones set up in cities, and a number of incense altars where such offerings were made have been discovered there.<\/p>\n

The ‘gods that they had not known’ were presumably the Assyrian and Babylonian gods (e.g. the queen of heaven in Jer 7:18<\/span>; compare also Ezekiel 8<\/span>), and other gods not familiar in the land of Canaan, but introduced into the Temple from outside, partly but not wholly as a political requirement, although the description may also have included the Canaanite pantheon.<\/p>\n

It is one of the evidences of the fallen state of man that he does actually think that God does not really mind about his sins, and that he can continue in them blatantly while still retaining a relationship with God, and that in spite of God’s declaration that it is not so. They go on about God’s active love and forgiveness, and overlook the fact that both are dependent on repentance because of God’s antipathy to sin. They forget that by His nature God cannot be fully merciful to the unrepentant. He can give them sun and rain, but He cannot give them forgiveness. What was to happen to Judah was to be a lesson for all time that God really does mind about our sins, sufficiently to allow such an extreme judgment to come on those who, in spite of being supposedly His people, broke His commandments.<\/p>\n

The Question Was, Did They Really See His House As A Thieves’ Den?<\/p>\n

Jer 7:11<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says YHWH.”<\/p>\n

He therefore asks them whether in fact they saw the house which was called by His Name as a ‘den of robbers’, a den of covenant breakers, a place where those who were planners of mischief were welcome? That was the impression that they were giving. For they gathered there as people who were corrupt and dishonest, as though they had a right to be there in spite of their failings. Did they really think that He, YHWH, could be a companion of thieves and blatant sinners? Was this not very much the opposite of what was revealed in the Psalms, where it says ‘who shall ascend into the hill of YHWH, and who shall stand in His holy place? Even he who has clean hands and a pure heart, who has not lifted up his soul to what is vain (any form of idolatry especially included) nor sworn deceitfully in matters related to his neighbour’ (Psa 24:3-5<\/span>). The truth was that only the pure in heart and the penitent (Isa 1:11-18<\/span>; Isa 57:15<\/span>) could find a welcome in His house, whilst they were the very opposite.<\/p>\n

And yet it was that kind of attitude (seeing His house as a gathering place for evil men) that YHWH, in all His holiness, had plainly seen in them. He could see that they really did think that it did not matter how they behaved, or what possessed their hearts, as long as they followed the recognised Temple rituals. They seemingly did think that His house would welcome even those who were violent and dishonest and had no intention of relinquishing those ways, as long as they offered the appropriate sacrifices. Well, they were in for a rude awakening.<\/p>\n

Let Them Consider What Had Happened To Shiloh.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Shiloh where YHWH’s Tabernacle had been established for a considerable time had been familiar with such behaviour. There too the worship of YHWH had been corrupted (see 1Sa 2:12-36<\/span>). And let them consider what had happened there.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:12<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.”<\/p>\n

Let them just consider what had happened to His former house at Shiloh where he had caused His Name to dwell. Shiloh was the first major centre at which the Tabernacle had been established for a long time. It had been established there by Joshua once the initial conquest was over and had continued there throughout the period of the Judges up to Samuel (Jos 18:1<\/span>; Jos 18:8-10<\/span>; Jos 19:51<\/span>; Jdg 18:31 ; 1Sa 1:3<\/span>; etc.). They should recall that the people who had worshipped at Shiloh had had a similar view of things, and see what had happened there. He had caused it to be destroyed because of the wickedness of His people, a precedent which boded ill for the Temple. The destruction of Shiloh is not actually described elsewhere in Scripture, but it is implied by the fact that when Samuel, who had been brought up in the Tabernacle at Shiloh, ministered to the people after the Philistines had been driven back, it was not at Shiloh, but elsewhere, while the Tabernacle furniture itself next turned up at Nob (1Sa 21:6<\/span>). Shiloh simply disappeared from history without mention.<\/p>\n

Because They Have Refused To Listen To Him He Will Destroy The Temple And Send Them Into Exile.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:13<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

“And now, because you have done all these works, says YHWH, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you, but you did not answer.”<\/p>\n

And now, because they had ‘done all these works’ and demonstrated that they were even worse than those who had worshipped at Shiloh, in that they had stolen, murdered, committed adultery, sworn falsely, and burned incense to Baal, walking after other gods that they had not known (Jer 7:9<\/span>), and refusing to listen to His continual pleading through the prophets, He would now act against them. ‘Rising up early’ indicates the great effort that He had made to speak to them (compare Jer 7:25<\/span>). And He then emphasises how He had repeatedly spoken to them and called them and had had no reply, indicating quite clearly that their unresponsiveness was not because they had had no opportunity.<\/p>\n

“Rising up early and —,” indicating urgency, is a favourite phrase of Jeremiah’s and is unique to him (compare Jer 7:25<\/span>; Jer 11:7<\/span>; Jer 25:3-4<\/span>; Jer 26:5<\/span>; Jer 29:19<\/span>; Jer 32:33<\/span>; Jer 35:14-15<\/span>; Jer 44:4<\/span>)<\/p>\n

Jer 7:14<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“Therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.”<\/p>\n

And one way in which He would act against them would be by destroying the Temple and the land which He had given them, in the same way as He had destroyed Shiloh. They had made it a den of robbers and He would treat it as such. It is difficult for us to appreciate the enormity in the eyes of the people of Jerusalem of what Jeremiah was saying. Not only was belief in the inviolability of the Temple firmly rooted deep in their hearts, but they also considered that they were special to YHWH (in spite of their continuing disobedience, which they dismissed as unimportant as long as they maintained the Temple ritual) and that He had a special place for them in His purposes. How then could He destroy them as He had destroyed Shiloh? It was unthinkable.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:15<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

“And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim.”<\/p>\n

And YHWH then informed them that not only would He destroy both their Temple and their land as He had Shiloh, but He would also cast the people themselves out of His sight as He had cast ‘the whole seed of Ephraim’ (all the people of northern Israel which, especially in its reduced form, had been known as ‘Ephraim, centring on Mount Ephraim and being named after the most influential of the northern tribes) out of His sight. And all knew what that meant. It meant captivity and exile.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

SECTION 1. An Overall Description Of Jeremiah’s Teaching Given In A Series Of Accumulated, Mainly Undated, Prophecies, Concluding With Jeremiah’s Own Summary Of His Ministry ( Jer 2:4<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> to Jer 25:38<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> ).<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

From this point onwards up to chapter 25 we have a new major section (a section in which MT and LXX are mainly similar) which records the overall teaching of Jeremiah, probably given mainly during the reigns of Josiah (Jer 3:6<\/span>) and Jehoiakim, although leading up to the days of Zedekiah (Jer 21:1<\/span>). While there are good reasons for not seeing these chapters as containing a series of specific discourses as some have suggested, nevertheless they can safely be seen as giving a general overall view of Jeremiah’s teaching over that period, and as having on the whole been put together earlier rather than later. The whole commences with the statement, ‘Hear you the word of YHWH O house of Jacob, and all the families of the house of Israel, thus says YHWH —.’ It is therefore directed to Israel as a whole, mainly as now contained in the land of Judah to which many northerners had fled for refuge. We may divide up the main subsections as follows, based partly on content, and partly on the opening introductory phrases:<\/p>\n

1. <\/strong> ‘Hear you the word of YHWH, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel —’ (Jer 2:4<\/span>). YHWH commences by presenting His complaint against Israel\/Judah because they have failed to continue to respond to the love and faithfulness that He had demonstrated to them in the wilderness and in the years that followed, resulting by their fervent addiction to idolatry in their losing the water of life in exchange for empty cisterns. It ends with a plea for them to turn back to Him like an unfaithful wife returning to her husband. This would appear to be mainly his initial teaching in his earliest days, indicating even at that stage how far, in spite of Josiah’s reformation, the people as a whole were from truly obeying the covenant, but it also appears to contain teaching given in the days of Jehoiakim, for which see commentary (Jer 2:4<\/span> to Jer 3:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2. <\/strong> ‘Moreover YHWH said to me in the days of King Josiah –’ (Jer 3:6<\/span>). This section follows up on section 1 with later teaching given in the days of Josiah, and some apparently in the days of Jehoiakim. He gives a solemn warning to Judah based on what had happened to the northern tribes (‘the ten tribes’) as a result of their behaviour towards YHWH, facing Judah up to the certainty of similar coming judgment if they do not amend their ways, a judgment that would come in the form of a ravaged land and exile for its people. This is, however, intermingled with a promise of final blessing and further pleas for them to return to YHWH, for that in the end is YHWH’s overall purpose. But the subsection at this time ends under a threat of soon coming judgment (Jer 3:6<\/span> to Jer 6:30<\/span>).<\/p>\n

3. <\/strong> ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 7:1<\/span>). In this subsection Jeremiah admonishes the people about the false confidence that they have in the inviolability of the Temple, and in their sacrificial ritual, and warned that like Shiloh they could be destroyed. He accompanies his words with warnings that if they continued in their present disobedience, Judah would be dispersed and the country would be despoiled (Jer 7:1<\/span> to Jer 8:3<\/span>). He therefore chides the people for their obstinacy in the face of all attempts at reformation (Jer 8:4<\/span> to Jer 9:21<\/span>), and seeks to demonstrate to them what the path of true wisdom is, that they understand and know YHWH in His covenant love, justice and righteousness. In a fourfold comparison he then vividly brings out the folly of idolatry when contrasted with the greatness of YHWH. The section ends with the people knowing that they must be chastised, but hoping that YHWH’s full wrath will rather be poured out on their oppressors (Jer 9:22<\/span> to Jer 10:25<\/span>).<\/p>\n

4. <\/strong> ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 11:1<\/span>). He now deprecates their disloyalty to the covenant, and demonstrates from examples the total corruption of the people, revealing that as a consequence their doom is irrevocably determined (Jer 11:1<\/span> to Jer 12:17<\/span>). The section closes with a symbolic action which reveals the certainty of their expulsion from the land (13).<\/p>\n

5. <\/strong> ‘The word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah –’ (Jer 14:1<\/span>). “The word concerning the drought,” gives illustrative evidence confirming that the impending judgment of Judah cannot be turned aside by any prayers or entreaties, and that because of their sins Judah will be driven into exile. A promise of hope for the future when they will be restored to the land is, however, once more incorporated (Jer 16:14-15<\/span>) although only with a view to stressing the general judgment (Jer 14:1<\/span> to Jer 17:4<\/span>). The passage then closes with general explanations of what is at the root of the problem, and lays out cursings and blessings and demonstrates the way by which punishment might be avoided by a full response to the covenant as evidenced by observing the Sabbath (Jer 17:5-27<\/span>).<\/p>\n

6. <\/strong> ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 18:1<\/span>). Chapters 18-19 then contain two oracles from God illustrated in terms of the Potter and his handiwork, which bring out on the one hand God’s willingness to offer mercy, and on the other the judgment that is about to come on Judah because of their continuance in sin and their refusal to respond to that offer. The consequence of this for Jeremiah, in chapter 20, is severe persecution, including physical blows and harsh imprisonment. This results in him complaining to YHWH in his distress, and cursing the day of his birth.<\/p>\n

7. <\/strong> ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 21:1<\/span>). This subsection, which is a kind of appendix to what has gone before, finally confirming the hopelessness of Jerusalem’s situation under Zedekiah. In response to an appeal from King Zedekiah concerning Judah’s hopes for the future Jeremiah warns that it is YHWH’s purpose that Judah be subject to Babylon (Jer 21:1-10<\/span>). Meanwhile, having sent out a general call to the house of David to rule righteously and deal with oppression, he has stressed that no hope was to be nurtured of the restoration of either Shallum, the son of Josiah who had been carried off to Egypt, nor of Jehoiachin (Coniah), the son of Jehoiakim who had been carried off to Babylon. In fact no direct heir of Jehoiachin would sit upon the throne. And the reason that this was so was because all the current sons of David had refused to respond to his call to rule with justice and to stamp down on oppression. What had been required was to put right what was wrong in Judah, and reign in accordance with the requirements of the covenant. In this had lain any hope for the continuation of the Davidic monarchy. But because they had refused to do so only judgment could await them. Note in all this the emphasis on the monarchy as ‘sons of David’ (Jer 21:12<\/span>; Jer 22:2-3<\/span>). This is preparatory to the mention of the coming glorious son of David Who would one day come and reign in righteousness (Jer 23:3-8<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jeremiah then heartily castigates the false shepherds of Judah who have brought Judah to the position that they are in and explains that for the present Judah’s sinful condition is such that all that they can expect is everlasting reproach and shame (Jer 23:9<\/span> ff). The subsection then closes (chapter 24) with the parable of the good and bad figs, the good representing the righteous remnant in exile who will one day return, the bad the people who have been left in Judah to await sword, pestilence, famine and exile.<\/p>\n

8. <\/strong> ‘The word that came to Jeremiah concerning all the people of Judah –’ (Jer 25:1<\/span>). This subsection contains Jeremiah’s own summary, given to the people in a sermon, describing what has gone before during the previous twenty three years of his ministry. It is also in preparation for what is to follow. He warns them that because they have not listened to YHWH’s voice the land must suffer for ‘seventy years’ in subjection to Babylon, and goes on to bring out that YHWH’s wrath will subsequently be visited on Babylon, and not only on them, but on ‘the whole world’. For YHWH will be dealing with the nations in judgment, something which will be expanded on in chapters 46-51. There is at this stage no mention of restoration, (except as hinted at in the seventy year limit to Babylon’s supremacy), and the chapter closes with a picture of the final desolation which is to come on Judah as a consequence of YHWH’s anger.<\/p>\n

While the opening phrase ‘the word that came from YHWH to Jeremiah’ will appear again in Jer 30:1<\/span>; Jer 32:1<\/span>; Jer 34:8<\/span>; Jer 35:1<\/span>; Jer 40:1<\/span> it will only be after the sequence has been broken by other introductory phrases which link the word of YHWH with the activities of a particular king (e.g. Jer 25:1<\/span>; Jer 26:1<\/span>; Jer 27:1<\/span>; Jer 28:1<\/span>) where in each case the message that follows is limited in length. See also Jer 29:1<\/span> which introduces a letter from Jeremiah to the early exiles in Babylon. Looking at chapter 25 as the concluding chapter to the first part, this confirms a new approach from Jer 26:1<\/span> onwards, (apparent also in its content), while at the same time demonstrating that the prophecy must be seen as an overall unity.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Subsection 3. In This Subsection Jeremiah Admonishes The People Concerning The False Confidence That They Have In The Inviolability Of The Temple, And In Their Sacrificial Ritual, And After Chiding Them, Calls On Them To Recognise The Kind Of God That They Are Dealing With ( Jer 7:1<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> to Jer 10:25<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> ).<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Commencing with what will be the standard introductory words up to chapter 25, ‘The word that came to Jeremiah from YHWH –’ (Jer 7:1<\/span>; compare Jer 11:1<\/span>; Jer 14:1<\/span>; Jer 18:1<\/span>; Jer 21:1<\/span>), Jeremiah in this section admonishes the people concerning the false confidence that they have in the inviolability of the Temple, and in their sacrificial ritual, accompanying his words with warnings that if they continued in their present disobedience, Judah would have to be dispersed and the country would have to be despoiled (Jer 7:1<\/span> to Jer 8:3<\/span>). He therefore chides the people for their obstinacy in the face of all attempts at reformation (Jer 8:4<\/span> to Jer 9:21<\/span>), and demonstrates to them what the path of true wisdom is, that they understand and know YHWH in His covenant love, justice and righteousness, vividly bringing out the folly of idolatry when contrasted with the greatness of YHWH. The section ends with the people knowing that they must be chastised, but hoping that YHWH’s full wrath will rather be poured out on their oppressors.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:11<\/strong><\/span> Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:11<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> <\/strong> Comments <\/em><\/strong> Jesus most likely used the phrase “a den of robbers” from this passage of Scripture in Jer 7:11<\/span> when He cleanses the Temple at the end of His earthly ministry (Mat 21:12-13<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:15<\/strong><\/span> And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:15<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> “even the whole seed of Ephraim” <\/strong> Comments <\/em><\/strong> Ephraim was the younger of Joseph’s two sons. Jacob preferred Ephraim above Manasseh when he blessed them upon his deathbed. We find here, and often in the prophetic writings, that the name of Ephraim is used symbolically to represent Northern Israel. The Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom in 722 B.C. Jer 7:15<\/span> makes a reference to this event, which took place approximately one hundred years before Jeremiah’s prophecy. <\/p>\n

Jer 7:16<\/strong><\/span> Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:16<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> <\/strong> Comments <\/em><\/strong> There is a place of no deliverance which man can bring himself after continued rebellion against God. Pro 29:1<\/span>; Pro 6:15<\/span> tell us that a person who has often rejected counsel will come to a place where there is no longer a place of repentance to be found. <\/p>\n

Pro 29:1<\/span>, “He, that being often reproved hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy .”<\/p>\n

Pro 6:15<\/span>, “Therefore shall his calamity come suddenly; suddenly shall he be broken without remedy .”<\/p>\n

The nation of Judah came to this point because of the hardness of the people’s heart towards the truth. In Jer 7:16<\/span>, the Lord told Jeremiah not to pray for them. Note a similar verse in 2Ch 36:16<\/span>, “But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against his people, till there was no remedy .”<\/p>\n

Jer 7:22<\/strong><\/span> For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:<\/p>\n

Jer 7:22<\/span><\/strong> “concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices” <\/strong> Comments <\/em><\/strong> F. F. Bruce prefers the rendering “for the sake of burnt offerings or sacrifices”. [14] In other words, God did not bring the children of Israel out from bondage for the sake of subjecting them to ritual sacrifices. His purpose was to give them a way of expressing their love and obedience to Him through the system of offering sacrifices.<\/p>\n

[14] F. F. Bruce, The Books and the Parchments<\/em> (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1963), 46-47.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:27-34<\/strong><\/span> <\/strong> Comments Destruction Upon Jerusalem –<\/em><\/strong> <\/strong> I turned to Jer 7:28-34<\/span> today and read these words of divine judgment against the nation of Judah. This passage in Jeremiah is referring to a people who have totally abandoned God to the point that they will not repent or turn to God despite rebuke and chastisement (Jer 7:21-28<\/span>). The only remedy left is destruction. They were so depraved that God told Jeremiah not to even pray for them (Jer 7:16<\/span>). As a result, God told them through Jeremiah the prophet that they would be utter destroyed. <\/p>\n

As I read this passage in Jer 7:28-34<\/span> I found it to be so descriptive of the horrible tsunami, or tidal wave, that had just struck Southeast Asia and India last week, Dec. 26 th , 2004. The death toll is now up to 155,000 and climbing. I have just watched news videos of people being washed away by these tidal waves where entire communities were destroyed, where there are still many regions of these nations that the government and military have not been able to reach. I could not have been given a better visual description of this passage in Jeremiah than the news that I had just finished watching on television. <\/p>\n

For example, This is a region of the world that has largely forsaken God for other vain religions. The truth has been cut off from their mouths and they do not even know the name of God, just like in the days of Jeremiah’s prophecy to Judah (Jer 7:27-28<\/span>). The people have move to “high places” in fear of additional floods (Jer 7:29<\/span>) The cutting off of the hair represents mourning and these people are truly following their traditional methods of mourning, just as the Jews did by shaving their heads and sitting in sackcloth and ashes. There are statues of Buddha sitting submerged in water and their religious houses are houses of idols, rather than houses of worship to the Lord God (Jer 7:30<\/span>). Parents have been separated from children, and the news is reporting that the airports are not allowing children to be taken out of the country by adults because of the enormous problem of child trafficking, which has plagued this region for years (Jer 7:31<\/span>). In other words, to the say degree of depravity that Judah found itself in with child sacrifices, so do these Asian cultures today treat their children with acts of inhuman abuse, such as child trafficking. There seems to be no room to bury the dead except in mass graves because of the massive number of dead (Jer 7:32<\/span>). The word “slaughter” in this verse is intended to describe a massive number of dead people. Many of the dead bodies cannot be reached, so the beasts and birds are left to feed upon them (Jer 7:33<\/span>). No one is celebrating the Christmas holidays or New Year’s Day; but rather, they are in mourning (Jer 7:34<\/span>). This verse describes intense mourning in every sector of society because of the utter desolation of this calamity. (5 January 2005) <\/p>\n

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

God’s Requirement And Promise<\/p>\n

v. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord,<\/strong> the fact that he received his messages by inspiration of God being brought out time and again, saying,<\/strong> <\/p>\n

v. 2. Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house,<\/strong> very likely that which led from the outer court to the Court of Israel, and proclaim there this word,<\/strong> where the worshiping multitudes from the entire country might hear him, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. <\/strong> The address seems to indicate that the sermon here recorded was held at one of the great festivals of the Jews, when great throngs visited the capital and the Temple. <\/p>\n

v. 3. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,<\/strong> He whose power and mercy the children of Israel had so often experienced. Amend your ways and your doings,<\/strong> their habits of living and the individual acts of their life, and I will cause you to dwell in this place,<\/strong> permitting them to continue their residence in Jerusalem, the seat of the Lord’s Temple. <\/p>\n

v. 4. Trust ye not in lying words,<\/strong> in those words of falsehood which were so often dinned in their ears by their wicked leaders, The Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord, are these!<\/strong> the various buildings making up the entire Temple. The repetition of the proud cry is intended to picture the sublime self-assurance of the people under the leadership of the false prophets. <\/p>\n

v. 5. For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings,<\/strong> making a decided stand for a behavior in complete accordance with the holy will of God; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor,<\/strong> so that justice is exercised in all conditions of life, toward all men; <\/p>\n

v. 6. if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,<\/strong> the three points which were emphasized time and again in the Law of God, and shed not innocent blood in this place,<\/strong> throughout Jerusalem and Judah, neither walk after other gods to your hurt,<\/strong> idolatry invariably challenging the punishment of the Lord, provoking Him to righteous anger: <\/p>\n

v. 7. then will I cause you to dwell in this place,<\/strong> permitting them to continue as inhabitants of Jerusalem and Judah, in the land that I gave your fathers, forever and ever,<\/strong> for a long period of uninterrupted possession. The Lord is eager to show His kindness and mercy to all those who will hearken to Him; His blessings, also in temporal goods, are upon those that fear Him. <\/p>\n

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

EXPOSITION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ch. 7-10.Severe rebukes of idolatry alternating with announcements of the impending judgment. The circumstances connected with this discourse, or part thereof, appear to be detailed in Jer 26:1-24<\/span>. Among the parallelisms between the two sections, notice especially the reference to the fate of the temple of Shiloh (comp. Jer 26:14<\/span> with Jer 26:6<\/span>). The date of the original utterance of the prophecy is thus fixed for one of the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim. Jer 10:1-16<\/span>, however, requires separate consideration.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-7<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Divine requirements and the corresponding promise.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:2<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stand in the gate<\/strong>; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. not an outer gate (for the outer court would be filled with the people whom Jeremiah was to address), but one of the three gates which led from the inner court to the outer. Probably it was the gate where Baruch recited the prophecies of Jeremiah at a later period, and which is designated “the new gate of the Lord’s house,” and said to have been situated in the “upper” i<\/em>.e<\/em>. <\/em>inner court (Jer 36:10<\/span>; comp. Jer 26:10<\/span>). We may conjecture that either one of the three great festivals or some extraordinary fast had brought a large number of people together at the temple.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The temple of the Lord<\/strong>. Notice the iteration of the phrase, as if its very sound were a charm against evil. It reminds us of the performances of the howling dervishes at Cairo, who “sometimes remain for hours, incessantly shouting the Muslim confession of faith (la ilaha<\/em>, <\/em>etc.)”. The phrase is repeated three times to express earnestness of the speakers (comp. Jer 22:29<\/span>, “O earth, earth, earth”). These false prophets evidently retained a large amount of the old materialistic faith of the Semitic nations (to whom the Israelites belonged by race), which localized the presence and the power of the divinity. The temple was, in fact, their palladium, and as long as it stood, the national independence appeared to them to be secured. They faithfully handed on the teaching of those prophets of the last generation, who, as Micah tells us (Mic 3:11<\/span>), were wont to “lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.” How Isaiah met this error we may collect from Isa 28:16<\/span> (see my Commentary). Are these<\/strong>; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. <\/em>these buildings.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:5<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

If ye thoroughly amend<\/strong>, etc.; a development of the ides of Jer 7:3<\/span>. The true palladium of Judah would be the faithful performance of Jehovah’s moral laws, especially those referring to the conduct of the rulers. Observe the stress which all the prophets lay on the virtues of civil life.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:6<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The stranger, the fatherless, and the widow<\/strong>; specially commended to the care of the Israelites (Exo 22:21<\/span>, Exo 22:22<\/span>a passage belonging to one of the most evidently primitive portions of the Pentateuch; Deu 24:17<\/span>, Deu 24:19<\/span>, Deu 24:21<\/span>; Deu 27:19<\/span>; comp. Isa 1:17<\/span>, Isa 1:23<\/span>; Isa 10:2<\/span>; Eze 22:7<\/span>). In plus; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. specially in Jerusalem, but not altogether excluding the rest of the kingdom (see Jer 7:3<\/span>, Jer 7:7<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:7<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Forever and ever<\/strong>. It is doubtful, both here and in Jer 25:5<\/span>, whether these words should be joined to “gave” or “cause you to dwell.” Still, the latter connection is both in itself the more probable one, and that suggested first of all by the accentuation. It was not the extent of the original premise, but that of the enjoyment of the gift, which was in question. A more exact rendering of the prophet’s formula is that of the Septuagint : i<\/em>.e<\/em>. from the most remote antiquity to the most distant future.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:8-15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The formalism of Jewish religion exposed. The lesson of Shiloh.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:8<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lying words<\/strong>; such as those quoted in Jer 7:4<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:9<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Will ye steal<\/strong>, etc.? rather, What I stealing<\/em>, murdering<\/em>, etc<\/em>.? <\/em>The construction is formed by a series of infinitives, preceded by an interrogative expressing extreme surprise, equivalent to “Is this your way of lifea course of theft, and so forth?”<\/p>\n

Jer 7:10<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And come<\/strong>, etc.; rather, and then ye come<\/em>, etc. We are delivered to do<\/strong>, etc.; rather, we have escaped<\/em>, in order to do<\/em>, <\/em>etc. To make the concluding words of the verse a part of the speech seems hardly fair to the Jews, who would certainly not proclaim that they had made their escape from the threatened judgment with the object of prosecuting abominable acts. Such a view, moreover, greatly weakens the force of the emphatic “We have escaped.” “In order to do,” etc; are the words of the prophet, who thus lays bare the secret intentions of these formal worshippers.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Even I have seen it<\/strong>; understand, “and I will therefore destroy the house which gives shelter to evil-doers.”<\/p>\n

Jer 7:12<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh<\/strong>. Jeremiah attacks this false confidence in the temple of Jerusalem, by pointing to the destruction of an earlier sanctuary, of which very little is known, indeed only so much as to give an edge to our desire for more. It is certain, from Jos 18:1<\/span> and 1Sa 4:3<\/span>, that the tabernacle and the ark found a resting-place at Shiloh (an Ephraimitish town to the north of Bethel), nearly the whole of the period of the judges, or more exactly between the latter days of Joshua (Jos 18:1<\/span>) and the death of Eli (1Sa 4:3<\/span>). Manifestly, then, there must have been some sort of “house,” i<\/em>.e<\/em>. temple, at Shiloh; a mere tent would not have been sufficient for so long a period. This presumption is confirmed by the language of Jeremiah, and by the expressions of the narrative books. The fate which the prophet is bidden to announce for the existing temple is analogous to that which fell upon “Jehovah’s place in Shiloh.” The latter was, therefore, not merely a deportation of the ark, such as is referred to in 1Sa 5:1-12<\/span>. And when the narrator of the times of Samuel speaks of Eli as “sitting by the door-post of the temple of Jehovah” (1Sa 1:9<\/span>), is it more natural to suppose t the word “temple” is here applied to the tabernacle, or that there was really a house, however rude, as sacred in the eyes of the faithful as was afterwards the splendid temple at Jerusalem? The latter view is strongly confirmed by Jdg 18:31<\/span>, “All the time that the house of God in Shiloh existed” (Authorized Version is misleading), and Jdg 19:18<\/span>, where the Levite travelling to Mount Ephraim says, “I am going to the house of Jehovah.” It is no doubt strange at first sight that so little information is given us as to this central sanctuary of the true religion; but are there not other omissions (especially in the history of the judges), which are equally strange as long as we look upon the Old Testament as primarily an historical document? We do know something, however, and more than is generally suspected; for when the right translation is restored in Jdg 18:31<\/span>, it follows, from a comparison of this and the preceding verse, that the temple of Shiloh was destroyed simultaneously with the captivity of the northern tribes. The impression produced by this emphatic announcement of Jeremiah is revealed to us by a later passage in his book (see Jer 26:1-24<\/span>.).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rising up early and speaking<\/strong>; i.e.<\/em> speaking zealously and continually (so Jer 7:25<\/span>; Jer 25:4<\/span>; Jer 26:5<\/span>; Jer 29:19<\/span>). It is an expression peculiar to Jeremiah.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:14<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

To Shiloh<\/strong>. Shiloh and the temple of Shiloh are interchanged, precisely as Jerusalem and the temple of Jerusalem (Jer 26:9<\/span>; Mic 3:12<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I will cast you out of my sight<\/strong>; viz. into a foreign land (see Deu 29:28<\/span>). The land of Israel was in a special sense “Jehovah’s land” (Hos 9:3<\/span>; Le 25:23<\/span>). Ephraim<\/strong>; here used for the northern tribes collectively, as Isa 7:2<\/span>; Hos 4:17<\/span>; Hos 5:9<\/span>; Hos 12:1<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:16-20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The hypocrisy of the worship of Jehovah proved; its punishment.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:16<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Pray not thou for this people<\/strong>. Abraham prayed for Sodom (Gen 18:23-32<\/span>); Moses and Samuel for Israel (Exo 32:11-14<\/span>; Exo 17:11<\/span>; Num 14:13-20<\/span>; Psa 106:23<\/span>; 1Sa 7:9<\/span>, 1Sa 7:10; 1Sa 12:17<\/span>, 1Sa 12:18<\/span>, 1Sa 12:23<\/span>); and Jeremiah would fain perform the same pious duty to his people. We have a specimen of his intercession in Jer 14:19-22<\/span> (comp. Jer 18:20<\/span>), followed immediately by a rejection of his prayer, parallel in thought to the present passage. Verbal parallels are Jer 11:14<\/span>; Jer 14:11<\/span>. Cry; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. cry for help (see on Jer 14:12<\/span>); parallel with “prayer,” as Jer 11:14<\/span>; Psa 17:1<\/span> Psa 61:1<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:17<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the streets<\/strong>. A climax. Them is no sense of shame left.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:18<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The children the fathers the women<\/strong>. All ages were represented in this idolatrous act, thus justifying the sweeping character of the judgment as described in Jer 6:11<\/span>. Cakes<\/strong> (comp. Jer 44:19<\/span>). The word is peculiar (kavvanim<\/em>), <\/em>and perhaps entered Palestine together with the foreign rite to which the cakes belonged. Various conjectures have been offered as to their nature, but without any demonstrable ground. Sacrificial cakes were not uncommon. Hosea refers to the luscious raisin-cakes used by idolaters (Hos 3:1<\/span>). To the queen of heaven.<\/strong> This title of a divinity only occurs in Jeremiah (here and in Jer 44:17-19<\/span>, Jer 44:25<\/span>). It reminds us, first, of titles (such as “queen of the gods”) of the Babylonic-Assyrian goddesses, Bilat (Beltis) and Istar, who, though divided in later times, were “originally but two forms of the same goddess” (Sayce, Transactions of Society of Biblical Archaeology<\/em>, <\/em>3.169). It is, however, perhaps an objection <\/em>to the view that Bilat or Istar is intended, that neither here nor in Jer 44:1-30<\/span>. is there any allusion to that characteristic lascivious custom which was connected in Babylonia with the worship of Istar (Herod; 1.199). The phrase has, however, another association. It reminds us, in the second place, of the Egyptian goddess Neith, “the mother of the gods.” The first mention of “the queen of heaven” in Jeremiah occurs in the reign of Jehoiakim, who was placed on the throne by Pharaoh-Necho, one of the Saite dynasty (Says was the seat of the worship of Neith). If the “queen of heaven” were a Babylonic-Assyrian goddess, we should have looked for the introduction of her cultus at an earlier period (e.g. under Ahaz). But it was in accordance with the principles of polytheism (and the mass of the Jews had an irresistible tendency to polytheism), to adopt the patron-deity of the suzerain. Subsequently Judah became the subject of Nebuchadnezzar; thus it was equally natural to give up the worship of an Egyptian deity. Jewish colonists in Migdol would as naturally revert to the cultus of the Egyptian “mother of the gods”. The form of the word rendered “queen” being very uncommon, another reading, pronounced in the same way, obtained currency. This should be rendered, not “frame,” or “workmanship”, but “service.” The context, however, evidently requires a person.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:19<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Do they provoke me<\/strong>, etc.? literally, Is it me that they provoke <\/em>(or, vex)? Is it not themselves<\/em><\/p>\n

Jer 7:20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Upon man, and upon beast.<\/strong> That all creation shares in the curse of man is repeatedly affirmed in the Old Testament as well as the New. Inferentially, this doctrine appears from the narrative of the Fall, and still more clearly from Isaiah’s description of Paradise regained (Isa 11:1-16<\/span>). Hosea speaks of sufferings of the animals arising out of the guilt of Israel (Hos 4:3<\/span>), and a consciousness of the “solidarity” of all living creatures is ascribed to a Ninevite king in the Book of Jonah (Jon 3:7<\/span>, Jon 3:8<\/span>). In general, the origin of this community of suffering is left mysterious, but in Gen 6:12<\/span> it is expressly stated as the cause of the Deluge, that “all flesh [i<\/em>.e<\/em>. <\/em>both man and beast.] had corrupted its way upon the earth;” i<\/em>.e<\/em>. <\/em>apparently, that contact with man had led to a corruption of the original innocence of the lower animals. It is a common experience that intercourse between Christianized (not to say civilized) man and the domestic animals produces a sometimes pathetic change in the psychic phenomena of the latter. Is the reverse process utterly inconceivable?<\/p>\n

Jer 7:21-28<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeremiah dispels the illusion that God’s claims are satisfied by a merely formal service.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:21<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Put your burnt offerings<\/strong>, <\/em>etc. Throw all your sacrifices into a mass<\/em>, <\/em>and eat them at your pleasure. Ye have my perfect permission, for they are of no religions value. According to the Law, the burnt offerings were to be entirely consumed by fire, while the other sacrifices were mostly eaten by the offerers and by their friends. There is a touch of contempt in the phrase, eat flesh<\/strong>; they are merely pieces of flesh, and ye may eat them.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:22<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

I spake not unto your fathers<\/strong>, etc. An important and much-disputed passage, from which Graf, Colenso, and Kuenen derive one of their chief subsidiary arguments for the post-Exile date of the Levitical legislation. The prophet here appears to deny in tote <\/em>that Jehovah at Mount Sinai had given any injunctions on the subject of sacrifice. But the prophet must at any rate be consistent with himself; he cannot utter anything by Divine command which is fundamentally at variance with other equally authoritative declarations. Do the statements of Jeremiah elsewhere justify us in accepting the <\/em>words in their literal, superficial meaning? There are three other passages which have a claim to be considered. In Jer 17:26<\/span> the prophet draws a picture of the happy condition in which the Jews might be, were they only obedient. One of the features of this picture is that the Jews would still bring all the various kinds of sacrifices to the house of Jehovah. In Jer 31:14<\/span> a similar description is closed with the promise to “satiate the soul of the priests with fatness,” implying that there would be a great abundance of thank offerings in regenerate Israel. In Jer 33:11<\/span>, among other blessings of the future, the prophet mentions the praiseful exclamations of those who would bring the sacrifice of thanksgiving. These passages do not contain any statement respecting the origin of the sacrificial system; but they do expressly assert that Jehovah contemplates that system with pleasure, and apparently that he designs it to be permanent among his people Israel. Let us now turn to Jer 33:17-24<\/span>. Here the prophet, in the Name of Jehovah, declares that there is a Divine covenant “with the Levites, the priests,” who shall never “want a man before me to do sacrifice continually.” A covenant with the priests implies a covenant with the people, the priests being the representatives of the people. This passage, therefore, is more distinct than those previously quoted; it does appear to maintain that the range of the Sinaitic covenant included the duties of the priesthood, i<\/em>.e<\/em>. <\/em>sacrifices. On the other hand, it should be observed that the genuineness of this latter passage is not beyond dispute, the whole section in which it occurs (Jer 33:14-26<\/span>) being omitted in the Septuagint. We have now to inquire, Is there a real discrepancy between the words of Jeremiah (strictly speaking, of Jehovah) in the verse now before us, interpreted literally, and the passages adduced above? Are they more inconsistent than such an utterance as Jer 6:20<\/span> (first half of verse), which appears to deny the utility of sacrifices altogether? If the latter may be explained as a forcible oratorical exaggeration, why not also the present passage? Jeremiah sees the people attaching a pernicious importance to the opus operatum <\/em>of sacrifice. On one occasion he tells them that Jehovah cares not for sacrifices; he means, as the context shows, the sacrifices of men without spiritual sensibilities. On another, that Jehovah never commanded their fathers to sacrifice; he means the mere outward forms of the ritual, divorced from the sentiment and practice of piety, which, as Hosea tells us (Hos 6:6<\/span>), Jehovah “delights in and not [equivalent to ‘more than’] sacrifice.” There is, therefore, no fundamental inconsistency between the passage before us and the three passages first quoted, and if so there can be no real discrepancy with the last-mentioned passage, for the priests (as was remarked) perform their functions on behalf of the people, and the permanence of Jehovah’s covenant with the priests depended on the spiritual life of the people they represented (read Jer 33:1-26<\/span>, as a whole). This view seems less arbitrary than that of Ewald, who thinks that the sacrifices spoken of in our passage are merely the free-will offerings of the rich; and than that of Dahler, who interprets, “My chief care was not to prescribe rules for holocausts and sacrifices, but this is what I commanded thee above all,” viz. moral obedience. According to it, the prophet’s denial is not absolute, but relativerelative, that is, to the notion of sacrifices entertained by the Jews whom he addresses. Of course, Graf’s view, that the denial is absolute, will equally well suit the context. The people were surprised at Jeremiah’s objurgations, because they thought they had fulfilled the claims of the covenant. Jeremiah’s purpose is equally well fulfilled whether his denial is qualified or unqualified, absolute or relative. Our object has been to separate the exegesis of our passage from a still doubtful controversy, and to offer a tenable view of it, based upon grounds purely internal to Jeremiah. It may be suggested, however, to the student of Leviticus, that even if the Levitical legislation in its present form were proved to be of a pest-Exile date, it would still be doubtful whether any believing temple-worshipper could help assuming that Jehovah had, from the first existence of the nation, given his direct sanction to the offering of sacrifices. If so, it is comparatively unimportant (except with regard to the progressive revelation of the strictness of the law of truth) whether the Levitical code was given to Moses at Mount Sinai in its present form or not.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:23<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But this thing Obey my voice<\/strong>, etc. Comp. Deu 6:3<\/span>, “Hear [the verb rendered here ‘obey’] therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee,” etc. The words, I will be your God<\/strong>; rather, to you a God, etc; occur in Le Deu 26:12<\/span> (comp. Exo 6:7<\/span>; Deu 29:13<\/span>). Walk ye in all the ways<\/strong>, etc; is not a citation, but reminds us of passages like Deu 9:12<\/span>, Deu 9:16<\/span>; Deu 11:28<\/span>; Deu 31:29<\/span>. That it may be well unto you<\/strong> is a characteristic phrase of Jeremiah (Jer 43:6<\/span>; Jer 38:20<\/span>; Jer 40:9<\/span>); but is also frequent in Deuteronomy (comp; besides the passage quoted above, Deu 4:40<\/span>; Deu 5:16<\/span>; Deu 6:18<\/span>; Deu 12:25<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:24<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Imagination<\/strong>; rather, stubbornness (see on Jer 3:17<\/span>). Went backward, and not forward<\/strong>; rather, turned their back<\/em>, and not their face <\/em>(literally, became<\/em> backwards<\/em>, and not forwards<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:27<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Therefore thou shalt speak<\/strong> etc. rather, and though thou speak<\/em> yet will they not<\/em>, <\/em>etc.; and though thou call unto them<\/em>, yet will they not answer thee<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:28<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

But thou shalt say<\/strong>; rather, thou shalt therefore <\/em>say. A nation<\/strong>; rather, the nation<\/em>. <\/em>“What one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself?” (2Sa 7:23<\/span>). And yet “this is the nation that have not hearkened,” etc. Truth; rather, good faith <\/em>(as Jer 5:1<\/span>). Is cut off from their mouth<\/strong>; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. their oaths to Jehovah are false oaths (Jer 5:2<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:29-34<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tophet, the greatest of all abominations; the beginning of the Divine retribution.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:29<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Cut off thine hair<\/strong>. The “daughter of Zion,” i<\/em>.e<\/em>. the community of Jerusalem, is addressed; this appears from the verb being in the feminine. It is a choice expression which the prophet employsliterally, shear off thy crown <\/em>(i.e. thy chief ornament). The act was to be a sign of mourning (see Job 1:20<\/span>; Mic 1:16<\/span>). Some think there is also a reference to the vow of the Nazarite (the word for “crown” being here nezer<\/em>, which is also the word rendered in Authorized Version, “separation,” i<\/em>.e<\/em>. <\/em>“consecration,” in the law of the Nazarite (Num 6:1-27<\/span>.). But neither in this context nor anywhere else have we any support for the application of the term “Nazarite” to the people of Israel. On high places<\/strong>; rather, on (the<\/em>) bare hills <\/em>(see on Jer 3:21<\/span>). The generation of his wrath<\/strong>; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. <\/em>on which his wrath is to be poured out (comp. Isa 10:6<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:30<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

They have set their abominations<\/strong>, etc.; alluding, doubtless, to the altars which Manasseh built “for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of Jehovah,” and especially to the image of the Canaanitish goddess Asherah, which he set up in the temple itself (2Ki 21:5<\/span>, 2Ki 21:7<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:31<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The high places of Tophet<\/strong>; rather, the high places of the <\/em>Topheth(on the “high places” (Hebrew bamoth<\/em>)<\/em>here probably artificial mounds to erect the altars upon, and on “the Topheth,” see Commentary on 1 Kings). In the valley of the son of Hinnom<\/strong>. Hitzig and others would take Hinnom as a noun meaning “groaning” (Rashi, the great Jewish commentator. had already proposed this view), which is at first sight very plausible. But this name of the valley is already found in the description of the boundaries of Judah and Benjamin in Jos 15:8<\/span>; Jos 18:16<\/span>. To burn their sons<\/strong>, etc. (On the worship of Moloch (Saturn), see on Le Jos 18:21<\/span>, and comp. Eze 16:20<\/span>, Eze 16:21<\/span>, from which it appears that the children were first slain before being “caused to pass through the fire.”)<\/p>\n

Jer 7:32<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The valley of slaughter<\/strong>; with reference to the great slaughter reserved for the unbelieving Jews. The scene of their sin shall be that of their punishment. Till there be no place<\/strong>; rather, for want of <\/em>room (elsewhere).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:33<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

And the carcasses<\/strong> etc.; almost verbally identical with Deu 28:26<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:34<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The land shall be desolate<\/strong>; rather, shall become a waste<\/em>. <\/em>The curse denounced upon the disobedient people in Le 26:31<\/span>, 33<\/span> (for another parallel between this chapter and Lev 26:1-46<\/span>; see Lev 26:23<\/span>). In both passages the word for “waste” is khorbah<\/em>, <\/em>which, as Dr. Payne Smith remarks, is “used only of places which, having once been inhabited, have then fallen into ruin.” Hebrew is rich in synonyms for the idea of “desolation.”<\/p>\n

HOMILETICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-7<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Preaching repentance.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> OCCASION<\/strong>. It was in the gate of the temple, where the crowd of worshippers would pass, and at the time of their going up to worship.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> In a public place<\/em>,<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> that men might not have to seek the preacher, but rather be sought by him; and<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> that all might hear, for truth, warnings of judgment, and gospels of deliverance are for all.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> At the entrance to the place of worship<\/em>, <\/em>because<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> worship should be associated with instruction;<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> many people who observe religious ordinances need to be convinced of their sin and urged to repentance as much as the “publicans and sinners;” and<\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> we must repent of sin before we can be accepted by God; so Jeremiah was to preach to the people as they went in to the temple, not as they came out.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> ACCUSATION<\/strong>. The Jews are not accused of Church <\/em>sins, neglecting religious ordinances, etc. Their sins were against common morality.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Though men may be very observant of religious ordinances <\/em>they may yet be guilty of the grossest wickedness<\/em> (verse 6).<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> God is most concerned with our conduct in daily life<\/em>. <\/em>Here is the true life, the life which occupies the larger part of our time, engages most of our energies, gives freest scope for good or evil.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> EXHORTATION<\/strong>. Practical amendment is sought.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> There must be an amending<\/em>. <\/em>Repentance is not merely sorrow for the past; it is a change of desire and effort for the future.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> This must be practical<\/em>. <\/em>The Jews are to amend their ways. True repentance is more a matter of conduct than of emotion, it must bring forth fruits (Mat 3:8<\/span>).<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> This must be definite<\/em>. <\/em>Particular sins are specified as to be abandoned (verse 6). Men must repent of their own sins, their characteristic sins, their habitual sins. We are too ready to renounce the sins which do not belong to us, and to pass over our most familiar sins unnoticed.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> This must be thorough<\/em>. <\/em>The Jews are to “thoroughly amend” their ways. A half-hearted repentance is a mockery. As well not flee from the City of Destruction at all as linger regretfully about its vicinity like Lot’s wife, only to suffer a similar fate to hers.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> ADMONITION<\/strong>. The Jews are warned of the danger of a false ground of confidence (verse 4), and threatened with approaching judgment.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> If we believe that men are in danger, that is a false charity which hides the danger <\/em>out of consideration for feelings of mere temporary comfort.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> There is an advantage in using the minatory <\/em>language of Scripture, though<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> with deep solemnity, <\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> with sadness and kindliness of purpose, <\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> without the amplification of imaginative sensationalism, <\/p>\n

(4)<\/strong> accompanied by clear indications of the way of escape and encouragements for hope in following it.<\/p>\n

V.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> PROMISE<\/strong>. (Verse 7.) Repentance is to be followed by forgiveness and the restoration of favor. God charges us with our sins, and threatens judgments, all in love that he may thus lead us to safety and blessedness. The most wicked men may find forgiveness and ultimate salvation if they will but repent and turn to God (verse 6).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The confidence of superstition.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> CONFIDENT<\/strong> LANGUAGE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> NO<\/strong> GUARANTEE<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> A SECURE<\/strong> FOUNDATION<\/strong> OF<\/strong> TRUST<\/strong>. The Jews are vehement in exclamation; but their words are boastful without ground. Frequent repetition is no evidence of the truth of a saying. Yet, though against all reason, and by mere force of urgency, how many convictions have been thus forced on the belief of mankind! Trite sayings are commonly accepted for true sayings. We do not think to test the genuineness of the old worn coin so much as that of the new coin. We naturally believe that with which we are familiar. Indeed, we may persuade ourselves to believe almost anything by simply dwelling upon the idea of it till this becomes inseparable from our consciousness. And all this without the slightest reason!<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SUPERSTITION<\/strong> OF<\/strong> RELIGION<\/strong> MAY<\/strong> BE<\/strong> FOUND<\/strong> IN<\/strong> MEN<\/strong> WHO<\/strong> HAVE<\/strong> LOST<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SPIRITUALITY<\/strong> OF<\/strong> IT<\/strong>. The Jews neglected the spiritual worship, which was all that was really valuable in the temple service, but they clung to the idea that there must be a sanctity about the very walls of the temple which would make it a place of safety for those who took shelter within them. Superstition is the disease of religion. When spiritual holiness is gone, a sanctity is ascribed to material things. They who have no faith in God may have strange faith in charms and spells, like the Jews who, perhaps, thought to work a charm by the threefold iteration of their cry, “The temple of the Lord,” etc.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> No REAL<\/strong> SECURITY<\/strong> CAN<\/strong> RE<\/strong> FOUND<\/strong> IN<\/strong> EXTERNAL<\/strong> THINGS<\/strong>. The temple building was no palladium to the bad men who sought refuge in it. It is vain to be near the Church if we are far from God. Religious ordinances, membership in a Church, official association with religion as priest, prophet, or minister, and the like outside affairs, contain no promise whatever of protection, and the man who shelters himself beneath the whole of them and does not seek spiritual shelter is as much exposed to the tempest of judgment as if he stood out in the open plain of bare infidelity.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> TRUE<\/strong> TEMPLE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LORD<\/strong> IS<\/strong> THE<\/strong> HEART<\/strong> OF<\/strong> A GOOD<\/strong> MAN<\/strong>. God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Earthly temples of stone may represent his dwelling, but they cannot bring him nearer to men nor confine his presence within limits. But the soul of a good man is a real temple wherein God’s Spirit truly abides and effectively operates (1Co 6:19<\/span>). Such a temple is safe from all harm. Thus we must seek safety, not by entering a temple, but by becoming a templenot by securing the external protection of holy things while the heart and life are unholy, but by receiving God within the heart and sanctifying the life to him.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The voice unheeded.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> IS<\/strong> EVER<\/strong> SPEAKING<\/strong> TO<\/strong> HIS<\/strong> CHILDREN<\/strong>. There is a Divine voice speaking, not to favored prophets in rare moments of spiritual elevation, but to all men, that all who will may hear. This voice comes to us in many forms.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The voice of naturethe <\/em>proclamation of the power and wisdom of God in the awful, silent speech of the stars (Psa 19:3<\/span>), and the gentler language which tells of his tenderness and beneficence in the cheery songs of spring and the glad shout of the harvest.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The voice of history<\/em>. <\/em>God is in history, and speaks to us through the events of the past, warning by judgments (Jer 7:12<\/span>), inviting by acts of deliverance and gifts of mercy (see Psa 105:1-45<\/span>.).<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> The voice of providence <\/em>in daily life. Has not God been speaking to us through our own experienceusing various prophetic agenciesthe advent of a new joy, the cloud of a great sorrow, a visitation of the angel of death to the home? Has he not repeatedly roused, invited, pleaded, and consoled us with voices from out eternity?<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> The voice of prophecy<\/em>. <\/em>God had often so spoken to the Jews before the days of Jeremiah, and reference is plainly made to this fact in the text. That voice still lives, because truth is eternal. Thus God speaks to us through the inspired thoughts of the Bible.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> The voice of Christ<\/em>. <\/em>He is the “Word” of God made articulate in the dialect of men (Joh 1:1-14<\/span>). He who sees Christ hears the voice of God.<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> The voice of conscience<\/em>. <\/em>This is God speaking within the soul. Every time we feel compunction at doing wrong, or an inward urging to do the right, God is pleading in our heart by direct communion, spirit with spirit.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> VOICE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> IS<\/strong> URGENT<\/strong>. God speaks with urgency”rising up early and speaking.”<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The urgency of God’s voice is a proof of his great love to his children<\/em>. <\/em>He speaks with frequency, repeating the same unheeded lesson, and even when none attend to his voice. God speaks to his children before they pray to him. The first impulse, to spiritual communion comes from God, not from us (Psa 27:8<\/span>). Christ stands at the door and knocks (Rev 3:20<\/span>). We may see in this an evidence of the long-suffering mercy of Goda mercy which “endureth forever,” and we may see an encouragement to listen and turn to him. Still he “waiteth to be gracious.”<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The urgency of God’s voice is a proof of the great importance <\/em>of what he says. God is urgent. What tremendous destinies must turn on a question which even he must rouse and bestir himself about! We might expect that any voice from the awful majesty of God would be full of deep and vast meaning. What must be the significance of his words when even he speaks with earnest insistence, with pressing urgency? How can such an utterance be passed unheeded?<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>‘S VOICE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> OFTEN<\/strong> NOT<\/strong> HEEDED<\/strong>. He speaks with the authority of the majesty of heaven, with the yearning love of a Father, with the urgency which betokens matters of profound interest, and with a direct reference to the most fearful woe and the most glorious blessedness of his children. Yet men turn aside with indifference. What are the causes of this appalling wonder?<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Spiritual deafness<\/em>. <\/em>There are men who have no ears for the voice of God. Yet God can open our ears if we are willing to hear.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Hatred to the highest truth<\/em>. <\/em>Men stop their ears against the sound of honest words which are hateful to sinful hearts.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Consciousness of guilt<\/em>. <\/em>Fearing words of doom, men refuse to hear any words from God; but<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> the doom will not be the less because the warning is unheeded, and<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> God warns to save.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Unbelief<\/em>. <\/em>Doubt as to whether a voice is Divine is often natural, and if the doubt grows into widespread skepticism the cause may be intellectual rather than moral. Bat when once a voice is recognized as Divine, unbelief is distrust in God; is “making him a liar.”<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> REFUSAL<\/strong> TO<\/strong> GIVE<\/strong> HEED<\/strong> TO<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>‘S VOICE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> A FATAL<\/strong> EVIL<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> It aggravates guilt by adding to it<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> fresh rebellion against our great King, <\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> ingratitude to the pleading love of our merciful Father, <\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> willful sin against light.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> It leaves the purpose of God’s voice unaffected. He urges and pleads with his children, but he does not force them to return to him. If they will not heed his voice that voice is lost upon them, and the ruin from which it would call them unaverted.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:16<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Forbidden prayers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Certain prayers must be regarded as unlawful.<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> PRAYERS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> POSITIVE<\/strong> DEMAND<\/strong>. Many men pray as though they were dictating to God. Prayer is petition, not command. The suppliant should assume the attitude of a mendicant.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> PRAYERS<\/strong> WHICH<\/strong> AIM<\/strong> AT<\/strong> TURNING<\/strong> THE<\/strong> WILL<\/strong> OF<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>. We may believe that God will do in answer to prayer what he would not do apart from prayer, because the very prayer may be the one essential condition which makes that fitting which would not be fitting without it. But this must be in accordance with God’s will, which is always perfect, while ours is often evil. <\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> PRAYERS<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong> IS<\/strong> WRONG<\/strong> IN<\/strong> ITSELF<\/strong>. God cannot grant such prayers. We may pray for all men, but we may not pray for every imaginable favor to be given to all men. Thus it is wrong to pray that the impenitent wicked should not be punished. The purpose of the text seems to be just to forbid this prayer. Jeremiah is not to pray that the calamities he sees approaching may not fall on the guilty people. It would be bad for them and an outrage on justice that, while they refused to hear the Divine voice warning them of their danger and inviting them to the way of safety, God should hear the voice of any intercessor pleading that the threat should not be accomplished, and that the wicked people should be saved from just punishment.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:21-28<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Declension.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jeremiah endeavors to rouse a sense of guilt in his hearers by pointing to the sad downward course of their history when this is regarded in the light of Divine requirements and inducements to follow them.<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> DIVINE<\/strong> REQUIREMENTS<\/strong>. These were not for the offering of mere formal sacrifices, but for obedience to God in heart and conduct (1Sa 15:22<\/span>). Men need to be repeatedly reminded of this fact, because there is a common tendency to separate religion from morality, to believe that God is pleased with the performance of Church services by those whose lives are spent in sin and selfishness, and that the devotions of the sanctuary atone for the wickedness of daily life. Jeremiah and the prophets generally teach<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> that religious services are worthless except as expressions of inward devotion, and<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> that no religious service is acceptable while obedience in common life is neglected.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> INDUCEMENTS<\/strong> TO<\/strong> FULFILL<\/strong> THESE<\/strong> REQUIREMENTS<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> A clear statement <\/em>of them. Jeremiah was not the first to reveal them. They were well known and easily understood.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Rewards promised for <\/em>obedience. It would be “well with” the people if they walked in all the ways that God commanded them. Disobedience led to the Captivity. Obedience is the only condition on which we can enjoy liberty.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Repeated warnings<\/em>. (Verse 25.) By all forms in which the Divine voice reaches us God is continually reminding us of his will and urging us to obedience.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> CAUSES<\/strong> OF<\/strong> DECLENSION<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Inattention<\/em>. <\/em>“They hearkened not.” People are too preoccupied by worldly concerns to give the requisite thought to higher interests.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Self-will<\/em>. “They walked in the counsels and stubbornness of their evil heart.” Men disobey through the conceit of superior knowledge and through the obstinacy of selfish aims.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> CHARACTER<\/strong> OF<\/strong> DECLENSION<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Departure from God<\/em>. <\/em>Israel turned “the back and not the face” to God. In disobeying the will of God we necessarily cease to walk with God, lose the light of his presence, become godless.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> A constant deterioration of morals<\/em>. <\/em>The contemporaries of Jeremiah “did worse than their fathers.” Progress is the natural order. But, left to itself, the leaven of wickedness will spread as surely as the seed of goodness would grow if that were allowed free development.<\/p>\n

V.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> CONSEQUENCES<\/strong> OF<\/strong> DECLENSION<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Hardening against the reception of truth<\/em>. <\/em>(Verse 27.) The people have reduced themselves to such a condition that they cannot receive the prophet’s message.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Inability to profit by correction<\/em>. <\/em>“This is a nation that receiveth not correction” (verse 28).<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Destruction of the value of religious services<\/em>. The burnt offering should express the dedication of the worshipper. But as it does nothing of the kind, it is worthless, and may as well serve as flesh for a common meal (verse 21). Religion, which should be the inspiration of morality, is dead and powerless in the hands of people of corrupt lives. The noblest exercise of humanity is thus reduced to a nullity.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:32<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 8:3<\/span><\/p>\n

Horrors of retribution.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THERE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> REASON<\/strong> TO<\/strong> BELIEVE<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> HORRORS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> SIN<\/strong> WILL<\/strong> BE<\/strong> FOLLOWED<\/strong> BY<\/strong> HORRORS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> RETRIBUTION<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Justice <\/em>requires a proportionate relation of punishment to sin. The Jews had sinned greatly. It was right that they should be punished with severity. Mild views of the requirements of punishment may be the result of a dullness of conscience which does not recognize the depth of guilt. When men are most deeply convinced of sin, they are also most apprehensive of the merited wrath of God.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Punishment, to be effective<\/em>, <\/em>must be proportionate to guilt. In its three functions as deterrent when threatened, chastisement for correction when received, and warning to others when witnessed, it can only be effectual if a due proportion be observed.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> The nature of God <\/em>leads us to suppose that he may exact horrible retribution for horrible sin. He is almighty, and if his anger, which is slow to rise, is at length roused, this must be terrible indeed. God is long-suffering, merciful, ready to forgive; but he is not weak and indifferent to the great evils of sin. It is not reasonable to suppose that the Divine anger will be the less in its outpouring because it is long withheld.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THERE<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> INDICATIONS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> HORRORS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> RETRIBUTION<\/strong> IN<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SCRIPTURAL<\/strong> REVELATIONS<\/strong> CONCERNING<\/strong> IT<\/strong>. Jeremiah is speaking chiefly of physical horrors which are to accompany the overthrow of Jerusalem. But he suggests that these contain certain necessary elements of retribution.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Death<\/em>. <\/em>Tophet shall be a valley of slaughter. The great and ultimate punishment is always regarded, not as pain, but as death (Rom 6:23<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Shame<\/em>. The corpses are to be unburied and exposed to the ravages of unclean animalsfor the Jew a fearful degradation. Sin exposed, confounded, defeated, will reflect burning shame on the sinner.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Anguish<\/em>. <\/em>“The voice of mirth,” etc; will cease; men will prefer death to life (Jer 8:3<\/span>).<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> A<\/em> peculiar relation of penalty to offence<\/em>. <\/em>Tophet, the scene of horrible wickedness, shall be the spot for retributive slaughter. Where wretched men immolated their children their own dead bodies shall be cast. The sun and moon and stars which they worshipped shall look down on their bones bleaching out in the open.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THERE<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> TIMES<\/strong> WHEN<\/strong> IT<\/strong> IS<\/strong> NECESSARY<\/strong> TO<\/strong> MAKE<\/strong> MEN<\/strong> THINK<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> HORRORS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> RETRIBUTION<\/strong>. The language of Jeremiah is explicit and graphic.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Details of future retribution should not take the chief place in instruction. They lose their effect by too frequent repetition. By themselves they are not able to produce a better life, but may result in hardness, unbelief, and disgust. The love of God in Christ is the great power to lead to holiness.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Nevertheless we must not shun to declare “the whole counsel of God.” Thoughts of retribution may be powerful means for rousing convictions of sin, if they are accompanied by appeals to conscience which make men feel the due proportion of guilt to punishment.<\/p>\n

HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-3<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Keeping the temple gate.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It was probably not the outer gate, but one of the gates which led from the outer to the inner or upper court (cf. Jer 19:14<\/span>; Jer 26:10<\/span>; Jer 36:10<\/span>). “From this point the prophet could view the whole assembly of the people in the outer court, as well as the gates leading from without into it’ (Lange). Christ seems to have stood thus at times.<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> PREACHER<\/strong> OF<\/strong> TRUTH<\/strong> DOES<\/strong> WELL<\/strong> TO<\/strong> CHOOSE<\/strong> THE<\/strong> MOST<\/strong> IMPRESSIVE<\/strong> POSITIONS<\/strong>, OCCASIONS<\/strong>, AND<\/strong> CIRCUMSTANCES<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> THE<\/strong> DELIVERY<\/strong> OF<\/strong> HIS<\/strong> MESSAGE<\/strong>. The great aim of the preacher is to get a hearing for what he has to say. Tact (to a certain degree), artistic juxtaposition and arrangement, sympathy with the spirit of the times, etc; are indispensable qualities to him who would give the Word of God bold and effective expression. Public occasions may, therefore, frequently be utilized for special services, etc. Passing movement and contemporary events may give fresh interest to permanent truth. A curious ingenuity is sometimes exhibited in making the preacher inconspicuous and reducing his office to a matter of routine. He ought always to feel that his message is an extraordinary one, requiring all the earnestness and effort of which he is capable to convey it with due effect. And even then it must have suffered at his hands, and in much he will be an unprofitable servant.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> RELIGIOUS<\/strong> OBSERVANCE<\/strong> MAY<\/strong> BE<\/strong> VERY<\/strong> FASHIONABLE<\/strong>, AND<\/strong> ALL<\/strong> BUT<\/strong> UNIVERSAL<\/strong>, WHERE<\/strong> THERE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> LITTLE<\/strong> REAL<\/strong> RELIGION<\/strong>. One has to distinguish between the outward and the inward, the religion of rite and ceremony and that of the heart. Here apparently the representatives of “all Judah” were assembled, and yet it was no sign of national piety, but rather the contrary. Instead of the carnal nature Being checked and corrected, it was directly fostered by such worship. Public worship <\/em>is a phrase which often includes elements that have nothing to do with the worship of God. That the services of God’s house should be chaste and attractive will be generally admitted. But architectural adornments, musical accessories of an ornate or merely artistic nature, displays of rhetoric, and similar additions to the essential character of the worship, may prove popular and entertaining, and yet be spiritually pernicious. In the case of Judah the whole worship was on a low intellectual and spiritual key. The gods of heathenism and Jehovah were worshipped alike, and the licentious rites of idolatry mingled with the sacrifices of the Law. This had resulted in the temple being polluted and becoming a “den of thieves.” Our aims in worship, the purity and concentration of our hearts, the moral relation between our every-day life and our temple service, have all very intimately to do with the question of the value of public religious observances.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> RIGHTEOUSNESS<\/strong> OUGHT<\/strong> TO<\/strong> BE<\/strong> PRELIMINARY<\/strong> TO<\/strong> WORSHIP<\/strong>. “Amend your ways and your doings” is the demand the prophet makes in proof of the genuineness of their worship. Religion is a matter of life, and not of showy observances and empty protestations. The best proof that we intend serving God is that we have already begun to do so in business and morals. This duty, although difficult, is the best preparation for exalted spiritual experiences and sincere adoration. Men are not fit to appear before God when their misdeeds are still being repeated and their moral habits are not under the influence of his Spirit.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> UNREAL<\/strong> WORSHIP<\/strong> OF<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> IS<\/strong> CERTAIN<\/strong> TO<\/strong> BE<\/strong> DETECTED<\/strong> AND<\/strong> EXPOSED<\/strong>. We can imagine the shame of the nobility and people whom the prophet from his unlooked-for vantage-point so sharply rebuked.M.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4-7<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Who shall dwell in the house of the Lord?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> AN<\/strong> UNWARRANTABLE<\/strong> ASSUMPTION<\/strong>. They arrogate to themselves, not only the exclusive possession of a meeting-place between God and man, but they speak of themselves as in a special and peculiar sense the temple of God.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> There is an argument latent here. The temple is looked upon as a permanent and immovable buildinga place of intercourse between Jehovah and his people. It is the only place of the kind, and it will stand for aye. But the Jews are so related to the temple, so bound up with its existence and maintenance, that they esteem themselves identified with it, and therefore partaking of its attributes. By an easy transition, to which language affords many parallels, they come to say, “The temple of the Lord is this [i.e. are we].”<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> And yet this very pretension, when spiritually interpreted, expresses a gracious and mysterious truth. That is the intention and aim of man’s creation. Every man, as man, is made to be a temple of the Holy Ghost. This is his purpose and obligation; but, instead of this, how opposite is the actual condition of most men! Not, therefore, as a matter of course, independently of moral resolve and Divine inspiration, but as something to be striven after and earnestly realized in holiness of life, is man the “temple of the Lord.”<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> And as is often the ease, the illegitimate narrowing and monopoly of this Divine indwelling is the very sign of its absence. They who rest upon other than moral grounds for the claim to the presence of God within them are usurpers. It is the universal privilege of those who serve God acceptably in spirit and in life. That which has a moral condition cannot be confined to local or sectarian limits.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> A COMMANDMENT<\/strong> WITH<\/strong> PROMISE<\/strong>. A rehearsal of common duties enjoined by the Law of Moses. It is terse<\/em>, <\/em>prosaic, detailed, and altogether opposed to the absurd pretension it is meant to correct. Just those duties, too, are mentioned which the prophet was well aware had been neglected by Judah. There is nothing brilliant or magnificent about the catalogue of deeds. They are just such actions as are obligatory upon all men. It was not even necessary for a man to be a Jew to do them; for when the Gentiles do these things it shows that there must be a law written upon their hearts by nature or grace. And yet the greatest in Jerusalem could not, any more than the heathen, do the least of them perfectly. How gracious that to them, therefore, is attached this premise of temple consecration] So the grand human duties and merciful dispositions, without which life would be so hard, are recommended and enforced by that comprehensive promise, to be immediately realized in personal blessing and consecration, to be completely fulfilled when “the tabernacle of God shall be with men.”M.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:13<\/span><\/strong>, <\/strong>Jer 7:25<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Rising up early.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A striking expression concerning Jehovah. In Jer 7:25<\/span> it is strengthened: “Daily rising up early.” It speaks to us<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> ANXIETY<\/strong> OF<\/strong> JEHOVAH<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> HIS<\/strong> PEOPLE<\/strong>. He who has important business on hand, or dear ones in trying circumstances, or great results dependent upon immediate and strenuous exertion, will show diligence in some such way. He will be unable to rest. So it is with God and his Church. Not that he can be said to fear <\/em>or be uncertain as to the issues. But the interest he has in the fortunes and spiritual state of his people is of this description. It is no impassive God who is presented to us in Scripture. A profound concern for the interests of our race ever fills the mind of God. His deepest affections are engaged. He mourns the sin and rejoices in the salvation of men.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> OF<\/strong> HIS<\/strong> DILIGENCE<\/strong> IN<\/strong> PROVIDING<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> THE<\/strong> WANTS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> HIS<\/strong> PEOPLE<\/strong>. It is no aimless, helpless anxiety that fills his breast. The most practical measures of help and direction are devised and carried into execution. Prophets, the plenipotentiaries of Divine grace, are sent in immediate response to the needs and demands of men. No age of the world or the Church but has its thick succession. Heaven is in continual activity on behalf of sinners. The choicest spiritual gifts are ceaselessly rained upon the earth. The most devoted servants of God are raised up and sent. Truth in quick evolution anticipates the spiritual necessities of those who would seek God. There is no flagging, no cessation, from Adam’s fall to the uplifting of the second Adam. And onward from that Divine spectacle, in which was displayed the “fullness of the Godhead bodily,” events hurry to the culminating glories of Pentecost and the marriage supper of the Lamb.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> IF<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> BE<\/strong> THE<\/strong> CASE<\/strong>, HOW<\/strong> OUGHT<\/strong> WE<\/strong> TO<\/strong> STUDY<\/strong> AND<\/strong> LAY<\/strong> HOLD<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> MESSAGE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> SALVATION<\/strong>? Is there not a contrast between the affectionate concern and sacrifice of God and the languid indifference or stubborn refusals of men? How shall we escape if we neglect this infinite mercy? How shall we excuse the manner in which we listen to the Word of God?M.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:17-20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Idolatry a detailed insult to Jehovah.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is frequently stated in the Bible. It must be the case from the very nature of the worship of false gods. It is a denial and robbery of the true God. But the description here given helps us to realize more completely the intense sinfulness of the worship of idols, because of the circumstances attending it.<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> AGGRAVATING<\/strong> CIRCUMSTANCES<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> It was done publicly in the streets of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah<\/em>. <\/em>God was displaced from the land he had given. The place that was consecrated by the faith and worship of the saints and the ceaseless mercies of Jehovah is desecrated by the orgies and profanities of heathenism. The worship of the “queen of heaven” (the female representativeAstarteof the nature principle, of which Baal is the male principle) could not but be public. As the Baal worshippers poured forth their libations to the sun-god in broad day, so the worshippers of the moon made no secret of their devotions. It was done literally and perforce “in the face of heaven.” And celebrations of the most obscene description mingled with their sacrifices. Yet was there no shame.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> It absorbed the attention and energies of the people<\/em>. <\/em>Here is a picture of a whole family, from the eldest to the least, occupied in tasks connected with the worship of Astarte. How different from the perfunctory or imperfect service rendered to Jehovah! No time was left for the true worship. And is it not just so today under new forms and conditions? The idolatry of pleasure, gain, ambition, personal and social ideals,does it not absorb the minds and bodies of its devotees? How little time is left for Christian duty and sacrifice! How weary and useless are those faculties which are professedly placed at the service of God! Our life-work is too often in the market-place, in the forum of personal display and self-seeking, etc; instead of the service of Jesus and the house of God.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> It involved the waste of the natural products of the land<\/em>.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> DELIBERATE<\/strong> INTENTION<\/strong>. There was not wanting this expressed defiance. The idea is that they would annoy and exasperate Jehovah with impunity to themselves, as mean natures delight in awakening the jealousy, etc; of others. In this way they showed how completely they misunderstood the relations of Jehovah with his world and his people, his command over the forces of nature, and his power of retaliation through the ordinary laws of nature.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> ITS<\/strong> RECOMPENSE<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> According to natural laws<\/em>. <\/em>Affecting, therefore, the objects they required for their sacrifices to Astarte, and cutting off the supplies requisite for man and beast.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> To their own confusion<\/em>. <\/em>God will be unaffected; they themselves wilt be put to shame. The idolater and atheist are their own worst enemies.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Not <\/em>to be escaped<\/em> or ended. They are playing with fire. It will soon find its proper objects in themselves and their profaned offerings. Nor will they be able to quench that which they have kindled. So helpless will transgressors ever be. In the least of the calamities that they provoke upon themselves there is a beginning of penal fires and eternal miseries.M.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:31-33<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The desecration of Tophet.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This valley was the scene of Solomon’s Moloch-worship, of the child-sacrifices of Ahaz and Manasseh, and of the varying idolatrous rites of succeeding times. If the temple still maintained externally its consecration to Jehovah and its position as the center of the theocracy, the valley of Ben-Hinnom was the acknowledged center and high place of Moloch. Its vicinity to Jerusalem brought it into prominent opposition to the temple. Some signal exhibition of the Divine wrath is, therefore, called for. This is furnished by the iconoclastic zeal of Josiah, the great slaughter of Israel in war, and the gradual use of it as a receptacle for filth, sewage, unburied dead, etc. The prophecy, repeated in Jer 19:11<\/span>, is speedily translated into history. We have here an instance of the Divine laws<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> WHICH<\/strong> IS<\/strong> MORALLY<\/strong> CORRUPT<\/strong> SHALL<\/strong> ENTAIL<\/strong> DESTRUCTION<\/strong>. Where there is filth in God’s universe there will be fire. Corruption is <\/em>the beginning of death, in this world and that which is to come.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> INWARD<\/strong>, MORAL<\/strong> CHARACTER<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THINGS<\/strong> AND<\/strong> PERSONS<\/strong> SHALL<\/strong> HAVE<\/strong> EXTERNAL<\/strong> PHYSICAL<\/strong> EXPRESSION<\/strong>. It will not always be concealed. That which is whispered in the ear shall be spoken from the house-top. The trap will be labeled and the pitfall plainly shown. The externalizing processes of history and development in nations, individuals, etc; tend to declare by outward and unmistakable signs the real character. Of this Tophet is an illustration. The judgment its revolting practices bring upon its votaries is the occasion of its permanent defilement. It gradually is transformed into a scene of physical abomination, and, to the spiritual imagination, the type and symbol of eternal perdition. Gehenna fireshow different their first and last senses, and yet how related! The same law will operate in holy and spiritual men. The inward nature will cast the slough of corruption, and shall be clothed upon with a “body,” which shall express, further, and fulfill it. When that which is really and spiritually filthy is sentenced to be ‘ filthy still,” the saints shall find embodiment and circumstances corresponding to their inward condition, and constituting the elements of their reward.M.<\/p>\n

HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-34<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The relations of righteousness and religion.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This chapter, as indeed so much other of Jeremiah’s prophecies, teaches not a little Concerning this great theme. In this chapter we note how it shows<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> RIGHTEOUSNESS<\/strong> IS<\/strong> THE<\/strong> PRINCIPAL<\/strong> THING<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> It is God’s solemn <\/em>demand (verse 2).<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> Jeremiah is charged to proclaim it in the Name of the Lord and as his <\/em>word.<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> He is to go where there will be a vast congregation of the people: “In the gate of the Lord’s house.”<\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> Probably at a time of national gathering, at one of the feasts, so as to secure a yet larger audience.<\/p>\n

(4)<\/strong> At a moment when the word of the Lord might be expected to win most attention from themas they were “entering in at the gates to worship the Lord.”<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> It is God’s perpetual <\/em>demand. See the whole chapter, the whole prophecy. “Amend your ways and your doings” (verse 3) is its constant appeal.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> At first it was his only command, and it is ever his first <\/em>command. (verse <\/em>22). Our first parents were commanded to obey before sacrifice or any rites of religion were appointed. And so with Israel (verse 22). The moral Law was given before the ceremonial. And it was given in a far more imperative form. The moral Law begins “Thou<\/em> shalt<\/em>;” <\/em>the Levitical (Le 1:22:1<\/span>), “If any man will.” Hence from all the foregoing it is evident that righteousness stands before all else in the Divine esteem.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> RELIGION<\/strong> WAS<\/strong> GIVEN<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SAKE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> AND<\/strong> AS<\/strong> AN<\/strong> AID<\/strong> TO<\/strong> RIGHTEOUSNESS<\/strong>. Righteousness is not for the sake of religion, but vice versa<\/em>. No doubt they render mutual help, but the proper relation of the two is as aforesaid. And religion can be a help to righteousness and ought ever to be, even as it has often been and is.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> My supplying fresh motives<\/em>. <\/em>Apart from religion, righteous conduct becomes simply morality, and bases itself upon laws of expediency, or at best draws its force from motives that rise no higher than earth and man and the present life. But religion gives the love of God in Christ <\/em>as its all-constraining force. Under the influence of this, what have not men done and borne; and what will they not do and bear?<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> By lending intensity to those already in action<\/em>. <\/em>How puny the power of hope<\/em>, <\/em>when it has none other recompense than that which this life and this world can furnish, contrasted with its invincible force when the recompenses of eternity, made known to us by religion, are set before it and held out to it! And so with the motive of fear<\/em>. <\/em>What an immense addition is made to the deterrent force of fear when the idea of God and his <\/em>awful displeasure are present before the mind!<\/p>\n

“His love will all vain love expel,
His fear all fear beside.”<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> By furnishing a perfect example<\/em>. <\/em>In our blessed Lord’s life, short as it was in duration, and far removed from us as it is in time, place, and circumstance, nevertheless in it there is to be found a standard and model of righteous conduct for all ages and all lands, such as can be found nowhere else. His life has been the compass by which many a saint has steered across the difficult ocean of life, and by its aid arrived safely at the desired haven.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> By winning for us<\/em>, in response to our fervent prayers<\/em>, the ever-present and potent help of the Divine and transforming Spirit<\/em>. <\/em>By his aid the very “body of sin” within us is crucified, and we become new creatures in Christ.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> By its ordinances of worship<\/em>: <\/em>its continual teaching, its Church fellowship, and its varied sacred observances, keeping alive within us those beliefs and sentiments which are ever the most powerful prompters to all righteousness of life. Thus the Israelite of old found the Law of God (cf. Psa 119:1-176<\/span>.) his perpetual aid, and the worship of God’s house a constant solace and strength. And it is so still. By the truths and the ordinances of religion, the weak, wavering will is steadied, the feet are kept from falling, and the soul is preserved from death. Such ought ever to be the case, ever is so, where religion is the worship of God in spirit and in truth; and this was the Divine design and intent in giving it to us.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> BUT<\/strong> THEY<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> AT<\/strong> TIMES<\/strong> FOUND<\/strong> ASUNDER<\/strong>. Religion may flourish, but righteousness be only conspicuous by its absence. It was so in the time of the prophet. We see a whole apparatus of religiontemple, altar, priests, sacrifices, services; nothing omitted in external observances. And there was a national profession of it; large sums of money were lavished on it, and there was a universal outward regard for it. But, on the other hand, all this went on whilst the most gross unrighteousness characterized the very people who outwardly were so religious (cf. verses 5, 6, 9, 18). This was an appalling fact. Nor, alas! is it one that now has no existence; the same sad separation of religion from righteousness may be too often seen in our days as of old. The murderous banditti of Southern Europe are diligent at Mass, and pay all honor to the Virgin and saints. The midnight assassins of Ireland are all good Catholics. And many a chapel and church in our own land has amongst its seemingly most religious worshippers, men who are cruel, hard, fraudulent, impure”saints at the prayer-meeting and sacrament, but very devils at home.”<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THEY<\/strong> MAY<\/strong> BE<\/strong> EVEN<\/strong> OPPOSED<\/strong> TO<\/strong> ONE<\/strong> ANOTHER<\/strong>. Not merely separate, but antagonistic. Yes, religion, which was designed to minister to righteousness, may not only be severed from it, but be actually found undermining it, sapping its very life and strength. Thus:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> By begetting false confidence<\/em>. <\/em>(Cf. verse 4.) The Jews thought that all this religion must guarantee them immunity from the Divine displeasure, must ensure them his safeguard and protection. He, so they thought, could never suffer harm to come to his own temple”the temple of the Lord.” And still it is hard to persuade our hearts that all our religion goes for nothing, and worse than nothing, when it brings forth no fruit of righteousness. So many prayers, such liberal gifts, such good desires, such correctness of creed and of outward demeanor, such devotional fervor,surely these things must propitiate Heaven, must ward off the Divine displeasure! <\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> By teaching men truths which they can readily wrest to evil<\/em>. <\/em>(Cf. verse 10.) The meaning (see Exposition) is not “We <\/em>cannot help ourselves; God has given us over to sin;” but “We are delivered by our religious observancessacrifices and the like; the score is cleared off; we are secured against harm; we may go and live as we list.” Thus they “tamed <\/em>the grace of God into lasciviousness,” and “continued in sin that,” etc. And is not this done still? It is to be feared that not a few suck a poisonous pleasure from the Messed doctrine of the forgiving love of God. Thus the gospel itself may become a “savor of death unto death” to those who thus “make Christ the Minister of sin.” And because religion has been seen so often severed from righteousness, and sometimes even ministering to unrighteousness, many have been and are eager to sweep it away altogether as a hindrance rather than a help to moral well-being. A highly educated German gentleman, whom the writer met abroad, expressed it as his strong and deliberate conviction that the religiousness and the decay of a people stand related as cause and effect. He argued that England must sink because her leading statesman was an eminently religious man. And were religion necessarily or generally severed from righteousness, still more if it were necessarily or generally opposed <\/em>to righteousness, then it would deserve the denunciation of all right-minded men, and the sooner it were swept utterly out of the way the better. But all we can say is that if righteousness be not found in company with religion, it is to be found nowhere else; and if the Church of God, the great company of those who profess to be actuated by religious motives and aims, do not furnish and nurture God-like and righteous souls, then there is no other company on the face of the earth that does so. Bad as the Church may be, the world is far worse.<\/p>\n

V.<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong>, THEN<\/strong>, IS<\/strong> OUR<\/strong> DUTY<\/strong>? Not to inveigh against religion, still less to seek its destruction, but to do all we can to restore the original and God-designed relationship between it and righteousness. “What God hath joined together, let,” etc. And it is on this restoration of right relationship between the two that God so strenuously and sternly insists here and throughout his Word. If (verse 3) they will <\/em>amend their ways, then his blessing; but if not, he will have no mercy. He cites the instance of Shiloh as a solemn warning to them (verse 14). He forbids Jeremiah even to pray for them whilst they continue as they are (verse 16). He pours his contempt upon all their religion, their burnt offerings, and sacrifices (verse 21), whilst severed from righteousness. He tells them that all along in their history, from the first until now, he had asked for, though he had never received it from them, not religion merely, but righteousness<\/em>obedience to his Word (verses 21-28). Instead of that they had committed all abomination, and therefore they should miserably perish (verses 29-34). How dreadful, then, must be the separation, and yet more the antagonism, between these whom God united! As he gave Eve to be a help-meet to Adam, so did he give religion to be the help-meet of righteousness. Let us tremble with a holy fear if we find ourselves able to go on contentedly in religious observances, whilst conscience becomes less and less sensitive, and our love and loyalty to righteousness grow feebler day by day. Our subject shows us that such a disastrous condition is possible. But that we may escape it, let us resolve that, inasmuch as God has given us religion for our helpa help which our blessed Lord himself ever made use of-<\/p>\n

“Cold mountains and the midnight air
Witnessed the fervor of his prayer;”<\/p>\n

we will know the possibilities of help towards holiness which undoubtedly it contains. Let us set ourselves to seek the “baptism of the Holy Ghost” and “the endowments of power” which come therefrom. If we do thus set ourselves to seek these, they shall be ours, for they are most certainly promised; so shall religion and righteousness abide in that most intimate and hallowed union which God from the first designed for them, and our righteousness, ministered to by its God-given help-meet religion, shall far exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees, yea, shall advance ever nearer to that most glorious attainment, in which we shall be as our Savior bid us be”perfect, as our Father in heaven is perfect.”C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:3<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The indispensable condition of all grace.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Amend your ways,” etc. See how this demand for amendment is reiterated in this chapter and throughout this prophecy. And we observe<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> IT<\/strong> IS<\/strong> EVER<\/strong> SO<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> See<\/em> the Word of God<\/em>. <\/em>The prodigal had to come away from the far country first. John the Baptist, our Lord, and his apostles all preached repentance before pardon. The Law comes before the gospel<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Conscience confirms the justice of this demand<\/em>. <\/em>We feel it to be a monstrous thing that, without any turning from sin even in purpose, there should be an expectation of God’s grace.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Men make this same demand of those who rebel against their laws.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> God’s providence upholds this demand. The constitution of things is for the obedient and against the transgressor (cf. Butler’s ‘ Analogy’).<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> AND<\/strong> THE<\/strong> REASONS<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> BECAUSE<\/strong> SIN<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Outrages God<\/em>. <\/em>What order or happiness can there be in that household where the authority of the head is openly set at naught?<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Is dogged by sorrow and death<\/em>. <\/em>The avenging deities were said to be shod with wool, so that their footsteps, ever following the transgressor, were not heard. It was the vision of sin and its awful issues that caused Jesus to sigh, to be troubled in spirit, and to weep; it was his agony. Now, God would save us, but cannot until we have done with wickedness.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Binds the soul to enmity against God<\/em>. <\/em>Deeds of wrong are the devil’s sacraments, whereby he seals on the soul his own impress and pledges the soul to serve him. Every solitary act of sin deepens that impress and makes that pledge more irrevocable. Therefore, if the soul is to be saved, that bond must <\/em>be broken.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Amendment in conduct is the first step towards the restoration of the soul<\/em>. <\/em>A man may break off ill-doing, and yet his heart be very far from right with God. Still, because every victory over sin strengthens the conscience and weakens the power of sin, its held is thus loosened upon the soul, and the work of restoration is so far advanced.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> BUT<\/strong> COMPLIANCE<\/strong> WITH<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> MOST<\/strong> RIGHTEOUS<\/strong> DEMAND<\/strong> IS<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Often very difficult<\/em>. <\/em>Ask the drunkard, the impure, the worldling, the gambler, if they find it easy to break away from their besetting sins. How like a set of fiends they clamor for their wonted indulgence! “Hoc opus hic labor est.”<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> But never impossible<\/em>. <\/em>No; for along with every Divine command goes forth the strength needed for obedience. How absurd, on mere human principles, for our Lord to bid the man with the withered hand to stretch it forth; the palsied to rise, take up his bed, and walk; and Lazarus to come forth from his tomb! But all these facts are recorded to encourage those who would turn to the Lord, but yet “are sore let and hindered.” We often ask<\/p>\n

“Oh, how shall feeble flesh and blood<\/p>\n

Burst through the bonds of sin?<\/p>\n

The holy kingdom of our God,<\/p>\n

What soul shall enter in?”<\/p>\n

And there could be but one sad answer were it not that he who gives the command gives also the needed help. Yes<\/p>\n

“There is a way for man to rise<\/p>\n

To that sublime abode;<\/p>\n

An offering and a sacrifice,
A Holy Spirit’s energies,<\/p>\n

An Advocate with God.”<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> And ever blessed<\/em>. <\/em>(Cf. Jer 7:3<\/span>, Jer 7:7<\/span>.) All those precious sentences with which the sermon on the mount opens, and which we call the Beatitudes, were addressed to those who had resolved, by God’s grace, to amend their ways. Christ has no other word for them than that they are blessed, and what his Word affirms all they who have followed his leading do with grateful heart confirm. Yes, “blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.”<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> But if refused<\/em>, is awfully avenged<\/em>. <\/em>Too often it is refused. It was so here. All manner of excuse attempted, and though these “lying words” (Jer 7:4<\/span>) were and are exposed again, the refusal is persisted in, and then “the wrath of God arises, and there is no remedy.” “From all such hardness of heart and contempt of thy Holy Word and commandment, good Lord, deliver us.”C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

How men deceive themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord,” etc. The people of Jerusalem were flattering themselves that no harm would come to them because of the presence in their midst of the temple of the Lord. And men flatter themselves in like manner still. Now let us<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> CONSIDER<\/strong> THEIR<\/strong> ARGUMENT<\/strong>. God had said, “In this house will I dwell.” They knew that, and hence it seemed impossible that it should be devastated by the heathen. It was the place of which he had said,” There ‘mine honor dwelleth.” The cloud of glory had filled it, the Sheehinah brightness rested on the mercy-seat. Was it to be imagined that he who of old had smitten with death those who presumed even to look into or to touch the ark of God, who had smitten monarchs with leprosy for lack of due respect to it, would now suffer the bands of the idolaters to lay waste his sanctuary, in which it was enshrined? Moreover, once and again salvation for Israel had gone forth from the temple of God, deliverance and victory had there been won. The prophetic prayer of Solomon who had built it told of mercy and help that should surely come to Israel through that temple. Thus ancient teachings, glorious events, the manifested presence of God, many promises in connection with the temple of the Lord, all combined to lead men to look upon it with an undue trust, and to believe that, so long as it reared its sacred front in their midst, it would prove as a palladium, a shield and defense for them all. Therefore they met all Jeremiah’s warnings, and all misgivings of their own consciences, by the oft-repeated cry, “The temple of the Lord<\/em>, <\/em>the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these!” And that which answers in our day to the Jewish trust in these “lying words,” as Jeremiah terms them, is the confidence that is placed in the Church, her sacraments and ministers; or in past religious experiences, or in present moods of feeling; and yet more in the endorsement of our religious profession by our acceptance into the Church’s fellowship and our admission to her ordinances. Such answer now to the “lying words” Jeremiah denounced then. But note<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong> OF<\/strong> WORTH<\/strong> THERE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> IN<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> ARGUMENT<\/strong>. There can be no doubt that the tares owe a great deal, owe everything in fact, to the wheat amongst which they have been sown. But for the wheat, they would have been plucked up long ago. And God’s dealings with men had so often confirmed what our Lord’s parable teaches, that the tares had come to congratulate themselves that they had no cause for fear. For ten righteous men Sodom would have been spared. For Moses’ sake all Israel had been borne with, when but for his intercession God’s righteous anger would have swept them away. The descendants of David had cause many times to bless themselves that, though so unlike their great ancestor in obedience to God, they were yet of his house and lineage. “For the elect’s sake,” said our Lord, “those days”days of Jerusalem’s final doom”shall be shortened.” And so here in the text, the people of Jerusalem could not but know that they were wicked in the extreme; but because they, though tares, were blessed with the presence of what they thought God counted as wheat-the temple and all its hallowed associationsthey laughed at the idea of any great calamity coming upon them. And in the present-day parallels to that old trust in “lying words,” what of worth there was in those words then, there is in the like of them now. The Church, with all its hallowed associations, is God’s wheat, or rather, does assuredly contain all there is of it. For what manner of definition of the Church of God will any one presume to lay down other than this, that it consists of all <\/em>the good? Broader it is not; but so broad it is. The presence, therefore, of the godly in any community is a guarantee of good to that community. “Ye are the salt of the earth,” said our Lord. But for his Church the world would rot. Let any who sneer and persecute Christ’s servants, whether in school, work-room, office, shop, or where else-and such persecution is common enoughlet them remember that, but for such as those on whom they are pleased to pour their contempt, their own career would be cut very short indeed. If, then, the temple of the Lord, to which the Jews were trusting, was as the wheat, then the wicked people who were looking to it for safety were in the right, and their words were not lying words.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> ITS<\/strong> WORTHLESSNESS<\/strong> NOTWITHSTANDING<\/strong>. In all those instances in which the tares had been spared for the sake of the wheat, there had been two conditions fulfilled. It had been really wheat which sheltered the tares, and there had been sufficiency of it. There was not enough of it when the Deluge came, nor when Sodom was destroyed; and so, in like manner, should ever the wheat fall short, it will go ill with the tares then. But did the temple and its ritual and its associations fulfill either of these conditions? No doubt the mere structure, her very stones, had worth in God’s sight. Just as, for the sake of the dearly beloved soul that once has dwelt within that now lifeless corpse, we hang over it with tenderest fondness, and would not put it away from us were we not compelled; so, because of the true worship that had gone up from that temple, and because of the many saintly men who there had drawn near to God, that material shrine had a certain value and would not lightly be allowed to perish. But if there were preciousness in the temple, there was not sufficiency of it to outweigh or to cover over the iniquities which surged around it, yea, invaded its very courts, and of which it was made the unwilling occasion. Instead of being a palladium, or any sort of guarantee of safety to that godless nation, its towers and courts, its altars and ever-ascending sacrifices, were ever calling down vengeance upon those who so shamefully used them. And, indeed, it could hardly be said to be as God’s wheat at all. The temple had often been the vehicle of that” worship in spirit and in truth” which alone God desires, and for the sake of such worship it had a relative preciousness. But let that worship ceaseas it had long ceasedthen the temple became as a mere corpse, beautiful, tenderly loved indeed, but still corruptible, corrupting and spreading corruption, and therefore demanding to be put out of the way. Now apply all this to the false truths of our own day. Will the Church, her sacraments, her ordinances, your membership with her, your frequent moods of religious feeling, your current creed, your loud profession of attachment to her, your manifold religious privileges,will any or all of these things, precious though they every one of them be, compensate for that surrender of your true self to God which is his perpetual desire and demand? Will they not rather, as did the presence of the temple and their innumerable privileges for the Jews, heighten your guilt, and make more glaring your sin, because they show that you have been amongst those “to whom much has been given,” and of whom, therefore, “much <\/em>will be required?” No worship, however magnificent, costly, constant; however hallowed by association, or authorized by venerable usage, or sanctioned by the holiest of the Church of God, or even owned by God as the means of uplifting many hearts heavenward and Godward; if such worship be wanting, as, alas! it may be, in the all-essential element, the “worship in spirit and in truth;” if there be no outgoings of the heart <\/em>in it all, as too often there is not,-then it will prove no shield from but a provocative to that holy wrath of God which sooner or later awaits every godless soul.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> VERY<\/strong> SERIOUS<\/strong> SUGGESTIONS<\/strong> IT<\/strong> OTHERS<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The utter hatefulness of sin<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> It turned the very temple of the Lord and its sacrifices, which had been designed to be “a savor of life unto life” to those who by means of them drew nigh to God, into “a savor of death unto death.” And so still, even Christ the Rock, the sure Foundation, becomes by this wresting power of sin a crushing stone which, falling on the head of the sinner, grinds him to powder.<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> It drags down the innocent with the guilty. That temple of the Lord, the holy and beautiful house, what had that done? Had it not deserved all honor and love from those amid whom it stood? And now the sin of the people was to overwhelm her in utter and irretrievable ruin. The man whose wickedness pulls down innocent and loving wife and children, and drags them <\/em>in the mire which he has chosen to wallow in, as we see their misery, how odious his sin appears! And this is ever one of sin’s works. It drags in and down the innocent, the pure, the beloved. Behold those blackened ruins, those polluted altars, those blood-stained courts, and see a parable of sin.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The testimony that these refuges of ties<\/em>, such as that in which the Jews trusted<\/em>, do surely give of our need of a real refuge<\/em>, a true defense<\/em>. <\/em>Men who deny the <\/em>Savior most are yet ever confessing that they and all men do need a Savior. They who would not trust in God trusted in the mere material temple.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> To what are we <\/em>trusting? In “lying words<\/em>“which God forbid!orwhich may God grant!in those words of the Lord Jesus, which are able to make us wise unto salvation?C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:5-16<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Strange church-goers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> LOOK<\/strong> AT<\/strong> THEM<\/strong> AS<\/strong> JEREMIAH<\/strong> SAW<\/strong> THEM<\/strong>. Thieves (Jer 7:6<\/span>, Jer 7:9<\/span>), most cruel oppressors, murderers, adulterers, etc. Yet they were all going into the temple to worship the Lord. Strange church-goers indeed.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> ASK<\/strong> IF<\/strong> THERE<\/strong> BE<\/strong> ANY<\/strong> SUCH<\/strong> NOW<\/strong>? What if some angel of God, unseen by us, were to mark on the foreheads of all who enter our churches now their true characters in the sight of God: would there be no fraudulent, no oppressors of the poor, none whose hearts, though not their hands, are chargeable with having shed innocent blood? Let us each one ask, “What name would be put upon me?”<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> INQUIRE<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong> POSSIBLE<\/strong> MOTIVES<\/strong> CAN<\/strong> ACTUATE<\/strong> THEM<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> With some, no doubt, it is a cloak to cover up their real character.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Or a tribute paid to the demands of fashion, custom, society. What would be thought of them if they did not go to church?<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Or a method of quieting conscience. They come away and think they have wiped off the score that was against them. They say (Jer 7:10<\/span>), “We are delivered [see Exposition] to do,” etc.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Or to set an example to those they are pleased to call “the lower orders;” like the philosophers of old, who, whilst they held all religions to be equally false, yet regarded them all as indispensably useful.<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> Or as a means for so many regarded such thingsof propitiating the Divine favor and securing a title to heaven by-and-by. But there is no end to the motives which lead such men to do that which, to more honest-hearted people, appears a mockery, an absurdity, and yet worse.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> LISTEN<\/strong> TO<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LORD<\/strong>‘S WORD<\/strong> TO<\/strong> SUCH<\/strong>. He tells them:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> They were getting no good whatsoever from such worship (Jer 7:3<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> They were completely declaring themselves (Jer 7:4<\/span>).<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> They were neglecting that amendment of their ways which would save them (Jer 7:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> They were grossly insulting nod (Jer 7:10<\/span>, Jer 7:11<\/span>).<\/p>\n

5.<\/strong> They were blind to notorious facts: e<\/em>.g<\/em>. <\/em>Shiloh (Jer 7:12<\/span>); Ephraim (Jer 7:15<\/span>).<\/p>\n

6.<\/strong> Thorough reformation was alone the way of life for them (Jer 7:3<\/span>, Jer 7:7<\/span>). “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:9-11<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sacrilege.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong> DO<\/strong> WE<\/strong> GENERALLY<\/strong> UNDERSTAND<\/strong> BY<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> WORD<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Some use it of disregard of ritual.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Others of secular employment of sacred places or things.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Others of those persons whom they regard as unauthorized presuming to minister in holy things.<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Others of robbing churches, etc. But without discussing these, let us note<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> COUNTS<\/strong> AS<\/strong> SACRILEGE<\/strong>. It is declared here (Jer 7:11<\/span>). It is when men turn the Church of God into a den of robbers. Our Lord charged this upon the religionists of his day. Jeremiah charges it, in God’s Name, upon those to whom he was sent. Costly, splendid, correct, continual worship was duly carried on. Irreverenceand how much less sacrilege!would seem to be a charge utterly unfit for those who worshipped in such manner. And yet, though the word be not here used, the thing itself is emphatically told of as the very crime which these people were flagrantly guilty of. Turning God’s house, which was called by his Name, into a den of robbers,if that be not sacrilege, what else is? They robbed one another (verses 5, 6). They robbed God. And the temple was their haunt, as their den is the robbers’ haunt; and there they found rest, and prepared themselves for further crime (verse 10), as does the robber in his den. It is an awful indictment. But under one or other of the counts of such indictment they are assuredly chargeable who frequent the house of God, not for the high and holy purposes for which the worship of God was designed, but that, as in verse 10, they may get peace of mind in regard to their past sins and so be free to go and sin again. “With such usage the temple is not a place of salvation, but a refuge for robbers, where they purify themselves from the blood of their evil deeds, so as to be the readier for new ones.” Therefore all they who “make Christ a Minister of sin,” who, instead of deliverance from sin, get comfort in it by their religious observances, who shelter themselves from all fear of God’s anger and silence the warnings of conscience by “coming and standing before God in his house which is called by his Name,” though their object be only “to be delivered to do all these abominations,” and not at all to be saved from them,these are the sacrilegious, and their profanation of holy things is the worst of all.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THINK<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> RESULTS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> SUCH<\/strong> SACRILEGE<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> How God is dishonored!<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> How his service is made hateful in the eyes of men! What a stumbling block it is to those who would turn to God!<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> How it hardens the man’s own soul!<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> How it necessitates the judgment of God!<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong> SHOULD<\/strong> SUCH<\/strong> A SUBJECT<\/strong> TEACH<\/strong> US<\/strong>? Surely, when in the house of God, to pray that if any have come there in sacrilegious manner, God’s Spirit, the Lord of the temple, may meet with them and turn them from their evil way. Should we not also search and see if there be any <\/em>such evil way in ourselves? And let our prayer be unto him who when on earth drove forth with scourges the “robbers” whom he found in the temple, that he would be pleased, by the scourge of his Spirit and his Word, to drive forth from all in his house now all in them that would rob him of his glory and their souls of eternal life.C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:12-16<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Warning voices.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> SUCH<\/strong> VOICES<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> PERPETUALLY<\/strong> HEARD<\/strong>. The prophet speaks of three such here.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Shiloh (Jer 7:12<\/span>). <\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The Lord himself (Jer 7:13<\/span>). <\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Ephraim (Jer 7:15<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> And THEY<\/strong> TELL<\/strong> EVER<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SAME<\/strong> TRUTHS<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The Divine anger against sin (Jer 7:12<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The utter uselessness of their “trust in lying words” to escape that auger (Jer 7:14<\/span>).<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> The absolute need of repentance.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> And MEET<\/strong>, ALL<\/strong> TOO<\/strong> OFTEN<\/strong>, WITH<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SAME<\/strong> RECEPTION<\/strong>. They were rejected. “Ye heard not; and I called you,” etc. (Jer 7:13<\/span>).<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> But are VINDICATED<\/strong> IN<\/strong> LIKE<\/strong> AWFUL<\/strong> MANNER<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> By their sin becoming ineradicable, so that they are given over to a reprobate mind, and are “guilty of an eternal sin”. Hence (Jer 7:16<\/span>) the prophet is forbidden to pray for them (cf. 1Jn 5:16<\/span>).<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> By the judgment of God falling upon them (Jer 7:15<\/span>).<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Watch and pray against unbelief in these warnings. <\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Take heed to them yourselves. <\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Hold them up to others. <\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> Bless God for them.C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:12-14<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Shiloh, or the God-forsaken shrine.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is to many minds impossible to avoid a feeling of deep sadness when we look upon the ruins, noble even in their desolation, of some former beautiful and august sanctuary of God. There are many such scattered over this and other lands: Tintern, Furness, Melrose, etc. Our imagination pictures them when in the zenith of their glory, with their many stately towers and tapering spires, their long-drawn aisles and lofty roofs, the glorious vista of high-arched nave and choir and glittering sanctuaries stretching away further still in the dim distance, the gleaming altars, the magnificent service, the vast throng of kneeling worshippers, the soul-enchanting music, and the murmur of myriad prayers. The memories of saintly men and women who have worshipped and are buried there crowd upon the mind, and we wistfully wonder where and why that consecrated genius has flown which had power to rear for God shrines so glorious as those whose ruins we are beholding must once have been. It is sad to think of such glory and beauty as these forsaken shrines once had gone forever. The Jews who came back from the Captivity wept when they thought of the glory of the ancient temple, which they never more might see. But if the departure of material <\/em>glory may cause sadness to the mind, how much more the departure of that which is spiritual! If <\/em>we mourn that we shall no more have the presence of some fair temple of the Lord, how much more when we lose the Lord of the temple! And it is such sadder loss that Shiloh, the God-forsaken shrine, has to tell of. And we observe upon it that<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THERE<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> FEW<\/strong> MORE<\/strong> MOURNFUL<\/strong> HISTORIES<\/strong> THAN<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> OF<\/strong> SHILOH<\/strong>. Shiloh was one of the earliest and most sacred of the Hebrew sanctuaries. There for full three hundred years the ark of God remained and the priests of the Lord ministered. As soon as the promised land was mainly subdued, Joshua brought the ark of God from Gilgal, near the Jordan, to Shiloh. The place was probably chosen for its seclusion and hence its safety, it being off the great highways of the land. Bethel, which otherwise might have been chosen as especially sacred, was yet in the hands of the Canaanites. Hence Shiloh, in the territory of the powerful tribe of Ephraim, and of their great ancestor Joseph, a tribe which more and more had been coming to the front amongst their brethren, was chosen for the sanctuary of the ark of God. There, as afterwards at Jerusalem, “the tribes went up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord.” What glad festivals; what gracious deliverances; what Divine responses to their inquiring of the Lord; what holy memories of thronging worshippers, of accepted sacrifices, of saintly priests and prophets who had dwelt there, were all associated with that shrine at Shiloh! There Eli ministered, and Hannah came to present her offerings, to pour out her prayers and to pay her vows. There she brought Samuel, and there the Lord called him to his high service as he ministered before him. All their truest and noblest life drew its inspiration from the God who had placed his Name there, and whom there they went to worship. But at length, under the rule of Eli, that well-meaning but weak-willed high priest, priesthood and people alike sank down into a state of moral and religious degradation from which Eli was powerless to deliver them. His own sons led the way in abominable wickedness, and became sons of Belial even beyond others. So low had they fallen, that they had come to regard the ark of God as a kind of fetish, and hence they carried it down to battle against the Philistines, thinking thereby to certainly win the day. But the ark of God was taken, its besotted priests slain, and Eli, hearing the dreadful tidings suddenly, died, a worn-out and broken-hearted old man.<\/p>\n

From that hour, as the seventy-eighth psalm tells, “God forsook Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men; he refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim.” And it was all because, as the same psalm tells, Israel “tempted and provoked the most high God, and kept not his testimonies: but turned back, and dealt deceitfully like their fathers: they were turned aside like a deceitful bow. For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.” Wherefore “he was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel.” And now, ages after, Jeremiah bids the people of his day go to Shiloh, and see what God did to it for the wickedness of the people. They might trace out, perhaps, the foundations of her ancient walls, and discover the vestiges of the former sanctuary; but now no altar bore the sacred fire, the smoke of no sacrifice ascended, no priest ministered, no God gave answer, no song of the Lord went up; the whole place was probably ravaged and overthrown by the enemies of Israel, who had carried off their great treasure, the ark of God. Well might the wife of Phinehas, in the hour of her agony, call her new-born, but now fatherless, and soon to be altogether her orphan, child, Ichabod, for indeed the glory had departed, the ark of God was taken, and the Lord had forsaken Shiloh. Oh, the sorrow, the shame, the unavailing remorse which would overwhelm the faithless priesthood and the godless people, when they beheld that God-abandoned shrine, and remembered wherefore this calamity had come upon them! Yes, this story is a sad one; but it is most salutary also, and therefore we may well heed the word of the Lord which says to us, ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my Name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel.” But we observe<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> SHILOH<\/strong> HAS<\/strong> MANY<\/strong> PARALLELS<\/strong>. Shiloh is not the only God-forsaken shrine of which the Bible tells or of which we have had knowledge. No; there are all too many like it. There was the temple of the Lord in Jeremiah’s time. All its splendor, its solemn ritual, its lavish sacrifices, its ever-burning altar fire, could not save it. The stern sentence went forth against it, and it was burnt with fire and laid in ashes on the ground. There was the temple which was afterwards built on the return from Captivity, and which was so beautiful and adorned in the time of our Lord; concerning that, too, Jesus said, “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate!” And it was the same with many Churches, those “spiritual houses” which, after our Lord’s time and in his Name, were reared for a habitation of God through the Spirit. The Christian Church at Jerusalem. The honor of being the mother Church of Christendom was taken from her and transferred to Antioch, and ultimately it was overwhelmed altogether in the destruction that came on the city in which it was gathered. And there were the Churches of Asia; their “candlestick was removed out of its place,” as the Lord warned them would be the case, and now secular historians bear their testimony to the truth of that warning word. Gibbon tells how “in the loss of Ephesus the Christians deplored the fall of the first angel, the extinction of the first candlestick of the Revelation; the desolation is complete; and the Temple of Diana or the Church of Mary will equally elude the search of the curious traveler. The circus and the three stately theatres of Laodicea are now peopled with wolves and foxes. Sardis is reduced to a miserable village; the god of Mahomet, without a rival or a son, is invoked in the mosques of Thyatira and Pergamos; and the populousness of Smyrna is supported by the foreign trade of Franks and Armenians. Philadelphia alone has been saved by prophecy or courage. At a distance from the sea, encompassed on all sides by the Turks, her valiant citizens defended their religion and freedom above four score years; and at length capitulated with the proudest of the Ottomans. Among the Greek colonies and Churches of Asia, Philadelphia is still erect; a column in a scene of ruins.” They have thus all disappeared, as Christian Churches almost utterly; they are as Shiloh and Jerusalemtheir houses in which they worshipped God left unto them desolate. And there have been many other Churches since, and some nearer our own time and in our own land. And many still, perhaps, need sorely the admonitory counsel to go to Shiloh, and see what the Lord has done there. But not in material edifices alone, nor even in those gathered communities to which more properly the name of Churches belongs, need we go to find instances of God-forsaken shrines. For inasmuch as we all are “temples of the Holy Ghost,” so St. Paul tells us, and our own experience confirms his word, it is possible to find only too many illustrations of this same mournful fact. Take the ever-memorable example and warning of the fallen apostle Judas. What a shrine of the Holy Ghost he once was! How richly gifted! how gloriously endowed! He came with the rest, saying, “Lord<\/em>, <\/em>even the devils are subject to us through thy Name.” He with the rest” ate and drank in Christ’s presence, and in his Name did many wonderful works.” He enjoyed the fellowship of Christ, and by him was sent forth in his Name. But behold him giving place to the devil, yielding his soul up to the demon of covetousness and worldly ambition, and then acting as the guide to them who arrested the Lord, betraying the Son of man with a kiss, and then, when too late he awoke to see the madness and horror of what he had done, rushing forth to seek and find a suicide’s grave in the Aceldama, “the field of blood,” purchased by the price of his traitorous gain. And Ananias and Sapphira and Demas and yet others, what are they all but deplorable instances and names of these God-forsaken shrines? And have we not known such? Men who prayed, and worshipped, and taught, and preached, and. then, having denied the Lord who bought them, fell away, and found henceforth nothing but “a fearful looking for of judgment” and of the “fiery indignation” of God destined to be poured out on all such as they. Ah! it is a sight which might well make angels weep, and which drew forth the bitter tears of the Son of God himself.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> AND<\/strong> IN<\/strong> EVERY<\/strong> CASE<\/strong> THE<\/strong> CAUSE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> FORSAKING<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THEM<\/strong> BY<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> WAS<\/strong> ONE<\/strong> AND<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SAME<\/strong>. It was always “wickedness.” Not any outward circumstance, not any of those secondary causes which we are so apt to regard as the real cause. But this which these verses so plainly declare. It was so even in those ruined edifices to which we referred at the beginning of this homily. History will tell you how gross immorality and horrible corruption found a too-ready home in those fair fabrics which had been reared for far other purposes and with far other design. But “wickedness” having made them its haunt and home, the people, roused to fierce wrath, rose up and tore them down, and their gray, ivy-clad stones utter forth to this day such message as that in our text. And in all those other instances to which we have pointed, whether temples made with hands, whether Churches or individual men, it has ever been sin, sin, which has wrought all this evil. And in that every-day fact of bodily death We have the standing type of this terrible truth, “The wages of sin is death.” That body once so bright, so full of energy, so lit up with intelligence and love, so possessed too, it may have been, with the Spirit of God, so fall so lovely to look upon when life dwelt in it, now in death,what is it but a God-forsaken shrine, and hence doomed to return, “earth to earth, dust to dust, and ashes to ashes?” We are so accustomed to death that this its solemn lesson we are ever forgetting or putting out of sight.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> BUT<\/strong> ALL<\/strong> THESE<\/strong> SHILOHS<\/strong> HAVE<\/strong> A MESSAGE<\/strong> FROM<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> UNTO<\/strong> US<\/strong>, ACCORDING<\/strong> TO<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong> WE<\/strong> ARE<\/strong>. We every one of us are either examples of these forsaken ones, or becoming so, or, blessed be God, still habitations for him through the Spirit. Now, if we be already forsaken of God, then if this fact beas surely it should be, and as we trust it isa matter of sore distress to us, then there is a gracious word to us if we be willing to hear it. All of us were once “temples of God.” We can look back to the time when none of the unclean spirits that now haunt and harm us so terribly had any home in our souls; when thoughts were pure, hands undefiled, and our lips unpolluted with evil. Our fathers and mothers brought us to be baptized, or in other ways recognized the blessed truth that we belonged to the Father, the Son, and the Spirit<\/em>. <\/em>And in our childhood days we, as all children are, were members of the kingdom of heaven. But what are we now? O God, it is dreadful to think of what some are now] The desolate ruins of once glorious Churches; the lifeless bodies that we carry to the grave are but faint types of what some of these God-forsaken ones have become. And can it be that any are willing to continue so, and thus make it inevitable that God should sweep you away into the hell of all corruption? Oh no; you cannot be willing that that should be. Well, then, if you tremble at such doom, as well you may, listen: God will re-enter his shrine<\/em>, and make you once again his temples<\/em>. <\/em>Yes, he will do that. He will “restore your souls and lead you in,” etc<\/em>. <\/em>But first, as when Hezekiah cleansed the temple, you must cast out the manifold uncleanness that is there. There must be a thorough purging, a real repentance. God will not come back to a sin-inhabited and evil-loving soul. You must “thoroughly <\/em>amend your ways.” This is indispensable. See how in this chapter and throughout his Word God insists upon this. And then, as the high priest was wont to do, come bearing the blood of atonement into the presence of God; come, that is, pleading the Name of Jesus for acceptance and pardon and restoration,and you shall behold, in the shrine of your soul, the cloud of glory once again shining there and the presence of God again manifested there. Thus come day by day, and you shall find how Christ saves “to the uttermost all that,” etc. But are you of those whom God is now forsaking? Is the dread process of crowding out God by the bringing into the shrine of your heart those many things God hates and with which he will not abide, going on in you? Ah! that may be so. As others, so you were once the temple of the Holy Ghost, and perhaps there came a day when more than ever you welcomed him as your Ruler, because he had taken of the things of Christ and had shown them unto you. You made your open confession and avowal of your desire to be ruled and governed by him; you pledged yourself by his help to be Christ’s faithful servant always. And for a time you were so: you were careful, conscientious; you remembered your Lord’s word, “Watch and pray;” you readily abandoned all that stood between you and the doing of his will; you walked with God. But a change has come over you. One by one you received into your heart likings, and desires, and beliefs, and dispositions which were contrary to the Spirit of Christ. These suggestions you listened to, their counsels you obeyed. And so the love of the world fastened on you, propensities and habits which war against the soul took hold of you, and now you, whose heart was once a shrine of God, will, if the sad process I have spoken of goes on much longer, be forsaken of him altogether. Oh that the consideration of the doom of Shiloh may fill us with a holy fear, and lead us to such prayer as that which the well-known verse expresses!<\/p>\n

“Search me, O Lord, and try my heart,<\/p>\n

For thou that heart canst see,<\/p>\n

And turn each cursed idol out<\/p>\n

That dares to rival thee.”<\/p>\n

But some of you are to be congratulated that you are still temples of God, still shrines of the Holy Ghost. Well, then, cherish his presence as the greatest joy of your life. For “he is your life.” You would not invite to meet and abide with a dear and honored earthly friend those with whom you well knew he had no sympathy nor they with him, who were distasteful and hostile to him. You would not treat an earthly friend so. Be careful, then, not so to treat the Spirit of God, who now dwells within you. Be full of solicitude not to grieve him, yet more to do naught that would drive him from you. “Walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” So shall God dwell in you and you in God, and that more and more to your ever-increasing strength and purity and joy. Thus though, as we have now done, you may go in devout thought to Shiloh, and behold what God has done there, yet you shall be able with thankful joy to know that never, never shall you be as that God-forsaken shrine.C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:13-16<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Divine long-suffering worn out.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The above section brings before us, as do many other Scriptures, this very certain and very serious truth of God’s patience being not only exhaustible, but exhausted. We observe<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> DIVINE<\/strong> LONG<\/strong>–SUFFERING<\/strong> IS<\/strong> A VERY<\/strong> PRECIOUS<\/strong> FACT<\/strong>. Nations, Churches, individuals have not we ourselves?have been examples of it. What have not all of us owed to the fact that the Lord is long-suffering, and” willeth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn,” etc.? But<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> TRUTH<\/strong> HAS<\/strong> VERY<\/strong> OFTEN<\/strong> BEEN<\/strong> MUCH<\/strong> ABUSED<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> In men’s thoughts<\/em>; <\/em>for they hope, and to think that in have allowed themselves to pervert the truth of the “eternal ” no way can the finite will of man exhaust the infinitude of mercy which there is in God.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> And in their words <\/em>also they have so set forth the long-suffering of God as to leave on men’s minds the impression that it was practically infinite, We love to sing such verses as those which tell how <\/p>\n

“None can measure out thy patience<\/p>\n

By the span of human thought,<\/p>\n

None can bound the tender mercies<\/p>\n

Which thy holy Son hath wrought.”<\/p>\n

And there is a sense in which these words are most blessedly true, but it is undeniable that such words are often pressed to a meaning which practically encourages the sinner to go on in sin.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> And yet more is this truth abused in deed. Those to whom the prophet was writing had abused the long-suffering of God (cf. the closing verses of the Second Book of Chronicles). And how fearfully frequent is this abuse in the present day I How many reckon securely on making their peace with God, and having all the great affairs of their souls fully settled for eternity, although they go on, day by day and year by year, living in total disregard both of God and of his will. Therefore it is necessary to insist with all urgency<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LONG<\/strong>–SUFFERING<\/strong> OF<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> CAN<\/strong> BE<\/strong> WORN<\/strong> OUT<\/strong>. The above section of this prophecy plainly declares this fact. And the fate of Jerusalem stands not alone in evidence of this (cf. the story of the Deluge, and how long then the long-suffering of God waited). Those who perished in the wildernesshow often were they warned! And, indeed, it may be said that God never brings ruin upon nation, Church, or individual soul without warning, repeated, plain, and urgent. But the fact that he does send such ruin proves that men may tempt God too far.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> AND<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> WHICH<\/strong> WILL<\/strong> EXHAUST<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LONG<\/strong>–SUFFERING<\/strong> OF<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> IS<\/strong> CLEARLY<\/strong> SHOWN<\/strong> US<\/strong>. It is not the fact of sin, great sin, repeated sin, but it is when, as in the case before us, sin has been persisted in, in spite of every kind and degree of plainest warning<\/em>. <\/em>“He that being often reproved hardeneth his neck,” etc. (Pro 29:1<\/span>). Now, such was the conduct of those told of here. God had not merely let them know of the peril of their conduct, but his loving solicitude for them had shown itself in the most marked ways. Note expressions in Jer 7:13<\/span> : God not only spoke to them, but like as “those who watch for the morning” rise up early, so God himself awoke early, i<\/em>.e<\/em>. <\/em>he chose the most favorable hours, the most probable means for gaining attention to the truths which he, by his prophets, spoke to them. But it was all of no avail. “Ye heard not; ye answered not” (cf. Jer 6:16<\/span>, Jer 6:17<\/span>). Now, it is sin persisted in, in spite of all such Divine solicitude so repeatedly manifested” that God will not pardon (Jer 7:14<\/span>, Jer 7:15<\/span>). It is an unpardonable sin, and like such sin its forgiveness is not even to be prayed for (Jer 7:16<\/span>, and cf. 1Jn 4:16<\/span>).<\/p>\n

V.<\/strong> CONSIDER<\/strong> THE<\/strong> REASON<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> REFUSAL<\/strong> TO<\/strong> FORGIVE<\/strong>, It is not because there is not love sufficient in God to pardon, but because his love is so great, because he is <\/em>love. For God’s love is not as that of too many earthly parentsa partial and unjust thing, loving one child at the expense of the othersbut his love is for the children<\/em>. <\/em>His whole <\/em>family are the subjects of his incessant and tenderest solicitude. Now, if a rebellious child come away from its rebellion, and have done with it, coming and confessing, “Father, I have sinned,” with what joy the Father welcomes such returning one back! And so do the angels of God. No harm, but only good, results. But if there be no repentance, and the spirit of rebellion burns on in the heart of the child, how, consistently with true regard for the welfare of the other and obedient children, can the Father deal with that one as he does with these? It would turn heaven into hell, and make the Father’s house, now the home of blessedness and the blessed, a scene of eternal discord. It could not be. Now, it is because such despising of the long-suffering of God destroys the hope of repentance, renders impossible the sighing of the contrite heart, and renders certain the going on in rebellion, that therefore this sin wears out the long-suffering of God and hath never forgiveness. The very love of God necessitates that he who is separate and alien in heart from the children of his love should be separate and alien from them in every other respect as well. And therefore, because it would be praying against the well-being of God’s children, the prophet is forbidden to pray for the forgiveness of this sin. It is the unpardonable sin, the sin unto death, the sin against the Holy Ghost.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong>. We learn what alone bars the mercy of God<\/em>. <\/em>Not this or that sin, however great. Still less the circumstance of death. But this “despising the forbearance of God.” What need, then, for us all to pray, “Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me I shall be innocent from the great <\/em>transgression!”C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:16<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Prohibited prayers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The text a distinct instance. We remark<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> SUCH<\/strong> PROHIBITION<\/strong> OF<\/strong> PRAYER<\/strong> SEEMS<\/strong> VERY<\/strong> STRANGE<\/strong>. Are we not bidden “pray without ceasing,” “in all things by prayer and supplication make our requests known unto God?” Are we not promised, “Ask, and ye shall receive?” Did not the Lord say, “Men ought always to pray, and not to faint?” And, in a case more nearly resembling the one before us in the text, did not Samuel say to the rebellious people of his day, “But God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you?”<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> IT<\/strong> IS<\/strong> NEVERTHELESS<\/strong> A FACT<\/strong>. And this prohibition is repeated (Jer 11:14<\/span>; Jer 14:11<\/span>; cf. also Exo 32:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> AND<\/strong> WE<\/strong> HAVE<\/strong> WHAT<\/strong> IS<\/strong> SIMILAR<\/strong> NOW<\/strong>. There is no express command not to pray for the reversal of the laws of nature. But yet we never do pray for such things. David’s servants wondered that when his child was dead he should altogether cease from fasting and prayer; but he answered, “Wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again?” (2 Samuel 41:23). And even before death has actually taken place, when there is no hope of life, we find it all but impossible to pray for such life. And so in regard to what we know would be derogatory to the honor of God and his righteousness; we should never think of praying for aught like that. Or for what cannot be in the nature of things. Now, in all these things it is as if we had been prohibited to pray for them, seeing that we never do so pray. As children give over praying their parents to do this or that when they see by the expression of their countenance that it cannot be, and, on the contrary, when they see the faintest look of “yes,” they urge their request with a renewed importunity of clamor; so is it in our prayers before God. We must see the look of “yes” on the face of God in more or less degree, or our prayers die down. But if it be seen, then they rise up, press on and forward with a vigor unknown before. This is a law of all prayer. And in regard to prayer for such as are told of in the text, it may be that Jeremiah was not expressly told in so many words that he was not to pray for them, but it was borne in upon his mind that he could not. And it is sadly possible that such conviction may be borne in upon the minds of God’s people now concerning’ some reprobate ones. There comes, over the soul the deep feeling that such and such a one “is joined to his idols, and that you can only “let him alone” The disciples of the Lord were bidden, when their message was spurned, to cast off the dust of their feet as a testimony against them. Paul did so with the hardened Jews. And such solemn conviction as to the utter godlessness of any on the part of a company of God’s people is that “binding on earth” which will be ratified by, because it is but the result of, the “binding in heaven.” They of whom the Church feels deeply that “their sins are retained,” those sins are retained. And so through this solemn conviction, this despair of the soul’s turning to God, prayer for such soul may become impossible. God has practically said concerning such to his people, “Pray not thou for this people, neither,” etc.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> IS<\/strong> A FACT<\/strong> OF<\/strong> MOST<\/strong> MOMENTOUS<\/strong> IMPORT<\/strong> TO<\/strong> THOSE<\/strong> WHOM<\/strong> IT<\/strong> CONCERNS<\/strong>. To be given up by God’s servants may be the token that you are given up by God. Their feeling about you may bewe do not say necessarily is, but may bebut the reflection of God’s. Happy are they who put joy and gladness into the hearts of God’s servants, and for whom they with earnestness and strong faith can pray. But sad is the outlook of those for whom those same servants of God feel they cannot pray. Oh, pray that prayers for you may never be counted by God or by his people as amongst prohibited prayers!C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:18<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Idolatrous worship both a warning and a model.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The text vividly portrays the worship rendered to the heathen goddess, whose sumptuous and licentious worship had so fascinated those to whom the prophet wrote.<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> IT<\/strong> IS<\/strong> A WARNING<\/strong>. For it shows the deadly contagion of sin. Now, when the head of the household goes after evil, he speedily draws in and down wife and children, until the whole family is corrupted, and they become a household of wickedness. The text reveals whole families engaged in the worship of idolatry, each member taking an active and eager part. They become so many societies for the propagation of ungodliness. In the sanctity or the sin of the parent the children are sure to share. In the first, by the grace of God; in the second, by the fatal force of a father’s example. A father can lift his children up to heaven or he can drag them down to hell, and some do. See the text.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> BUT<\/strong> IT<\/strong> IS<\/strong> A MODEL<\/strong> ALSO<\/strong>. In what we are here told, the heathen shame the Church. Idolatrous worship may well put to the blush much of the worship of God. For in the worship told of in the text, false and horrible as it was, nevertheless we see much that we might well copy.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> It was a worship that made all work<\/em>. <\/em>What a busy hive of workers each household is seen to be! But where is the counterpart of this in the Church of Christ? A whole family eager and active for Christthe father, the mother, and all the childrenwould be a unique fact. How lazy, how indolent, is the greater part of our religion!<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The children were interested in it<\/em>. <\/em>We are heartbroken that the great masses of our countrymen stand aloof from the worship of God. Did we interest them in it when they were children? We had them all in our hands, as we have their children now. Are our modes of worship, our representations of God’s truth, our methods of instruction, such as shall make them love God’s worship when they grow up? What would we not give to see our children so eager in God’s worship as were the children told of in the text in idol-worship?<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Both sides of the house were agreed on this great question<\/em>. <\/em>Husband and wife were of one mind, and each did what they could to further it. It was the general rule. Is it so now in regard to God and his service? Does the husband never hinder the wife? Does the wife always help the husband on the heavenward road?<\/p>\n

4.<\/strong> There was fit work for each<\/em>, and each did it<\/em>. <\/em>The children could gather sticks, the men kindle the fires, and the women, etc. When will there arise in the Church some who will point out some fresh and wise methods of enlisting all in her work? We have now two or three regular plans in operation; but if any be unfit or unwilling for them, as many are, there is nothing else for them. What we need is what these idolaters in their sad worship seem to have founda work for every <\/em>one, and every one at his work. But meanwhile let each one who is standing in the vineyard idle, not because unwilling to work, but because no one has hired him, no one has pointed him to the work for which he is really fitand there are many suchlet him take his case to the Lord, and ask, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” and he may rest assured, no matter whether he be little child or grown-up man, an answer will come to him soon.C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:19<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The recoil of sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> RESULTS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> SIN<\/strong> ON<\/strong> OTHERS<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> TERRIBLE<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> What may not be their deadly influence upon those with whom the sinner comes in contact? <\/em>How hereditary, how contagious, how virulent, the poison of sin! As no man liveth unto himself, so also “no man dieth unto himself.” If he die by reason of his sin, he ever drags down others into the same doom.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> And their results Godward<\/em>. <\/em>It is said they “provoke him to anger;” “God is angry with the wicked every day;” “God is slow to anger, and of great mercy.” But still sin is “the abominable thing that he hates.” He will not tolerate it in his children, and hence, however severe the measures necessary to separate it and them, those measures will be taken. “Our God is a consuming fire.” But<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> RECOIL<\/strong> OF<\/strong> SIN<\/strong> ON<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SINNER<\/strong> HIMSELF<\/strong> IS<\/strong> TERRIBLE<\/strong> ALSO<\/strong>. It is described in the text.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> It provokes him to anger<\/em>. <\/em>It is not alone the Lord whose anger is aroused, but the sinner’s anger also is provoked. As he looks back on the folly, the utter madness, of what he has done, how completely he has been deceived, what rage of remorse fills his soul! How he flogs himself with the lashings of his own self-upbraiding! What epithets of anger and contempt does he heap upon his own head! He is filled with the fruit of his own ways. And another of these bitter fruits is:<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Confusion of face<\/em>. <\/em>He is ashamed, abashed, confounded, because of his sin. He is so<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> before his own conscience<\/em>, <\/em>He cannot bear to think of himself. From the companionship of his own thoughts he flees as from a haunting ghost. Like a sheeted specter conscience seems to be pointing at him with its dread finger, its stony eyes ever glaring upon him, so that, turn which way he will, he cannot escape their gaze. He is ashamed of himself, covered with confusion of face before his own conscience. Oh, miserable, miserable wretch that he is!<\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> Before God<\/em>. <\/em>He cannot pray. He shuns the throne of grace. His iniquities have so “taken hold of him” that he cannot “look up.” All joy, all confidence, all hope in God, have fled. He feels himself an outcast from the Divine presence; he would feel the eye of God upon him if he knelt down to pray, and that he cannot bear.<\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> Before man<\/em>. He cannot forever conceal his sin and folly, and even when it is as yet undiscovered, he is conscious of this “confusion of face “in the presence of others. And when at length the sin is discovered, oh, what agony of shame and remorse then! Death is chosen rather than life, and men rush to the suicide’s grave as to a positive relief. “Anywhere, anywhere out of the world,” which has become aware of their sin! Oh, this awful recoil of sin! “I believe that if the mental sufferings of such backsliders could be written and faithfully published, they would astound you, and be a more horrible story to read than all the torments of the Inquisition. What racks a man is stretched upon who has been unfaithful to his covenant with God! What fires have burned within the souls of those men who have been untrue to Christ and his cause! What dungeons, what grim and dark prisons underground, have saints of God lain in who have gone aside into by-path meadows instead of keeping to the King’s highway! He who sins must smart, especially if he be a child of God, for the Lord hath said of his people, ‘You only have I known of all the people of the earth, therefore I will punish you for your iniquities.’ Whoever may go unchastised, a child of God never shall” (Spurgeon).<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> ALONE<\/strong> CURE<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> THIS<\/strong> CONFUSION<\/strong> OF<\/strong> FACE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> THE<\/strong> CONTRITE<\/strong> CONFESSION<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> WHICH<\/strong> HAS<\/strong> CAUSED<\/strong> IT<\/strong>. God’s word is passed that such confession shall avail; but let not him who has gone back from God think that the return will be as easy as the departure. It will not. David was never the same after his sin as he was before. Oh, it is dreadful to think of this recoil of sin, and how it staggers and wounds and weakens the soul for the whole life long. We slide <\/em>back, gliding easily as over smooth ice. Not so do we return. Still, let the return be ever so difficult, the Lord bids us return, and he will heal all our backslidings. Oh, let us all go straight away to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for fear we should be backsliders; for there is the surest standing-ground, there our footsteps never slip! And if we have thus sinned, and sin<\/em>‘s <\/em>recoil is now terribly felt by us, then still go to the same cross; for our only hope of healing is there, and there alone.<\/p>\n

“Come, let us to the Lord our God<\/p>\n

With contrite hearts return;<\/p>\n

Our God is gracious, nor will leave<\/p>\n

The penitent to mourn.”<\/p>\n

C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The innocent victims of sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THERE<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> MANY<\/strong> SUCH<\/strong>. All forms of life are mentioned herehuman, animal, plant from the stateliest trees down to the lowliest herband all shall suffer because of the sin of but a portion of them. How many, even of men, were innocent! And the young childrenwhat had they done? Yet none were to escape, though it was but a portion of the men of the day who had done such wrong.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> HENCE<\/strong> SOME<\/strong> SAY<\/strong>, “THE<\/strong> WAY<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LORD<\/strong> Is NOT<\/strong> EQUAL<\/strong>.” But:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The summing up of all life in one head, constituting it a corporate unity, giving a solidarity <\/em>to all life, especially to all human life, is the Divine order.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> And though sin and sorrow come by means of it, yet a far larger balance of good is produced by it. What do we not owe to our all being members one of another? True, evil comes, but good yet more. Were we all isolated, separated, independent, there would be no guarantee for our good even then, but there would be certainty of infinite loss. If the sins of the fathers are visited on the children unto the third and fourth generation, the mercy of the Lord is unto thousands <\/em>of generations “of them that love him and keep his commandments”(Exo 20:6<\/span>)<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> And though because of it “n Adam all died,” yet because of it also in Christ shall all be made alive. This interlinking, of one with all and all with one is, therefore, a matter for great thankfulness, and, though attended with present evils, not at all of complaint.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> AND<\/strong> THE<\/strong> THOUGHT<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THESE<\/strong> INNOCENT<\/strong> VICTIMS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> SIN<\/strong> IS<\/strong> MOST<\/strong> SALUTARY<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> It often holds back from sin<\/em>. <\/em>This is one way in which God “out of the mouth of babes and sucklings has ordained strength.” How often fathers and mothers will, for the sake of their children, that they might not be harmed, keep back from sin, to which but for such motive they might have yielded!<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> It deepens repentance for sin<\/em>. <\/em>(Cf. 2Sa 24:17<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> It makes sin more hateful to us<\/em>. <\/em>What must that be which destroys not us only, but our children, innocent of all sin? And it may be that the thus furnishing of additional safeguards against sin, and of additional motives to obedience, was one reason in the Divine mind for constituting us all “members one of another.”<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> AND<\/strong> THE<\/strong> THOUGHT<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> INNOCENT<\/strong> ‘VICTIM<\/strong> OF<\/strong> SIN<\/strong>, OUR<\/strong> LORD<\/strong> JESUS<\/strong>, IS<\/strong> THE<\/strong> MOST<\/strong> SALUTARY<\/strong> OF<\/strong> ALL<\/strong>. For he transforms us from victims into victorsvictors over the condemning, the attractive, the defiling, the enslaving power of sin. And it is as we “look unto” him, as our souls habitually trust him to do all this for us, that we cease to be victims of sin, and become victors over it. Let us give glory to him by accepting his off, red grace.C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:21-28<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The indispensable condition of well-being.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is laid down in Jer 7:23<\/span>obedience to God. It is the teaching of the entire Bible, of our Lord, the prophets, his apostles. The gospel is for thisto secure it more perfectly; and the sacrifices of the ancient Law were for the same reason. But men have ever rebelled against this. They were doing so in Jeremiah’s time. They sought to make their sacrifices and burnt offerings a substitute for the obedience God commanded. Hence, as Hezekiah was compelled to destroy the venerable relic, the brazen serpent, which, intended as an aid to faith, had become the object of faith, so now Jeremiah was compelled to speak slightingly of the appointed sacrifices and worship of the temple for the very same reason. Verse 21: he mocks at their repeated sacrifices, and (Verse 22) declares that at first God never desired or commanded any such thingsonly that they should obey his voice, He implies that they were afterwards given but as safeguards and helps to their obedience, which, without them, could not be secured. That obedience (Verse 23) he emphasizes as the one thing needfulthe only thing for which God cared, but which they had persistently and, what was worse (Verse 26), increasingly refused. So that now (Verse 27) they were fixed in their disobedience, and no words, however divinely authorized, however earnestly urged, would have effect, and there was nothing left but to declare (Verse 28) their utterly abandoned character and condition. And the like conduct is seen still. Men still are ever attempting to evade the Divine rule of life. By reliance on sacraments, profession of religion, adherence to orthodox creeds, resting in feelings and periods of religious excitement when their emotional nature has been deeply stirred,in almost anything rather than in that God faith in whom is shown only by obedience to his will. And the habit of this grows, and its results, as of old, become worse and worse, and all exhortation and warning fall on deaf ears and hardened hearts, and men still become as those who “obey not the voice,” etc. Ever. 28). Let us remember that this is the subtle temptation of all ages, all Churches, and all people; and let us pray that God would write upon our hearts the sure truth that the one only evidence of our having so “named the name of Christ” as to be “in him” is our “departing from iniquity.”C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:29<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 8:3<\/span><\/p>\n

The harvest of sin.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I. WE<\/strong> READ<\/strong> IN<\/strong> OTHER<\/strong> SCRIPTURES<\/strong> OF<\/strong> “THE<\/strong> JOY<\/strong> OF<\/strong> HARVEST<\/strong>.” Such shall be the joy of God’s redeemed people when his purposes of grace are fulfilled in and for them. It will be a joy unspeakably glorious.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> BUT<\/strong> HERE<\/strong> WE<\/strong> HAVE<\/strong> PORTRAYED<\/strong> ANOTHER<\/strong> HARVEST<\/strong>that of sin. Here there is no joy, but bitter lamentation and weeping and woe (Verse 29). We are shown:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The seed from which this harvest springs (Verse 30)the doing evil in the sight of the Lord; setting their abominations in his house (Verse 30).<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> We see its growthin open and unblushing idolatry; in the debasement of their nature. They had come to sacrifice their own children to their idol-god, to such horrible cruelty had they sunk down.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> We see its hurry,<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> in death, widespread and terrible (Verses 32, 33); <\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> in the flight of all joy and gladness (Verse 34); <\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> in public and deep degradation (Jer 8:1<\/span>, Jer 8:2<\/span>); <\/p>\n

(4)<\/strong> in utter despair (Jer 8:3<\/span>).<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> AND<\/strong> THOUGH<\/strong> DIFFERING<\/strong> IN<\/strong> OUTWARD<\/strong> CIRCUMSTANCE<\/strong>, YET<\/strong> IN<\/strong> SUBSTANCE<\/strong> AND<\/strong> REALITY<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SAME<\/strong> HARVEST<\/strong> WILL<\/strong> EVER<\/strong> SPRING<\/strong> FROM<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SAME<\/strong> SEED<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> All evil<\/em>–doing is such seed<\/em>. <\/em>And sheltering this under the cloak of religion,this is the same seed.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> And its growth <\/em>will be in like manner. Progressive daring in sin; the debasement of our nature.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> And its harvest <\/em>will be seen,<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> in widespread spiritual death, and often in terrible death-beds; <\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> in the loss of all joy and gladness; <\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> in degradation before men; <\/p>\n

(4)<\/strong> in awful despair.<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong>. Remember, “God is not mocked: whatsoever a man soweth,” etc.C.<\/p>\n

HOMILIES BY J. WAITE<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 7:4<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Lying words.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These were “lying words,” as being used by false men for a false purpose. Literally true, for it was <\/em>“the temple of the Lord” that stood in the midst of the land, and in the gate of which this message was delivered,they were false in spirit, for the deceitful prophets thought thus to make the sanctity of the material structure a cover for the iniquities of the peoplea charm to ward off their threatened punishment. The cry was indicative of a hollow and rotten condition of things throughout the entire system of social life. “The prophets prophesied falsely, and the priests bore rule by their means, and the people loved to have it so” (Jer 5:31<\/span>). We may take these words in three different lights, as reflecting<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SPIRITUAL<\/strong> PRIDE<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> LEADS<\/strong> MEN<\/strong> TO<\/strong> THINK<\/strong> THEMSELVES<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SPECIAL<\/strong> OBJECTS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> DIVINE<\/strong> FAVOR<\/strong>. This was the characteristic vice of the Jewish people. The distinctions God conferred on themthat they were separate among the nations as “Abraham’s seed’ and the chosen covenant people, that they had the temple of the Lord among themwere made occasions for national vain-glory, instead of incentives to holy character and noble deed. The same principle is illustrated whenever superior enlightenment, knowledge of truth, spiritual gifts, personal sanctity, ecclesiastical advantage, etc; lead in any way to self-exaltation. Nothing more unseemly than this. If in any such sense “the temple of the Lord’ is with us, it may be expected that the shadow of it will produce in us a solemn sense of responsibility. Special privilege brings with it corresponding obligations. Whatever tokens of his favor God bestows on us, their due effect is to lead us to walk with the greater self-forgetfulness and reverential fear before him.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> HYPOCRISY<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> MAKES<\/strong> THE<\/strong> “FORM<\/strong> OF<\/strong> GODLINESS<\/strong>” A SUBSTITUTE<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> ITS<\/strong> “POWER<\/strong>.” What availed it that the temple of the Lord stood among them, if the spirit of devotion had departed? The sacred shrine in which they boasted was but a mockery of their internal falseness. The essence of Pharisaism lies in this resting in the outward and apparent, to the neglect of the inward, the spiritual, the real. None so far from God as they who imagine that a mere round of external observances will please him apart from the sincere homage of the soul. “This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoreth me with their lips,” etc. (Mat 15:8<\/span>).<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SELF<\/strong>–DECEPTION<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> PUTS<\/strong> ON<\/strong> THE<\/strong> GARB<\/strong> OF<\/strong> A RELIGIOUS<\/strong> PROFESSION<\/strong> AS<\/strong> A CLOKE<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> SIN<\/strong> AND<\/strong> A SHIELD<\/strong> FROM<\/strong> ITS<\/strong> PENALTY<\/strong>. The people did wickedly, and then went and stood before the Lord in the house called by his Name, and said, “We are delivered” (Jer 7:10<\/span>)a striking illustration of the folly of those who dream that, so long as they pay public homage to the sovereignty of God’s claims, they may violate his laws with impunity. It is a delusive dream that must have, sooner or later, a dread awakening. The mere material temple, glorious as it may be, is no sanctuary for a guilty conscience and a corrupt life. Simply to “lay hold on the horns of the altar” will not save us from the Divine retributions, the Nemesis that tracks the footsteps of the transgressor. Merely to cry, “Lord, Lord!” will never avert from men the sentence, “Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity ‘ (Luk 13:25-27<\/span>).W.<\/p>\n

HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-14<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The doom of the temple.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I. THE<\/strong> MESSAGE<\/strong> TO<\/strong> THOSE<\/strong> CONCERNED<\/strong> CANNOT<\/strong> BE<\/strong> ESCAPED<\/strong>. The message is to men who make their boast and confidence in the temple. To be within temple reach seems to place them in a kind of fortress. Such must evidently be met on their own ground. And thus the prophet is sent to the temple gate. There, assuredly, all who took any deep interest in the temple would be found. Jeremiah himself belonged to the priests, and there is no saying but what, prophet as he was, he had to take an allotted share in the temple service. Possibly the message may have been repeated on several occasions, and likeliest of all on those occasions when the temple precincts were crowded with visitors. And when the temple was destroyed, would there not be many to remember that the threatening of destruction was uttered in the very gates of it? Thus we see that there is no want of directness and closeness in dealing with the unfaithful; and no want of courage and candor on the part of the man who was chosen to warn.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> MESSAGE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> TO<\/strong> MISTAKEN<\/strong> WORSHIPPERS<\/strong>. To look round with pride and say these buildings are the temple of God, was as the utterance of some first principle. These worshippers, precise enough in outward forms, had a superstitious feeling that whatever vicissitudes might come elsewhere, Jehovah would keep the place of worship secure. The mistake lay in thinking that God valued the temple for itself. Yet it had not been made <\/em>by his command, in the same sense as the tabernacle had been; rather, it was accepted as a sign of David’s deep religious feeling and Solomon’s pious regard for his father’s wishes. There is nothing to show that out of his own will God would ever have commanded the erection of a temple. It was unseemly in the eyes of David that he should be dwelling in a house of cedar, when the ark of God was behind curtains. But this feeling had in it a certain barbaric element, a fondness for outward pomp and display. It was the best that was in the king’s heart, and so it was accepted. He did what he could. But there was no inherent sacredness in the temple, that it should be kept inviolate amid the wreck and defilement of everything else. The people needed to be taught this truth in very plain language. The feeling towards the building is made manifest in such a passage as Ezr 3:11-13<\/span>. In fact, the more the people became alienated in heart from the God of the temple, the more enthusiastic, fanatical even, they seem to have become with regard to the mere building.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> WAY<\/strong> IN<\/strong> WHICH<\/strong> THE<\/strong> MISTAKE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> SOUGHT<\/strong> TO<\/strong> BE<\/strong> REMOVED<\/strong>. There is no heaping of scorn on the feeling of the people. Their feeling is rather made the occasion of strengthening the hold of God’s truth upon them. If they really<\/em> value the temple, they are shown the way by which they may keep it and dwell within it. Jehovah shows very distinctly that in his eyes the true glory of Jerusalem is not the temple, but the sort of people who dwell in the city. It is better to have a community of the pious, the upright, the truly brotherly, dwelling in cottages, than to have whole streets of splendid palaces, inhabited by luxurious, self-indulgent oppressors. Men hold in high esteem buildings, pictures, books, statues, great fruits of human intellect. God <\/em>looks at good actions; little but significant kindnessesthe giving of the cup of cold water, the visiting of the sick, and the feeding of the hungry. A community of men, selfish to the core, will not be preserved for the sake of a splendid building; but that building may be preserved if a community of good men will be really pleased by its preservation. The truth, however, is that a community, living such a life as God here indicates should be chosen, would care very little about the pomps of a building. They would prefer to spend their substance in satisfying pressing needs of men. Many of the ecclesiastical buildings of today are inexcusably sumptuous. They are put up to gratify the lust of the eye, and meanwhile the spiritual glories of the upper room at Jerusalem and the Pentecostal miracle are quite forgotten. The publican, the penitent after God’s own heart; went up to the temple; but what were its material splendors to him, as he stood, smiting his breast, and saying, “God be merciful to me a sinner?”<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> MESSAGE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> CLINCHED<\/strong> BY<\/strong> A CLOSELY<\/strong> FITTING<\/strong> EXAMPLE<\/strong> FROM<\/strong> HISTORY<\/strong>. One instance is enough to prove a negative. The feeling in the hearts of the people is that God will fence the temple site around, for the sake of the temple. But Shiloh is at once brought forward as a capital instance to the contrary. Evidently it still remained in a ruined, neglected state, for any one to go and see it. Israel knew what Shiloh had been at the first, and they could see how different it was now. In reading history, we are bound to profit by all of Divine warning that may appear in what we read.Y.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:18<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The family joined in idolatry.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> REMEMBER<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>‘S <\/em>IDEAL<\/strong> OF<\/strong> AN<\/strong> ISRAELITE<\/strong> FAMILY<\/strong>. This is not set before us in any particular passage, but we can gather it from different institutions and commandments. Religion not only concerned the individual in his relation to the priest, the altar, and the holy of holies, and in his general relations to his fellow-men; but there was a very special mention of institutions and regulations which made the individual remember his position in the family. These institutions and regulations were as vital bonds, making the family into a true organic unity. There were the dedication of the firstborn, and the institution concerning the meaning of the Passover feast (Exo 13:1-22<\/span>.). There was the command to honor father and mother. So connected with the passage now under consideration, there was the setting apart of the dough (Num 15:1-41<\/span>.). A continual instruction and training in Divine things was to be provided for. A mother could have no greater honor than that her children should rise up and call her blessed. Thus gathering together many passages that might be cited, we see that God meant the family to be a great agent for the advancement of his people in all that was good; and the same family ideal comes out with equal prominence and beauty in the New Testament. The natural family may, so far as Christ is concerned, count for much, if only each individual in the family will live up to his opportunities. Still, Christ insists upon the natural family being subordinate to the spiritual family. It is one of the illustrations of the great disintegrating and reconstituting power of the gospel of Christ, that it breaks up the family which is held by nothing stronger than natural bonds. The ideal family of the children of God, those who are the spiritual and abiding Israel, must be gained at any cost. The notion of a family gives one of the aspects in which Christians may be perfectly associated together.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> LOOK<\/strong> AT<\/strong> THE<\/strong> DEGRADED<\/strong> POSITION<\/strong> IN<\/strong> WHICH<\/strong> THE<\/strong> ISRAELITE<\/strong> FAMILY<\/strong> ACTUALLY<\/strong> WAS<\/strong>. The parents are confirmed idolaters, and are dragging down their children to their own level. The children are sent out to gather fuel towards an idolatrous offering, when they should be learning of the nature, the will, and the promises of Jehovah. A desecrated temple has been spoken of, turned into a den of robbers; but what is that compared with a desecrated family? How insidiously, how gradually, how irresistibly, these children are drawn into idolatry! Gathering wood might be an interesting, amusing occupation, more like play than work. What idea could the children have of the awful insult to which this gathering would contribute? They would grow up, as by a second nature, to kindle fires and knead dough themselves. And it was so easy to treat the child in its way, to tell it to go out and gather wood; far easier than to bear patiently with its waywardness and inattention, and thus lead it on to some understanding of Israel’s glorious past. For such treatment meant that the parent should be a learner also, he and his children moving onward together into an enjoyment of the fullness of the Divine promises. And yet God had dons much for these parents to make the teaching of his truth as easy as it could be made. He had given things to be set before the children’s eyes at periodic intervals. But here, in this deep and pleasing infection of idolatry, is an influence which seems to work successfully against all that God can do. What could be hoped from rising up early and sending the prophets, when there was all this counter-working in the Israelite home?<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> CONSIDER<\/strong> THE<\/strong> POSSIBILITY<\/strong> OF<\/strong> STILL<\/strong> ACHIEVING<\/strong> THE<\/strong> IDEAL<\/strong>. Much may be done towards making even the natural family a holier and more edifying institution than in most cases it is. The humiliating description here shows how much depends upon the parents. How much there is still, even among families nominally Christian, which is just as horrible in this way as this family idolatry among the Israelites of old? Children are sedulously schooled into the worship of Mammon. Selfish and heedless parents are eager to send them to work, when as yet they should know only the home, the school, and the playground. Too often is the maxim reversed that the parents should provide for the children. Christian parents, at all events, should hold themselves bound by the most solemn obligations to do all they can for the training of their children in godliness. There is an ideal of parental duty, and that ideal is seen in action when we look towards the great Father in heaven. Assuredly there would be more God-fearing children if there were more really God-fearing parents. But what cannot be gained by looking up to human guidance and example, can be gained by looking to God. He gathers his children out of many human households, and gives them his own Word to be an impulse and a guide. He puts into their hearts a love of the spiritual brotherhood, which is a deeper feeling than any that nature knows. And the end of it all will be that his children will be perfectly joined together in one mind, in the praise and service of him who alone is worthy to be Braised and served by all.Y.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:28<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The inveterate disobedience of Israel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

All along, from Jer 7:21<\/span>, this is the theme, viz. the disobedience <\/em>of Israel. Now, to give fall force to a charge of disobedience there must be the means of furnishing ample proofs that directions <\/em>have first been givenplain, earnest, and authoritative. And this is just what we find here. God refers his people back over the long years in which, by divers agencies, he had laid before them his righteous and beneficent will. What he commended was for his glory; for his glory because for his people’s good; for his people’s good because for his glory. The present state and prospects of the people are very humiliating, but assuredly no part of their humiliation can be laid to the charge of their God. The cloudy and the fiery pillar was but a symbol of most distinct guidance for the whole heart. The people were not suffered to wander for lack of expostulation and warning. When a lad turns out badly, criticizing speech is often directed against the parents, as if somehow they must <\/em>be at fault. They may <\/em>be at fault indeed, but there is no must <\/em>in the matter. Hasty criticism at such a time, from the very injustice of it, adds a cruel intensity to the pain and disappointment already existing. But hasty criticism cannot be silenced by merely deprecating it, and parents at such moments would do well to remember that they stand in relations to their disobedient children not unlike those in which, as is represented here, Jehovah stood towards Israel of old. The most loving and watchful and patient of parents never did for his children near so much as Jehovah did for Israel. There was the instruction of their wonderful career, in which God had moved so sublimely among them. There were the ten commandments, formulated so distinctly, and set in such a grand historical frame. There were all the rites and ceremonies filled with instructing power to those who would seek to understand them. And there was also, accumulating generation after generation, the great mass of prophetic truth. Man is what he is, not for want of light, but for want of disposition to use and obey the light when it appears. There is an indisposition to attend to truth and to fidelity in all duty, until at last the very feeling of what faithfulness and righteousness are vanishes from the breast. But still the excuse is attempted, and persisted in with shameless impudence, that the word which professes to come from God must have in it something defective, something that effectually prevents it from being received. But it is only from the unrenewed mind that talk of this kind comes. Those who have had their eyes opened to the truth of God soon begin to discern that in that truth there is no lack of guidance, or inspiration, or comfort, or any good thing which can uplift and satisfy the heart. And we may be sure that God, who has given this immense and fruitful body of truth, has brought it nearer to the individual conscience than the individual in his perversity will always acknowledge. Men are indulged too much in the complaint that nobody has spoken to them about their souls. A miserable egotism often lies at the bottom of such complaining. If they know by any means whateverand it matters not how slight the hint may be-that there is something written for the obedience of all mankind and for their consequent advantage, then these complainers are bound to attend to it. Men are not so foolish in the quest of worldly gains. Then they will go upon the slightest hint, and follow it up discreetly and warily. Why, then, should they be so foolish in the matter of spiritual gain? Because “truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.”Y.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:1-2<\/span><\/em><\/strong>. <\/strong>The word that came to Jeremiah<\/em><\/strong><\/strong> We have here a new discourse, which reaches to the 13th chapter, wherein the prophet declaims against the vices of Judah and Jerusalem, particularly their hypocrisy and false confidence in their religious principles; delivering also some threats against Edom, Moab, Ammon, and the people of Arabia: see chap. Jer 9:26<\/span>. Jeremiah pronounced this discourse at the east gate of the temple, which led directly to it, before all the people who entered there. See Calmet. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

3. THE THIRD DISCOURSE
Chaps. 710<\/p>\n

The time of this discourse may be determined pretty accurately, since<\/em> Jeremiah 26<\/span>. gives us information concerning the historical circumstances in which the discourse was delivered. We learn from it that in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim Jeremiah received from Jehovah the commission to place himself in the fore-court of the temple, and to announce to all the Jews who had come to worship<\/em> (comp. Jer 26:2<\/span> with Jer 7:2<\/span>) that if they continued to act in opposition to the repeated admonitions of the prophets<\/em> (Jer 26:5<\/span>, and Jer 7:13<\/span>; Jer 7:25<\/span>) the Lord would make the temple like Shiloh<\/em>, (comp. Jer 26:3-13<\/span> with Jer 7:3-14<\/span>). Since the enemies who are to execute this judgment are still designated generally as a people coming from the North<\/em> (comp. Jer 8:16<\/span>), and not yet definitely as the Chaldeans, the discourse must have been delivered before the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Comp. infra on<\/em> Jer 25:1<\/span>. The place which the discourse occupies in the book is therefore in accordance with the principle of chronological are arrangement<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The contents of the discourse may be distinguished as follows<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Main thought: Indictment of the people on account of their three prevailing vices, with threatening of punishment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I. FIRST CHARGE<\/p>\n

I. Hypocritical Mingling Of The Worship Of Jehovah With Idolatry, And Other Moral Abominations<\/p>\n

Jer 7:1<\/span> to Jer 8:3<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Fundamental: the fundamental requirement and promise<\/em>, Jer 7:1-7<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Their demoralizing trust in the outward temple-service. Admonitory reference to Shiloh<\/em>, Jer 7:8-15<\/span>.<\/p>\n

3. The hypocrisy of the worship of Jehovah, boasted of in <\/em>Jer 7:4<\/span><\/em> sqq. is evinced by the idolatry practised elsewhere. Thus the nation is provoking a severe and inevitable judgment<\/em>, Jer 7:16-20<\/span>.<\/p>\n

4. Refutation of the objection that the Lord Himself commanded the outward temple-service<\/em>, Jer 7:21-28<\/span>.<\/p>\n

5. The abomination of idolatry in the highest degree a most evident proof of the hypocrisy of the people. Beginning of retribution<\/em>, Jer 7:29-34<\/span>.<\/p>\n

6. The fulfilment of retribution corresponding to the idol abominations<\/em>, Jer 8:1-3<\/span>.<\/p>\n

II. SECOND CHARGE<\/p>\n

Their Ruinous Persistence In Evil<\/p>\n

Jer 8:4-22<\/span><\/p>\n

7. Their stiff-necked impenitence and its punishment<\/em>, Jer 8:4-12<\/span>.<\/p>\n

8. Further portrayal of the visitation announced in <\/em>Jer 7:12<\/span><\/em>; <\/em>Jer 8:13-17<\/span><\/em>.<\/p>\n

9. Continuation: The visitation ends with the carrying away captive of Israel, to the inexpressible grief of the people and the prophet<\/em>, Jer 8:18-22<\/span>.<\/p>\n

III. THIRD CHARGE<\/p>\n

The General Entire Absence Of Truth And Faith<\/p>\n

Jer 9:1-21<\/span><\/p>\n

10. Description of the prevailing deceit<\/em>, Jer 9:1-8<\/span>.<\/p>\n

11. First punishment: Desolation of the land and dispersion of the people<\/em>, Jer 9:9-15<\/span>.<\/p>\n

12. Second punishment: Death snatching away an innumerable sacrifice<\/em>, Jer 9:16-21<\/span>.<\/p>\n

IV. CONCLUSION<\/p>\n

Jer 9:22-25<\/span>; Jer 10:16-25<\/span><\/p>\n

13. The only means of escape and the reason why it is not used<\/em>, Jer 9:22-25<\/span>.<\/p>\n

14. The beginning of the end of retribution: Command to the people to retire; Lament of the desolated land; last watch-cry of the prophet: the enemy is here<\/em>, Jer 10:17-22<\/span>.<\/p>\n

15. Consolatory glance into the future<\/em>, Jer 10:23-25<\/span>.<\/p>\n

______
I. FIRST CHARGE<\/p>\n

The Hypocritical Mingling Of The Service Of Jehovah With Idolatry And Other Moral Abominations<\/p>\n

Jer 7:1<\/span> to Jer 8:3<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Fundamental: the fundamental requirement and promise<\/em><\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-7<\/span><\/p>\n

1The word which came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying:<\/p>\n

2Stand in the gate of the house of Jehovah<\/p>\n

And proclaim there this word, and say:
Hear the word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah,
Who have entered at these gates to worship Jehovah.<\/p>\n

3Thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth, the God of Israel;<\/p>\n

Amend your ways and your doings,
So will I cause you to dwell1<\/span> in this place.<\/p>\n

4Trust2<\/span> not to3<\/span> those lying words:<\/p>\n

The Lords temple, the Lords temple, the Lords temple is this.4<\/span><\/p>\n

5But amend your ways and your doings!<\/p>\n

If ye execute judgment between every man and his neighbor,<\/p>\n

6Oppress not stranger, orphan and widow,<\/p>\n

And shed not innocent blood in this place,
And go not after other gods to your destruction;<\/p>\n

7So will I cause you to dwell in this place,<\/p>\n

In the land which I gave to your fathers,
From everlasting to everlasting.5<\/span><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

The prophet begins with friendly admonition and promise. In Jer 7:3<\/span> he briefly states in advance the fundamental requirement and promise. Jer 7:4-7<\/span> continue this theme by opposing to false confidence in the apparently infallible objective guarantee of salvation in the possession of the outward temple (Jer 7:4<\/span>) exhortation to positive (Jer 7:5<\/span>) and negative (Jer 7:6<\/span>) fulfilment of the true subjective condition of salvation, after which however the promise, which includes all further salvation for Israel, is repeated more at length. We easily recognize in this strophe the outlines of the whole discourse, for these exhortations correspond, if not in order in contents, exactly with the following exhortations and threatenings, the latter having also for their subject pseudo-worship of Jehovah, idolatry, impenitence, falsehood, deceit, violence, and finally exile.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-2<\/span>. The word which came to worship Jehovah<\/strong>. A similar introductory formula is found in Jer 11:1<\/span>; Jer 18:1<\/span>; Jer 21:1<\/span>; Jer 25:1<\/span>; Jer 30:1<\/span>; Jer 32:1<\/span>; Jer 34:1<\/span>; Jer 35:1<\/span>; Jer 40:1<\/span>; Jer 44:1<\/span>.In the gate of the house<\/strong>. If we compare Jer 26:2<\/span>, where the historical particulars relating to this discourse are given, we see that Jeremiah delivered it in the fore-court (comp. Jer 19:14<\/span>). Further information is derived from Jer 36:10<\/span>, where it is said that Baruch read the book of the words of Jeremiah in the chamber of Gemariah, in the higher<\/em> court, at the entrance of the new gate. Now since this new gate is the same under which the princes called Jeremiah to account for this very discourse (Jer 26:10<\/span>), it is highly probable that the gate spoken of was not that which formed the main eastern entrance of the outer court (Eze 11:1<\/span>), but one of the gates which led from the outer into the inner or upper court. From this point the prophet could view the whole assembly of the people in the outer court, as well as the gates leading from without into it.All ye of Judah<\/strong>. A great festival to Jehovah must have brought the whole people together, for they had not sunk into that state of entire alienation, which, ex. gr.<\/em> prevailed under Manasseh, when they no longer worshipped the God of their fathers (2Ki 21:2<\/span>), but now they served other gods together with Him (Jer 7:6<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:3<\/span>. Thus saith Jehovah dwell in this place<\/strong>. These words express as to form the theme of the strophe, but at the same time also as to matter the positive main thought of the whole discourse, which however retires in what follows for the reason stated in Jer 7:24-28<\/span>.ways<\/strong> and doings<\/strong> are distinguished like habitus<\/em> and actus<\/em>, the former denoting the inward inclination or disposition of the heart (comp. Jer 5:16<\/span>), the latter the outward fruits in the life (Jer 4:13<\/span>; Jer 18:11<\/span>; Jer 26:13<\/span>; Jer 32:19<\/span>).Cause to dwell<\/strong>. Comp. Num 14:30<\/span>.This place<\/strong>. The temple is meant primarily as the centre of the theocracy. Comp. Jer 7:6<\/span>, where the desecration of the holy places by the shedding of innocent blood is emphasized (2Ki 21:16<\/span>; 2Ki 24:4<\/span>; Mat 23:35<\/span>), and then Jer 7:7<\/span>, where this place<\/em> and the land are distinguished, and Jer 7:13<\/span>, where is distinguished from Shiloh and taken in the more restricted sense of the holy places of worship.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4<\/span>. Trust not temple is this<\/strong>. An example of similar threefold repetition is found in Jer 22:29<\/span>; Isa 6:3<\/span> coll. 2Sa 19:1<\/span>. For the sense comp. Mic 3:11<\/span>.. Without this word would be the subject, and the only meaning would be: templum est, i. e.<\/em>, we have Gods temple. With this word is predicate, and the former the subject, and the difference in the sense is this, that it is not the existence, the possession of the temple generally, which is declared, but the concrete objects, to which the predicate applies, are indicated. We must therefore render this . The plural has been variously explained. The Chaldee refers the threefold repetition to the three main forms of worship and their appearance thrice in the year; Joseph Kimchi to the three divisions of the temple-building (court, sanctuary and holy of holies); Menochius (Vid.<\/em>Neumann, S.<\/em> 439) to the Jewish nation itself, coll. 1Co 3:16-17<\/span>; Venema and others to the temple and priests, and with reference to (Psa 102:28<\/span>) finds also in the meaning of continuance and immutability.In a purely linguistic view would apply best to the people, and the thought, that the people as the temple of God were safe from all danger to themselves or the sanctuary, would suit the connection. But the mention of the sanctuary at Shiloh (Jer 7:12<\/span>; Jer 7:14<\/span>) requires that in Jer 7:4<\/span> also the temple-edifice be referred to. Comp. especially Jer 7:14<\/span>.Nothing further then remains but to refer to the various parts of the temple; not merely the three divisions of the edifice proper, but also the other partswalls, gates, courts, halls, etc<\/em>. Still however the plural is remarkable, and a satisfactory explanation of it a desideratum<\/em>. At any rate we perceive that it was a prevalent delusion among the people that the temple could not be destroyed, because it was Jehovahs. Three times is this emphatically repeated. And by the temple all else seemed to be secured. Neumann rightly calls attention to the circumstance that the people make use of the prouder expression only, while the prophet speaks only of .<\/p>\n

Jer 7:5-7<\/span>. But amend your ways from everlasting to everlasting<\/strong>. Not the outward temple with its service ensures the favor of Jehovah, but the service, which is offered in His temple by sanctified hearts and which manifests itself in works of righteousness. That such works as are here (Jer 7:5-6<\/span>) enumerated pertain especially to the Old Testament righteousness, which is opposed not to grace but to violent unrighteousness, is proved by many passages: Psalms 5, 7<\/span>, 9<\/span>, 10<\/span>, 11<\/span>, 12<\/span>, 15, 17; Jer 10:24-25<\/span>; Jer 22:3-17<\/span>; Isa 1:17<\/span>, etc<\/em>. Comp. Ortloph on the idea of , etc.<\/em>, in Rudelb. u. Guer. 1860, III. S.<\/em> 403.The before is quite abnormal, and there is no other instance of it. Graf correctly supposes that it owes its origin to the similarly sounding sentence, Jer 22:3<\/span>.To your destruction<\/strong>. Comp. Jer 25:7<\/span>.From everlasting<\/strong> (comp. Jer 7:25<\/span>) belongs to dwell<\/strong>. Israel is to inhabit the land given to the fathers, from the original epoch (Jer 6:16<\/span>; Psa 24:7<\/span>) at which they took possession of it even to the remotest future. Comp. on Jer 25:5<\/span><\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[1]<\/span>Jer 7:3<\/span>.[The Piel or intensive form of the verb must here have a continuative force, or it must have a permissive signification. There is no example of the simple signification to dwell<\/em> attaching to this conjugation, so that the rendering of the Vulgate, which Blayney adopts: I will dwell with you<\/em> is not sustained; comp. Jer 7:12<\/span>. Henderson<\/em>.S. R. A.]<\/p>\n

[2]<\/span>Jer 7:4<\/span>. after (comp. Jer 7:8<\/span>) is Dat. ethicus<\/em>. Comp. 2Ki 18:21; 2Ki 18:24<\/span>; Son 2:17<\/span>; Naegelsb. Gr.<\/em> 112, 5, b.<\/em><\/p>\n

[3]<\/span>Jer 7:4<\/span>.. More frequently is followed by or (Jer 7:8<\/span>; Jer 7:14<\/span>) but is not unfrequent, Jdg 20:36<\/span>; Judges 3<\/span> Ki. Jer 18:22<\/span>; Isa 36:7<\/span>, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

[4]<\/span>Jer 7:4<\/span>.[Lit.: are these].<\/p>\n

[5]<\/span>Jer 7:7<\/span>.[Or: forever and ever].<\/p>\n

2. Demoralizing trust in the outward temple-service. admonitory reference to shiloh<\/em><\/p>\n

Jer 7:8-15<\/span><\/p>\n

8Behold, ye trust in such lying words to your hurt.<\/p>\n

9To steal, murder, commit adultery,6<\/span><\/p>\n

Swear falsely and burn incense to Baal,
And follow other gods which ye know not,<\/p>\n

10And then ye come7<\/span> and stand before me in this house,<\/p>\n

Which is called by my name: and say:
We are deliveredto do all these abominations?<\/p>\n

11Is then this house which bears my name<\/p>\n

Become a den of robbers in your eyes?
Behold! even I have seen it, saith Jehovah.<\/p>\n

12For go now to my place which was in Shiloh<\/p>\n

Where I caused my name to dwell at the first,
And see what I have done to it
On account of the wickedness of my people Israel!<\/p>\n

13And now, because ye do all these works, saith Jehovah,<\/p>\n

And I spoke to you most urgently,8<\/span> but ye heard not.<\/p>\n

I called to you, but ye gave no answer,<\/p>\n

14Therefore I do to the house which bears my name<\/p>\n

In which ye put your trust,
And the place which I gave to you and your fathers,
As I did to Shiloh.<\/p>\n

15And I cast you out from my presence,<\/p>\n

As I cast out all your brethren,
The whole seed of Ephraim.<\/p>\n

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 7:8-11<\/span> state that Israel did not follow the exhortation given in Jer 7:3<\/span> sqq., but regarded the external place of grace as though it were a spot where one only needed to present himself in order to be delivered from all the evil consequences of sin,so that the sanctuary was misused and became a den of robbers. The Lord dispels this allusion as to the infallible power to save of the supposed irrevocably chosen place of grace by pointing to Shiloh: as it is with this, so will it be with the temple and Jerusalem (Jer 7:12-15<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:8<\/span>. Behold, ye trust to your hurt<\/strong>. The statement corresponds to the warning in Jer 7:4<\/span>, and affirms that this was not heeded by Israel. To your hurt depends on trust. It is a litotes<\/em>. The delusion causes injury in a twofold way, by demoralizing the people and thus rendering them ripe for the divine judgment. Comp. Isa 44:10<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:9<\/span>. To steal, murder which ye know not<\/strong>. These words in connection with Jer 7:10-11<\/span>, designate the first effect of that hurtful confidence. The people, considering salvation as unconditionally guaranteed by the temple, fall into the delusion, that presence in the temple is sufficient to procure absolution after the practice of the most heinous abominations and license for new crimes, by which course the temple is turned into a place of security and concealment for robbers. The question expresses indignant amazement: What? Steal, murder, commit adultery, etc.<\/em>? Such wickedness ye do, and then ye come, etc.<\/em>Incense to Baal<\/strong>, comp. Jer 11:13<\/span>; Jer 11:17<\/span>.And follow other gods which ye know not<\/strong> is taken verbatim from Deu 11:28<\/span>; coll. Jer 13:14<\/span>. Comp. Jer 19:4<\/span>; Jer 49:3<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:10<\/span>. And then ye come all these abominations?<\/strong> The question is continued to , for it is this which is the object of the divine indignation, that the people can unite such moral contrasts.Stand before me<\/strong>. The expression has the collateral idea of serving<\/em>; comp. Deu 10:8; 1Ki 1:2<\/span>; 1Ki 17:1; 1Ki 18:15<\/span>; 2Ki 3:14<\/span>; 2Ki 5:16<\/span>; Jer 40:10<\/span>; Eze 44:15<\/span>, etc<\/em>.Which is called by my name<\/strong>. This expression corresponds to put my name upon<\/strong> (nomen indere, imponere<\/em>), Num 6:27<\/span>; 1Ki 9:3<\/span>; 1Ki 9:5<\/span>; comp. Exo 3:18<\/span>; Exo 5:3<\/span>; Deu 12:5<\/span>; Deu 12:11<\/span>; Deu 28:10<\/span>; 2Sa 12:28<\/span>; Jer 7:30<\/span>; Jer 32:34<\/span>; Jer 34:15<\/span>.We are delivered<\/strong>. The people regard their standing before God, their service in the temple as an unfailing means of removing all their guilt in a convenient external manner. The word therefore means: we are saved<\/em>, freed from all the guilt and punishment of sin Comp. Luk 3:8<\/span>.Many commentators take as=because:<\/em> because ye have done these abominations?<\/em> (ironical.) Others=although<\/em>. The language will allow neither. It is the secondary object of their temple-service which is indicated. The primary, immediate object is expressed in : they wish to purify themselves from their guilt. But as they do not use the right means for this, so also they are not actuated by the right motive,it is not that they may henceforward hate and abandon their sin, but that like a sow they may return with the more gusto to their wallowing in the mire (2Pe 2:22<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:11<\/span>. Is then this house saith Jehovah<\/strong>. In these words the prophet discovers to the people the very heart of their proceeding: with such usage the temple is not a place of salvation, but a refuge for robbers where they purify themselves from the blood and filth of their evil deeds, so as to be the readier for new ones.Even I<\/strong>. This perception is confirmed ironically, but in a double sense. First by this word, secondly by act. In so far namely as the Lord treats the sanctuary at Jerusalem like that at Shiloh, He causes it to be understood that He regards it as a nest of robbers. That first point results from the evident reference of I have seen it<\/strong> to in your eyes<\/strong>, the second from the following For<\/strong>, Jer 7:12<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:12<\/span>. For go now my people Israel<\/strong>. In these words it is explained how far the Lord actually regards the temple as a den of robbers: we learn that He will treat it as He did Shiloh. For<\/strong> is accordingly to be referred not to Jer 7:12<\/span> only, but to all that follows. The prophet thus shows the second calamitous effect (Jer 7:8<\/span>) of those lying words (Jer 7:4<\/span>).To my place<\/strong>. This denotes the place as such, the spot on which the sanctuary stood, not the latter itself. On this spot nothing more was now to be seen of the sacred dwellings and vessels which once adorned it. A proof is thus furnished that when the Lord has once selected a place for His dwelling upon earth He is not irrevocably bound to this place to all eternity. Whether the city of Shiloh was then destroyed or not, and whether some ruins of the former sanctuary remained to testify of its previous existence, is a matter of indifference. Shiloh was still standing in the reign of Jeroboam I. (1Ki 11:20<\/span>; 1Ki 12:15<\/span>; 1Ki 14:2<\/span>) and Jeremiah mentions it as though it were still in existence (Jer 41:5<\/span>). Comp. Graf, ad loc.<\/em>HerzogsReal-Encyc<\/em>. XIV. S.<\/em> 369. [Dr. Robinson found its ruins under the name of Seilun<\/em> on his way from Jerusalem to Shechem. Henderson.]<\/p>\n

Jer 7:13-15<\/span>. And now, because ye do the whole seed of Ephraim<\/strong>. The apodosis begins with Jer 7:14<\/span>. With respect to the transition from the infinitive to the finite verb, see Grammatical rems. on Jer 7:9<\/span>.. Comp. Jer 7:25<\/span>; Jer 29:19<\/span>; and Naegelsbach, Gr.<\/em> 93, f<\/em> [GreensGr.<\/em> 282].The place<\/strong>. The prophet cannot mean the whole country, any more than in Jer 7:3<\/span>; Jer 7:6-7<\/span>. As in Jer 7:12<\/span>, it is the spot on which the house stands. This spot of earth is the hallowed and hallowing centre of the whole country, on which all other dwelling-places are founded. Comp. Exo 3:5<\/span>.For Ephraim as a designation of the ten tribes vide<\/em>Hos. Jer 4:17<\/span>; Isa 7:2<\/span>, etc.<\/em><\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[6]<\/span>Jer 7:9<\/span>.Similar infinitive constructions are found in Isa 21:5<\/span>; Isa 22:13<\/span>; Isa 59:4<\/span>; Hos 4:2<\/span>. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr.<\/em> 92, 2 b.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/span>Jer 7:10<\/span>.On the transition from the infinitive to the finite verb, comp. Naegelsb. Gr.<\/em> 99, 3.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/span>Jer 7:13<\/span>.. Comp. Jer 7:25<\/span>; Jer 29:19<\/span>; and Naegelsb. Gr.<\/em> 93 f. [Green, Gr.<\/em> 282].<\/p>\n

3. The hypocrisy of the worship of Jehovah, Boasted of in <\/em>Jer 7:4<\/span><\/em> sqq., is evinced by the idolatry practised elsewhere. Thus the nation is provoking a severe and inevitable judgment<\/em><\/p>\n

Jer 7:16-20<\/span><\/p>\n

16And as to thee, pray not for this people,<\/p>\n

And make not a cry and supplication for them,
Nor intercede with me; for I will not hear thee.<\/p>\n

17Seest thou not what they are doing<\/p>\n

In the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?<\/p>\n

18The children gather wood and the fathers kindle the fire,<\/p>\n

And the women knead the dough, to make cakes for the queen of the heavens,
And pour out libations to other gods, to aggrieve me.<\/p>\n

19Do they aggrieve me? saith Jehovah.<\/p>\n

Do they not themselves to their own shame?<\/p>\n

20 Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah:<\/p>\n

Behold, my anger and my fury is poured out in this place,
On the men and the cattle,
And on the trees of the field and the fruits of the land,
That it may burn and not be extinguished.<\/p>\n

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

How fixedly the judgment announced in Jer 7:14-15<\/span> is determined upon by Jehovah, is evinced by this, that the prophet is forbidden to interpose with any plea (Jer 7:16<\/span>). The motive of this seemingly harsh decree is indicated by reference to the idolatry still in full course in the cities of Judah and Jerusalem, and which forms a gloomy offset to that pseudo-Jehovah-worship mentioned in Jer 7:4<\/span>. This idolatry may be directed primarily against Jehovah, but it will prove at last self-destructive to Israel (Jer 7:19-20<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:16<\/span>. And as to thee I will not hear thee<\/strong>. Jerome remarks that sanctorum preces Dei ir possunt resistere<\/em>, Exo 32:10<\/span> sq.; Psa 106:30<\/span>; Num 16:46<\/span> sq. Comp. 1Jn 5:16<\/span> with is frequent, ex. gr.<\/em>, Psa 17:1<\/span>; 1Ki 8:28<\/span>, etc.<\/em>This verse is repeated Jer 11:14<\/span>; Jer 14:11<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:17-18<\/span>. Seest thou not what they are doing to aggrieve me<\/strong>. The motive of the severe prohibition in Jer 7:16<\/span>.The queen of the heavens<\/strong> is mentioned besides only in Jer 44:17-19<\/span>; Jer 44:25<\/span>. The form, which in Hebrew indeed has general analogies (ex. gr.<\/em>) but does not otherwise occur, bespeaks the foreign origin of the phrase as of the thing. The expression heavens-queen points to the worship of the stars, and indeed the moon as the feminine potence (together with the sun as the masculine) appears not seldom under this name. It is called by Apuleius (Metaph.<\/em> XI. init.) directly regina cli<\/em>, and in Horace (Carm. Secul.<\/em> 35) we find the words: Siderum regina bicornis audi Luna puellas<\/em>. For more on this subject consult Abr. Calov.Diss. de Selenolatria Viteb.<\/em> 1680 (also in Thes. theol. philol.<\/em>, Vol. I. p. 808 sqq.). To the further question, what deity is represented by the moon, we can only answer that since it, as the female principle of fructification, corresponds to the sun-god Baal as the male principle, the feminine deity corresponding to Baal, i. e.<\/em>, Astarte, must be represented by the moon. Herodian (V. 6, 10) says expressly, (Grcism for Astarte) , . Comp. Herod. III. 8.On the Carthaginian inscriptions (Insc. Karth.<\/em> 8), (= i. e.<\/em>, the , , , the Asiatic, originally Egyptian Artemis appears as the feminine opposite of , This is certainly no longer the original Phnician Astarte, but a later modification with unchaste cultus, and probably admixture of star-worship. Comp. 2Ki 21:3; 2Ki 23:4<\/span>; Jer 19:13<\/span>.Comp. Creuzer, Symbol.<\/em> II. Kap.<\/em> 4, 1, 2, 3, 6; Appendix on the Carthag. religion<\/em>, 3. For the less recent literature on this passage consult Rosenmueller.The (Jer 44:19<\/span>) are probably the Egyptian confection Neideh<\/em> (Vid.<\/em>Hitzigad hoc l.<\/em> and FuerstH. W. B. s. v.<\/em>). According to the , Jer 44:19<\/span>, it is not improbable that the cakes were in the form of a moon; compare the cakes offered to Artemis as the moon-god in Athens under the name of (Vid.<\/em>Grafad loc<\/em>.)On the heathen custom of celebrating the new moon with fires kindled in the streets and sweet cakes, comp. Spencer, De Legg. Hebr. ritual<\/em>. L. III. Diss. IV. Cap.<\/em> 3.The etymology of is uncertain. It is most probably derived from , to prepare<\/em>. Is it not perhaps connected with (Amo 5:26<\/span>)? With this adoration of the queen of heaven may have been connected as a later remnant the worship of the Collyridians, who existed in Arabia in the 4th century, and gave divine honors to the Virgin Mary, offering her little cakes of bread (), Vid.<\/em>Epiph.Hr<\/em>. 79.And pour out libations<\/strong>. The infinitive here may certainly depend on the to<\/strong> () before make<\/strong> () (comp. Naegelsb.Gr.<\/em> 112, 8). But it must also be remarked that the Inf. is used by Jeremiah in a very peculiar manner absolutely: Jer 19:13<\/span>; Jer 14:19<\/span> (where the perhaps from oversight stands instead of in Jer 7:17-18<\/span>). At any rate it designates the drink-offerings pertaining to the meat-offering of cakes.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:19-20<\/span>. Do they aggrieve me? that it may burn and not be extinguished.On aggrieve<\/strong> comp. Eze 32:9<\/span>.themselves<\/strong>. reciprocal (comp. Naegelsb.Gr.<\/em> 81. b<\/em>).fury is poured out<\/strong> (comp. Nah 1:6<\/span>).In this place<\/strong>. The divine anger is poured out immediately in<\/em> the centre of the Theocracy () and from thence immediately over the whole land ().<\/p>\n

4. REFUTATION OF THE OBJECTION THAT THE LORD HIMSELF COMMANDED THE OUTWARD TEMPLE SERVICE<\/em><\/p>\n

Jer 7:21-28<\/span><\/p>\n

21Thus saith Jehovah Zebaoth, the God of Israel:<\/p>\n

Take your burnt offerings with the sin offerings and eat flesh.<\/p>\n

22For I spoke not with your fathers in the day that I brought9<\/span> them out of Egypt,<\/p>\n

Nor commanded them concerning burnt offerings and slain offerings.<\/p>\n

23But this I commanded them: Hearken to my voice,<\/p>\n

That I may be your God, and you my people,
And walk in all the ways that I command you,
That it may be well with you.<\/p>\n

24But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear,<\/p>\n

And walked after their own counsels10<\/span><\/p>\n

In the hardness of their evil heart,
And turned to the back and not to the face.11<\/span><\/p>\n

25From the day that your fathers went out of the land of Egypt,<\/p>\n

To this day I send you all my servants,
The prophets, zealously and unremittingly.<\/p>\n

26But they hearkened not to me, nor inclined their ear.<\/p>\n

But they stiffened their neck and acted more wickedly than their fathers.<\/p>\n

27 And though thou speakest to them all these words.<\/p>\n

Yet will they not hearken unto thee;
And though thou callest to them,
Yet will they not answer thee.<\/p>\n

28 Therefore shalt thou say unto them:<\/p>\n

This is the people that has not hearkened
To the voice of Jehovah, their God,
Nor accepted chastisement.
Truth is vanished and eradicated from their mouth.<\/p>\n

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

The hypocritical people might appeal to the fact that their outward temple service was in accordance with the precepts of the Law. To this however it is opposed, that from the beginning the Lord directed His chief regard not to external worship, but to the obedience of the heart, and to this gave the promise of prosperity (Jer 7:21-23<\/span>). But the people never observed this requirement of the Lord, though He caused it to be repeated often and urgently by the prophets (Jer 7:24-26<\/span>). They will close their ears even to the exhortation of Jeremiah, and thus call down upon themselves the judgment of incorrigibility (Jer 7:27-28<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:21<\/span>. Thus saith Jehovah and eat flesh.Take<\/strong>, (comp. Isa 29:1<\/span>), may be derived from or . (Comp. Isa 30:1<\/span>; Num 32:14<\/span>). The primary idea seems to be to scrape, scratch, sweep, from which are derived the meanings both of to sweep up<\/em> or together<\/em> (comp. also Deu 32:23<\/span>) and to scrape off<\/em> (Isa 7:20<\/span>) and sweep away<\/em> (Psa 40:15<\/span>). also stands after the word in the passages cited. Comp. Jer 3:18<\/span>.And eat flesh<\/strong>, an expression of contempt: throw all your sacrifices and burnt-offerings together and devour them as meat. Comp. Jer 6:20<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:22-23<\/span>. For I spoke not . may be well with you<\/strong>. When the Rabbins emphasize in the day<\/strong>, etc.<\/em>, or when others appealing to Lev 1:2<\/span>, etc<\/em>. find in this passage an indication of the voluntariness of the offerings, or at least of the view that only voluntary offerings are here spoken of, Graf is certainly right in designating such points as subtleties. But to find in the passage a proof that Jeremiah was ignorant of any legal enactments with respect to sacrifices at the time of the Exodus, since in his time the middle books of the Pentateuch, which owed their origin to Ezra, were not in existence, as Graf does, following Hitzig and others (comp. especially his latest work. On the historical books of the Old Test.<\/em>, Leipzig, 1866), is a proceeding for which there is no ground either in those books, in the writings of the prexilic prophets generally (comp. only ex. gr.<\/em>, Amo 4:5<\/span> with Lev 7:13<\/span>; Hos 4:7-9<\/span> with Lev 6:18<\/span>; Lev 26:26<\/span>), or in this particular passage. For it is indeed true that the words that I may be your God and you my people<\/strong> (the substance of which is found in Exo 6:7<\/span> coll. Deu 29:12<\/span>) are a verbal quotation from the certainly peculiar 26th chapter of Leviticus (Jer 7:12<\/span>), that the next line likewise resembles almost word for word Deu 5:33<\/span> (the expression in all the ways<\/strong> occurs in this sense only in this passage of Deut.), finally that that it may be well with you<\/strong> also is exclusively Deuteronomic (Jer 5:16<\/span>; Jer 5:26<\/span>; Jer 6:18<\/span>; Jer 12:25, 28; Jer 22:27<\/span>). But (1) the book of Deuteronomy presupposes the preceding books of the Pentateuch and cannot be understood without them. Thus it is explained that precepts relating to the sacrifices do not here occur except in a summary (Deu 12:6<\/span>; Deu 12:11<\/span>; Deu 12:13-14<\/span>; Deu 12:27<\/span>) or modified form, according to the circumstances (comp. Deu 12:15<\/span> with Lev 17:2<\/span> sqq.). (2) If this passage is to be understood in a literal sense, as by Hitzig and Graf, the prophet would declare not only something incredible in itself, but also what would be in the highest degree prejudicial to the assumed post-exilic composition of the middle books of the Pentateuch. for how could these place the origin of the sacrificial enactments in the period of the exodus, if prophetic utterances like this and Amo 5:25<\/span> expressly contradict it? (3) As in Exo 16:8<\/span> the words Your murmurings are not against us, but against Jehovah, declare not that the Israelites did not murmur at all against Moses and Aaron (which is expressly maintained in Jer 7:2<\/span>), but only that the sin of murmuring against Moses and Aaron vanished in comparison with the sin which they committed in their murmuring against the Lord Himself,as Hos 6:6<\/span> likewise denies pleasure in sacrifices not absolutely but only relatively, in so far that it does not enter into comparison with the pleasure of the Lord in true piety (comp. Gen. 32:29<\/span>; 55:8; 1Sa 8:7<\/span>)so also in this passage the negation has a rhetorical, not a logical significance (comp. Winer, Gramm. N. T. Sprachidioms<\/em> 58, 7). Thus those commentators are right who find here this meaning, that the whole of the enactments relating to sacrifices do not enter into consideration in comparison with the importance of the moral Law. Comp. the parallel passages:Isa 5:11<\/span>; Isa 58:3<\/span> sqq.; isa 66:3; 1Sa 15:22<\/span>; Mic 6:6-8<\/span>; Psa 40:7<\/span> sqq.; Psalms 50<\/span>; Psa 51:18-19<\/span>; Pro 21:27<\/span>; Mat 9:13<\/span>. The expression: I will be your God and ye shall be my people, is found with special frequency in Jer 11:4<\/span>; Jer 24:7<\/span>; Jer 30:22<\/span>; Jer 31:1<\/span>; Jer 31:33<\/span>; Jer 32:38<\/span>. Almost as frequently in Eze 11:20<\/span>; Eze 14:10<\/span>; Eze 36:28<\/span>; Eze 37:23<\/span>; Eze 37:27<\/span>. Twice also in Zechariah 2:15; Zec 8:8<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:24<\/span>. But they hearkened not back not face.In the hardness of their heart<\/strong>, comp. Deu 29:18<\/span>; Jer 3:17<\/span>.In general comp. Jer 11:8<\/span>; Psa 81:13<\/span>. . Comp. Jer 2:27<\/span>. Literally:they came to the back and not to the face, viz.<\/em>, from the standpoint of Jehovah. Comp. Naegelsb.Gr.<\/em>, 69, 3, as to the substantives back<\/em> and face<\/em> taking the place of adjectives of participles.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:25-26<\/span>. From the day more wickedly than their fathers<\/strong>. comp. Jer 7:7<\/span>.. Vau constr<\/em> after a definition of time. Comp. Naegelsb.Gr.<\/em>, 88, 7.Comp. Jer 11:7<\/span>; Jer 25:4<\/span>; Jer 26:5<\/span> : Jer 29:19<\/span>; Jer 35:15<\/span>; Jer 44:4<\/span>.Alone never means daily. But with an infinitive construction it represents the idea day in the same sense as the idea early, i. e.<\/em>, the sending has taken place day by day, daily and always early, i. e.<\/em>, not sleepily, dilatorily, but diligently and unremittingly, comp. besides Gr.<\/em> 93, h.On Jer 7:26<\/span> comp. Deu 10:16<\/span>; Jer 17:23<\/span>; Jer 19:15<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:27-28<\/span>. And though thou speakest to them from their mouth<\/strong>. There is a reason here for . Although the word is also used of Israel without a bad side-meaning (comp. Exo 19:6<\/span> : Jos 3:17<\/span>; Jos 4:1<\/span>; Jos 10:3<\/span>), yet we never find , but always is therefore chosen here to designate Israel as a common, profane nation. Comp. Isa 1:4<\/span>.The prophet is to pronounce the judgment of incorrigibility on Israel as the basis of the announcement of judgment which comes afterwards. On comp. Jer 5:3<\/span>, and the entire chapter. Truth or fidelity, is substantially lost: it is therefore no longer in their mouth. The prophet alludes to what was said in Jer 7:4<\/span> : even though they take the words upon their lips, these are but empty sounds. For he whose heart is empty can avail nothing with his mouth.<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

[9]<\/span>Jer 7:22<\/span>.[A vast number of MSS., three of the early editions, and all the versions read, with the Keri, instead of . Henderson.S. R. A.]<\/p>\n

[10]<\/span>Jer 7:24<\/span>. is stat. absol.<\/em> and therefore not co-ordinated with the following , but the following sentence forms a sort of apposition to it: They walked in counsels!in hardness of their heart. Comp. Naegelsb. Gram.<\/em> 66.<\/p>\n

[11]<\/span>Jer 7:24<\/span>.[Blayney, Umbreit, Henderson render: and went (drew, turned) backward, and not forward. Noyes and Hitzig: turned the back and not the face.S. R. A.]<\/p>\n

5. The Abomination of Idolatry in the Highest Degree a Most Evident Proof of the Hypocrisy of the People. Beginning of Retribution<\/em><\/p>\n

Jer 7:29-34<\/span><\/p>\n

29Shear off thy hair and cast it away,<\/p>\n

And raise on the heights a wailing,
For Jehovah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath.<\/p>\n

30For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, saith Jehovah.<\/p>\n

They have set their abominations in the house,
Which bears my name, to pollute it.<\/p>\n

31And they have built the high places of Tophet,<\/p>\n

Which is in the valley of Ben-Hinnom.
To burn their sons and daughters in the fire;
Which I commanded not, neither did it come into my mind.<\/p>\n

32Therefore behold! the days are coming, saith Jehovah,<\/p>\n

That it will no more be called Tophet and vale Ben-Hinnom,
But the valley of slaughter:
And they will bury in Tophet, because there is no room.<\/p>\n

33And the carcases of this people shall be for food<\/p>\n

To the birds of heaven and the beasts of earth,
And there will be none to scare them away.<\/p>\n

34And I will cause to cease from this city of Judah,<\/p>\n

And from the streets of Jerusalem,
The voice of gladness and the voice of joy,
The voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride;
For the land shall become a desolation.<\/p>\n

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

How little the appeal of the Israelites to the chosen place of mercy, and to their observance of the ritual, could help them (Jer 7:29<\/span>) the prophet shows by setting forth their desecration of the sanctuary by Baal-worship, and their infraction of the Law by abominable practices which were directly forbidden in it (Jer 7:30-31<\/span>). Thus it is rendered most clearly manifest what shameful hypocrisy was concealed under the Jehovah-worship boasted of in Jer 7:4<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The rejection consequently announced in Jer 7:29<\/span> will consist in this, that the places in the vale of Hinnom hitherto considered sacred will be places of slaughter and burial, and that still a large number of unburied corpses will afford food for the beasts; the further consequence of which will be, that the land, bereft of its inhabitants, will become a barren waste (Jer 7:31-34<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:29<\/span>. Shear off thy hair generation of his wrath<\/strong>. is properly crown:<\/em> here it is used of the hair as the natural adornment of the head, comp. Num 6:19<\/span>. The cutting off of the hair was a sign of mourning, Jer 16:6<\/span>; Jer 48:37<\/span>; Isa 15:2<\/span>; Mic 1:16<\/span>, etc<\/em>. Comp. Herzog, Real-Enc<\/em>. XVI., S<\/em>. 363. [Henderson:Jerusalem is here addressed under the image of a female, who, in the depth of her grief for the loss of her children, deprives her head of its chief ornament, and betakes herself to the hills to bewail her bereavement. Henry after Blayney:The word is peculiar to the hair of the Nazarites, which was the badge and token of their dedication to God, and it is called their crown. Jerusalem had been a city, which was a Nazarite to God, but must now cut off her hair<\/em>, must be profaned, degraded and separated from God, as she had been separated to<\/em> Him. It is time for those who have lost their holiness to lay aside their joy.S. R. A.]On the feminine form in etc<\/em>. Comp. Naegelsb. Gr.<\/em>, 60, 7.On the heights<\/strong>. Comp. Jer 3:21<\/span>; Jer 9:9<\/span>.generation of his wrath<\/strong>. Comp. Isa 10:6<\/span>; Pro 22:8<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:30<\/span>. For the children of Judah to pollute it.in my sight<\/strong>, does not depend on have done<\/strong>, but on that which is evil<\/strong>. Comp. Jdg 3:7<\/span>; Jdg 3:12<\/span>, etc.<\/em>, and Naegelsb. Gr.<\/em>, 112, 5 b, (where moreover we must understand it in a physical<\/em> sense [Isa 14:16<\/span>] as distinguished from the spiritual<\/em> sense, Gen 28:8<\/span>, etc<\/em>).Their abominations<\/strong>. That Jeremiah refers to the abominable practices of Manasseh (2Ki 21:4-7<\/span>) has been fully proved by Graf. I will only add that Jehoiakim represents the relapse into the principle forsaken by Josiah, and that this explains why responsibility for the sins of Manasseh is attributed to him and his contemporaries (2Ki 24:3<\/span>; Jer 15:4<\/span>), on which account also in this passage the abominations are spoken of as though they had been committed by Jehoiakim himself. This passage is repeated in Jer 32:34<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:31<\/span>. And they have built come into my mind<\/strong>. is not merely high places, but in a derivative sense every place of worship erected for idolatrous service, or every building for that purpose, as is proved by passages like 2Ki 23:15<\/span>, where the is distinguished from the altar in it, and is burnt<\/em>,Eze 16:16<\/span>, where high places are mentioned as composed of garments. Here also they are not the altars alone, but the places of worship with the altars. There appear to have been several such places in Tophet, this being intimated by the expression Jer 19:13. Tophet, as is well known, was a place in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, where the horrible sacrifices of children (comp. Selden, De Diis Syr. Syntagm<\/em>. I. 6) were offered to Baal (Jer 19:5<\/span>with which Molech, Jer 32:35<\/span>, is parallel, comp. Lev 18:21<\/span>; Lev 20:2-5<\/span>; 1Ki 11:7<\/span>; 2Ki 23:10<\/span>). But the derivation of the word is uncertain. Some (Lorsbach, Gesen., Hitzig, Ewald, Fuerst, and others) appeal to Isa 30:33<\/span> in favor of the rendering place of burning<\/em>, deriving it from =to burn<\/em>. Others (Winer, Bttcher, Graf, Pressel) finding their support in Job 17:6<\/span>, give the word the meaning of sputum, abomination, horror<\/em>, from the Chaldee =to spew out<\/em>. Hofmann (in Weiss. u. Erf.<\/em>, II., 125) suggests the not improbable derivation from and gives it the meaning of pit. A decision on this point is as difficult as with reference to the vale Ben-Hinnom. The situation of this valley is indeed fixed, as it is certain it was to the south of Jerusalem, but the views are various as to its exact location. Comp. Herzog, Real-Enc.<\/em>, IV. S. 710.There is not perfect agreement even as to the name of the valley, the ancients regarding Hinnom as a proper name, of the moderns some deriving it from (by transposition=the valley of wailing, so Hitzig and Graf), and others from = (with the same meaning, so Bttcher, De Inf.<\/em>, I. S.<\/em> 82, 83). Were the valley only the vale of Hinnom, as in Jos 15:8<\/span>; Jos 18:16<\/span>; Neh 11:30<\/span>, or the vale Beni-Hinnom (as in 2Ki 23:10<\/span> only, Chethibh) the apellative signification would have much in its favor. But as the name Vale Ben-Hinnom<\/em> is the most frequent and certainly the original (Jos 15:8<\/span>; Jos 18:16<\/span>; Jer 7:31-32<\/span>; Jer 19:2<\/span>; Jer 19:6<\/span>; 2Ch 28:3<\/span>; 2Ch 33:6<\/span>), the derivations given above are very insecure, and it is most advisable to retain the old interpretation.To burn.<\/strong> Two passages coincide with this almost word for word: Jer 19:5<\/span> and Jer 32:35<\/span>. In the latter passage, instead of this expression, we find to cause to pass through<\/em>, which shows that it is not to be understood literally as Maimonides and other Jewish commentators suppose, but as an euphemism.The words which I commanded not<\/em> repeated in all three passages (comp. Jer 3:16<\/span>), intimate that this custom was relatively a new one. Although the worship of Molech (the Ammonitish) is attributed even to Solomon (1Ki 11:7<\/span>), yet the abomination of burning children was first introduced into Judah by Ahaz (2Ki 16:3<\/span>). Comp. Movers, Phn<\/em>. I., S.<\/em> 327 sqq.In the Pentateuch this cult was forbidden, Deu 12:30<\/span>; Deu 18:10<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:32-34<\/span>. Therefore behold! the days are coming a desolation.<\/strong> The place of worship, held sacred by the idolatrous Jews, but in fact desecrated, shall even for them be forever polluted. That this would be accomplished by a massacre on the spot, is not stated in the text. This would not have polluted it forever, as we read of Josiah that he polluted the places of idolatrous worship either by the burning of human bones (2Ki 23:16<\/span>; 2Ki 23:20<\/span>) or by filling them up with these (Jer 7:14<\/span>) or the reverse, by strewing the ashes of the idols on the graves (Jer 7:6<\/span>). At any rate he must have defiled Tophet (Jer 7:10<\/span>) and other places (Jer 7:8<\/span>; Jer 7:13<\/span>) in the same way. Here then also the pollution is caused by the interment, and the name valley of slaughter is connected with it only in so far that the vale is used as a place of burial only in consequence of the want of room, resulting from the great slaughter (comp. Jer 19:11<\/span>; Eze 9:7<\/span>). But even thus a great number of corpses will remain unburied, which will be food for beasts (comp. Deu 28:26<\/span>, whence Jer 7:33<\/span> is taken verbatim, and Jer 16:4<\/span>; Jer 19:7<\/span>; Jer 34:20<\/span>).None to scare,<\/strong>etc.<\/em> Comp. Lev 26:6<\/span>; Deu 28:26<\/span>; Mic 4:4<\/span>; Nah 2:12<\/span>; Zep 3:13<\/span>; Jer 30:10<\/span>; Jer 46:27<\/span>. The further result of the slaughter is depopulation, the cessation of every sign of normal human existence, complete desolation of the land. (Jer 16:9<\/span>; Jer 25:10-11<\/span>, coll. Jer 33:11<\/span>). [Henderson:In Jer 7:34<\/span>, reference is made to the joyous processions in which the bride and bridegroom are led through the streets, accompanied by bands of singers and musicians, which are common in many parts of the East, and even among the Jews in some parts of Europe. See my Biblical Researches and Travels in Russia, p. 217.S. R. A.]<\/p>\n

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CONTENTS<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Here seems to be the opening of a new Sermon of the Prophet’s: but the same subject. The Prophet reproves Judah, and admonisheth to return to the Lord.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

It appears by the subject of the Prophet’s sermon, that the men of Judah, while destitute of vital godliness, were much taken up with the form of it: and though without the love of God in their heart, prided themselves in belonging to the temple of the Lord. Reader! they did that which men of no religion have in all ages been much disposed to do, satisfied themselves with the outside forms of religion. And this the Lord calls lying words. What an awful delusion! To be fancying ourselves something, when in reality we are nothing. Such the Lord Jesus hath described concerning the Church of Laodicea. Happy would it have been had this spirit of delusion died with the departure of the Laodiceans See Rev 3:14-17<\/span> .<\/p>\n

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Organisation and Responsibility<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Jer 7:10<\/p>\n

That men are variously constituted is a fact not merely profoundly interesting to the speculative philosopher, but of the greatest practical consequence to the Christian philanthropist. While the genus, man, is founded on a common basis, the individual is marked by characteristics singular to himself. We are rooted in the same soil, yet each seems to develop according to a law of his own. We have much in common, yet are individualised by the strongest contrasts. All men bear the same image, yet no two men are alike; the superscription upon all is the writing of God, yet the pronunciation of all that superscription is as varied as the dialects of Babel. We are one, yet many; we are many, yet one; distinct as the waves, yet one as the sea; lonely as the stars, yet united as the firmament; diversified as the mountains, yet one as the globe. In all this contrast and antithesis, all this many-coloured and many-toned variousness of humanity, we have distinctness and vitality of personal character. In this view of humanity we obtain an indistinct and incomplete, yet instructive hint of what is comprehended in the Infinite Life of God. While all men have a common life, each man appears to have a portion of life peculiarly and specially his own; and so, going through all the uncounted generations of humanity, and taking note not only of the common centre, but of all the individual radii, we feel how full, how vast, how infinite, must be the vitality of God!<\/p>\n

Let us look at some special instances of peculiar organisation, and then consider them in relation to personal responsibility. For example, take the man whose dominating characteristic is Acquisitiveness. That man’s creed is a word, and that word is but a syllable: his creed is Get; nothing less, nothing more, simply Get! His very hand is a crook that may be used for plucking fruit off the highest trees, or plunging into the deepest streams. He is ever seeing his way clear to more and more property. He would turn heaven itself into a market-place, and drive sharp bargains with the angels. While other men are inhaling the poetry which breathes around the mountain range, he sees how it could be drained and utilised up to the very top, that solemn top which has heard no eloquence but the thunder, and known no plough but the lightning. He calls the gift of womanly devotion “waste”; and being quick at mental arithmetic he soon finds that the ointment given by the hand of uncalculating and ungrudging love “might have been sold,” think of that, “might have been sold, and given to the poor:” see how this man of dust puts the possibility, he says it might have been “sold” and “given,” as if it could not have been “given” without first being “sold”: with him benevolence is a matter of weights and scales; with him the true way to heaven is over the counter; with him buying and selling and getting gain are the highest triumphs of mortal genius. Ask him why. Instantly he recurs to his organisation. He says: “God made me as I am; he did not consult me as to the constitution of my being; he made me acquisitive, and I must be faithful to my organisation; and I will go forward to meet him at the day of judgment, and tell him to his face that he has me as he made me, and I disclaim all responsibility.”<\/p>\n

The organisation of another man predominates in the direction of Combativeness. The man is litigious, quarrelsome, cantankerous, violent. He is “such a son of Belial, that a man cannot speak to him.” His breast is a volcano. He alienates his friends; he thrice slays his foes. He is so sensitive as to be wounded by a passing shadow. He imagines that creation is continually pronouncing judgment upon him. In a moment the burning word of defiance is on his lips, and his wrath is expressed without restraint. Ask him why. He says: “I must be faithful to my constitution; my whole manhood is intensely combative; I did not make myself; God has me as he made me, and I disown all laws of obligation.”<\/p>\n

Here is a woman whose countenance expresses the most urgent curiosity; her face is a mark of interrogation; she is always prying into forbidden matters, and the moment any subject assumes mystery or secrecy her whole nature is stirred into the most anxious agitation. She puts forth her hand eagerly to the forbidden tree: if it had not been forbidden, she would not have troubled it; but the interdict enkindled every passion, and she cannot rest until her inquisitiveness is satisfied. The word “Why?” is continually on her tongue. She would cross-examine the angels, and open the sealed books of God. She feels the burning of a perpetual thirst; a thirst which cannot be slaked at vulgar streams, but must be quenched at the fountain which springs from the distant hills. Ask the reason; she answers: ‘I must be myself; God gave me my organisation; he determined the temperature of my blood; I shall cultivate his gifts, and if any injury arise the blame shall be charged upon himself.<\/p>\n

Here is a man with little Hope. He sees a lion on every way; he dreads that ruin will be the end of every enterprise; he knows not the sweetness of contentment or the repose of an intelligent hope; he is always mourning, always repining; his voice is an unceasing threnody, his face a perpetual winter. He sees no angel-forms in the glad, laughing spring; summer itself is chilled into winter by his icy breath; he reads no writing of God in the rainbow; there is no dimple of joy in the soft young cheek of May; and all June’s wealth of light shows him nothing but corresponding shadows. His life is a mournful plaint. No lyric charms him from his sadness; no minstrelsy tempts his sullen heart into rhythmic throbs. Ask him why. He says: “God so made me; if he had put within me the angel of Hope, I should have been sharer of your gladness; I should have been your companion in the choir; I should have been a happier man: he covered me with night that owns no star; he gave my<\/em> fingers no cunning art of music; he meant me to look at him through tears and to offer my poor worship in sighs.”<\/p>\n

These instances may suffice to show, from one point of view, the relation of organisation to responsibility. The argument in brief is, that men must be faithful to their constitution; that if God meant men to be poets, they would be poets; if soldiers, soldiers; if accumulators, accumulators; and so forth, the question being simply one of organisation, organisation for which the men themselves are not responsible.<\/p>\n

We cannot enter into all the questions which may lie between God and man on the subject of organisation. Let us take one or two such cases as have just been outlined. We found the acquisitive man getting gold, getting at all risks; getting till his conscience was seared and his understanding darkened. In that case ought we to sympathise with the man, saying, “We are sorry for you; we lament that your organisation compels you to be avaricious: we know you cannot help it, so we exempt you from all responsibility”? No! we would say as in thunder; No! we do not find fault with the organisation of the acquisitive man; but if he pleads the excuse already citied, we openly charge him with having degraded, prostituted, and diabolised that constitution; he has not used it, but abused it; he has not been faithful, but faithless, and must be branded as a criminal. The man’s organisation is acquisitive; be it so: that circumstance in itself does not necessitate crime. There are two courses open to the acquisitive man. He can rake in the mud and burrow in the drains of the city; he can covet the one ewe lamb or the poor man’s acre of vineyard; he can grind the face of honest poverty, and oppress him who has no helper; he may leave no “handfuls of purpose” for the needy gleaner; he may “go over” the olive boughs until not one particle of fruit remains for “the stranger, the fatherless, or the widow:” all that he may do; the course is open the choice is his own! But is that all? Truly, blessedly, No! He may carry the full force of his acquisitions in another direction; he may listen to the invitations of wisdom; he may enrich himself with heavenly spoil. To him we say, Do be faithful to your organisation, do get, get money by right means, get exaltation by legitimate processes; but with all thy getting, get understanding, “for the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold; she is more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.”<\/p>\n

Here there are two courses: the one goes downward into dust, into mire, into hell; the other goes upward, into wisdom, into light, into heaven. We are not responsible for our organisation, but for the use we make of it; we are not responsible for the faculty of speech, but we are responsible for the manner in which we employ it; we can use it in unholy communications, such as “defile the man,” or we can “open our mouth for the dumb,” and “plead the cause of the poor and needy.”<\/p>\n

The combative man; what of him? We found him fighting, storming, raging. His life was hot with passion, and his eye glared with a murderous intent. Do we sympathise with him? “Sir, your case demands commiseration, inasmuch as you must be faithful to your organisation, and that organisation happens to be a dreadful one? “No! to the combative man we say: There are two courses open to you: you can fight with muscle, and steel, and gunpowder; you may train yourself to be pitiless as a tiger; you may be petulant, resentful, hard-hearted: the choice is before you to pronounce the elective word! Or, there is another course open: you may choose weapons that are not carnal; you may resist the devil; you may “wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, again:;t the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” You need not throw off the panoply of war and assume the attire of peace. Put on the whole armour of God. Helmet, breastplate, sword, shield, girdle, sandals, put it on! and shout the war-cry through the devil’s camp. There is scope enough for combativeness your organisation need not be dormant. Which course do you adopt? You are not responsible for your organisation, but you are responsible for the use you make of it; you can make yourself a plague and a terror, or you may become a valiant champion, whose foot shall be upon the neck of the enemies of God! Take the case of inordinate inquisitiveness. There are two courses open to the inquisitive person; to him we say: You can meanly pry into concerns which are not your own; you can be found under the eaves overhearing the sacred words of confidence; you can be hunting for forbidden prey within the hallowed enclosure of social trust; in that ignoble way you may display the chief characteristic of your mental nature, prowling about in the darkness, robbing your friends of their innermost treasures. There is another course open; God has set before every man an ample domain, in which he may exercise inquiry: you may watch the worlds and inquire into the mysteries of their relations, how they warm themselves and others by revolution, and brighten themselves by continual activity; ask them questions, plead for answers; sit down by the side of summer, and inquire diligently of her wondrous cunning and inexhaustible fertility; ask how she weaves the garland, or moulds the blossom, or covers the nakedness of the forest; acquaint yourself with all the minstrels which fill the air with truest music; interrogate the sea, ask the secret of its eternal sob, and inquire concerning its palace-caves, fashioned without craft or cunning of man: or exercise your inquisitiveness in other directions; go from nature to humanity; inquire after your brother’s well-being; seek out the lurking places of guilt, and go in search of the balm which can heal the soreness of the heart; and when men ask you how you employ your inquisitive faculty, you can answer: “I inquired for wisdom, and sought out the dwelling-place of understanding; I was eyes to the blind, and feet was I to the lame; I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not, I searched out.”<\/p>\n

The argument which the fatalist bases upon organisation is self-annihilating when applied to the common relations of life. The fatalist himself does not believe in his own doctrine; in speculative reasoning he is eager to charge moral crime upon organic defect; yet, in practical magistracy, he arraigns and condemns the criminal to punishment. But how monstrous an outrage is this upon his own creed! The criminal was compelled through stress of organisation to commit the crime, yet the fatalist punishes him for doing what he could not help! Let the principle of the fatalist be admitted, and there is an end to all legislation an end, indeed, to the social compact itself. All associated life is regulated by a system of restraints; but restraint implies self-control, and self-control is directly opposed to fatalism. Let a criminal plead that he could not help committing a certain crime; and if the judge allow the plea, he will at once treat the criminal as a lunatic, and instruct the officers of justice accordingly. Magistracy proceeds upon the principle that men can “help” committing crime. All human legislation assumes man’s power of self-regulation, and grounds itself on the grand doctrine of man’s responsibility to man. At this point, then, divine revelation meets human reason, and insists upon the same principle in relation to God. Theology says, You hold yourselves responsible to one another on all social matters; you punish the criminal; you ignore the plea of fatalism on all questions of property, order, and security; now go farther, heighten your own social base, carry out to their logical issues your own principles and methods, and you will reach all that God requires of man.<\/p>\n

If it be urged that God gave the criminal his organisation, the objection does not touch the argument. The argument is, that in human consciousness the plea of fatalism is ignored on all practical matters; away beyond all written statutes there is a conviction that man can regulate his actions, and ought to be held responsible for such regulation: man himself thus, by his own conduct and his own laws, acquits God of all charge upon this matter; the very recognition by the magistrate, of man’s responsibility, is itself a direct acquittal of God from the accusations of fatalism. God need not be interrogated upon the subject, for the magistrate himself, faithful to the consciousness of universal humanity, treats the fatalistic theory as an absurdity.<\/p>\n

The practical issue of the argument, then, is that in human consciousness and experience it is a settled principle that men are responsible to each other, and that the doctrine of social irresponsibility is a lie; so that without opening the Bible, we find this principle recognised by man the individual, man the proprietor, and man the magistrate. Revelation does not establish a new law does not impose upon man an obligation foreign to his nature; but, on the contrary, takes human consciousness as it is, and educates and sanctifies the moral instincts. Where, then, is the unreasonableness of the scriptural doctrine of responsibility? Any other doctrine would directly antagonise the consciousness, the experience, and the magisterial instincts of the race, and therefore must presumptively be untrue; but this doctrine appeals to the profoundest consciousness of human nature, finds in that a witness to its own reasonableness, and is therefore presumptively true. It may be concluded, then, that on the question of moral obligation to God, revelation simply interprets, exalts, and sanctifies the consciousness and experience of the world.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

VI<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

SERMONS ON THE TEMPLE WORSHIP<\/p>\n

Jeremiah 7-10; Jer 26<\/span><\/p>\n

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These events occurred in the earliest half of the reign of Jehoiakim, about 607 or 606 B.C. Though the nation was going back to idolatry, the Temple ceremonies and sacrifices were carried on with great zeal and elaborateness. The people seemed to put their trust in the Temple rather than in God who dwelt therein. They believed that the sacrifices themselves availed much, and that their salvation was secure, if they performed these services. The relation of their conduct to their worship did not seem to trouble them. Jeremiah heard God’s call to preach to them in the very Temple itself, to preach to the multitude of worshipers that thronged these courts. He seized upon the occasion of a great feast, when the multitude was the greatest and addressed the throng on the necessity of a better life with their worship. Jeremiah was in the Temple that is called the house of Jehovah. There was unquestionably a large concourse of people gathered together. Some suggest that the purpose of that assembly may have been to consider means of defense in the face of impending disaster upon the nation. It may have occurred sometime when Jehoiakim had been compelled to pay tribute to a foreign king.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah speaks to the people a message of warning: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.” Then he gives them some very suggestive advice, some very earnest words of warning: “Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah.” That is very suggestive. It is a warning to people who are trusting in the external, the ceremonial and the ritual; that these avail nothing where the spirit and the heart are lacking. They believed, because they had the Temple of Jehovah and kept up its ceremonies, that it would stand for ever and that God would protect them for the Temple’s sake. Jeremiah prophesied that the Temple would be destroyed. Less than twenty years afterward these words of the prophet were fulfilled. The Temple was destroyed. But these people said, “It is impossible that this temple should be destroyed, for it is the temple of Jehovah.” They were saying, “The temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah, the temple of Jehovah!” This is a blow against all heathen religions, and also the Roman Catholic religion. The people were trusting in the ceremonies and externals: “The temple of Jehovah! The temple of Jehovah! The temple of Jehovah!” The prophet demanded that they change their life; that they turn from their wickedness, else the Temple would be no good to them.<\/p>\n

The prophet here charged them with all kinds of sin: with falsehood, with lying, with deceit, with murder, and with idolatry of various kinds. They were like the Negro woman who was accused of a certain sin and when asked, “How can you do that?” she replied: “Well, I never lets that interfere with my religion.” These people divorced morals and religion. They never let their religion interfere with their conduct. Furthermore, the prophet charged them with making their beautiful Temple, in which they were trusting, a “den of robbers.” That is the same condition that Jesus found about 600 years later. He said, “Ye have made my Father’s house a den of thieves.” The people were saying, “It is impossible for the Temple to be destroyed; God will defend his house.” But the prophet reminds them that God did destroy his house: Remember the days of Eli and his sons, and Samuel yonder at Shiloh; that God destroyed Shiloh where the tabernacle was then. This is the only direct reference we have to the destruction of Shiloh. The ark of the covenant was captured, and the tabernacle is heard of later as stationed at Gibeon and later on was stored in the Temple. God destroyed their dwelling place at Shiloh and he can destroy it in Jerusalem. That is the lesson here.<\/p>\n

The result of that sermon is recorded in Jer 26<\/span> . In that chapter Jeremiah or Baruch writes down what the prophet had said, not the same words exactly but the substance of it. The priests and the prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah speak these words in the house of Jehovah. Then they, the ecclesiastical leaders, began a persecution. They were the parties that were directly concerned, because they administered the Temple worship and services, and if the Temple were to be destroyed, they would be out of work, and thus they took offense at the words of Jeremiah. They did not enjoy his going around and threatening the destruction of their church house and thus put them out of business.<\/p>\n

Now, it was the same in the days of Christ. It was the ecclesiastical leaders who began the persecution against him. It was the chief priests, the scribes and the rabbis that were aroused because he rebuked them for burying the law under their traditions. So it was here. These priests and prophets (false prophets) were enraged at this kind of preaching and they laid hold of Jeremiah and said, “Thou shalt surely die.” The persecution of Stephen is a parallel case. They attempted to prove against Stephen the charge that he had spoken against the Temple; that he had spoken blasphemous words against Moses and against “This holy place.” The Sanhedrin asked him, “Are these things so?” He admitted the statement and that was sufficient charge in their minds. But he went on to prove to them that God might be worshiped without a Temple; that he had been worshiped in many places besides Jerusalem. That was adding crime to crime, and so they killed him.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah was in the hands of the priests and prophets, and was in imminent danger. They were about to kill him, but there was another class of men, not there at the time, but they heard of it. These were the princes of Judah who heard the confusion, hurried from the king’s house to the house of Jehovah, and heard these priests and prophets about their charges against Jeremiah, saying that he was worthy of death. Jeremiah made his defense (Jer 7:12<\/span> ). His defense was that Jehovah sent him to prophesy. He says that God commanded him to say to them that they must amend their ways. Then he went on to say that he had told them the truth and that he was in their hands; that they could do with him as they would, “Only know ye for certain that, if ye put me to death, ye will bring innocent blood upon this city and upon yourselves and the inhabitants of the land, for God hath sent me to say these things to you.” Jeremiah did not take back a word.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that if it had not been for the princes and the people who were on his side he would have immediately been put to death. Certain elders of the land rose up and spake to the people. They said, “No, don’t be rash. You remember that Micah, the prophet, prophesied that Zion should be destroyed, and although he prophesied thus, Hezekiah, the king, and the people did not put him to death.” These men remind us of Gamaliel. Then they tell the story of another occasion. He did not fare so well as Micah. There was a different king upon the throne. Jehoiakim was now at the helm. He it was who with wicked hands took the prophecy of Jeremiah, God’s holy message, and cut it to pieces and burned it. He did not stop till he put the prophet, Uriah, to death. He fled to Egypt but the king brought him back and executed him.<\/p>\n

The outcome of this was that Jeremiah was saved. He eacaped these enraged priests and prophets through the influence of the princes. They were men of influence and power, and they took his part in the face of his enemies. He had a particular among the princes, Ahikam, the son of Shaphan, who was chiefly instrumental in rescuing him. Intercession for this people is now useless, Jer 7:16<\/span> : “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me.” Jeremiah could not save Judah and Jerusalem. No man could do it. Not even Jesus Christ could save the wicked land and city in his day. Savonarola could not save Florence. So the day of opportunity had passed for Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

Their idolatry is described in Jer 7:17-20<\/span> : “Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?” This was in the reign of Jehoiakim. It could not have occurred in the reign of Josiah. “The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven,” probably Ashtoreth. They made cakes doubtless in the shape of that queen, as we, in our childhood, made cakes in the shape of men. So they made their cakes in honor of their heathen goddess. Jer 7:19-20<\/span> show the result of such conduct.<\/p>\n

The import of Jer 7:21-26<\/span> is that the basis of the law is obedience, not ceremony. In Jer 7:21<\/span> is a touch of sarcasm: “Add your burnt offerings.” This is like Isaiah and Amos, who exhort the people to increase their religious efforts that were but dead forms. Amos says, “Come to Gilgal and transgress.”<\/p>\n

Jer 7:22<\/span> says, “I spake not unto your fathers, when I brought them out of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices: this is the thing that I commanded them saying, Hearken unto my voice.” Now, the critics take that as one of their strong points. They maintain that it plainly says that ceremonial legislation of the Pentateuch was not given by Moses but that it was written later. They refer to this with great boldness saying, “Does not Jeremiah, the prophet, plainly say that God did not speak unto Moses or the fathers concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices down in Egypt or in the wilderness?” When Israel came out of Egypt, the nature of the covenant made between God and Israel was as follows: “If ye will obey my voice and keep my covenant, then indeed ye shall be mine own possession from among the peoples, and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation” (Exo 19:5-6<\/span> ). And we are told in Jer 7:8<\/span> that the people promised, saying, “All the words of Jehovah we will do.” Now, the basis of that covenant on the part of Israel was obedience. The basis on God’s part was grace. “If ye will obey my voice,” is an expression of grace, an overture that is not deserved. It is free and voluntary on God’s part. “If ye will do what I tell you, I will be to you all that is needed.” The people said, “We will obey the covenant.”<\/p>\n

So it was made, and Jeremiah was right when he said, “I spake not to your fathers in the wilderness concerning sacrifices and burnt offerings, but this I said, Obey my voice.” The Ten Commandments were given as a standard of obedience and faith. They showed the people wherein they might obey God’s voice. The condition is there laid down and their acceptance implies faith and love on their part. That is the foundation principle of Christianity itself. In this passage it is clear that Jeremiah makes a great contrast between ceremony and obedience.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah (Jer 7:27-28<\/span> ) goes on to describe the unbroken disobedience of the people. They had continued in disobedience ever since they had been in the land of Canaan. Next we have the lament of Jeremiah over the destruction, Jer 7:29-34<\/span> : “Cut off thy hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation. The people have set their abominations in the house that is called by my name. They have burned their sons and their daughters in the fire, therefore behold the days shall come that it shall no more be called the valley of Topheth, nor the valley of Himom, but the valley of slaughter. The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and gladness, the bridegroom and the bride, for the land shall become a waste.”<\/p>\n

In Jer 8:1-3<\/span> Jeremiah shows that these barbarians who were coming, were going to be so ruthless that they would not stop with the killing of the living, but they would break open the graves of the kings of Judah, the princes, the mighty men and the prophets and would tear their bodies out of their graves and desecrate them. Now, that was the highest indignity on an Oriental, for the grave of his dead is sacred. Yet these barbarians would go even to that extremity.<\/p>\n

In Jer 8:4-9<\/span> the prophet again exposes the wickedness of the people and points to the exile that is not to be averted. Many similar passages we have already examined. There are repetitions in Jeremiah. They would not repent and obey the word of the Lord, therefore this punishment is coming. “How do ye say, We are wise, and the Law of Jehovah is with us?” “Our scribes have been reading the Law until they have mastered it.” That is just what they did in the days of Jesus. They had covered up the commandments of the Law by their traditions. They had added many things, too. In verse Jer 8:12<\/span> he asks, “Were they ashamed when they had committed abominations? Nay, they were not ashamed.” Then Jeremiah described the enemy approaching: “The snorting of the horses is at the gate,” and so he goes on with his description of the foe coming upon the land. In Jer 18:22<\/span> we have that lament which we have already studied before: “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” “Oh, that my head were a fountain of water that I might weep rivers of tears!”<\/p>\n

We have a graphic picture in Jer 9:3-9<\/span> : “They bend their tongues as a bow is bent.” A bow is made to bend. That is the purpose for which it is made. The idea is that they use their tongues as if they were made for lying. They speak falsehood as if that was the main use of the tongue. The people are so corrupt that they lie as if that were the normal way of speaking.<\/p>\n

The picture of Jer 9:10-16<\/span> is a picture of the impending devastation. Note the language of the prophet in Jer 9:11<\/span> ; Jer 9:13<\/span> , Jer 9:16<\/span> : “And I will make Jerusalem heaps, and a den of dragons; and I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant . . . And the Lord saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein; . . . I will scatter them also among the heathen, whom neither they nor their fathers have known; and I will send a sword after them, till I have consumed them.” The call of Jer 9:17-22<\/span> is a call for the female mourners. They are called upon to mourn and lament because of the destruction: “Call for the mourning women that they may come, and for the skillful women. Let them take up a wailing for us.” There was soon an occasion for it.<\/p>\n

The contrast of Jer 9:23-24<\/span> is a contrast between true and false glorying. Here is a marvelous text and a great subject: “Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he hath understanding, and knoweth me.” What is he to glory in? Not in human power and worth but in the knowledge of Jehovah who is powerful and loving. That is like the apostle Paul who said, “God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of Christ.” There was no cross of Christ in Jeremiah’s time, but the idea is much the same. The knowledge of God, such a God as Jehovah, is the summum bonum of life, the highest object of human glorying.<\/p>\n

The prophecy of Jer 9:25-26<\/span> is a prophecy of the punishment of the nations. Some of the heathen nations were to be punished with Judah, and the prophecy of Jer 10:1-16<\/span> is a prophecy concerning idols, a distinct prophecy. It is a description of the idols of the heathen nations, a magnificent portrayal of the vanity of heathen worship, in contrast with the glorious worship of Jehovah. The critics claim that this passage was not written by Jeremiah, but long after him. It is very much like Isaiah 40-44, and they claim that it was not written till after those chapters were written, between 400 and 200 B.C. Now, that is a mere guess. Isaiah wrote chapters Isaiah 40-44 and Jeremiah wrote this later. He was probably writing to the exiles. Though God’s people were in Babylon, Jeremiah addressed this passage to them to exhort them to remain faithful to Jehovah in the midst of heathen worship.<\/p>\n

Now, it is significant that Jer 10:11<\/span> is in Aramaic, not Hebrew. There are many explanations by critics and scholars of this phenomenon. Some say that it is a corruption of the text. Others that it is a marginal note crept into the text. Others say that it is an instruction given to the exiles in Babylon, which is highly probable. They spoke Aramaic and not Hebrew. So this passage would enable them to have a ready argument to meet the advocates of idol worship. In the Aramaic the people would understand it, and could readily use it in argument for their own worship.<\/p>\n

We have a prophetic picture in Jer 10:17-25<\/span> . In this section he pictures the coming exiles. The people are bidden to gather together their wares and belongings, and prepare to go into exile. There was a time when their punishment might have been averted but it is too late now. The hour has come, the shepherds are worthless, the foe approaches from the North. Their heathen neighbors who have done great evil against the nation of Israel shall be punished. The prophet asks Jehovah to pour out his wrath upon them.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS<\/p>\n

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1. What is the date and occasion of these prophecies?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2. What warning did Jeremiah here announce, and what remedy did he prescribe?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

3. What charge did the prophet prefer against them, what example in their history did he cite and what it-s lesson?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

4. What is the result of this sermon as recorded in Jer 26<\/span> and what the final outcome? Discuss fully.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

5. How is the doom of Jerusalem indicated in Jer 7:16<\/span> and what other similar cases?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

6. How is their idolatry described in Jer 7:17-20<\/span> and what the result?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

7. What the import of Jer 7:21-26<\/span> , what the critics’ contention with respect to it, and what the reply?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

8. How is their disobedience described in Jer 7:27-28<\/span> , what the lamentation of Jeremiah and what the prophecy here of their doom?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

9. What great indignity here prophesied against the people of Judah and Jerusalem?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

10. What is the prophet’s message, warning and lamentation in Jer 8:4-9:2<\/span> ?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

11. What is the picture of Jer 9:3-9<\/span> ?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

12. What is the picture of Jer 9:10-16<\/span> ?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

13. What is the call of Jer 9:17-22<\/span> ?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

14. What is the contrast of Jer 9:23-24<\/span> ?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

15. What is the prophecy of Jer 9:25-26<\/span> ?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

16. What is the prophecy of Jer 10:1-16<\/span> , what say the entice of this passage and what the reply?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

17. What is the prophetic picture in Jer 10:17-25<\/span> ?<\/p>\n

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,<\/p>\n

Ver. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah.<\/strong> ] A new sermon, but to the same purpose as the former. See on Jer 1:2<\/span> . Toto libro idem argumentum sursum deorsum versat.<\/em> a<\/em> <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

a<\/em> Oecolamp.<\/p>\n

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jeremiah Chapter 7<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

This section of our prophet starts from the temple as its groundwork, though of course branching out into all directions of the people’s iniquity.<\/p>\n

Judah at that time fell into the same fatal delusion, against which the Gentile is warned in Rom 11<\/span> . Christendom, too, has despised the apostle’s admonition. Thus the solemn facts stand now in double line before us. Man asserts his self-security most loudly when he least heeds God’s sovereign grace and his own responsibility to witness Him aright. The Jew flattered himself that the temple must stand by God’s power, let the people be what they might. So Christendom, fallen and yet still falling, set up, corresponding to its degradation, the claims of unfailingness and infallibility, which belongs only to God.<\/p>\n

But let us hearken: “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord, The temple of the Lord are these.” (Ver. 1-4.)<\/p>\n

God must have reality in His people. Grace never was meant and never can be suffered to enfeeble the moral ways of God: indeed, it is the sole spring of power to make them precious in our eyes and to give firmness in walking according to them. And the grace that is shown to and appreciated, however feebly, by the soul, manifests fruit of righteousness in every-day life between men as surely as it sets all right Godward. No more destructive snare than that privilege can be pleaded by such as sin and continue in it. God’s righteous government of His people is as certain as the mercy, which chose and blessed them: let them forget neither! “For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land which I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord.” (Ver. 5-11.) Nearness to God, even outwardly, is the ground for a more watchful holiness, never for indifference.<\/p>\n

But God deigns to reason with His people, notwithstanding their grossness. He points to Shiloh, where first the tabernacle of the congregation had been set up. How vain and fond the notion, that God would maintain His seat where His people insulted Him to His face! “But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what 1 did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and 1 spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. Do they provoke me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore thus saith the Lord God; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched.” (Ver. 12-20.)<\/p>\n

And what does the God and Father of the lord Jesus now behold in Christendom? What in the East? What in the West? What in those vast tracts of Asia and Africa, where christian assemblies once studded the countries now given over to the Mahometan apostasy? And if we come closer still, is there not as decided a setting up of false mediators in Romanism, as ever there was of false gods in Israel? If one had their “queen of heaven,” has not the other theirs, worshipped with yet more passionate devotion and with far less inexcusable rejection of better light?<\/p>\n

The rest of Jer 7<\/span> (21 et seq.) reminds the people that obedience was the claim of Jehovah, not burnt-offerings to hide their transgressions and stiff wickedness, which grew worse and worse as the prophets followed the law. Jeremiah should speak of them; but they were incorrigible idolaters. Jerusalem only dishonoured the Lord and His house, and is therefore called to mourning. As the Lord had rejected the generation of His wrath, so the high places of Tophet in the valley of Hinnom’s son should be superseded by the valley of slaughter till Tophet should have no more space for burial, and the carcases of Judah should be meat for birds and beasts; and all joy should cease and the land be desolate.<\/p>\n

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Jer 7:1-7<\/p>\n

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 2Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house and proclaim there this word and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD!’ 3Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. 4Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.’ 5For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, 6if you do not oppress the alien, the orphan, or the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, nor walk after other gods to your own ruin, 7then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:1 Notice the titles for God (see Special Topic: Names for Deity ).<\/p>\n

1. the LORD (YHWH), Jer 7:1-2; Jer 7:13; Jer 7:19; Jer 7:29-30<\/p>\n

2. the LORD of hosts, Jer 7:3; Jer 7:21<\/p>\n

3. the God (Elohim) of Israel, Jer 7:3; Jer 7:21 (LXX, Jer 7:1)<\/p>\n

4. the LORD (Adon) God (YHWH), Jer 7:20<\/p>\n

5. I will be your God (Elohim), Jer 7:23 (note the covenant language)<\/p>\n

6. the LORD their God, Jer 7:28<\/p>\n

The tragedy of this sermon is that it is directed to the covenant people who had YHWH’s revelation (promises, covenants, cultus, prophets, cf. Rom 9:4-5), but were not loyal to Him.<\/p>\n

Notice how specific YHWH’s message is to Jeremiah. These are not Jeremiah’s thoughts and opinions. These are God’s words, directed to His people, about their cavalier treatment of His name and worship!<\/p>\n

Jer 7:2 Stand in the gate. . .gates This is a Qal IMPERATIVE (BDB 763, KB 840). Kimchi (Jewish commentator of the Middle Ages) says Jeremiah preached this sermon seven times (SINGULAR vs. PLURAL), once at each gate of the temple. The gates were the focal point of temple traffic. The temple itself was the place of the people’s legalistic, liturgical, sacramental religion.<\/p>\n

Hear the word of the LORD This is another Qal IMPERATIVE (BDB 1033, KB 1570), which means to hear so as to do (cf. Deu 4:1; Deu 5:1; Deu 6:3-4; Deu 9:1; Deu 20:3; Deu 27:10; Deu 33:7).<\/p>\n

all you of Judah Every male above the age of thirteen assembled regularly at the Temple.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:3 LORD of hosts This refers to (1) the captain of the army of heaven or (2) the leader of the heavenly council (see Special Topic: Lord of Hosts ).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:3; Jer 7:5-6 Amend The VERB amend (BDB 405, KB 408, Hiphil IMPERATIVE) is normally translated do good (cf. Jer 10:5). In this context it denotes changing from evil to good (cf. Jer 7:5), another literary way to call for repentance (cf. Jer 4:1). This VERB in the Hiphil denotes ethical behavior in Gen 4:7; Lev 5:4; Isa 1:17; Jer 4:22; Jer 13:23. The covenant is both conditional (if, Jer 7:5-6) and unconditional (YHWH’s character and promises) to every generation.<\/p>\n

let you dwell in this place The VERB (BDB 1014, KB 1490) is a Piel COHORTATIVE. The Vulgate and Aquilla’s version have I will dwell with you (cf. 1Ki 6:12-13; NJB). This involves only a revocalization of the Masoretic Text (cf. Jer 7:7). The UBS Text Project gives the first option a C rating (considerable doubt). The second option is theologically attractive because biblical faith is a trusting relationship with YHWH before it is a land promise! The greatest blessing is YHWH’s personal presence (i.e., Immanuel).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4 Do not trust in deceptive words The VERB trust (BDB 105, KB 120, Qal IMPERFECT used in a JUSSIVE sense) is an important theological concept, repeated in Jer 7:8 (Qal PARTICIPLE). See Special Topic at Jer 3:12. The words of the priests and prophets (cf. Jer 7:13) who served in Jerusalem in the temple were false (cf. Jer 6:14; Jer 8:11). They probably used 2Sa 7:11-14; 1Ki 8:13; and Isaiah’s message (i.e., Isaiah 36-39) as proof texts to back up their false optimism. They had forgotten the conditional nature of the covenant (cf. Jer 7:5).<\/p>\n

This is the temple of the LORD This phrase possibly refers to a chorus the temple choir regularly sang. In Hebrew a three form repetition expresses a superlative degree (cf. Isa 6:3, e.g., Holy, Holy, Holy = the most holy). They were trusting in the place of worship not the person to be worshiped! Form without faith (cf. Isa 29:13; 2Ti 3:5)!<\/p>\n

Jer 7:5 if The if (conditional element) of this context is crucial (note the four if clauses).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:6 Notice the observable conditional activities which reveal a true faith lifestyle.<\/p>\n

1. practice justice between a man and his neighbor, Jer 7:5<\/p>\n

2. do not oppress, Jer 7:6<\/p>\n

a. the alien (foreigner living in Judah)<\/p>\n

b. the orphan<\/p>\n

c. the widow<\/p>\n

3. do not shed innocent blood in this place, Jer 7:6<\/p>\n

4. do not walk after other gods to your own sin, Jer 7:6<\/p>\n

alien, the orphan, or the widow God loves and protects the helpless and weak. This is a recurrent theme of Deuteronomy (cf. Deu 10:18; Deu 14:29; Deu 16:11; Deu 16:14; Deu 24:17; Deu 24:19-21; Deu 26:12-13; Deu 27:19).<\/p>\n

walk after other gods This is a Hebraic expression of lifestyle idolatry (cf. Jer 13:10; Deu 6:14-15; Deu 8:19; Deu 11:28; 1Ki 8:25).<\/p>\n

Jer 7:7 forever and ever This Hebrew phrase must be interpreted in the context of the conditional and unconditional covenant. To prooftext this phrase as a promise to depend on is a false message!<\/p>\n

SPECIAL TOPIC: FOREVER (‘OLAM) <\/p>\n

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jeremiah’s Sixth Prophecy (see Book comments for Jeremiah).<\/p>\n

came. The danger attending this message is shown in Jer 26. Compare Jer 7:2 with Jer 26:2; Jer 7:3 with Jer 26:13; Jer 7:12-14 with Jer 26:4-6. Jer 26 was in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, probably his fourth year. Jer 26 is the historical appendix of Jer 7. <\/p>\n

the LORD. Hebrew. Jehovah. App-4. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Chapter 7<\/p>\n

So chapter 7. King Josiah, who was reigning at the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry, in the eighteenth year of his reign, ordered the temple restored. It had fallen into disrepair. It sort of lay in ruins. They had in the outer courts built altars unto Baal and unto Molech, and they had forsaken the worship of God, of the Lord in the temple for years. So Josiah now ordered that the temple be restored and he gave to Hilkiah, the high priest, a great sum of money that he might hire carpenters and all, that they might come in and just refurbish the whole place. And while they were in cleaning out the debris and all, they found a scroll of the law. And so as they read the law of the Lord unto king Josiah, he began to weep as he saw how far they had gone in their turning away from God and how God in the law had promised His judgments would come if they forsook Him and forsook the law. And so Josiah cried out unto the Lord. He was really disturbed when the law was read. Deeply convicted for the evil of the people. And the word of the Lord came unto a prophetess, whose name was Huldah, and she sent a message to the king and said because of his attitude of repentance and turning to God that the evil that God was going to bring upon the people, the judgment, would not come during his reign but after his reign. Josiah was the last of the good kings of Judah. After his death, his son plunged downhill, just straight down. He only reigned for three months until he was taken out of the way and another king set up by the Pharoah of Egypt. But after Josiah’s death things just went downhill fast.<\/p>\n

Now as they read to Josiah the book of the law, he saw how that the Lord had ordered that the people were to gather together each year for the Passover feast there in Jerusalem. And so he ordered a great celebration of the Passover in the eighteenth year of his reign as king. And the people were invited to come, and according to the record in Second Kings, this was one of the grandest observances of the Passover in the history of the nation, as far as the number of people attending and the sacrifices that were offered. And so there was a great popular religious movement as the people could see that their king wanted to serve Jehovah. It became a popular thing for the people to go to church, go to the temple. It’s always dangerous when a person’s motivation of going is because it’s popular. You know, everybody’s going so join the crowd. Rather than coming out of a desire of your own heart to know God and to worship God.<\/p>\n

So the LORD came to Jeremiah, and said, Now go down to the gate of the LORD’S house, and proclaim these words, say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter into these gates to worship Jehovah ( Jer 7:1-2 ).<\/p>\n

So in the midst of this great movement, all these people coming into the temple, he goes down to the temple gate and starts to cry unto the people. “Hear the word of the Lord, all of you that are coming here to worship Jehovah.”<\/p>\n

Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these ( Jer 7:3-4 ).<\/p>\n

Now the prophet is rebuking the people that are coming to worship because, number one, they are coming out of wrong motivation. Somehow they feel that because the temple has been restored and rebuilt, that they are going to be safe now from their enemies. They haven’t altered their lifestyle at all. They’re still doing all of the same wicked things that they were doing before. They are still burning their incense to Baal. They’re still sacrificing their children to the fires of Molech. They’re doing all of these abominable things as far as God is concerned, but now we’ve got the temple and because the temple is here, surely God is going to spare us. And they were looking at the temple as sort of a magical charm, an amulet of some sort that is going to keep us from being destroyed. But the prophet is declaring, “You’re trusting in lying words. When you think that just the fact that you have a temple that that building is going to somehow be a magical charm for you to keep you from the judgments that are coming upon you because of your deeds, your ways, your activities.”<\/p>\n

God, again, is interested in a relationship with you that changes your life. And coming to church isn’t really where it’s at. Unless your heart and your life is dedicated to God. There are a lot of people trying to appease their conscience. Resting in church membership. Resting in past spiritual experiences or past rituals. But God declares here that you are trusting in lying words. That there is no salvation in these things. The church cannot save you. A ritual cannot save you. Only a living, life-changing faith in Jesus Christ can save you. And if your faith in Christ has not altered your life, then your faith must be challenged and questioned.<\/p>\n

If I would say to you, “Folks, I believe that there is a bomb planted in this church, an extremely powerful bomb that’s going to go off in three minutes. I believe this because somehow I just have a strong feeling that this bomb is about ready to explode.” And I just go on and ignore it and keep talking and everything else, you’d say, “Oh, you don’t really believe there’s a bomb there. Your actions are not in keeping with what you say you believe.” If I really believed there was a bomb here, I’d say, “All right, now no one panic, but let’s all get up and exit as quickly as you can out of this place.” My actions would agree with what I declare I believe. There’s got to be a harmony, if I really believe something, between what I believe and the actions of my life. And if you say that you really believe in Jesus Christ, that He is the Son of God, and that He died to save us from our sins, then that belief should be matched by your life and your lifestyle.<\/p>\n

It is wrong and it is inconsistent for me to talk about my believing in God and believing in the Spirit and all and to be living totally after my flesh. Now that was exactly what was going on in this situation. Their words…they were deceiving themselves with their words, because they could mouth the right phrases. They had deceived themselves and they were trusting in lying words rather than trusting in a living relationship with God. And so the prophet is warning them to not trust in these lying words. Just because they were awed by the fact, “Oh, the temple of Jehovah. Beautiful. Gorgeous. Don’t you feel good? Temple of Jehovah.” I don’t care what you feel. It’s what you’re doing that God is interested in. And so He said, “Amend your ways, your doings. And that I will cause you to dwell in this place. I’ll protect you then. I will be with you then. I’ll be your defense then. But this temple isn’t going to save you. This building isn’t going to save you. If you want Me to work in your behalf, then change your ways.”<\/p>\n

For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor; if you oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and you do not shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever ( Jer 7:5-7 ).<\/p>\n

Hey, if you live right, if you’ll walk right, you can live here forever. I will be a defense to you. I will watch over you. I will keep you. But not just because you have the temple. Not just because you have a religious observance. Let Me see it proved in your life and in your lifestyle. Amend your ways and the things you’re doing. Start living right.<\/p>\n

God wants us to be honest. God wants us to be just. God wants us to be fair. God does not want us to oppress the poor or to take advantage of another person’s situation. God wants us to love each other as we love ourselves. Now, is there anything evil with that? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to live in a world where people were doing what God wanted them to do? How glorious this world would be if we were all doing what God wants us to do. If we were all genuinely loving one another and caring for one another. Interested in one another. Helping one another. Lifting the person that has fallen. Helping the person that is weak. If we were all concerned and loving one another, it would be a glorious world to live in. And that’s what God requires. That’s what God wants of us.<\/p>\n

But the people were all doing their own thing. They were all living for their own selfish motivations and they were all so covetous. Trying to gain for themselves and not caring who they hurt or who was destroyed by it. And their greed had overcome them. God said, “So just having a temple, just going, coming to temple, that’s not going to do it. I want more than that. Just coming to church. That’s not going to do it.” God wants more than that. He wants a commitment of your life. He wants you to change your ways. He wants you to start living according to His will.<\/p>\n

Behold [the prophet said], you trust in lying words, that cannot profit [or save you] ( Jer 7:8 ).<\/p>\n

The words cannot save you. Mouthing right phrases cannot save. Mouthing the Apostles’ Creed won’t save you. Mouthing the Psa 23:1-6 won’t save you. Salvation is more than just a creed that is recited. It is a commitment of my heart and life to Jesus Christ. So the Lord shows the inconsistency.<\/p>\n

Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are free to do all these abominations? ( Jer 7:9-10 )<\/p>\n

You say, “Oh, could people really do that? Could they be committing adultery and fornication and all during the week and then come to the house of God and say, ‘Oh, we have the grace of God that covers us and we have freedom in Christ to do anything we want’?” And so the prophet speaks out against it. It was happening then. It happens today. There are people who live after their own flesh during the week. They’re dishonest in their business practices. They lie. They steal. They commit adultery. Commit fornication. And then they dare to come and stand in the house of God and think because they have come to the house of God that that should somehow take care of all they’ve done. Because after all, Lord, I put a five in the plate last week, you know. Buy my way out. No way. God says, “Change your way. Amend your life. Amend your doings and then I will keep you and I will watch over you and you’ll dwell safely in this place.”<\/p>\n

Is this house, [God said,] which is called by my name, become a den of robbers? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD ( Jer 7:11 ).<\/p>\n

You remember when Jesus came to the temple and He found those that were changing money and selling doves. He took and made a whip and He began to overturn the tables of the moneychangers. And He began to drive them out. And He said, “My Father’s house was to be called a house of prayer; but you’ve made it a den of thieves” ( Mat 21:13 ). The Lord said, “It’s My house which is called by My name.” You see, they were saying, “Oh, the temple of Jehovah. The temple of Jehovah.” It was called by His name, but they… it became a gathering place for a bunch of robbers. A den of robbers.<\/p>\n

Now the Lord said,<\/p>\n

Go to the place [where you used to worship] in Shiloh ( Jer 7:12 ),<\/p>\n

The place that was built there to worship Me.<\/p>\n

where I set my name at the beginning ( Jer 7:12 ),<\/p>\n

When they first came into the land and began to inherit the land, the first place the tabernacle was set was in Shiloh. And so God said, “Go up to Shiloh, the place where My name was placed at the first.”<\/p>\n

and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel ( Jer 7:12 ).<\/p>\n

Look at its desolation.<\/p>\n

And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but you heard not; and I called you, but you did not answer; Therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein you trust ( Jer 7:13-14 ),<\/p>\n

You see, they were trusting in the house, not in God. People trusting in the church, not in Christ. Trusting in a ritual, not in a living relationship.<\/p>\n

and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I have done to Shiloh ( Jer 7:14 ).<\/p>\n

I’m going to do the same thing to this place. I’m going to make it desolate. I’m going to destroy it.<\/p>\n

And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim ( Jer 7:15 ).<\/p>\n

Or that is the northern tribes of Israel.<\/p>\n

Therefore ( Jer 7:16 )<\/p>\n

And now God is saying to Jeremiah, to the message, “Therefore, Jeremiah,”<\/p>\n

pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee ( Jer 7:16 ).<\/p>\n

What solemn, harsh words as God says, “That’s it, Jeremiah. I’ve had it. Don’t cry to Me for them. Don’t pray to Me for them. Don’t lift up your voice anymore for them, because I won’t even hear you.”<\/p>\n

You remember back in the book of Genesis when men began to multiply on the face of the earth. That the Lord looked throughout the earth and there was none righteous except Noah in his generation. And the Lord spake unto Noah saying, “My Spirit will not always strive with man” ( Gen 6:3 ). Now in that there is a blessing and there is a curse. There is a blessing that God’s Spirit strives with us at all. That’s so beautiful that God would strive with me. That God would take time for me. That God is interested enough in me that He sends His Spirit to strive with me to live the right life and to follow after Him in order that I might receive all of the blessings and the goodness and the glory of being a child of God. God actually strives with me for something which is so good for me. Seems to me that men would be clamoring after Him. So that God does strive with man is a blessing.<\/p>\n

But the curse is, God won’t always strive. A person can turn his back upon the Lord. He can harden himself to God to the place where God’s Spirit will no longer strive and with Jeremiah, God will say, “All right, that’s it. They’ve gone too far. Don’t pray anymore for their good. If you do, I’m not going to hear you. Don’t cry unto me for them. That’s it. No more. I don’t want to hear another prayer. I don’t want you to ask anymore for them because I won’t hear you.” When God says of a person, “That’s it. They’ve gone too far,” you say, “Is such a thing possible?” The scripture teaches that it is.<\/p>\n

God said, “Ephraim is joined to her idols. Let her alone. Don’t try anymore. Just let her alone.” Paul tells us in Romans. “Wherefore God has given them up” ( Rom 1:24 ). How tragic when God gives a person up, when God gives up on a man.<\/p>\n

Now you see, God isn’t under any obligation to strive with you at all. The fact that He strives at all is just a marvel that I can’t fully understand. He’s under no obligation. God doesn’t owe me a thing. But yet because of His love He strives with man. But there comes a time we know not when, a place we know not where that marks the destiny of man twixt sorrow and despair. There is a line though by man unseen. Once it has been crossed even God Himself in all of His love has sworn that all is lost.<\/p>\n

In Joh 12:39 it says, “Therefore they could not believe.” It didn’t say they would not believe; they could not believe. They came to the place where they could not believe. They had gone too far. And when God says to Jeremiah, “Therefore pray thou not for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to Me, for I will not hear thee.” The people have gone too far. They’ve gone beyond the point of no return.<\/p>\n

Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven ( Jer 7:17-18 ),<\/p>\n

They’re worshipping Ashtoreth, Semiramis, the queen of heaven, the goddess of fertility.<\/p>\n

and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger ( Jer 7:18 ).<\/p>\n

So here, God’s people, the little children are out gathering sticks. And the fathers, they bring them home to the fathers who kindle the fire, and the women are there kneading the dough so they can bake these little cakes to the goddess of fertility, Semiramis, the queen of heaven. God said, “That’s it, that’s more than I can take. Just leave, don’t pray anymore. Don’t intercede anymore. I’m through. I’ve had it. That’s it.”<\/p>\n

Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces? Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine anger and my fury shall be poured out upon this place, upon man, and upon beast, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice ( Jer 7:19-23 ).<\/p>\n

God said, “I didn’t set up sacrifices to begin with.” The burnt offerings and the peace offerings, God didn’t establish them until after He’d given the law and they disobeyed the law. Then God set the sacrifices for burnt offering and all. But He said, “I said unto them, ‘Obey My voice.'”<\/p>\n

and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you ( Jer 7:23 ).<\/p>\n

“Just obey Me,” God says, “and walk with Me. In harmony with My desires and wishes.”<\/p>\n

But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imaginations of their own evil hearts, and went backward ( Jer 7:24 ),<\/p>\n

Away from Me instead of towards Me.<\/p>\n

Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have even sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them ( Jer 7:25 ).<\/p>\n

God had not left them. From the beginning He had sent His messengers, His servants to warn them and to challenge them to commit their lives to God.<\/p>\n

Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers. Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken ( Jer 7:26-27 ):<\/p>\n

Now you’re to go out, Jeremiah, and say the words, but they’re not going to listen.<\/p>\n

Oh man, what a heavy-duty trip Jeremiah had. It’s a ministry that has a promise of failure. Now know this, though the ministry was destined for failure from the beginning, yet it was a necessary ministry that God required of Jeremiah. And because Jeremiah was faithful and obedient, God blessed Jeremiah as His instrument, though there was to be no success coming from his ministry.<\/p>\n

Now, we have in our minds sort of a carryover in our service to the Lord. We have a carryover from the secular world concepts. For if I’m a salesman, I only get commission when I get the signature on the dotted line. And so sometimes I feel discouraged and defeated because I didn’t get the signature on the dotted line. I witnessed to them but they rejected the witness. And I feel, “Oh, I’m so defeated, you know, because they didn’t hear. Oh, what a waste of time. You know, I spent all afternoon with them and then they rejected anyhow. Oh, what a waste.” Wait a minute. Not so. God rewards you for the witnessing whether or not anybody ever listens, hearkens or changes. You see, God only requires that I witness for Him. And God knows that some of the witnessing is just going to fall on deaf ears. But He still requires me to do it.<\/p>\n

“Now Jeremiah you go out and speak all these things. They’re not going to listen to you. It’s all right. You go out and tell them anyhow.” Because God wants His witness to be left so that men are without excuse. So God requires us to go out and to witness, and not always are we going to be successful. That doesn’t make any difference. It has no difference and no standing at all upon my reward when I stand before God. God will not reward me for the number of people that responded to my witness. God will reward me for witnessing. God will reward me the same if ten responded or no one responded. Because the response isn’t my territory at all. That’s God’s territory. Only God can create a response in the heart of the people. It isn’t up to me to argue people into a faith for believing in Jesus Christ; it’s only up to me to witness to them of God and of God’s Word and of God’s truth. And then it’s up to the Spirit of God to take that witness and do with it what He wants in the heart of the individual. And quite often we don’t know the real work of the Spirit in the heart of a person.<\/p>\n

I had a drunk man come to the door one night, all upset because he had been in a big fight with his family. And they called the police because he ripped the phone off the wall. Violent; wanted help. I said, “Well, what do you want?” He said, “I want to get right with God. I want you to call my wife,” and all this kind of stuff. “Tell her how horrible she is. Treating me like she has.” He said, “I can’t get anybody to pray through with me.” Well, I didn’t really know what he meant by that, but I thought, “Well, I’ll pray with you as long as you want to pray.” So I took him over to the church, which was next door to our house, and we started praying together. And the first half hour he is praying vengeance and judgment upon all those that had treated him so wrong, you know. And I just sort of prayed along quietly. Then after the first half hour he began to change and said, “Lord, I haven’t been so good myself and I have done some pretty bad things.” And he began to really get somewhere, I thought, in prayer as he changed the whole tenor of the prayer from vindictiveness upon those that he felt were treating him ill and he began to really ask God for himself, confess his own guilt and ask God to help him. And I was encouraged by that. The next half hour he was praying about himself and seeking God to really work in his life. And then he went into a period of just sort of praising the Lord, and I could tell that he was getting sleepy because he’d say, “Oh, thank You, Lord.” And so finally he was, “Oh, thank You, Jesus,” and he sort of drifted off. So I continued to pray for a little while until I was sure that he was sound asleep. And so I got a blanket and covered him and went home because he said he couldn’t go home. They’d kicked him out. So I thought, “Well, he can sleep in the church, it won’t hurt.”<\/p>\n

So when I got home, my wife said, “Well, how did it go?” I said, “I really don’t know.” When you’re dealing with a man who’s drunk you really don’t know how, whether it really got through or took or whatever. You just really don’t know. Next morning I went over to the church and the blanket was all folded and lying there and he was gone. But the next evening ,dressed in a suit, looking sharp as could be, he was at the door. He says, “When in the world does the Bible study start?” And I knew God got through.<\/p>\n

But you never really know always at the time. God can be doing a work in a person’s life and you’d not really know it until you see the fruit and the evidence of it later. But Jeremiah’s ministry was destined for failure. They’re not going to hearken.<\/p>\n

you’re going to call to them; but they’re not going to answer. But you shall say unto them, This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Jehovah their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. Cut off your hair, O Jerusalem, and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the high places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to pollute it ( Jer 7:27-30 ).<\/p>\n

They had altars to Baal and all right in the temple of God.<\/p>\n

And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom ( Jer 7:31 ),<\/p>\n

Or Gehenna there on the outskirts of Jerusalem, the Hinnom valley that goes on down on the outside of the mount of Zion.<\/p>\n

to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I did not command of them, neither came it into my heart ( Jer 7:31 ).<\/p>\n

God said never would I require the sacrifice of the children unto Me.<\/p>\n

Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that it shall no more be called Tophet, nor the valley of the son of Hinnom, but the valley of slaughter: for they shall be buried in Tophet, until there is no place left to bury them. And the carcasses of these people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, the inhabitants, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of merriment, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate ( Jer 7:32-34 ).<\/p>\n

Now you go and you warn them; they’re not going to listen. But I’m going to do it. <\/p>\n

“<\/p>\n

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:1-3. The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, Stand in the gate of the LORDS house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings; and I will cause you to dwell in this place.<\/p>\n

Many of them thought that, if they went up to the temple, it was all right with them, if they did but go through the outward ritual, they would certainly be accepted. They must have been astonished when Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, met them at the temple door, and told them that the best worship of God was holiness, not the mere outward ceremony but the renewal of the life, the cleansing of the heart before him.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4-7. Trust ye not in lying words, saying The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD. The temple of the LORD, are these. For if ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt: then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever.<\/p>\n

The blessing is not to the temple and the temple worshippers, the blessing is to holy men, to such as love righteousness, to such as obey the living God, and do justice between man and man, and especially between themselves and the poor and needy of the earth. It is needful to say this even now, for there are some who talk of being regenerated by baptism, of being saved by sacraments, they trust in their priests, and rely upon their performances. Trust ye not in lying words; that is the Scriptural description of all that kind of thing,-just lying words, and nothing better.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:8-10. Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and walk after other gods whom ye know not; and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? <\/p>\n

Will you quote the very decree of God as an excuse for your sin? Will you make it out that even he is partaker in your criminality? That will never do; only a lying heart could conceive of such an abomination.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:11-16. Is this house, which is callest by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD. But go ye now unto my place which was in Shiloh, where I set my name at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness, of my people Israel. And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the LORD, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not; therefore will I do unto this house, which is called by my name, wherein ye trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your father, as I have done to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim. Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make interception to me: for I will not hear thee.<\/p>\n

You know how, through the sin of Elis sons, God forsook Shiloh; and the tent of his house and the ark of his covenant were removed, and Shiloh became an utter desolation. This will God do to any church that becomes unfaithful to him. Go ye to Rome, and see what she is today,–mother of harlots, though once she seemed to be the chaste spouse of Christ. Her idolatries are as many as those of the heathen, for she forsook the truth of God, and turned aside from the Most High. Think not that God is tied to any place, or to any ministry. If we walk not before him aright, he may take the candlestick out of its place, he may take the talent away and give it to others, and then Ichabod shall be written on the walls whether it be of Shiloh or of Jerusalem. Jeremiah has thus shown us clearly that no confidence can be placed in holy places or outward ceremonies; the state of the heart and the life is the all-important matter. <\/p>\n

This exposition consisted of readings from Jer 7:1-16; and Jer 17:1-14<\/p>\n

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:1-3<\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-3<\/p>\n

The word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah, saying, Stand in the gate of Jehovah’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of Jehovah, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah. Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.<\/p>\n

Cook spoke of the date of this appeal as follows: “This prophecy was spoken in the first year of Jehoiachim, when the probation of Judah was virtually over, and it constitutes the final solemn appeal to the conscience of the people, and a protest while the new king was still young upon his throne, against the ruinous course upon which he so immediately entered.” <\/p>\n

Why did Judah so desperately need the stern admonition of the prophet here which, in short, demanded that they immediately and completely change their behavior! Why? They were a nation of evil doers, violating every commandment in the Deca1ogue, and yet frequenting the temple services and making the customary sacrifices, supposing that these external activities would assure their safety and protection from God, no matter what evil deeds they were guilty of.<\/p>\n

There was also a wide-spread opinion among the people that as long as the Temple stood the whole nation was guaranteed by God Himself of their safety and security. Ash noted that, “The reforms of Josiah (superficial as they were) had focused attention on the temple, and had apparently created the illusion that God would never let it be destroyed.” Also as Robinson observed, “The remarkable deliverance of the city from Sennacherib in 701 B.C. had contributed to the belief that Jerusalem was inviolable.” <\/p>\n

The correction of such erroneous opinions on the part of the populace was surely one of the purposes of Jeremiah’s address.<\/p>\n

The dating of the materials in this section is a vexing problem. Laetsch assigns this section to the days of king Josiah early in the ministry of Jeremiah. However most commentators, on the basis of what they believe is a parallel passage in chapter 26, assign the section (or at least Jer 7:1-15) to the early days of King Jehoiakim. Though one dare not be dogmatic on this point the present writer feels there is nothing in this material that demands a date later than the reign of king Josiah.<\/p>\n

Whether the materials in Jer 7:1 to Jer 8:3 come from one of Jeremiahs discourses or from several of them is difficult to determine. In either case the theme of worship unifies the entire section. After a brief introductory note (Jer 7:12) the prophet speaks of (1) presumptuous worship (Jer 7:15); (2) pagan worship (Jer 7:16-20); (3) priorities in worship (Jer 7:21-28); and (4) polluted worship (Jer 7:29 to Jer 8:3).<\/p>\n

INTRODUCTION Jer 7:1-3<\/p>\n

Acting upon the definite instructions from the Lord (Jer 7:1) Jeremiah went to one of the eight gates of the Temple to deliver a blistering sermon on worship. He is to proclaim the word to all Judah who are entering these gates to worship the Lord (Jer 7:2). During the three annual festivals of Israel all the males were obligated to come to the Temple to worship (Lev 23:1-44; Deu 16:1-17).<\/p>\n

Later in his ministry Jeremiah preached a sermon similar to the one recorded here in chapter 7. Some commentators have identified this Temple Sermon with the sermon preached in chapter 26. Four points of similarity are generally pointed out: (1) Both sermons were preached at the same place, one of the gates of the Temple; (2) both seem to have been preached during some festival; (3) both sermons present the demands for national repentance; and (4) both sermons allude to the destruction of Shiloh. To conclude from this that the sermon of chapter 7 is identical with that of chapter 26 and to therefore assign chapter 7 to the reign of Jehoiakim is pressing the evidence too far. Jeremiah as others chose the Temple gates and courts as the location for public discourse. See Jer 19:14; Jer 35:2; Jer 35:4; Jer 36:5-10; Jer 28:1; Jer 28:5. It would be a priori likely that the prophet would select a festival on more than one occasion as the time to present his message. What better time to reach the masses? As for the theme of repentance, Jeremiah utilized it quite frequently. The allusion to Shiloh was a tremendous illustration that God is no respecter of religious shrines. Jeremiah probably utilized this historical note many times during his ministry. It is the feeling, then, of the writer that chapter 26 represents a later sermon of Jeremiah preached during the days of Jehoiakim. Chapter 7 represents an earlier sermon from the reign of good king Josiah. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

With this section the second movement in commissioning the prophet commences. It deals first with the sins of worship. These are first denounced. At the gate of the Temple the prophet rebuked the people for putting their trust in external things, and told them that their true safety lay in amending their ways. He charged them with committing all manner of sin, and yet standing before God in His house, imagining that by this external act they would be delivered and set free to continue in abomination. He bade them take lesson from the history of Shiloh, and from what Jehovah had done with Israel.<\/p>\n

So terrible was the condition that the prophet was charged at last not to pray for the people. Their sin was heinous and persistent, therefore all their sacrifices and offerings were refused. For this idolatry of formalism the sentence of judgment was again pronounced. They had defiled the Temple and built Topheth as a place of worship. This Topheth was to become “the valley of Slaughter,” and all mirth was to end.<\/p>\n

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CHAPTER FOUR<\/p>\n

“WHAT AGREEMENT HATH THE TEMPLE OF GOD WITH IDOLS?”<\/p>\n

(Chaps. 7-10)<\/p>\n

In this section it is more the temple that is before us, and the incongruity of professing great reverence for it while idolatrous practices and their accompanying evils are not only tolerated but diligently persisted in.<\/p>\n

The prophet had been addressing the people rather as a civil community before. Now he sees them in connection with the newly-cleansed house of the Lord. His message is addressed to those “that enter in at these gates to worship the Lord” (Jer 7:2). This is shown to be all a mere pretence, for while they talked loudly of the temple – made it their rallying-cry, so to speak – their ways were anything but in accordance with the holiness that became GOD’s house.<\/p>\n

“Trust ye not in lying words, saying, The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these. For if ye throughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbour; if ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt; then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers for ever and ever” (Jer 7:4-7).<\/p>\n

Nothing can be more obnoxious to GOD than to have His name vauntingly connected with unrighteousness. How terrible to hear some nowadays prate of “the authority of the Lord in His assembly,” and talk of “divine ground,” while deliberately refusing to execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, disclaiming all such responsibility!<\/p>\n

Nay, even worse, seek to foist it upon the Righteous One who dwells in the midst of His people!<\/p>\n

Strange that the important word, “Follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart” (2Ti 2:22), should be so overlooked! Such is Rome’s principle: sad it is, and solemn, to see those who should know better, following, in this at least, in her wake. We can rest assured no amount of professed regard for the assembly of GOD will atone for the neglect of righteousness. “The righteous Lord loveth righteousness.” (Psa 11:7) It is with Him who is “the holy and the true” (Rev 6:10) with whom we have to do – He in whom there is “no darkness at all.” (1Jn 1:5)<\/p>\n

Nothing can be more abhorrent to Him than the dreadful state described in Jer 7:8-10.<\/p>\n

It is the divorce of position from condition – the making much of ecclesiastical place, while the walk is utterly at variance with the truth connected with it. Position is important. Nothing, in fact, is more so; but let us be careful to maintain the corresponding practice. Those who, through grace, have been gathered out of unscriptural systems to the precious name of the Lord JESUS CHRIST alone, should see to it that their walk is consistent with their privileged place.<\/p>\n

The next verse, it will be noted, is referred to by our Lord when He made a whip of small cords and drove the money-changers and venders from the courts of the temple (Mat 21:13). On that occasion He connected two scriptures together. The first was from Isa 56:7 -“My house shall be called a house of prayer for all people.” This shall yet be true when CHRIST’s kingdom is set up in power; but when the King appeared in lowliness, His judgment was, “Ye have made it a den of thieves,” (Mat 21:13) as Jeremiah had said before: “Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold I, even I, have seen it, saith the Lord.” (Jer 7:11)<\/p>\n

As a result, like Shiloh, it was to be left desolate, and the false worshipers were to be cast out from their land; nor would prayer avail for them now. Judgment must have its way (Jer 7:12-16).<\/p>\n

“The queen of heaven” (Jer 7:18) was an object of worship then as with Rome now; for it is well known that Mariolatry was but the continuation of the worship of the false goddess here referred to, universally acknowledged under various names.<\/p>\n

“The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women need their dough, to make cakes to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger” (Jer 7:18).<\/p>\n

Terrible it is to see the evils of that dark day actually followed by a fast apostatizing Christendom at the present time! “Do they provoke Me to anger? saith the Lord: do they not provoke themselves to the confusion of their own faces?” (Jer 7:19). Fury and wrath unquenchable must they reap who have so grievously departed from the true GOD (Jer 7:20).<\/p>\n

Though the ritual service of the temple, had been re-established, through king Josiah, yet, among the mass, the question of obedience had been entirely forgotten:<\/p>\n

“They hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” (Jer 7:26)<\/p>\n

And this had characterized them from the day He had brought them out of Egypt, though He had sent prophets to them again and again, “daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto Me, nor inclined their ear, but hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers” (Jer 7:25-26).<\/p>\n

The prophets’ ministry, it is plain, had become hopeless. The word of GOD was still to be proclaimed; nothing was to be kept back, but all hope of national response was at an end. The verdict was already pronounced:<\/p>\n

“This is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth” (Jer 7:28).<\/p>\n

The Lord had rejected them; let them mourn and cut off the hair, as a woman put to shame, for they are denominated “the generation of His wrath.” (Jer 7:29)<\/p>\n

Terrible was to be the desolation resulting upon their casting off. Tophet, the high place of the valley of Hinnom, where the children were sacrificed upon the heated brazen arms of Moloch, was to become the valley of slaughter in which they should bury until there was no more place, while fowls and beasts devoured the unburied bodies of the residue.<\/p>\n

“Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be desolate” (Jer 7:30-34).<\/p>\n

Even the very bones of the kings and princes of Judah, as well as of the priests, the prophets, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, would be brought from their tombs and strewed before the heavenly bodies which they had worshiped in life; while for the residue, death will be preferable to the terrors of that evil day. Doubtless this all had a fulfilment in the Chaldean conquest and the later Maccabean times; but as “no prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation,” (2Pe 1:20) it likewise pictures the direful tribulation yet to come.<\/p>\n

It is not because the Lord delights in judgment (“His strange act” Isa 28:21) that His people must be so visited. It was the inevitable result of their own waywardness.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:9-10<\/p>\n

There is a deal of vague floating excuse in our minds, which practically amounts to making what we call Fate a scapegoat for our sins. There are two forms which such an attempt at excuse for wrong-doing may assume: (1) “We are delivered to do all these abominations “by certain inflexible laws, over which we can exercise no control,-say some; (2) “We are delivered to do all these abominations” by the force of our nature, which it is not in our power to alter,-say others. Such are generally the two forms which this argument from fate assumes.<\/p>\n

I. Our idea of God’s dealings with us is very largely influenced by the condition of the age in which we live. Our thoughts of the Divine government will be largely influenced and coloured by the principles of human government which prevail around us. For example, states make laws, and often they press very severely and unjustly upon individuals. We cannot help it. Our finite wisdom and our limited power prevent our making perfect laws, or rather render it impossible for us to make the necessary and wise exceptions to them in dealing with individuals. Now we must not transfer to God our own finality and failure. God’s laws are universal and general; God’s dealings with men are particular and individual. Each one has to learn the moral law of God and its bearing on his own nature. That very law, and the constancy of its action on you, are your real safeguards; it makes you a free man, not a slave of fate.<\/p>\n

II. The other form which fatalism takes as an excuse for sin is: I am born with a particular nature, and I cannot help it. To say that you have a particular kind of nature which cannot resist a particular class of sin is to offer to God an excuse which you would never accept from your fellow-men. You treat every one of your fellow-men as having power to resist the inclination of his natural disposition, so far as its indulgence would be injurious to you. You never find fault with a man for any faculty or temper which he may have, but you do hold him responsible for the direction and control of it. The great heroes whom we justly reverence are not those who have destroyed, but those who have preserved and used aright the natural impulses and passions which have been given them.<\/p>\n

T. T. Shore, The Life of the World to come, p. 109.<\/p>\n

References: Jer 7:10.-H. W. Beecher, Forty-eight Sermons, vol. i., p. 295. Jer 7:12.-Plain Sermons by Contributors to “Tracts for the Times,” vol. i., p. 168; E. Paxton Hood, Preacher’s Lantern, vol. i., p. 474. Jer 7:18.-W. Hay Aitken, Mission Sermons, vol. iii., p. 207; J. Sherman, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 299. Jer 8:4-7.-E. Blencowe, Plain Sermons to a Country Congregation, 1st series, p. 53. Jer 8:6.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv., No. 169.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Sermon Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The Prophets Temple Address (7-9)<\/p>\n

CHAPTER 7<\/p>\n

1. Amend your ways and your doings (Jer 7:1-15) <\/p>\n

2. No prayer-answer to be expected (Jer 7:16-20) <\/p>\n

3. Sacrifices rejected; Obedience demanded (Jer 7:21-28) <\/p>\n

4. Jerusalems rejection (Jer 7:29-34) <\/p>\n

Jer 7:1-15. We call this next address of the prophet the temple address, because he was commanded to stand in the gate of the LORDs house. There he stood, a solitary figure, and said: Hear the Word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Jehovah. Their worship was but external. They trusted in the temple of the Lord, as if with the house itself some kind of a blessing was connected and the house would shield them from disaster. Micah gives the same delusion of the apostate people: Yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, is not the LORD among us? no evil can come upon us Mic 3:11. Such a false trust in ordinances and outward worship is only too evident in Christendom also. The masses of unsaved people with their religious observances think it is a protection and insures the Lords help and blessing. They trusted in lying words. They were thieves, murderers, adulterers, perjurers and idolators, and they thought if they go to the house of the LORD they would be delivered from these abominations. The Lord calls upon them to amend their ways and their doings, to work a better righteousness. They had made His house a den of robbers. This verse (Jer 7:11) was quoted by our Lord in Mat 21:13. He tells them of the fate of Shiloh when it was overthrown on account of the wickedness of Israel; such would be the fate of the temple Psa 78:60. They would be cast out as the whole seed of Ephraim had been cast out.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:16-20. The Lord told the prophet that no prayer of intercession would be answered. I will not hear thee. What a word this is, coming from Him, who had told Israel to cry unto Him and He would answer. They had provoked Him by making cakes to the queen of heaven. They had fallen in with the worship of a female idol, so prevalent among the idolatrous nations which surrounded them, like the Phoenicians, the Assyrians, the Egyptians and the Babylonians. The Babylonian Venus, Ishtar, was called by them the queen of heaven. The Assyrian called her Beltis, the female form of Baal; they placed in the sculpture a star over her head and called her the mistress of the heavens. The Phoenicians worshipped this queen of heaven under the name of Ashtoreth or Astarte. This wicked worship, with which all kinds of immoral ceremonies were connected, had been adopted by the Jews. The women made cakes to present to this goddess. Jewish tradition tells us that the image of the idol was stamped on each cake. This worship of the queen of heaven is perpetuated in the mystical Babylon, Rome, the great whore and mother of harlots Rev 17:1-18. Mary is called by Romanists the queen of heaven and mistress of the heavens. It can be proven that Mariolatry is but the continuation of the Babylonish worship of the goddess they called queen of heaven. If the Lord was provoked to anger because the women of Israel brought cakes to this queen of heaven, how much more is He provoked to anger with the idolatries of papal Rome?<\/p>\n

Jer 7:21-28. He brands their sacrifices as worthless. He gave no command concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day He brought them out of Egypt. Destructive critics have built upon this verse (22) a puerile argument to prove that the law of sacrifices was not given by Moses, but introduced many centuries later. When the Lord first led them out of Egypt, He gave them no laws as to sacrifices, but asked obedience. They harkened not; nor did they in Jeremiahs day. It is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord, nor receiveth correction.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:29-34. The hair was cut off as a sign of mourning Job 1:20. Jerusalem is to lament in the high places. They have defiled His house. On the heights of Tophet, in the valley of the son of Hinnom, they had burned their children as a sacrifice to Molech 2Ki 23:10. The days were now to come when the same place should become the place of slaughter. The carcasses of the people should then be meat for the beasts of the earth; they should lie there unburied. Such was to be Jerusalems rejection and judgment.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The word that came <\/p>\n

The general character of the message in the temple gate is, like the first and second messages, one of rebuke, warning, and exhortation, but this message is addressed more to such in Judah as still maintaining outwardly the worship of Jehovah; it is a message to religious Judah, e.g. Jer 7:2; Jer 7:9; Jer 7:10; Jer 9:10; Jer 9:11. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Reciprocal: 1Ki 17:2 – General Jer 2:1 – the word<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:1. This verse tells of one of the times when the Lord called upon his prophet to “take dictation again. (See the remarks on this thought at ch. 1: 3.)<\/p>\n

Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:1. The word of the Lord, &c. The date of this new sermon is not precisely marked, but it is probable it was delivered not long after the preceding one, and on the following occasion. Besides the prophets who were commissioned to announce the approaching calamities of Judah and Jerusalem, there were others who took upon themselves to flatter the people with opposite predictions. They taught them to look upon such threats as groundless, since God, they said, would have too much regard to his own honour, to suffer his temple to be profaned, and the seat of his holiness to be given up into the hand of strangers. Jeremiah is therefore commanded openly to reprove the falsehood of these assertions, and to show, by an example in point, that the sanctity of the place would afford no security to the guilty; but that God would assuredly do by his house at Jerusalem what he had done unto Shiloh; and cast the people of Judah out of his sight as he had already cast off the people of Israel for their wickedness. Blaney. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:2. Stand in the gate of the Lords house, and call the people to repentance by arguments arrayed in all the glory and force of truth. This was the chief gate of entrance. The temple had three gates on the north, and three on the south. The character of these addresses, Dr. Dahler thinks, associate with the degenerate times of Jehoiakim.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:4. Trust ye not in lying words, muttered daily by the false prophets, saying, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, are these. Not these courts in which ye worship, but the temple of the Lord, haittah, vos estis, are you; as the Syriac version reads. For the Lord chose the temple, not for its own sake, but for his peoples sake. 2Ma 5:19. Which temple, says Paul, are ye. The Most High, said Stephen, dwelleth not in temples made with hands. Act 7:48. Isa 66:1. The prophet does not reprove the people for a just veneration for the dwellingplace of Jehovah, but for approaching his courts in their sins. Where else indeed could they go in the day of trouble? Moses hasted to the oracle when Korah rebelled. Hezekiah spread the letter of Sennacherib before the Lord; and Daniel opened his window which looked towards Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

The Targum has a long but an irrelevant note here, that the word temple is thrice repeated, because the people were required to appear three times every year before the Lord. Deuteronomy 16. On the contrary, it is thought that this superlative of the Hebrew grammarians is used here, as in Isa 6:3, to designate the unutterable holiness of God.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:14. Therefore will I do to this house, in which ye trust, as I have done to Shiloh, polluted by the sacrilege and adulteries of Elis sons. The ruins of Shiloh, which the Philistines or some others destroyed, as those also of Samaria, show the sentence suspended over this temple for greater pollutions than Shiloh ever knew. 1 Samuel 2, 3, 4. Ezekiel repeats the same denunciation against this temple, once the beauty and glory of Israel: Eze 7:20-22.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:16. Pray not for this people. Such also was the injunction on Ezekiel, with regard to particular visitations: chap. 14. Et non obsistas mihi. Do not throw thyself in the gap as Moses did, when God said, Let me alone. Exodus 32. He sometimes speaks roughly to sinners, as to Nineveh. What else will do? But wherever the fainter signs of repentance appear, his arm is weak, his feet are slow. Jeremiah knew this. We therefore find him crying, Jer 14:7, Oh the Hope of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble; why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the land? Yet here again we find his prayer was rejected: Jer 14:8-12.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:18. The womenmake cakes to the queen of heaven. It appears from Jer 19:13, that they had domestic altars on the roofs of their houses, like the high altar in the valley of Tophet. The word melecheth, queen, means the moon. The Chaldaic reads, stars; and the LXX, hosts. This is Sabianism, a worship wide as the oriental world. Herodotus says, in Polymnia, that when Xerxes sailed to subjugate Europe, he awaited the rising of the sun, and poured from the bridge sweet odours, and strewed the road with branches of myrtle. When it was open day, he poured libations into the sea with a golden phial, and prayed the sun to remove whatever impediments might obstruct his subjugation of all Europe. From the loss of his army, and the narrow escape he had over the bridge he had built across the Danube, it does not appear that the sun paid any regard to his vows. He had no sooner recrossed than he perceived, on the opposite shore, a Gothic army in full route to destroy the bridge. A book was published at Paris in 1794, collected from travels in Louisiana, which names temples, altars, and fires as existing among those Indians; and adds, that at certain seasons they went up to the top of a hill and smoked their calumets to the rising sun. See on Job 1:15.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:21. I spake not to your fathersconcerning sacrifices. The spirit of the law being comprised in such words as these, Obey my voice, and I will be your Godto obey is better than sacrifice.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:29. Cut off thy hair, oh Jerusalem. Velle comam tuam, tear off, pluck or cut thy whole fleece of beautiful hair. Weep, for thy wounds shall never be healed. Baals altar smokes in the temple, therefore the polluted temple where I put my name, shall be reduced to ashes 2Ki 21:4; 2Ki 21:7; 2Ki 23:4.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:31. They have built the high places of Tophetin the valley of the son of Hinnom. They have followed the example of the Canaanites, who burnt their children there. Psa 106:38. See also on Isa 30:33. If this prophecy were delivered during the reign of Jehoiakim, they must have rebuilt the high places to Moloch, for he had destroyed them. <\/p>\n

REFLECTIONS.<\/p>\n

What a scene is here presented to the mind! The weeping prophet preaching at the gate of the temple, while the altar within, surrounded with hypocrites, was smoking with victims to the Lord, and while the altar of Tophet without was smoking with human victims to demons! What sort of words may we expect to hear. What sort of sentences must the seer denounce. Truly such as follow in this and the two succeeding chapters.<\/p>\n

The sins which brought the hovering cloud of destruction on Judah are principally three. First, a false confidence in the temple of the Lord, which term is thrice repeated to mark the glory of the place, and the confidence the people had in its safety. They presumed that the Lord would defend this mansion against the Chaldees, notwithstanding their wickedness, because he had defended it by a most signal miracle against the Assyrians. They were forgetful that when the heart is estranged from him, neither temple, nor splendour, nor altar can attract his regards.<\/p>\n

The second sin was injustice and oppression, a sin often reproved by the prophets. They oppressed the widow, the orphan, and the stranger; and therefore God delivered them to be oppressed by the heathen.<\/p>\n

The third sin is idolatry, in every horrid form; and so much so, that a very large proportion of the families in Jerusalem had made their children pass through the fire to Moloch. The Lord therefore would purge the blood of the infants by the blood of the people.<\/p>\n

We may farther remark, that the first of those three sins was the most provoking to God, because it is repeated, Will ye steal, and murder; and then come and stand before me in this house, and say we are delivered to do all these abominations? Mark well; there are no sins so heinous in the sight of God as those which pervert religion, and defile his name.<\/p>\n

It is the first duty of the ministry to take away the false confidence of sinners, and to undeceive them with regard to their presumptuous hopes. Elis house trusted in the ark, while they wallowed in wickedness; and the Lord made Shiloh desolate for ever. So God was about to make Jerusalem desolate, and an astonishment to the nations. Yea, he would do to Judah by the king of Babylon, as he had done to Ephraim by the king of Assyria. The sinners in the sanctuary, throughout all ages, must expect the same treatment, for with God there is no respect of persons. Neither ark, nor temple, nor creed can save the men who do not hold the mystery of faith in a pure conscience, and in righteousness of life.<\/p>\n

God abhors the devotion of impious men. If they did not adore him with the heart, he would not receive their gifts. The love of God and of their neighbour, was the sum and substance of the moral code: therefore he never would suffer the devotion of the altar to substitute the devotion of the heart. All men are required to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth.<\/p>\n

As Judah rejected the tears of true repentance, which would have saved them from captivity, the prophet directs them to weep for despair, that if possible a desperate remedy might save in a desperate case. Cut off thine hair, oh Jerusalem; because he would change the name of the valley Gehinnom, (called in the new testament Gehenna, or hell-fire) into the valley of slaughter. Yes, the deluded parents and the applauding public should fall in the very spot where they had burnt the infants in the arms or in the belly of Tophet, that desolation might follow wickedness, and that heaven and earth might attest the judgments of the Lord. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jer 7:1-15. The Temple Sermon.The prophet is sent to the gate of the Temple, to rebuke the false confidence of Yahwehs worshippers in the possession of this block of buildings (these, Jer 7:4). Yahweh desires social justice (Jer 7:6), moral conduct (Jer 7:9), and wholehearted worship; otherwise the security inspired by the fact that the Temple belongs to Him (Jer 7:10, note mg.) is utterly baseless. Yahweh will not permit His Temple to become like some cave which shelters robbers (Jer 7:11; cf. Mat 21:13), but will destroy it as He destroyed that of Shiloh, and will banish Judah as He banished the northern tribes (Ephraim) from His land. The confidence in the possession of the Temple which is here rebuked was a natural outcome of the reformation under Josiah (2 Kings 22 f.), which made it the only centre of worship; the remarkable deliverance of Jerusalem from Sennacherib in 701 (2Ki 19:35) had also contributed to the belief that the city was inviolable. The effect of the prophets words in denouncing this sense of security is described in Jeremiah 26, which refers to the same occasion, i.e. soon after 608 B.C.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:6. Stranger denotes the settled foreigner; cf. Deu 1:16, etc.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:12. Shiloh: in Ephraim, with Eli as its priest (1 Samuel 1-3), and the Ark as its pride; it was probably destroyed by the Philistines after the victory described in 1Sa 4:10 ff.; cf. 1Sa 7:1*, Psa 78:60.<\/p>\n

Jer 7:15. Omit the first all, with LXX.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Aspects of false religion 7:1-8:3<\/span><\/p>\n

All the messages in this section deal with departure from the Lord in religious practices, either in pagan rites or in the perversion of the proper worship of Yahweh that the Mosaic Law specified. All the material in this section fits conditions in Judah after 609 B.C., when Jehoiakim began allowing a return to pagan practices after the end of Josiah’s reforms. Another feature of this section is the large amount of prose material it contains, much more than the preceding section (chs. 2-6). The common theme is worship, and the key word is "place," though this word refers to different things in different verses (Jer 7:3; Jer 7:7; Jer 7:12; Jer 7:14; Jer 7:20; Jer 7:32; Jer 8:3). The places in view are the temple, Jerusalem, and Judah, but which one is in view is sometimes difficult to determine. From their contents we may surmise that these messages were responsible for much of the antagonism that Jeremiah received from the Judahites (cf. Jer 26:7-24).<\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon 7:1-15<\/span><\/p>\n

This message demonstrates a structure that is quite typical of many others in the Book of Jeremiah (cf. Jer 11:1-17; Jer 17:19-27; Jer 34:8-22). First there is an explanation of Yahweh’s will (word, law; Jer 7:1-7), then a description of Israel’s departure from it (Jer 7:8-12), and then an announcement of divine judgment (Jer 7:13-15). A similar message, or the same message in abbreviated form, appears later in the book (Jer 26:1-6). [Note: Scholars differ about what they call Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon. Some refer to all of 7:1-8:3 as the temple sermon, and a few consider 7:1-10:25 the temple sermon.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Jeremiah received another message from the Lord. He was to go to the gate of the temple in Jerusalem and deliver a prophecy in Yahweh’s name to the Judahites who entered to worship. This was probably the New or Eastern temple gate (cf. Jer 26:10; Jer 36:10).<\/p>\n

". . . during the pilgrimage festivals in the temple, the pilgrims were greeted at the temple gates by a servant of the institution, who asked them to examine their moral lives prior to passing through the gates and participating in the worship (see Psalms 15, 24 . . .). If Jeremiah assumed his role of ’preacher at the gate’ in an unofficial capacity, then it is possible that the custom had lapsed at that time (as seems entirely probable from the substance of the sermon) and was consciously resumed by the prophet to his own moral and spiritual ends." [Note: Craigie, p. 120.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

; Jer 8:1-22; Jer 9:1-26; Jer 10:1-25; Jer 26:1-24<\/p>\n

In the four chapters which we are now to consider we have what is plainly a finished whole. The only possible exception {Jer 10:1-16} shall be considered in its place. The historical occasion of the introductory prophecy, {Jer 7:1-15} and the immediate effect of its delivery, are recorded at length in the twenty-sixth chapter of the book, so that in this instance we are happily not left to the uncertainties of conjecture. We are there told that it was in the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah,” that Jeremiah received the command to stand in the forecourt of Iahvahs house, and to declare “to all the cities of Judah that were come to worship” there, that unless they repented and gave ear to Iahvahs servants the prophets, He would make the temple like Shiloh, and Jerusalem itself a curse to all the nations of the earth. The substance of the oracle is there given in briefer form than here, as was natural, where the writers object was principally to relate the issue of it as it affected himself. In neither case is it probable that we have a verbatim report of what was actually said, though the leading thoughts of his address are, no doubt, faithfully recorded by the prophet in the more elaborate composition. {Jer 7:1-34} Trifling variations between the two accounts must not, therefore, be pressed.<\/p>\n

Internal evidence suggests that this oracle was delivered at a time of grave public anxiety, such as marked the troubled period after the death of Josiah, and the early years of Jehoiakim. “All Judah,” or “all the cities of Judah,” {Jer 26:2} that is to say, the people of the country towns as well as the citizens of Jerusalem, were crowding into the temple to supplicate their God. {Jer 7:2} This indicates an extraordinary occasion, a national emergency affecting all alike. Probably a public fast and humiliation had been ordered by the authorities, on the reception of some threatening news of invasion. “The opening paragraphs of the address are marked by a tone of controlled earnestness, by an unadorned plainness of statement, without passion, without exclamation, apostrophe, or rhetorical device of any kind; which betokens the presence of a danger which spoke too audibly to the general ear to require artificial heightening in the statement of it. The position of affairs spoke for itself” (Hitzig). The very words with which the prophet opens his message, “Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel, Make good your ways and your doings, that I may cause you to dwell (permanently) in this place!” (Jer 7:3, cf. Jer 7:7) prove that the anxiety which agitated the popular heart and drove it to seek consolation in religious observances, was an anxiety about their political stability, about the permanence of their possession of the fair land of promise. The use of the expression “Iahvah Sabaoth” Iahvah (the God) of Hosts is also significant, as indicating that war was what the nation feared; while the prophet reminds them thus that all earthly powers, even the armies of heathen invaders, are controlled and directed by the God of Israel for His own sovereign purposes. A particular crisis is further suggested by the warning: “Trust ye not to the lying words, The Temple of Iahvah, the Temple of Iahvah, the Temple of Iahvah, is this!” The fanatical confidence in the inviolability of the temple, which Jeremiah thus deprecates, implies a time of public danger. A hundred years before this time the temple and the city had really come through a period of the gravest peril, justifying in the most palpable and unexpected manner the assurances of the prophet Isaiah. This was remembered now, when another crisis seemed imminent, another trial of strength between the God of Israel and the gods of the heathen. Only part of the prophetic teachings of Isaiah had rooted itself in the popular mind-the part most agreeable to it. The sacrosanct inviolability of the temple, and of Jerusalem for its sake, was an idea readily appropriated and eagerly cherished. It was forgotten that all depended on the will and purposes of Iahvah himself; that the heathen might be the instruments with which He executed His designs, and that an invasion of Judah might mean, not an approaching trial of strength between His omnipotence and the impotency of the false gods, but the judicial outpouring of His righteous wrath upon His own rebellious people.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah, therefore, affirms that the popular confidence is ill-founded; that his countrymen are lulled in a false security; and he enforces his point, by a plain exposure of the flagrant offences which render their worship a mockery of God.<\/p>\n

Again, it may be supposed that the startling word, “Add your burnt offerings to your” (ordinary) “offerings, and eat the flesh (of them,)”{ Jer 7:21} implies a time of unusual activity in the matter of honouring the God of Israel with the more costly offerings of which the worshippers did not partake, but which were wholly consumed on the altar; which fact also might point to a season of special danger.<\/p>\n

And, lastly, the references to taking refuge behind the walls of “defenced cities,” {Jer 8:14; Jer 10:17} as we know that the Rechabites and doubtless most of the rural populace took refuge in Jerusalem on the approach of the third and last Chaldean expedition, seem to prove that the occasion of the prophecy was the first Chaldean invasion, which ended in the submission of Jehoiakim to the yoke of Babylon. {2Ki 24:1} Already the northern frontier had experienced the destructive onslaught of the invaders, and rumour announced that they might soon be expected to arrive before the walls of Jerusalem. {Jer 8:16-17}<\/p>\n

The only other historical occasion which can be suggested with any plausibility is the Scythian invasion of Syria-Palestine, to which the previous discourse was assigned. This would fix the date of the prophecy at some point between the thirteenth and the eighteenth years of Josiah (B.C. 629-624). But the arguments for this view do not seem to be very strong in themselves, and they certainly do not explain the essential identity of the oracle summarised in Jer 26:1-6, with that of Jer 7:1-15. The “undisguised references to the prevalence of idolatry in Jerusalem itself (Jer 7:17; Jer 7:30-31), and the unwillingness of the people to listen to the prophets teaching,” {Jer 7:27} are quite as well accounted for by supposing a religious or rather an irreligious reaction under Jehoiakim-which is every way probable considering the bad character of that king, {2Ki 23:37; Jer 22:13 sqq.} and the serious blow inflicted upon the reforming party by the death of Josiah; as by assuming that the prophecy belongs to the years before the extirpation of idolatry in the eighteenth year of the latter sovereign.<\/p>\n

And now let us take a rapid glance at the salient points of this remarkable utterance. The people are standing in the outer court, with their faces turned toward the court of the priests, in which stood the holy house itself. {Psa 5:7} The prophetic speaker stands facing them, “in the gate of the Lords house,” the entry of the upper or inner court, the place whence Baruch was afterwards to read another of his oracles to the people. {Jer 36:10} Standing here, as it were between his audience and the throne of Iahvah, Jeremiah acts as visible mediator between them and their God. His message to the worshippers who throng the courts of Iahvahs sanctuary is not one of approval. He does not congratulate them upon their manifest devotion, upon the munificence of their offerings, upon their ungrudging and unstinted readiness to meet an unceasing drain upon their means. His message is a surprise, a shock to their self-satisfaction, an alarm to their slumbering consciences, a menace of wrath and destruction upon them and their holy place. His very first word is calculated to startle their self-righteousness, their misplaced faith in the merit of their worship and service. “Amend your ways and your doings!” Where was the need of amendment? they might ask. Were they not at that moment engaged in a function most grateful to Iahvah? Were they not keeping the law of the sacrifices, and were not the Levitical priesthood ministering in their order, and receiving their due share of the offerings which poured into the temple day by day? Was not all this honour enough to satisfy the most exacting of deities? Perhaps it was, had the deity in question been merely as one of the gods of Canaan. So much lip service, so many sacrifices and festivals, so much joyous revelling in the sanctuary, might be supposed to have sufficiently appeased one of the common Baals, those half-womanish phantoms of deity whose delight was imagined to be in feasting and debauchery. Nay, so much zeal might have propitiated the savage heart of a Molech. But the God of Israel was not as these, nor one of these; though His ancient people were too apt to conceive thus of Him, and certain modern critics have unconsciously followed in their wake.<\/p>\n

Let us see what it was that called so loudly for amendment, and then we may become more fully aware of the gulf that divided the God of Israel from the idols of Canaan, and His service from all other service. It is important to keep this radical difference steadily before our minds, and to deepen the impression of it, in days when the effort is made by every means to confuse Iahvah with the gods of heathendom, and to rank the religion of Israel with the lower surrounding systems.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah accuses his countrymen of flagrant transgression of the universal laws of morality. Theft, murder, adultery, perjury, fraud, and covetousness, slander and lying and treachery, {Jer 7:9; Jer 9:3-8} are charged upon these zealous worshippers by a man who lived amongst them, and knew them well, and could be contradicted at once if his charges were false.<\/p>\n

He tells them plainly that, in virtue of their frequenting it, the temple is become a den of robbers.<\/p>\n

And this trampling upon the common rights of man has its counterpart and its climax in treason against God, in “burning incense to the Baal, and walking after other gods whom they know not”; {Jer 7:9} in an open and shameless attempt to combine the worship of the God who had from the outset revealed Himself to their prophets as a “jealous,” i.e., an exclusive God, with the worship of shadows who had not revealed themselves at all, and could not be “known,” because devoid of all character and real existence. They thus ignored the ancient covenant which had constituted them a nation. {Jer 7:23}<\/p>\n

In the cities of Judah, in the streets of the very capital, the cultus of Ashtoreth, the Queen of Heaven, the voluptuous Canaanite goddess of love and dalliance, was busily practised by whole families together, in deadly provocation of the God of Israel. The first and great commandment said, Thou shalt love Iahvah thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. And they loved and served and followed and sought after and worshipped the sun and the moon and the host of heaven, the objects adored by the nation that was so soon to enslave them. {Jer 8:2} Not only did a worldly, covetous, and sensual priesthood connive in the restoration of the old superstitions which associated other gods with Iahvah, and set up idol symbols and altars within the precincts of His temple, as Manasseh had 2Ki 21:4-5; they went further than this in their “syncretism,” or rather in their perversity, their spiritual blindness, their wilful misconception of the God revealed to their fathers. They actually confounded Him-the Lord “who exercised lovingkindness, justice, and righteousness, and delighted in” the exhibition of these qualities by His worshippers {Jer 9:24} -with the dark and cruel sun god of the Ammonites. They “rebuilt the high places of the Tophet, in the valley of ben Hinnom,” on the north side of Jerusalem, “to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire”; if by means so revolting to natural affection they might win back the favour of heaven-means which Iahvah “commanded not, neither came they into His mind.” {Jer 7:31} Such fearful and desperate expedients were doubtless first suggested by the false prophets and priests in the times of national adversity under king Manasseh. They harmonised only too well with the despair of a people who saw in a long succession of political disasters the token of Iahvahs unforgiving wrath. That these dreadful rites were not a “survival” in Israel, seems to follow from the horror which they excited in the allied armies of the two kingdoms, when the king of Moab, in the extremity of the siege, offered his eldest son as a burnt offering on the wall of his capital before the eyes of the besiegers. So appalled were the Israelite forces by this spectacle of a fathers despair, that they at once raised the blockade, and retreated homeward. {2Ki 3:27} It is probable, then, that the darker and bloodier aspects of heathen worship were of only recent appearance among the Hebrews, and that the rites of Molech had not been at all frequent or familiar, until the long and harassing conflict with Assyria broke the national spirit and inclined the people, in their trouble, to welcome the suggestion that costlier sacrifices were demanded, if Iahvah was to be propitiated and His wrath appeased. Such things were not done, apparently, in Jeremiahs time; he mentions them as the crown of the nations past offences; as sins that still cried to heaven for vengeance, and would surely entail it, because the same spirit of idolatry which had culminated in these excesses, still lived and was active in the popular heart. It is the persistence in sins of the same character which involves our drinking to the dregs the cup of punishment for the guilty past. The dark catalogue of forgotten offences witnesses against us before the Unseen Judge, and is only obliterated by the tears of a true repentance, and by the new evidence of a change of heart and life. Then, as in some palimpsest, the new record covers and conceals the old; and it is only if we fatally relapse, that the erased writing of our misdeeds becomes visible again before the eye of Heaven. Perhaps also the prophet mentions these abominations because at the time he saw around him unequivocal tendencies to the renewal of them. Under the patronage or with the connivance of the wicked king Jehoiakim, the reactionary party may have begun to set up again the altars thrown down by Josiah, while their religious leaders advocated both by speech and writing a return to the abolished cultus. At all events, this supposition gives special point to the emphatic assertion of Jeremiah, that Iahvah had not commanded nor even thought of such hideous rites. The reference to the false labours of the scribes {Jer 8:8} lends colour to this view. It may be that some of the interpreters of the sacred law actually anticipated certain writers of our own day, in putting this terrible gloss upon the precept, “The firstborn of thy sons shalt thou give unto Me.” {Exo 22:29}<\/p>\n

The people of Judah were misled, but they were willingly misled. When Jeremiah declares to them, “Lo, ye are trusting, for your part, upon the words of delusion, so that ye gain no good!” {Jer 7:8} it is perhaps not so much the smooth prophecies of the false prophets as the fatal attitude of the popular mind, out of which those misleading oracles grew, and which in turn they aggravated, that the speaker deprecates. He warns them that an absolute trust in the “praesentia Numinis” is delusive; a trust, cherished like theirs independently of the condition of its justification, viz., a walk pleasing to God. “What! will ye break all My laws, and then come and stand with polluted hands before Me in this house, {Isa 1:15} which is named after Me Iahvahs House, {Isa 4:1} and reassure yourselves with the thought, We are absolved from the consequences of all these abominations?” (Jer 7:9-10). Lit. “We are saved, rescued, secured, with regard to having done all these abominations”: cf. Jer 2:35. But perhaps, with Ewald, we should point the Hebrew term differently, and read, “Save us!” “to do all these abominations,” as if that were the express object of their petition, which would really ensue, if their prayer were granted: a fine irony. For the form of the verb. {cf. Eze 14:14} They thought their formal devotions were more than enough to counterbalance any breaches of the decalogue; they laid that flattering unction to their souls. They could make it up with God for setting His moral law at naught. It was merely a question of compensation. They did not see that the moral law is as immutable as laws physical; and that the consequences of violating or keeping it are as inseparable from it as pain from a blow, or death from poison. They did not see that the moral law is simply the law of mans health and wealth, and that the transgression of it is sorrow and suffering and death.<\/p>\n

“If men like you,” argues the prophet, “dare to tread these courts, it must be because you believe it a proper thing to do. But that belief implies that you hold the temple to be something other than what it really is; that you see no incongruity in making the House of Iahvah a meeting place of murderers. {“spelunca latronum” Mat 21:13} That you have yourselves made it, in the full view of Iahvah, whose seeing does not rest there, but involves results such as the present crisis of public affairs; the national danger is proof that He has seen your heinous misdoings.” For Iahvahs seeing brings a vindication of right, and vengeance upon evil. {2Ch 24:22; Exo 3:7} He is the watchman that never slumbers nor sleeps; the eternal Judge, Who ever upholds the law of righteousness in the affairs of man, nor suffers the slightest infringement of that law to go unpunished. And this unceasing watchfulness, this perpetual dispensation of justice, is really a manifestation of Divine mercy; for the purpose of it is to save the human race from self-destruction, and to raise it ever higher in the scale of true well-being, which essentially consists in the knowledge of God and obedience to His laws.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah gives his audience further ground for conviction. He points to a striking instance in which conduct like theirs had involved results such as his warning holds before them. He establishes the probability of chastisement by a historical parallel. He offers them, so to speak, ocular demonstration of his doctrine. “I also, lo, I have seen, saith Iahvah!” Your eyes are fixed on the temple; so are Mine, but in a different way. You see a national palladium; I see a desecrated sanctuary, a shrine polluted and profaned. This distinction between Gods view and yours is certain: “for, go ye now to My place which was at Shiloh, where I caused My Name to abide at the outset” (of your settlement in Canaan); “and see the thing that I have done to it, because of the wickedness of My people Israel” (the northern kingdom). There is the proof that Iahvah seeth not as man seeth; there, in that dismantled ruin, in that historic sanctuary of the more powerful kingdom of Ephraim, once visited by thousands of worshippers like Jerusalem today, now deserted and desolate, a monument of Divine wrath.<\/p>\n

The reference is not to the tabernacle, the sacred Tent of the Wanderings, which was first set up at Nob {1Sa 22:11} and then removed to Gibeon, {2Ch 1:3} but obviously to a building more or less like the temple, though less magnificent. The place and its sanctuary had doubtless been ruined in the great catastrophe, when the kingdom of Samaria fell before the power of Assyria (721 B.C.).<\/p>\n

In the following words (Jer 7:13-15) the example is applied. “And now”-stating the conclusion-“because of your having done all these deeds” (“saith Iahvah,” LXX omits), “and because I spoke unto you” (“early and late,” LXX omits), “and ye hearkened not, and I called you and ye answered not”: {Pro 1:24} “I will do unto the house upon which My Name is called, wherein ye are trusting, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your fathers-as I did unto Shiloh.”<\/p>\n

Some might think that if the city fell, the holy house would escape, as was thought by many like-minded fanatics when Jerusalem was beleaguered by the Roman armies seven centuries later: but Jeremiah declares that the blow will fall upon both alike; and to give greater force to his words, he makes the judgment begin at the house of God. (The Hebrew reader will note the dramatic effect of the disposition of the accents. The principal pause is placed upon the word “fathers,” and the reader is to halt in momentary suspense upon that word, before he utters the awful three which close the verse: “as I-did to-Shiloh.” The Massorets were masters of this kind of emphasis.)<\/p>\n

“And I will cast you away from My Presence, as I cast” (“all”: LXX omits) “your kinsfolk, all the posterity of Ephraim.” {2Ki 17:20} Away from My Presence: far beyond the bounds of that holy land where I have revealed Myself to priests and prophets, and where My sanctuary stands; into a land where heathenism reigns, and the knowledge of God is not; into the dark places of the earth, that lie under the blighting shadow of superstition, and are enveloped in the moral midnight of idolatry. “Projiciam vos a facie mea.” The knowledge and love of God-heart and mind ruled by the sense of purity and tenderness and truth and right united in an Ineffable Person, and enthroned upon the summit of the universe-these are light and life for man; where these are, there is His Presence. They who are so endowed behold the face of God, in Whom is no darkness at all. Where these spiritual endowments are nonexistent; where mere power, or superhuman force, is the highest thought of God to which man has attained; where there is no clear sense of the essential holiness and love of the Divine Nature; there the world of man lies in darkness that may be felt; there bloody rites prevail; there harsh oppression and shameless vices reign: for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty.<\/p>\n

“And thou, pray thou not for this people,” {Jer 18:20} “and lift not up for them outcry nor prayer, and urge not Me, for I hear thee not. Seest thou not what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? The children gather sticks, and the fathers light the fire, and the women knead dough, to make sacred buns” {Jer 44:19} “for the Queen of Heaven, and to pour libations to other gods, in order to grieve.” {Deu 32:16; Deu 32:21} “Is it Me that they grieve? saith Iahvah; is it not themselves” (rather), “in regard to the shame of their own faces” (Jer 7:16-19).<\/p>\n

From one point of view, all human conduct may be said to be “indifferent” to God; He is self-sufficing, and needs not our praises, our love, our obedience, any more than He needed the temple ritual and the sacrifices of bulls and goats. Man can neither benefit nor injure God; he can only affect his own fortunes in this world and the next, by rebellion against the laws upon which his welfare depends, or by a careful observance of them. In this sense, it is true that wilful idolatry, that treason against God, does not “provoke” or “grieve” the Immutable One. Men do such things to their own sole hurt, to the shame of their own faces: that is, the punishment will be the painful realisation of the utter groundlessness of their confidence, of the folly of their false trust; the mortification of disillusion, when it is too late. That Jeremiah should have expressed himself thus is sufficient answer to those who pretend that the habitual anthropomorphism of the prophetic discourses is anything more than a mere accident of language and an accommodation to ordinary style.<\/p>\n

In another sense, of course, it is profoundly true to say that human sin provokes and grieves the Lord. God is Love; and love may be pained to its depths by the fault of the beloved, and stirred to holy indignation at the disclosure of utter unworthiness and ingratitude. Something corresponding to these emotions of man may be ascribed, with all reverence, to the Inscrutable Being who creates man “in His own image,” that is, endowed with faculties capable of aspiring towards Him, and receiving the knowledge of His being and character.<\/p>\n

“Pray not thou for this people for I hear thee not!” Jeremiah was wont to intercede for his people. {Jer 11:14; Jer 18:20; Jer 15:1; cf. 1Sa 12:23} The deep pathos which marks his style, the minor key in which almost all his public utterances are pitched, proves that the fate which he saw impending over his country grieved him to the heart. “Our sweetest songs are those which tell of saddest thought”; and this is eminently true of Jeremiah. A profound melancholy had fallen like a cloud upon his soul; he had seen the future, fraught as it was with suffering and sorrow, despair and overthrow, slaughter and bitter servitude; a picture in which images of terror crowded one upon another, under a darkened sky, from which no ray of blessed hope shot forth, but only the lightnings of wrath and extermination. Doubtless his prayers were frequent, alive with feeling, urgent, imploring, full of the convulsive energy of expiring hope. But in the midst of his strong crying and tears, there arose from the depths of his consciousness the conviction that all was in vain. “Pray not thou for this people, for I will not hear thee.” The thought stood before him, sharp and clear as a command; the unuttered sound of it rang in his ears, like the voice of a destroying angel, a messenger of doom, calm as despair, sure as fate. He knew it was the voice of God.<\/p>\n

In the history of nations as in the lives of individuals there are times when repentance, even if possible, would be too late to avert the evils which long periods of misdoing have called from the abyss to do their penal and retributive work. Once the dike is undermined, no power on earth can hold back the flood of waters from the defenceless lands beneath. And when a nations sins have penetrated and poisoned all social and political relations, and corrupted the very fountains of life, you cannot avert the flood of ruin that must come, to sweep away the tainted mass of spoiled humanity; you cannot avert the storm that must break to purify the air, and make it fit for men to breathe again.<\/p>\n

“Therefore”-because of the national unfaithfulness-“thus said the Lord Iahvah, Lo, Mine anger and My fury are being poured out toward this place-upon the men, and upon the cattle, and upon the trees of the field, and upon the fruit of the ground; and it will burn, and not be quenched!” {Jer 7:20} The havoc wrought by war, the harrying and slaying of man and beast, the felling of fruit trees and firing of the vineyards, are intended; but not so as to exclude the ravages of pestilence and droughts {Jer 14:1-22} and famine. All these evils are manifestations of the wrath of Iahvah., cattle and trees and “the fruit of the ground,” i.e., of the cornlands and vineyards, are to share in the general destruction, {cf. Hos 4:3} not, of course, as partakers of mans guilt, but only by way of aggravating his punishment. The final phrase is worthy of consideration, because of its bearing upon other passages. “It will burn and not be quenched,” or “it will burn unquenchably.” The meaning is not that the Divine wrath once kindled will go on burning forever; but that once kindled, no human or other power will be able to extinguish it, until it has accomplished its appointed work of destruction.<\/p>\n

“Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth, the God of Israel: Your holocausts add ye to your common sacrifices, and eat ye flesh!” that is, Eat flesh in abundance, eat your fill of it! Stint not yourselves by devoting any portion of your offerings wholly to Me. I am as indifferent to your “burnt offerings,” your more costly and splendid gifts, as to the ordinary sacrifices, over which you feast and make merry with your friends. {1Sa 1:4; 1Sa 1:13} The holocausts which you are now burning on the altar before Me will not avail to alter My settled purpose. “For I spake not with your fathers, nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, concerning matters of holocaust and sacrifice, but this matter commanded I them, Hearken ye unto My voice, so become I God to you, and you-ye shall become to Me a people; and walk ye in all the way that I shall command you, that it may go well with you!” (Jer 7:22-23) cf. Deu 6:3. Those who believe that the entire priestly legislation as we now have it in the Pentateuch is the work of Moses, may be content to find in this passage of Jeremiah no more than an extreme antithetical expression of the truth that to obey is better than sacrifice. There can be no question that from the outset of its history. Israel, in common with all the Semitic nations, gave outward expression to its religious ideas in the form of animal sacrifice. Moses cannot have originated the institution, he found it already in vogue, though he may have regulated the details of it. Even in the Pentateuch, the term “sacrifice” is nowhere explained; the general understanding of the meaning of it is taken for granted. {see Exo 12:27; Exo 23:18} Religious customs are of immemorial use, and it is impossible in most cases to specify the period of their origin. But while it is certain that the institution of sacrifice was of extreme antiquity in Israel as in other ancient peoples, it is equally certain, from the plain evidence of their extant writings, that the prophets before the Exile attached no independent value either to it or to any other part of the ritual of the temple. We have already seen how Jeremiah could speak of the most venerable of all the symbols of the popular faith. {Jer 3:16} Now he affirms that the traditional rules for the burnt offerings and other sacrifices were not matters of special Divine institution, as was popularly supposed at the time. The reference to the Exodus may imply that already in his day there were written narratives which asserted the contrary; that the first care of the Divine Saviour after He had led His people through the sea was to provide them with an elaborate system of ritual and sacrifice, identical with that which prevailed in Jeremiahs day. The important verse already quoted {Jer 8:8} seems to glance at such pious fictions of the popular religious teachers: “How say ye, We are wise, and the instruction” (A.V. “law”) “of Iahvah is with us? But behold for lies hath it wrought-the lying pen of the scribes!”<\/p>\n

It is, indeed, difficult to see how Jeremiah or any of his predecessors could have done otherwise than take for granted the established modes of public worship, and the traditional holy places. The prophets do not seek to alter or abolish the externals of religion as such; they are not so unreasonable as to demand that stated rites and traditional sanctuaries should be disregarded, and that men should worship in the spirit only, without the aid of outward symbolism of any sort, however innocent and appropriate to its object it might seem. They knew very well that rites and ceremonies were necessary to public worship; what they protested against was the fatal tendency of their time to make these the whole of religion, to suppose that Iahvahs claims could be satisfied by a due performance of these, without regard to those higher moral requirements of His law which the ritual worship might fitly have symbolised but could not rightly supersede. It was not a question with Hosea, Amos, Micah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, whether or not Iahvah could be better honoured with or without temples and priests and sacrifices. The question was whether these traditional institutions actually served as an outward expression of that devotion to Him and His holy law, of that righteousness and holiness of life, which is the only true worship, or whether they were looked upon as in themselves comprising the whole of necessary religion. Since the people took this latter view, Jeremiah declares that their system of public worship is futile.<\/p>\n

“Hearken unto My voice”: not as giving regulations about the ritual, but as inculcating moral duty by the prophets, as is explained immediately, {Jer 7:25} and as is clear also from the statement that “they walked in the schemes of their own evil heart” (omit: “in the stubbornness,” with LXX, and read “moacoth” stat. constr.), “and fell to the rear and not the front.”<\/p>\n

As they did not advance in the knowledge and love of the spiritual God, who was seeking to lead them by His prophets, from Moses downwards, {Deu 18:15} they steadily retrogaded and declined in moral worth, until they had become hopelessly corrupt and past correction. (Lit. “and they became back and not face,” which may mean, they turned their backs upon Iahvah and His instruction.) This steady progress in evil is indicated by the words, “and they hardened their neck, they did worse than their fathers.” {Jer 7:26} It is implied that this was the case with each successive generation, and the view of Israels history thus expressed is in perfect harmony with common experience. Progress, one way or the other, is the law of character; if we do not advance in goodness, we go back, or, what is the same thing, we advance in evil.<\/p>\n

Finally, the prophet is warned that his mission also must fail, like that of his predecessors, unless indeed the second clause of Jer 7:27, which is omitted by the Septuagint, be really an interpolation. At all events, the failure is implied if not expressed, for he is to pronounce a sentence of reprobation upon his people. “And thou shalt speak all these words unto them” (“and they will not hearken unto thee, and thou shalt call unto them, and they will not answer thee”: LXX omits). “And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation that hearkened not unto the voice of Iahvah its God, and received not correction: Good faith is perished and cut off from their mouth.” {cf. Jer 9:3 sq.} The charge is remarkable. It is one which Jeremiah reiterates: see Jer 7:9; Jer 6:13; Jer 7:5; Jer 9:3 sqq.; Jer 12:1. His fellow countrymen are at once deceivers and deceived. They have no regard for truth and honour in their mutual dealings; grasping greed and lies and trickery stamp their everyday intercourse with each other; and covetousness and fraud equally characterise the behaviour of their religious leaders. Where truth is not prized for its own sake, there debased ideas of God and lax conceptions of morality creep in and spread. Only he who loves truth comes to the light; and only he who does Gods will sees that truth is divine. False belief and false living in turn beget each other; and as a matter of experience it is often impossible to say which was antecedent to the other. <\/p>\n

In the closing section of this first part of his long address (Jer 7:29 – Jer 8:3), Jeremiah apostrophises the country, bidding her bewail her imminent ruin. “Shear thy tresses” (coronal of long hair) “and cast them away, and lift upon the bare hills a lamentation!”-sing a dirge over thy departed glory and thy slain children, upon those unhallowed mountain tops which were the scene of thine apostasies: {Jer 3:21} “for Iahvah hath rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.” The hopeless tone of this exclamation (cf. also Jer 7:15, Jer 7:16, Jer 7:20) seems to agree better with the times of Jehoiakim, when it had become evident to the prophet that amendment was beyond hope, than with the years prior to Josiahs reformation. His own contemporaries are “the generation of Iahvahs wrath,” i.e., upon which His wrath is destined to be poured out, for the day of grace is past and gone; and this, because of the desecration of the temple itself by such kings as Ahaz and Manasseh, but especially because of the horrors of the child sacrifices in the valley of ben Hinnom, {2Ki 16:3; 2Ki 21:3-6} which those kings had been the first to introduce in Judah. “Therefore behold days are coming, saith Iahvah, and it shall no more be called the Tophet” (an obscure term, probably meaning something like “Pyre” or “Burning place”: cf. the Persian tabidan “to burn,” and “to bury,” strictly “to burn” a corpse; also “to smoke,” Sanskrit dhup: to suppose a reproachful name like “Spitting” = “Object of loathing,” is clearly against the context: the honourable name is to be exchanged for one of dishonour), “and the Valley of ben Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter, and people shall bury in (the) Tophet for want of room (elsewhere)!” A great battle is contemplated, as is evident also from Deu 28:25-26, the latter verse being immediately quoted by the prophet. {Jer 7:33} The Tophet will be defiled forever by being made a burial place; but many of the fallen will be left unburied, a prey to the vulture and the jackal. In that fearful time, all sounds of joyous life will cease in the cities of Judah and in the capital itself, “for the land will become a desolation.” And the scornful enemy will not be satisfied with wreaking his vengeance upon the living; he will insult the dead, by breaking into the sepulchres of the kings and grandees, the priests and prophets and people, and haling their corpses forth to lie rotting in face of the sun, moon, and stars, which they had so sedulously worshipped in their lifetime, but which will be powerless to protect their dead bodies from this shameful indignity. And as for the survivors, “death will be preferred to life in the case of all the remnant that remain of this evil tribe, in all the places whither I shall have driven them, saith Iahvah Sabaoth” (omit the second “that remain,” with LXX as an accidental repetition from the preceding line, and as breaking the construction). The prophet has reached the conviction that Judah will be driven into banishment; but the details of the destruction which he contemplates are obviously of an imaginative and rhetorical character. It is, therefore, superfluous to ask whether a great battle was actually fought afterwards in the valley of ben Hinnom, and whether the slain apostates of Judah were buried there in heaps, and whether the conquerors violated the tombs. Had the Chaldeans or any of their allies done this last, in search of treasure for instance, we should expect to find some notice of it in the historical chapters of Jeremiah. But it was probably known well enough to the surrounding peoples that the Jews were not in the habit of burying treasure in their tombs. The prophets threat, however, curiously corresponds to what Josiah is related to have done at Bethel and elsewhere, by way of irreparably polluting the high places; {2Ki 23:16 sqq.} and it is probable that his recollection of that event, which he may himself have witnessed, determined the form of Jeremiahs language here.<\/p>\n

In the second part of this great discourse {Jer 8:4-22} we have a fine development of thoughts which have already been advanced in the opening piece, after the usual manner of Jeremiah. The first half (or strophe) is mainly concerned with the sins of the tuition (Jer 8:4-13), the second with a despairing lament over the punishment (Jer 8:14-22; Jer 9:1). “And thou shalt say unto them: Thus said Iahvah, Do men fall and not rise again? Doth a man turn back, and not return? Why doth Jerusalem make this people to turn back with an eternal” (or perfect, utter, absolute) “turning back? Why clutch they deceit, refuse to return?” The LXX omits “Jerusalem,” which is perhaps only a marginal gloss. We should then have to read “shobebah,” as “this people” is masc.<\/p>\n

The “He” has been written twice by inadvertence. The verb, however, is transitive in Jer 50:19; Isa 47:10, etc.; and I find no certain instance of the intrans, form besides Eze 38:8, participle. “I listened and heard; they speak not aright”; {Exo 10:29; Isa 16:6} “not a man repenteth over his evil, saying (or thinking), What have I done? They all” (lit. “all of him,” i.e., the people) “turn back into their courses” (plur. Heb. text; sing. Heb. marg.), “like the rushing horse into the battle.”<\/p>\n

There is something unnatural in this obstinate persistence in evil. If a man happens to fall he does not remain on the ground, but quickly rises to his feet again; and if he turn back on his way for some reason or other, he will usually return to that way again. There is a play on the word “turn back” or “return,” like that in Jer 3:12; Jer 3:14. The term is first used in the sense of turning back or away from Iahvah, and then in that of returning to Him, according to its metaphorical meaning “to repent.” Thus the import of the question is: Is it natural to apostatise and never to repent of it? Perhaps we should rather read, after the analogy of Jer 3:1 “Doth a man go away on a journey, and not return?”<\/p>\n

Others interpret: “Doth a man return, and not return?” That is, if he return, he does it, and does not stop midway; whereas Judah only pretends to repent, and does not really do so. This, however, does not agree with the parallel member, nor with the following similar questions.<\/p>\n

It is very noticeable how thoroughly the prophets, who, after all, were the greatest of practical moralists, identify religion with right aims and right conduct. The beginning of evil courses is turning away from Iahvah; the beginning of reform is turning back to Iahvah. For Iahvahs character as revealed to the prophets is the ideal and standard of ethical perfection; He does and delights in love, justice, and equity. {Jer 9:23} If a man look away from that ideal, if he be content with a lower standard than the Will and Law of the All-Perfect, then and thereby he inevitably sinks in the scale of morality. The prophets are not troubled by the idle question of medieval schoolmen and sceptical moderns. It never occurred to them to ask the question whether God is good because God wills it, or whether God wills good because it is good. The dilemma is, in truth, no better than a verbal puzzle, if we allow the existence of a personal Deity. For the idea of God is the idea of a Being who is absolutely good, the only Being who is such; perfect goodness is understood to be realised nowhere else but in God. It is part of His essence and conception; it is the aspect under which the human mind apprehends Him. To suppose goodness existing apart from Him, as an independent object which He may choose or refuse, is to deal in empty abstractions. We might as well ask whether convex can exist apart from concave in nature, or motion apart from a certain rate of speed. The human spirit can apprehend God in His moral perfections, because it is, at however vast a distance, akin to Him-a “divinae particula aurae”; and it can strive towards those perfections by help of the same grace which reveals them. The prophets know of no other origin or measure of moral endeavour than that which Iahvah makes known to them. In the present instance, the charge which Jeremiah makes against his contemporaries is a radical falsehood, insincerity, faithlessness: “they clutch” or “cling to deceit, they speak what is not right” or “honest, straightforward.” {Gen 42:11; Gen 42:19} Their treason to God and their treachery to their fellows are opposite sides of the same fact. Had they been true to Iahvah, that is, to His teachings through the higher prophets and their own consciences, they would have been true to one another. The forbearing love of God, His tender solicitude to hear and save, are illustrated by the words: “I listened and heard not a man repented over his evil, saying, What have I done?” (The feeling of the stricken conscience could hardly be more aptly expressed than by this brief question.) But in vain does the Heavenly Father wait for the accents of penitence and contrition: “they all return”-go back again and again {Psa 23:6} -“into their own race” or “courses, like a horse rushing” lit. “pouring forth”: of rushing waters, {Psa 78:20} “into the battle.” The eagerness with which they follow their own wicked desires, the recklessness with which they “give their sensual race the rein,” in set defiance of God, and wilful oblivion of consequences, is finely expressed by the simile of the warhorse rushing in headlong eagerness into the fray. {Job 39:25} “Also” (or “even”) “the stork in the heavens knoweth her appointed times, and turtledove, swift and crane observe the season of their coming; but My people know not the ordinance of Iahvah”-what He has willed and declared to be right for man (His Law; “jus divinum, relligio divina”). The dullest of wits can hardly fail to appreciate the force of this beautiful contrast between the regularity of instinct and the aberrations of reason. All living creatures are subject to laws upon obedience to which their well-being depends. The life of man is no exception; it too is subject to a law-a law which is as much higher than that which regulates mere animal existence as reason and conscience and spiritual aspiration are higher than instinct and sexual impulse. But whereas the lower forms of life are obedient to the laws of their being, man rebels against them, and dares to disobey what he knows to be for his good; nay, he suffers himself to be so blinded by lust and passion and pride and self-will that at last he does not even recognise the Law-the ordinance of the Eternal-for what it really is, the organic law of his true being, the condition at once of his excellence and his happiness.<\/p>\n

The prophet next meets an objection. He has just alleged a profound moral ignorance-a culpable ignorance-against the people. He supposes them to deny the accusation, as doubtless they often did in answer to his remonstrances {cf. Jer 17:15; Jer 20:7 sq.} “How can ye say, We are wise”-morally wise-“and the teaching of Iahvah is with us!” (“but behold”: LXX omits: either term would be sufficient by itself) “for the Lie hath the lying pen of the scribes made it!” The reference clearly is to what Jeremiahs opponents call “the teaching (or law: torah) of Iahvah”; and it is also clear that the prophet charges the “scribes” of the opposite party with falsifying or tampering with the teaching of Iahvah in some way or other. Is it meant that they misrepresent the terms of a written document, such as the Book of the Covenant, or Deuteronomy? But they could hardly do this without detection, in the case of a work which was not in their exclusive possession. Or does Jeremiah accuse them of misinterpreting the sacred law, by putting false glosses upon its precepts, as might be done in a legal document wherever there seemed room for a difference of opinion, or wherever conflicting traditional interpretations existed side by side? (Cf. my remarks on Jer 7:31). The Hebrew may indicate this, for we may translate: “But lo, into the lie the lying pen of the scribes hath made it!” which recalls St. Pauls description of the heathen as changing the truth of God into a lie. {Rom 1:26} The construction is the same as in Gen 12:2; Isa 44:17. Or, finally, does he boldly charge these abettors of the false prophets with forging supposititious law books, in the interest of their own faction, and in support of the claims and doctrines of the worldly priests and prophets? This last view is quite admissible, so far as the Hebrew goes, which, however, is not free from ambiguity. It might be rendered, “But behold, in vain,” or “bootlessly” {Jer 3:23} “hath the lying pen of the scribes laboured”; taking the verb in an absolute sense, which is not a common use. {Rth 2:19} Or we might transpose the terms for “pen” and “lying,” and render, “But behold, in vain hath the pen of the scribes fabricated falsehood.” In any case, the general sense is the same: Jeremiah charges not only the speakers, but the writers, of the popular party with uttering their own inventions in the name of Iahvah. These scribes were the spiritual ancestors of those of our Saviours time, who “made the word of God of none effect for the sake of their traditions.” {Mat 15:6} “For the Lie” means, to maintain the popular misbelief. It might also be rendered, “for falsehood, falsely,” as in the phrase “to swear falsely,” i.e., for deceit. It thus appears that conflicting and competing versions of the law were current in that age. Has the Pentateuch preserved elements of both kinds, or is it homogeneous throughout? Of the scribes of the period we, alas! know little beyond what this passage tells us. But Ezra must have had predecessors, and we may remember that Baruch, the friend and amanuensis of Jeremiah, was also a scribe. {Jer 36:26}<\/p>\n

“The wise will blush, they will be dismayed and caught! Lo, the word of Iahvah they rejected, and wisdom of what sort have they?” {Jer 6:10} The whole body of Jeremiahs opponents, the populace as well as the priests and prophets, are intended by “the wise,” that is, the wise in their own conceits; {Jer 7:8} there is an ironical reference to their own assumption of the title. These self-styled wise ones, who preferred their own wisdom to the guidance of the prophet, will be punished by the mortification of discovering their folly when it is too late. Their folly will be the instrument of their ruin, for “He taketh the wise in their own craftiness” as in a snare. {Pro 5:22}<\/p>\n

They who reject Iahvahs word, in whatever form it comes to them, have no other light to walk by; they must needs walk in darkness, and stumble at noonday. For Iahvahs word is the only true wisdom, the only true guide of mans footsteps. And this is the kind of wisdom which the Holy Scriptures offer us; not a merely speculative wisdom, not what is commonly understood by the terms science and art, but the priceless knowledge of God and of His will concerning us; a kind of knowledge which is beyond all comparison the most important for our well-being here and hereafter. If this Divine wisdom, which relates to the proper conduct of life and the right education of the highest faculties of our being, seem a small matter to any man, the fact argues spiritual blindness on his part; it cannot diminish the glory of heavenly wisdom.<\/p>\n

Some well meaning but mistaken people are fond of maintaining what they call “the scientific accuracy of the Bible,” meaning thereby an essential harmony with the latest discoveries, or even the newest hypotheses, of physical science. But even to raise such a preposterous question, whether as advocate or as assailant, is to be guilty of a crude anachronism, and to betray an incredible ignorance, of the real value of the Scriptures. That value I believe to be inestimable. But to discuss “the scientific accuracy of the Bible” appears to me to be as irrelevant to any profitable issue, as it would be to discuss the meteorological precision of the Mahabharata, or the marvellous chemistry of the Zendavesta, or the physiological revelations of the Koran, or the enlightened anthropology of the Nibelungenlied.<\/p>\n

A man may reject the word of Iahvah, he may reject Christs word, because he supposes that it is not sufficiently attested. He may urge that the proof that it is of God breaks down, and he may flatter himself that he is a person of superior discernment, because he perceives a fact to which the multitude of believers are apparently blind. But what kind of proof would he have? Does he demand more than the case admits of? Some portent in earth or sky or sea, which in reality would be quite foreign to the matter in hand, and could have none but an accidental connection with it, and would, in fact, be no proof at all, but itself a mystery requiring to be explained by the ordinary laws of physical causation? To demand a kind of proof which is irrelevant to the subject is a mark not of superior caution and judgment, but of ignorance and confusion of thought. The plain truth is, and the fact is abundantly illustrated by the teachings of the prophets and, above all, of our Divine Lord, that moral and spiritual truths are self-attesting to minds able to realise them: and they no more need supplementary corroboration than does the ultimate testimony of the senses of a sane person.<\/p>\n

Now the Bible as a whole is a unique repertory of such truths; this is the secret of its age-long influence in the world. If a man does not care for the Bible, if he has not learned to appreciate this aspect of it, if he does not love it precisely on this account, I, in turn, care very little for his opinion about the Bible. There may be much in the Bible which is otherwise valuable, which is precious as history, as tradition, as bearing upon questions of interest to the ethnologist, the antiquarian, the man of letters. But these things are the shell, that is the kernel; these are the accidents, that is the substance; these are the bodily vesture, that is the immortal spirit. A man who has not felt this has yet to learn what the Bible is in his text as we now have it, Jeremiah proceeds to denounce punishment on the priests and prophets, whose fraudulent oracles and false interpretations of the Law ministered to their own greedy covetousness, and who smoothed over the alarming state of things by false assurances that all was well (Jer 8:10-12). The Septuagint, however, omits the whole passage after the words, “Therefore I will give their wives to others, their fields to conquerors!” and as these words are obviously an abridgment of the threat, Jer 6:12, {cf. Deu 28:30} while the rest of the passage agrees verbatim with Jer 6:13-15, it may be supposed that a later editor inserted it in the margin here, as generally apposite (cf. Jer 6:10 to with Jer 8:9), whence it has crept into the text. It is true that Jeremiah himself is fond of repetition, but not so as to interrupt the context, as the “therefore” of Jer 8:10 seems to do. Besides, the “wise” of Jer 8:8 are the self-confident people; but if this passage be in place here, “the wise” of Jer 8:9 will have to be understood of their false guides, the prophets and priests. Whereas, if the passage be omitted, there is manifest continuity between the ninth verse and the thirteenth: “I will sweep, sweep them away, saith Iahvah; no grapes on the vine, and no figs on the fig tree, and the foliage is withered, and I have given them destruction” (or “blasting”).<\/p>\n

The opening threat is apparently quoted from the contemporary prophet Zephaniah. {Zep 1:2-3} The point of the rest of the verse is not quite clear, owing to the fact that the last clause of the Hebrew text is undoubtedly corrupt. We might suppose that the term “laws” had fallen out, and render, “and I gave them laws which they transgress.” {cf. Jer 5:22; Jer 31:35} The Vulgate has an almost literal translation, which gives the same sense: “et dedi eis quae praetergressa sunt.” The Septuagint omits the clause, probably on the ground of its difficulty. It may be that bad crops and scarcity are threatened. {cf. Jer 14:1-22, Jer 5:24-25} In that case, we may correct the text in the manner suggested above; Jer 17:18, for Amo 4:9). Others understand the verse in a metaphorical sense. The language seems to be coloured by a reminiscence of Mic 7:12; and the “grapes” and “figs” and “foliage” may be the fruits of righteousness, and the nation is like Isaiahs unfruitful vineyard {Isa 5:1-30} or our Lords barren fig tree, {Mat 21:19} fit only for destruction (cf. also Jer 6:9 and Jer 7:20). Another passage which resembles the present is Hab 3:17 “For the fig tree will not blossom, and there will be no yield on the vines; the produce of the olive will disappoint, and the fields will produce no food.” It was natural that tillage should be neglected upon the rumour of invasion. The country folk would crowd into the strong places, and leave their vineyards, orchards, and cornfields to their fate. {Jer 7:14} This would, of course, lead to scarcity and want, and aggravate the horrors of war with those of dearth and famine. I think the passage of Habakkuk is a precise parallel to the one before us. Both contemplate a Chaldean invasion, and both anticipate its disastrous effects upon husbandry. It is possible that the original text ran: “And I have given (will give) unto them their own work” (i.e., the fruit of it: used of fieldwork, Exo 1:14; of the earnings of labour. {Isa 32:17} This, which is a frequent thought in Jeremiah, forms a very suitable close to the verse. The objection is that the prophet does not use this particular term for “work” elsewhere. But the fact of its only once occurring might have caused its corruption. (Another term, which would closely resemble the actual reading, and give much the same sense as this last) “their produce.” This, too, as a very rare expression, only known from Jos 5:11-12, might have been misunderstood and altered by an editor or copyist. It is akin to the Aramaic and there are other Aramaisms in our prophet. One thing is certain; Jeremiah cannot have written what now appears in the Masoretic text.<\/p>\n

It is now made clear what the threatened evil is, in a fine closing strophe, several expressions of which recall the prophets magnificent alarm upon the coming of the Scythians (cf. Jer 4:5 with Jer 8:14; Jer 4:15 with Jer 8:16; Jer 4:19 with Jer 8:18). Here, however, the colouring is darker, and the prevailing gloom of the picture unrelieved by any ray of hope. The former piece belongs to the reign of Josiah, this to that of the worthless Jehoiakim. In the interval between the two, moral decline and social and political disintegration had advanced with fearfully accelerated speed, and Jeremiah knew that the end could not be far off.<\/p>\n

The fatal news of invasion has come, and he sounds the alarm to his countrymen. “Why are we sitting still” (in silent stupefaction)? “assemble yourselves, that we may go into the defenced cities, and be silent” (or “amazed, stupefied,” with terror) “there! for Iahvah our God hath silenced us” (with speechless terror) “and given us water of gall to drink; for we trespassed toward Iahvah. We looked for peace” or, weal, prosperity, “and there is no good; for a time of healing, and behold panic fear!” So the prophet represents the effect of the evil tidings upon the rural population. At first they are taken by surprise; then they rouse themselves from their stupor to take refuge in the walled cities. They recognise in the trouble a sign of Iahvahs anger. Their fond hopes of returning prosperity are nipped in the bud; the wounds of the past are not to be healed; the country has hardly recovered from one shock, before another and more deadly blow falls upon it. The next verse describes more particularly the nature of the bad news; the enemy, it would seem, had actually entered the land, and given no uncertain indication of what the Judeans might expect, by his ravages on the northern frontier.<\/p>\n

“From Dan was heard the snorting of his horses; at the sound of the neighings of his chargers all the land did quake: and they came in” (into the country) “and eat up the land and the fulness thereof, a city and them that dwelt therein.” This was what the invaders did to city after city, once they had crossed the border; ravaging its domain, and sacking the place itself. Perhaps, however, it is better to take the perfects as prophetic, and to render: “From Dan shall be heard . . . shall quake: and they shall come and eat up the land,” etc. This makes the connection easier with the next verse, which certainly has a future reference: “For behold I am about to send” (or simply, “I send”) “against you serpents.” {Isa 11:8}, a small but very poisonous snake; (Aquila basili Vulg. regulus), “for whom there is no charm, and they will bite you! saith Iahvah.” If the tenses be supposed to describe what has already happened, then the connection of thought may be expressed thus: all this evil that you have heard of has happened, not by mere ill fortune, but by the Divine will: Iahvah Himself has done it, and the evil will not stop there, for He purposes to send these destroying serpents into your very midst. {cf. Num 21:6}<\/p>\n

The eighteenth verse begins in the Hebrew with a highly anomalous word, which is generally supposed to mean “my source of comfort.” But both the strangeness of the form itself, which can hardly be paralleled in the language, and the indifferent sense which it yields, and the uncertainty of the Hebrew MSS., and the variations of the old versions, indicate that we have here another corruption of the text. Some Hebrew copies divide the word, and this is supported by the Septuagint and the Syro-Hexaplar version, which treat the verse as the conclusion of Jer 8:17, and render “and they shall bite you incurably, with pain of your perplexed heart” (Syro-Hex. “without cure”). But if the first part of the word is “without” (“for lack of”), what is the second? No such root as the existing letters imply is found in Hebrew or the cognate languages. The Targum does not help us: “Because they were scoffing” “against the prophets who prophesied unto them, sorrow and sighing will I bring” “upon them on account of their sins: upon them, saith the prophet, my heart is faint,” It is evident that this is no better than a kind of punning upon the words of the Masoretic text. I incline to read “How shall I cheer myself? Upon me is sorrow; upon me my heart is sick.” The prophet would write for “against,” without a suffix. {Job 9:27; Job 10:20} The passage is much like Jer 4:19.<\/p>\n

Another possible emendation is: “Iahvah causeth sorrow to flash forth upon me”: after the archetype of Amo 5:9; but I prefer the former.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah closes the section with an outpouring of his own overwhelming sorrow at the heart rending spectacle of the national calamities. No reader endued with any degree of feeling can doubt the sincerity of the prophets patriotism, or the willingness with which he would have given his own life for the salvation of his country. This one passage alone says enough to exonerate its author from the charge of indifference, much more of treachery to his fatherland. He imagines himself to hear the cry of the captive people, who have been carried away by the victorious invader into a distant land: “Hark! the sound of the imploring cry of the daughter of my people from a land far away! Is Iahvah not in Sion? or is not her King in her?”. {cf. Mic 4:9} Such will be the despairing utterance of the exiles of Judah and Jerusalem; and the prophet hastens to answer it with another question, which accounts for their ruin by their disloyalty to that heavenly King; “O why did they vex Me with their graven images, with alien vanities?” Compare a similar question and answer in an earlier discourse. {Jer 5:19} It may be doubted whether the pathetic words which follow-“The harvest is past, the fruit gathering is finished, but as for us, we are not delivered!”-are to be taken as a further complaint of the captives, or as a reference by the prophet himself to hopes of deliverance which had been cherished in vain, month after month, until the season of campaigns was over. In Palestine, the grain crops are harvested in April and May, the ingathering of the fruit falls in August. During all the summer months, Jehoiakim, as a vassal of Egypt, may have been eagerly hoping for some decisive interference from that quarter. That he was on friendly terms with that power at the time appears from the fact that he was allowed to fetch back refugees from its territory. {Jer 26:22 sq.} A provision for the extradition of offenders is found in the far more ancient treaty between Ramses II and the king of the Syrian Chetta (fourteenth century B.C.). But perhaps the prophet is alluding to one of those frequent failures of the crops, which inflicted so much misery upon his people, {cf. Jer 7:13; Jer 3:3; Jer 5:24-25} and which were a natural incident of times of political unsettlement and danger. In that case, he says, the harvest has come and gone, and left us unhelped and disappointed. I prefer the political reference, though our knowledge of the history of the period is so scanty that the particulars cannot be determined.<\/p>\n

It is clear enough from the lyrical utterance which follows (Jer 8:21-22), that heavy disasters had already befallen Judah: “For the shattering of the daughter of my people am I shattered; I am a mourner: astonishment hath seized me!” This can hardly be pure anticipation. The next two verses may be a fragment of one of the prophets elegies (qinoth). At all events, they recall the metre of Lam 4:1-22; Lam 5:1-22 :<\/p>\n

Doth balm in Gilead fail? <\/p>\n

Fails the healer there? <\/p>\n

Why is not bound up <\/p>\n

My peoples deadly wound?<\/p>\n

“Oh that my head were springs, <\/p>\n

Mine eye a fount of tears! <\/p>\n

To weep both day and night <\/p>\n

Over my peoples slain.”<\/p>\n

It is not impossible that these two quatrains are cited from the prophets elegy upon the last battle of Megiddo and the death of Josiah. Similar fragments seem to occur below {Jer 9:17-18; Jer 9:20} in the instructions to the mourning women, the professional singers of dirges over the dead.<\/p>\n

The beauty of the entire strophe, as an outpouring of inexpressible grief, is too obvious to require much comment. The striking question “Is there no balm in Gilead, is there no physician there?” has passed into the common dialect of religious aphorism: and the same may be said of the despairing cry, “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved!”<\/p>\n

The wounds of the state are past healing; but how, it is asked, can this be? Does nature yield a balm which is sovereign for bodily hurts, and is there nowhere a remedy for those of the social organism? Surely that were something anomalous, strange, and unnatural. {cf. Jer 8:7} “Is there no balm in Gilead?” Yes, it is found now here else (cf. Plin., “Hist. Nat.,” 12:25 ad init. “Sed omnibus odoribus praefertur balsamum, uni terrarum Judaeae, concessum”). Then has Iahvah mocked us, by providing a remedy for the lesser evil, and leaving us a hopeless prey to the greater? The question goes deep down to the roots of faith. Not only is there an analogy between the two realms of nature and spirit; in a sense, the whole physical world is an adumbration of things unseen, a manifestation of the spiritual. Is it conceivable that order should reign everywhere in the lower sphere, and chaos be the normal state of the higher? If our baser wants are met by provisions adapted in the most wonderful way to their satisfaction, can we suppose that the nobler-those cravings by which we are distinguished from irrational creatures-have not also their satisfactions included in the scheme of the world? To suppose it is evidence either of capricious unreason, or of a criminal want of confidence in the Author of our being.<\/p>\n

“Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no healer there?” There is a panacea for Israels woes-the “law” or teaching of Iahvah; there is a Healer in Israel, Iahvah Himself, {Jer 3:22; Jer 17:14} who has declared of Himself, “I wound and I heal.” {Deu 32:39; Deu 30:17; Deu 33:6} “Why then is no bandage applied to the daughter of my people?” This is like the cry of the captives, “Is Iahvah not in Sion, is not her King in her?” {Jer 8:19} The answer there is, Yes! it is not that Iahvah is wanting; it is that the national guilt is working out its own retribution. tie leaves this to be understood here; having framed his question so as to compel people, if it might be, to the right inference and answer.<\/p>\n

The precious balsam is the distinctive glory of the mountain land of Gilead, and the knowledge of Iahvah is the distinctive glory of His people Israel.<\/p>\n

Will no one, then, apply the true remedy to the hurt of the state? No, for priests and prophets and people “know not-they have refused to know” Iahvah. {Jer 8:5} The nation will not look to the Healer and live. It is their misfortunes that they hate not their sins. There is nothing left for Jeremiah but to sing the funeral song of his fatherland.<\/p>\n

While weeping over their inevitable doom, the prophet abhors with his whole soul his peoples wickedness, and longs to fly from the dreary scene of treachery and deceit. “O that I had in the wilderness a lodging place of wayfaring men”-some lonely khan on a caravan track, whose bare, unfurnished walls, and blank almost oppressive stillness, would be a grateful exchange for the luxury and the noisy riot of Judahs capital-“that I might leave my people and go away from among them!” The same feeling finds expression in the sigh of the psalmist, who is perhaps Jeremiah himself: “O for the wings of a dove!” {Psa 55:6 sqq.} The same feeling has often issued in actual withdrawal from the world. And under certain circumstances, in certain states of religion and society, the solitary life has its peculiar advantages. The life of towns is doubtless busy, practical, intensely real; but its business is not always of the ennobling sort, its practice in the strain and struggle of selfish competition is often distinctly hostile to the growth and play of the best instincts of human nature; its intensity is often the mere result of confining the manifold energies of the mind to one narrow channel, of concentrating the whole complex of human powers and forces upon the single aim of self-advancement and self-glorification; and its reality is consequently an illusion, phenomenal and transitory as the unsubstantial prizes which absorb all its interest, engross its entire devotion, and exhaust its whole activity. It is not upon the broad sea, nor in the lone wilderness, that men learn to question the goodness, the justice, the very being of their Maker. Atheism is born in the populous wastes of cities, where human beings crowd together, not to bless, but to prey upon each other; where rich and poor dwell side by side, but are separated by the gulf of cynical indifference and social disdain; where selfishness in its ugliest forms is rampant, and is the rule of life with multitudes:-the selfishness which grasps at personal advantage and is deaf to the cries of human pain; the selfishness which calls all manner of fraud and trickery lawful means for the achievement of its sordid ends; and the selfishness of flagrant vice, whose activity is not only earthly and sensual, but also devilish, as directly involving the degradation and ruin of human souls. No wonder that they whose eyes have been blinded by the god of this world, fail to see evidence of any other God; no wonder that they in whose hearts a coarse or a subtle self-worship has dried the springs of pity and love can scoff at the very idea of a compassionate God; no wonder that a soul, shaken to its depths by the contemplation of this bewildering medley of heartlessness and misery, should be tempted to doubt whether there is indeed a Judge of all the earth, who doeth right.<\/p>\n

There is no truth, no honour in their dealings with one another; falsehood is the dominant note of their social existence: “They are all adulterers, a throng of traitors!” The charge of adultery is no metaphor. {Jer 5:7-8} Where the sense of religious sanctions is weakened or wanting, the marriage tie is no longer respected; and that which perhaps lust began, is ended by lust, and man and woman, are faithless to each other, because they are faithless to God.<\/p>\n

“And they bend their tongue, their bow, falsely.” The tongue is as a bow of which words are the arrows. Evildoers “stretch their arrow, the bitter word. to shoot in ambush at the blameless man.” {Psa 64:4; cf. Psa 11:2} The metaphor is common in the language of poetry; we have an instance in Longfellows “I shot an arrow into the air,” and Homers familiar, “winged words,” is a kindred expression. Others render, “and they bend their tongue as their bow of falsehood,” as though the term “sheqer, mendacium” were an epithet qualifying the term for “bow.” I have taken it adverbially, a use justified by Psa 38:20; Psa 69:5; Psa 119:78; Psa 119:86. In colloquial English a man who exaggerates a story is said to “draw the long bow.”<\/p>\n

Their tongue is a bow with which they shoot lies at their neighbours, “and it is not by truth”-faithfulness, honour, integrity-“that they wax mighty in the land”; their riches and power are the fruit of craft and fraud and overreaching. As was said in a former discourse, “their houses are full of deceit, therefore they become great, and amass wealth.” {Jer 5:27} “By truth,” or more literally “unto truth, according to the rule or standard of truth according {cf. Isa 32:1} to right”; Gen 1:11 “according to its kind.” With the idea of the verb, we may compare Psa 112:2 “Mighty in the land shall his seed become.” {cf. also Gen 7:18-19} The passage Jer 5:2-3, is essentially similar to the present, and is the only one besides where we find the term “by truth.” The idiom seems certain, and the parallel passages, especially Jer 5:27, appear to establish the translation above given; otherwise one might be tempted to render: “they stretch their tongue, their bow, for lying,” {Jer 5:2} “and it is not for truth that they are strong in the land.” “Noblesse oblige” is no maxim of theirs; they use their rank and riches for unworthy ends.<\/p>\n

“For out of evil unto evil they go forth”-they go from one wickedness to another, adding sin to sin. Apparently, a military metaphor. What they have and are is evil, and they go forth to secure fresh conquests of the same kind. Neither good nor evil is stationary; progress is the law of each-“and Me they know not, saith Iahvah”-they know not that I am truth itself, and therefore irreconcilably opposed to all this fraud and falsehood.<\/p>\n

“Beware ye, every one of his companion, and in no brother confide ye; for every brother will surely play the Jacob, -and every companion will go about slandering. And they deceive each his neighbour, and truth they speak not: they have trained their tongue to speak falsehood, to pervert” {their way, Jer 3:21} “they toil.” {Jer 20:9; cf. Gen 19:11} “Thine inhabiting is in the midst of deceit; through deceit they refuse to know Me, saith Iahvah” (Jer 8:3-5). As Micah had complained before him, {Mic 7:5} and as bitter experience had taught our prophet, {Jer 11:18 sqq., Jer 12:6} neither friend nor brother was to be trusted; and that this was not merely the melancholy characteristic of a degenerate age, is suggested by the reference to the unbrotherly intrigues of the far-off ancestor of the Jewish people, in the traditional portrait of whom the best and the worst features of the national character are reflected with wonderful truth and liveliness, Every brother will not fail to play the Jacob (Gen 25:29 sqq., Gen 27:36; Hos 12:4), to outwit, defraud, supplant: cunning and trickery will subserve acquisitiveness. But though an inordinate love of acquisition may still seem to be specially characteristic of the Jewish race, as in ancient times it distinguished the Canaanite and Semitic nations in general, the tendency to cozen and overreach ones neighbour is so far from being confined to it that some modern ethical speculators have not hesitated to assume this tendency to be an original and natural instinct of humanity. The fact, however, for which those who would account for human nature upon purely “natural” grounds are bound to supply some rational explanation, is not so much that aspect of it which has been well known to resemble the instincts of the lower animals ever since observation began, but the aspect of revolt and protest against those lower impulses which we find reflected so powerfully in the documents of the higher religion, and which makes thousands of lives a perpetual warfare.<\/p>\n

Jeremiah presents his picture of the universal deceit and dissimulation of his own time as something peculiarly shocking and startling to the common sense of right, and unspeakably revolting in the sight of God, the Judge of all. And yet the difficulty to the modern reader is to detect any essential difference between human nature then and human nature now-between those times and these. It is still true that avarice and lust destroy natural affection; that the ties of blood and friendship are no protection against a godless love of self. The work of slander and misrepresentation is not left to avowed enemies; your own acquaintance will ratify their envy, spite, or mere ill will in this unworthy way. A simple child may tell the truth; but tongues have to be trained to expertness in lying, whether in commerce or in diplomacy, in politics or in the newspaper press, in the art of the salesman or in that of the agitator and the demagogue. Men still make a toil of perverting their way, and spend as much pains in becoming accomplished villains as honest folk take to excel in virtue. Deceit is still the social atmosphere and environment, and “through deceit” men “refuse to know Iahvah.” The knowledge, the recognition, the steady recollection of what Iahvah is, and what His law requires, does not suit the man of lies; his objects oblige him to shut his eyes to the truth. Men “do not will” and “will not,” to know the moral impediments that lie in the way of self-seeking and self-pleasing. Sinning is always a matter of choice, not of nature, nor of circumstances alone. To desire to be delivered from moral evil is, so far, a desire to know God.<\/p>\n

“Thine inhabiting is in the midst of deceit”: who that ever lifts an eye above the things of time has not at times felt thus? “This is a Christian country.” Why? Because the majority are as bent on self-pleasing, as careless of God, as heartlessly and systematically forgetful of the rights and claims of others, as they would have been had Christ never been heard of? A Christian country? Why? Is it because we can boast of some two hundred forms or fashions of supposed Christian belief, differentiated from each other by heaven knows what obscure shibboleths, which in the lapse of time have become meaningless and obsolete; while the old ill will survives, and the old dividing lines remain, and Christians stand apart from Christians in a state of dissension and disunion that does despite and dishonour to Christ, and must be very dear to the devil? Some people are bold enough to defend this horrible condition of things by raising a cry of Free Trade in Religion. But religion is not a trade, not a thing to make a profit of, except with Simon Magus and his numerous followers both inside and outside of the Church.<\/p>\n

A Christian country! But the rage of avarice, the worship of Mammon, is not less rampant in London than in old Jerusalem. If the more violent forms of oppression and extortion are restrained among us by the more complete organisation of public justice, the fact has only developed new and more insidious modes of attack upon the weak and the unwary. Deceit and fraud have been put upon their mettle by the challenge of the law, and thousands of people are robbed and plundered by devices which the law can hardly reach or restrain. Look where the human spider sits, weaving his web of guile, that he may catch and devour men! Look at the wonderful baits which the company monger throws out day by day to human weakness and cupidity! Do you call him shrewd and clever and enterprising? It is a sorry part to play in life, that of Satans decoy, tempting ones fellow creatures to their ruin. Look at the lying advertisements, which meet your eyes wherever you turn, and make the streets of this great city almost as hideous from the point of view of taste as from that of morality! What a degrading resource! To get on by the industrious dissemination of lies, by false pretences, which one knows to be false! And to trade upon human misery-to raise hopes that can never be fulfilled-to add to the pangs of disease the smart of disappointment and the woe of a deeper despair, as countless quacks in this Christian country do!<\/p>\n

A Christian country: where God is denied on the platform and through the press; where a novel is certain of widespread popularity if its aim be to undermine the foundations of the Christian faith; where atheism is mistaken for intelligence, and an inconsistent agnosticism for the loftiest outcome of logic and reason; where flagrant lust walks the streets unrebuked, unabashed; where every other person you meet is a gambler in one form or another, and shopmen and labourers and loafers and errand boys are all eager about, the result of races, and, all agog to know the forecasts of some wily tipster, some wiseacre of the halfpenny press!<\/p>\n

A Christian country: where the rich and noble have no better use for profuse wealth than horse training, and no more elevating mode of recreation than hunting and shooting down innumerable birds and beasts; where some must rot in fever dens, clothed in rags, pining for food, stifling for lack of air and room; while others spend thousands of pounds upon a whim, a banquet, a party, a toy for a fair woman. I am not a Socialist, I do not deny a mans right to do what he will with his own, and I believe that state interference would be in the last degree disastrous to the country. But I affirm the responsibility before God of the rich and great; and I deny that they who live and spend for themselves alone are worthy of the name of Christian.<\/p>\n

A Christian country: where human beings die, year after year, in the unspeakable, unimaginable agonies of canine madness, and dogs are kept by the thousand in crowded cities, that the sacrifice to the fiend of selfishness and the mocking devil of vanity may never lack its victims! There is a more than Egyptian worship of Anubis, in the silly infatuation which lavishes tenderness upon an unclean brute, and credulously invests instinct with the highest attributes of reason; and there is a worse than heathenish besottedness in the heart that can pamper a dog, and be utterly indifferent to the helplessness and the sufferings of the children of the poor. And people will go to church, and hear what the preacher has to say, and “think he said what he ought to have said,” or not, as the case may be, and return to their own settled habits of worldly living, as a matter of course. Oh yes! it is a Christian country the name of Christ has been named in it for fifteen centuries past; and for that reason Christ will judge it.<\/p>\n

“Therefore, thus said Iahvah Sabaoth: Lo, I am about to melt them and put them to proof”; {Job 12:11; Jdg 17:4; Jer 6:25} “for how am I to deal in face of” (“the wickedness of,” LXX: the term has fallen out of the Hebrews text: cf. Jer 4:4, Jer 7:12) “the daughter of My people?” This is the meaning of the disasters that have fallen and are even now falling upon the country. Iahvah will melt and assay this rough, intractable human ore in the fiery furnace of affliction; the strain of insincerity that runs through it, the base earthy nature, can only thus be separated and purged away. {Isa 48:10} “A deadly arrow” (LXX a “wounding” one, i.e., one which does not miss, but hits and kills) “is their tongue; deceit it spake: with his mouth peace with his companion he speaketh, and inwardly he layeth his ambush.” {Psa 55:22} The verse again specifies the wickedness complained of, and justifies our restoration of that word in the previous verse.<\/p>\n

Perhaps, with the Peshito Syriac and the Targum, we ought rather to render: “a sharp arrow is their tongue.” There is an Arabic saying quoted by Lane, “Thou didst sharpen thy tongue against us,” which seems to present a kindred root {cf. Psa 52:3; Psa 57:4 Pro 25:18} The Septuagint may be right, with its probable reading: “deceit are the words of his mouth.” This certainly improves the symmetry of the verse.<\/p>\n

“For such things” (emphatic) “shall I not”-or “should I not,” with an implied “ought-shall I not punish them, saith Iahvah, or on such a nation shall not My soul avenge herself?” {Jer 5:9; Jer 5:29, after which the LXX omits “them” here} These questions, like the previous one, “How am I to deal”-or, “how could I act-in face of the wickedness of the daughter of My people?” imply the moral necessity of the threatened evils. If Iahweh be what He has taught mans conscience that He is, national sin must involve national suffering, and national persistence in sin must involve national ruin. Therefore He will “melt and try” this people, both for their punishment and their reformation, if it may be so. For punishment is properly retributive, whatever may be alleged to the contrary. Conscience tells us that we deserve to suffer for ill-doing, and conscience is a better guide than ethical or sociological speculators who have lost faith in God. But Gods chastisements as known to our experience, that is to say, in the present life, are reformatory as well as retributive; they compel us to recollect, they bring us, like the Prodigal, back to ourselves, out of the distractions of a sinful career, they humble us with the discovery that we have a Master, that there is a Power above ourselves and our apparently unlimited capacity to choose evil and to do it: and so by Divine grace we may become contrite and be healed and restored.<\/p>\n

The prophet thus, perhaps, discerns a faint glimmer of hope, but his sky darkens again immediately. The land is already to a great extent desolate, through the ravages of the invaders, or through severe droughts, {cf. Jer 4:25; Jer 8:20(?}; Jer 12:4). “Upon the mountains will I lift up weeping and wailing, and upon the pastures of the prairie a lamentation, for they have been burnt up,” {Jer 2:15; 2Ki 22:13} “so that no man passeth over them, and they have not heard the cry of the cattle: from the birds of the air to the beasts, they are fled, are gone.” {Jer 4:25} The perfects may be prophetic and announce what is certain to happen hereafter. The next verse, at all events, is unambiguous in this respect: “And I will make Jerusalem into heaps, a haunt of jackals; and the cities of Judah will I make a desolation without inhabitant.” Not only the country districts, but the fortified towns, and Jerusalem itself, the heart and centre of the nation, will be desolated. Sennacherib boasts that he took forty-six strong cities, and “little towns without number,” and carried off 200,150 male and female captives, and an immense booty in cattle, before proceeding to invest Jerusalem itself; a statement which shows how severe the sufferings of Judah might be, before the enemy struck at its vitals.<\/p>\n

In the words “I will make Jerusalem heaps,” there is not necessarily a change of subject. Jeremiah was authorised to “root up and pull down and destroy” in the name of Iahvah.<\/p>\n

He now challenges the popular wise men {Jer 8:8-9} to account for what, on their principles, must appear an inexplicable phenomenon. “Who is the (true) wise man, so that he understands this,” {Hos 14:9} “and who is he to whom the mouth of Iahvah hath spoken, so that he can explain it” (“unto you?” LXX). “Why is the land undone, burnt up like the prairie, without a passer by?” Both to Jeremiah and to his adversaries the land was Iahvahs land; what befell it must have happened by His will, or at least with His consent. Why had He suffered the repeated ravages of foreign invaders to desolate His own portion, where, if anywhere on earth, He must display His power and the proof of His deity? Not for lack of sacrifices, for these were not neglected. Only one answer was possible, to those who recognised the validity of the Book of the Law, and the binding character of the covenant which it embodied. The people and their wise men cannot account for the national calamities; Jeremiah himself can only do so, because he is inwardly taught by Iahvah himself: {Jer 7:12} “And Iahvah said.” It may be supposed that Jer 7:11 states the popular dilemma, the anxious question which they put to the official prophets, whose guidance they accepted. The prophets could give no reasonable or satisfying answer, because their teaching hitherto had been that Iahvah could be appeased “with thousands of rams, and ten thousand torrents of oil.” Mic 6:7 On such conditions they had promised peace, and their teaching had been falsified by events. Therefore Jeremiah gives the true answer for Iahvah. But why did not the people cease to believe those whose word was thus falsified? Perhaps the false prophets would reply to objectors, as the refugees in Egypt answered Jeremiahs reproof of their renewed worship of the Queen of Heaven: “It was in the years that followed the abolition of this worship that our national disasters began” (Jer 44:18). It is never difficult to delude those whose evil and corrupt hearts make them desire nothing so much as to be deluded.<\/p>\n

“And Iahvah said: Because they forsook” (lit. “upon” = on account of “their forsaking”) “My Law which I set before them”, {Deu 4:18} “and they hearkened not unto My voice,” {Deu 28:15} “and walked not therein” (in My Law; LXX omits the clause); “and walked after the obstinacy of their own” (“evil”: LXX) “heart, and after the Baals” {Deu 4:3} “which their fathers taught them”-instead of teaching them the laws of Iahvah. {Deu 11:19} Such were, and had always been, the terms of the answer of Iahvahs true prophets. Do you ask “upon what ground” (“al mah”) misfortune has overtaken you? Upon the ground of your having forsaken Iahvahs “law” or instruction, His doctrine concerning Himself and your consequent obligations towards Him. They had this teaching in the Book of the Law, and had solemnly undertaken to observe it, in that great national assembly of the eighteenth year of Josiah. And they had had it from the first in the living utterances of the prophets.<\/p>\n

This, then, is the reason why the land is waste and deserted. And therefore-because past and present experience is an index of the future, for Iahvahs character and purpose are constant-therefore the desolation of the cities of Judah and of Jerusalem itself will ere long be accomplished. “Therefore thus said Iahvah Sabaoth,” the God of Armies and “the God of Israel; Lo, I am about to feed them” or, “I continue to feed them”-to wit, “this people” (an epexegetical gloss omitted by the LXX) “with wormwood, and I will give them to drink waters of gall” Deu 29:17. An Israelite inclining to foreign gods is “a root bearing wormwood and gall”-bearing a bitter harvest of defeat, a cup of deadly disaster for his people; {cf. Amo 6:12} “and I will scatter them among the nations, whom they and their fathers knew not.” {Deu 28:36; Deu 28:64} The last phrase is remarkable as evidence of the isolation of Israel, whose country lay off the beaten track between the Trans-Euphratean empires and Egypt, which ran along the seacoast. They knew not Assyria, until Tiglath Pilesers intervention (circ. 734), nor Babylon till the times of the New Empire. In Hezekiahs day, Babylon is still “a far country.” {2Ki 20:14} Israel was in fact an agricultural people, trading directly with Phoenicia and Egypt, but not with the lands beyond the Great River. The prophets heighten the horror of exile by the strangeness of the land whither Israel is to be banished.<\/p>\n

“And I will send after them the sword, until I have consumed them.” The survivors are to be cut off; {cf. Jer 8:3} there is no reserve, as in Jer 4:27, Jer 5:10, Jer 5:18; a “full end” is announced; which, again, corresponds to the aggravation of social and private evils in the time of Jehoiakim, and the prophets despair of reform.<\/p>\n

The judgment of Judah is the ruin of her cities, the dispersion of her people in foreign lands, and extermination by the sword. Nothing is left for this doomed nation but to sing its funeral song; to send for the professional wailing women, that they may come and chant their dirges, not over the dead, but over the living who are condemned to die: “Thus said Iahvah Sabaoth” (here as in Jer 7:6, LXX omits the expressive “Sabaoth”), “Mark ye well” the present crisis, and what it implies (cf. Jer 2:10; LXX wrongly omits this emphatic term), “and summon the women that sing dirges, that they come, and unto the skilful women send ye, that they come” (LXX omits), “and hasten” (LXX “and speak and”) “to life up the death wail over us, that our eyes may run down with tears, and our eyelids pour down waters.” The “singing women” of 2Ch 35:25, or the “minstrels” of St. Mat 9:23, are intended. The reason assigned for thus inviting them assumes that the prophets forecast is already fulfilled. Already, as in Jer 8:19, Jeremiah hears the loud wailing of the captives as they are driven away from their ruined homes: “For the sound of the death wail is heard from Sion, How are we undone! We are sore ashamed”-of our false confidence and foolish security and deceitful hopes-“for,” after all, “we have left the land, for our dwellings have cast (us) out!” The last two lines appear to be parallels, which is against the rendering, “For men have cast down our dwellings.” {Cf. Lev 18:25; Lev 22:28} From the wailing women, the address now seems to turn to the Judean women generally; but perhaps the former are still intended, as their peculiar calling was probably hereditary and passed on from mother to daughter: “For hear, ye women, the word of Iahvah, and let your ear take in the word of His mouth! and teach ye your daughters the death wail, and each her companion the lamentation”; for<\/p>\n

“Death scales our lattices, <\/p>\n

Enters our palaces, <\/p>\n

To cut off boy without, <\/p>\n

The young men from the streets.”<\/p>\n

“And the corpses of men will fall”-the tense certifies the future reference of the others-“like dung” {Jer 8:2} “on the face of the field” 2Ki 9:37, of Jezebels corpse-left without burial rites to rot and fatten the soil-“and like the corn swath behind the reaper, and none shall gather (them).” The quatrain {Jer 8:20} is possibly quoted from some familiar elegy; and the allusion seems to be to a mysterious visitation like the plague, which used to be known in Europe as “the Black Death.” {cf. Jer 15:2; Jer 18:21; Jer 43:11} In this time of closed gates and barred doors, death is represented as entering the house, not by the door, but “climbing up some other way” like a thief. {Joe 2:9; St. Joh 10:1} Bars and bolts will be futile against such an invader. The figure is not continued in the second half of the stanza. The point of the closing comparison seems to be that whereas the corn swaths are gathered up in sheaves and taken home, the bodies will lie where the reaper Death cuts them down.<\/p>\n

“Thus said Iahvah: Let not a wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the mighty man glory in his might! Let not a rich man glory in his riches, but in this let him glory that glorieth, in being prudent and knowing Me,” {LXX omits pronoun, cf. Gen 1:4} “that I, Iahvah, do lovingkindness” (“and” LXX and Orientals), “justice and righteousness upon the earth: for in these I delight, saith Iahvah.”<\/p>\n

It is not easy, at first sight, to see the connection of this, one of the finest and deepest of Jeremiahs oracles, with the sentence of destruction which precedes it. It is not satisfactory to regard it as stating “the only means of escape and the reason why it is not used” (the latter being set forth in Jer 7:24-25); for the leading idea of the whole composition, from Jer 7:13 to Jer 9:22, is that retribution is coming, and no escape, not even that of aremnant, is contemplated. The passage looks like an appendix to the previous pieces, such as the prophet might have added at a later period when the crisis was over, and the country had begun to breathe again, after the shock of invasion had rolled away. And this impression is confirmed by its contents. We have no details about the first interference of the new Chaldean power in Judah; we only read that in Jehoiakims days “Nebucladrezzar the king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him” {2Ki 24:1} But before this, for some two or three years, Jehoiakim was the vassal of the king of Egypt to whom he owed his crown, and Nebuchadrezzar had lo reduce Necho before he could attend to Jehoiakim. It may be, therefore, that the worst apprehensions of the time not having been realised, in the year or two of lull which followed, the politicians of Judah began to boast of their foresight and the caution and sagacity of their measures for the public safety, instead of ascribing the respite to God; the warrior class might vaunt the bravery which it had exhibited or intended to exhibit in the service of the country; and the rich nobles might exult in the apparent security of their treasures and the new lease of enjoyment accorded to themselves. To these various classes, who would not be slow to ridicule his dark forebodings as those of a moody and unpatriotic pessimist, {Jer 20:7; Jer 26:11; Jer 29:26; Jer 37:13} Jeremiah now speaks, to remind them that if the danger is over for the present, it is the lovingkindness and the righteous government of Iahvah which has removed it, and to declare that it is only suspended and postponed, not abolished forever: “Behold, days are coming, saith Iahvah, when I will visit” (his guilt) “upon every one that is circumcised in foreskin” (only, and not “in heart” also): “upon Egypt and upon Judah, and upon Edom and upon the ben Ammon and upon Moab, and upon all the tonsured folk that dwell in the wilderness: For all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.” Egypt is mentioned first, as the leading nation, to which at the time the petty states of the west looked for help in their struggle against Babylon. {cf. Jer 27:3} The prophet numbers Judah with the rest, not only as a member of the same political group, but as standing upon the same level of unspiritual life. Like Israel, Egypt also practised circumcision, and both the context here requires and their kinship with the Hebrews makes it probable that the other peoples mentioned observed the same custom (Herod., 2:36, 104), which is actually portrayed in a wall painting at Karnak. The “tonsured folk” or “cropt heads” of the wilderness are north Arabian nomads like the Kedarenes, {Jer 49:28; Jer 49:32} and the tribes of Dedan, Tema, and Buz Jer 25:23, whose ancestor was the circumcised Ishmael. {Gen 25:13 sqq., Gen 17:23} Herodotus records their custom of shaving the temples all round, and leaving a tuft of hair, on the top of the head (Herod., 3:8), which practice, like circumcision, had a religious significance, and was forbidden to the Israelites. {Lev 19:27; Lev 21:5}<\/p>\n

Now why does Jeremiah mention circumcision at all? The case is, I think, parallel to his mention of another external distinction of the popular religion, the Ark of the Covenant. {Jer 3:15} Just as in that place God promises “shepherds according to Mine heart which shall shepherd” the restored Israel “with knowledge and prudence,” and then directly adds that, in the light and truth of those days, the ark will be forgotten; {Jer 3:15-16} so here, he bids the ruling classes, the actual shepherds of the nation, not to trust in their own wisdom or valour or wealth, {cf. Jer 17:5 sqq.} but in “being prudent and knowing Iahvah,” and then adds that the outward sign of circumcision, upon which the people prided themselves as the mark of their dedication to Iahvah, was in itself of no value, apart from a “circumcised heart,” i.e., a heart purified of selfish aims and devoted to the will and glory of God. {Jer 4:4} So far as Iahvah is concerned, all Judahs heathen neighbours are uncircumcised, in spite of their observance of the outward rite.<\/p>\n

The Jews themselves would hardly admit the validity of heathen circumcision, because the manner of it was different, just as at this day the Muhammadan method differs from the Jewish. But Jeremiah puts “all the house of Israel,” who were circumcised in the orthodox manner, on a level with the imperfectly circumcised heathen peoples around them. All alike are uncircumcised before God; those who have the orthodox rite, and those who have but an inferior semblance of it; and all alike will in the day of judgment be visited for their sins. {cf. Amo 1:1-15}<\/p>\n

With the increasing carelessness of moral obligations, an increasing importance would be attached to the observance of such a rite as circumcision, which was popularly supposed to devote a man to Iahvah in such sense that the tie was indissoluble. Jeremiah says plainly that this is a mistaken view. The outward sign must have an inward and spiritual grace corresponding thereto; else the Judeans are no better than those whose circumcision they despise as defective. His meaning is that of the Apostle, “Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law; but if thou be a breaker of law, thy circumcision hath become uncircumcision.” {Rom 2:25} “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing, but the keeping of the commandments of God, ” scil., is everything. {1Co 7:19} It is “faith working by love,” it is the “new creature” that is essential in spiritual religion. {Gal 5:6; Gal 6:15}<\/p>\n

Haec dicit Dominus: Non glorietur sapiens in sapientia sua. Glancing back over the whole passage, we discern an inward relation between these verses and the preceding discourse. It is not the outward props of statecraft, and strong battalions, and inexhaustible wealth, that really and permanently uphold a nation; not these, but the knowledge of Iahvah, a just insight into the true nature of God, and a national life regulated in all its departments by that insight. At the outset of this third section of his discourse, {Jer 9:3-6} Jeremiah declared that corrupt Israel “knew not” and “refused to know” its God. At the beginning of the entire piece Jer 7:3 sq.), he urged his countrymen to “amend their ways and their doings,” and not go on trusting in “lying words” and doing the opposite of “lovingkindness and justice and righteousness,” which alone are pleasing to Iahvah, {Mic 6:8} Who “delighteth in lovingkindness and not sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God more than in burnt offerings.” {Hos 6:6} And just as in the opening section the sacrificial worship was disparaged, taken as an “opus operatum,” so here at the close circumcision is declared to have no independent value as a means of securing Divine favour. {Jer 9:25} Thus the entire discourse is rounded off by the return of the end to the beginning; and the main thought of the whole, which Jeremiah has developed and enforced with so much variety of feeling and oratorical and poetical ornament, is the eternally true thought that a service of God which is purely external is no service at all, and that rites without a loving obedience are an insult to the Majesty of Heaven.<\/p>\n

Jer 10:17-25. The latter part of Jer 10:1-25 resumes the subject suspended at Jer 9:22. It evidently contemplates the speedy departure of the people into banishment. “Away out of the land with thy pack” (or “thy goods”; “property,” Targ. “merchandise,” the Heb. term, which is related to “Canaan,” occurs here only), “O thou that sittest in distress!” (or “abidest in the siege.” {Jer 52:5; 2Ki 24:10} Sion is addressed, and bidden to prepare her scanty bundle of bare necessaries for the march into exile. So Egypt is bidden to “make for herself vessels of exile,” Jer 46:19. Some think that Sion is warned to withdraw her goods from the open country to the protection of her strong walls, before the siege begins, as in Jer 8:14; but we have passed that stage in the development of the piece, and the next verse seems to show the meaning: “For thus hath Iahvah said, Lo, I am about to sling forth the inhabitants of the land this time”-as opposed to former occasions, when the enemy retired unsuccessful, {2Ki 16:5; 2Ki 19:36} or went off satisfied with plunder or an indemnity, like the Scythians {see 2Ki 14:14} -“and I will distress them that they may find out” the truth, which now they refuse to see. The aposiopesis “that they may find out!” is very striking. The Vulgate renders the verb in the passive: Tribulabo eos ita ut inveniantur. This, however, does not give so good a sense as the Masoretic pointing, and Ewalds reference of the term to the goods of the panic-stricken fugitives seems flat and tasteless (“the inhabitants of the land will this time not be able to hide their goods from the enemy!”). The best comment on the phrase is supplied by a later oracle: “Lo, I am about to make them know this time-I will make them know My hand and My might; that they may know that My name is Iahvah.” {Jer 16:21} Cf. also Jer 17:9; Ecc 8:17.<\/p>\n

The last verse (Jer 10:17) resembles a poetical quotation; and this one looks like the explication of it. There the population is personified as a woman; here we have instead the plain prose expression, “inhabitants of the land.” The figurative, “I will sling them forth” or “cast them out,” explains the bidding of Sion to “pack up her bundle” or “belongings”-there seems to be a touch of contempt in this isolated word, as much as to signify that the people must go forth into exile with no more of their possessions than they can carry like a beggar in a bundle. The expression, “I will distress them,” seems to show that “thou that sittest in the distress” is proleptic, or to be rendered “thou that art to sit in distress,” which comes to the same thing.<\/p>\n

And now the prophet imagines the distress and the remorse of this forlorn mother, as it will manifest itself when her house is ruined and her children are gone and she realises the folly of the past:-{cf. Jer 4:31}<\/p>\n

“Woes me for my wound! <\/p>\n

Fatal is my stroke!”<\/p>\n

(perhaps quoted from a familiar elegy). “And yet I-I thought,” {Jer 22:21; Psa 30:7} “Only this”-no more than this-“is my sickness: I can bear it!” The people had never fully realised the threatenings of the prophets, until they began to be accomplished. When they heard them, they had said half-incredulously, half-mockingly, Is that all? Their false guides, too, had treated apparent danger as a thing of little moment, assuring them that their half reforms, and zealous outward worship, were sufficient to turn away the Divine displeasure. {Jer 6:14} And so they said to themselves, as sinners are still in the habit of saying, “If the worst come to the worst, I can bear it. Besides, God is merciful, and things may turn out better for frail humanity than your preachers of wrath and woe predict. Meanwhile-I shall do as I please, and take my chance of the issue.”<\/p>\n

The lament of the mourning mother continues: “My tent is laid waste and all my cords are broken; My sons went forth of me” (to battle) “and are not; There is none to spread my tent any more, And to set up my curtains.” {Amo 9:11} Overhearing, as it were, this sorrowful lamentation (“qinah”), the prophet interposes with the reason of the calamity: “For the shepherds became brutish” or “behaved foolishly,” stulte egerunt (Vulg.)-the leaders of the nation showed themselves as insensate and silly as cattle-“and Iahvah they sought not”; {Jer 2:8} “Therefore”-as they had no regard for Divine counsel-“they dealt not wisely,” {Jer 3:15; Jer 9:23; Jer 20:11} “and all their flock was scattered abroad.”<\/p>\n

Once more, and for the last time, the prophet sounds the alarm: “Hark! a rumour! lo, it cometh! and a great uproar from the land of the north; to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a haunt of jackals!” It is not likely that the verse is to be regarded as spoken by the mourning country; she contemplates the evil as already done, whereas here it is only imminent. {cf. Jer 4:6; Jer 6:22; Jer 1:15} The piece concludes with a prayer (Jer 10:23-25), which may be considered either as. an intercession by the prophet on behalf of the nation, {cf. Jer 18:20} or as a form of supplication which he suggests as suitable to the existing crisis. “I know, Iahvah, that mans way is not his own; That it pertaineth not to a man to walk and direct his own steps: Correct me, Iahvah, but with justice; Not in Thine anger, lest Thou make me small!” Partly quoted, {Psa 6:1; Psa 38:1} “Pour out Thy fury upon the nations that know Thee not, And upon tribes that have not called upon Thy name; For they have devoured Jacob” (“and will devour him”) (“and consumed him”), “and his pasture they have desolated!” {Psa 79:6-7, quoted from this place. In Jeremiah the LXX omits “and will devour him”; while the psalm omits both of the bracketed expressions.}<\/p>\n

The Vulgate renders Jer 7:23 “Scio, Domine, quia non est hominis via ejus; nec viri est ut ambulet, et dirigat gressus suos.” I think this indicates the correct reading of the Hebrew text; cf. Jer 9:23, where two infinitives absolute are used in a similar way. The Septuagint also must have had the same text, for it translates, “nor will (can) a man walk and direct his own walking.” The Masoretic punctuation is certainly incorrect; and the best that can be made of it is Hitzigs version, which, however, disregards the accents, although their authority is the same as that of the vowel points: “I know Iahvah that not to man belongeth his way, not to a perishing” (lit. “going,” “departing”) “man-and to direct his steps.” Any reader of Hebrew may see at once that this is a very unusual form of expression. {For the thought, cf. Pro 16:9; Pro 19:21; Psa 37:23}<\/p>\n

The words express humble submission to the impending chastisement. The penitent people does not deprecate the penalty of its sins, but only prays that the measure of it may be determined by right rather than by wrath. {cf. Jer 46:27-28} The very idea of right and justice implies a limit, whereas wrath, like all passions, is without limit, blind and insatiable. “In the Old Testament, justice is opposed, not to mercy, but to high-handed violence and oppression, which recognise no law but subjective appetite and desire. The just man owns the claims of an objective law of right.”<\/p>\n

Non est hominis via ejus. Neither individuals nor nations are masters of their own fortunes in this world. Man has not his fate in his own hands; it is controlled and directed by a higher Power. By sincere submission, by a glad, unswerving loyalty, which honours himself as well as its Object, man may cooperate with that Power, to the furtherance of ends which are of all possible ends the wisest, the loftiest, the most beneficial to his kind. Self-will may oppose those ends, it cannot thwart them; at the most it can but momentarily retard their accomplishment, and exclude itself from a share in the universal blessing.<\/p>\n

Israel now confesses, by the mouth of his best and truest representative, that he has hitherto loved to choose his own path, and to walk in his own strength, without reference to the will and way of God. Now, the overwhelming shock of irresistible calamity has brought him to his senses, has revealed to him his powerlessness in the hands of the Unseen Arbiter of events, has made him see, as he never saw, that mortal man can determine neither the vicissitudes nor the goal of his journey. Now he sees the folly of the mighty man glorying in his might, and the rich man glorying in his riches; now he sees that the how and the whither of his earthly course are not matters within his own control; that all human resources are nothing against God, and are only helpful when used for and with God. Now he sees that the path of life is not one which we enter upon and traverse of our own motion, but a path along which we are led; and so, resigning his former pride of independent choice, he humbly prays, “Lead Thou me on!” Lead me whither Thou wilt, in the way of trouble and disaster and chastisement for my sins; but remember my human frailty and weakness, and let not Thy wrath destroy me! Finally, the suppliant ventures to remind God that others are guilty as well as he, and that the ruthless destroyers of Israel are themselves fitted to be objects as well as instruments of Divine justice. They are such<\/p>\n

(1) because they have not “known” nor “called upon” Iahvah; and<\/p>\n

(2) because they have “devoured Jacob” who was a thing consecrated to Iahvah, {Jer 2:3} and therefore are guilty of sacrilege. {cf. Jer 50:28-29}<\/p>\n

It has never been our lot to see our own land overrun by a barbarous invader, our villages burnt, our peasantry slaughtered, our towns taken and sacked with all the horrors permitted or enjoined by a non-Christian religion. We read of but hardly realise the atrocities of ancient warfare. If we did realise them, we might even think a saint justified in praying for vengeance upon the merciless destroyers of his country. But apart from this, I see a deeper meaning in this prayer. The justice of this terrible visitation upon Judah is admitted by the prophet. Yet in Judah many righteous were involved in the general calamity. On the other hand, Jeremiah knew something of the vices of the Babylonians, against which his contemporary Habakkuk inveighs so bitterly. They “knew not” nor “called upon” Iahvah; but a base polytheism reflected and sanctioned the corruption of their lives. A kind of moral dilemma, therefore, is proposed here. If the propose of this outpouring of Divine wrath be to bring Israel to “find out” {Jer 7:18} and to acknowledge the truth of God and his own guiltiness, can wrath persist, when that result is attained? Does not justice demand that the torrent of destruction be diverted upon the proud oppressor? So prayer, the forlorn hope of poor humanity, strives to overcome and compel and prevail with God, and to wrest a blessing even from the hand of Eternal Justice.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, 1, 2. Absence from the LXX of all but “Hear ye of Judah” suggests the probability that the rest has been supplied by an editor from ch. 26. Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges In Jer. 710 he addresses the people as they … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Jeremiah 7:1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19131\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}