The truth will set you free! This was a message to believers. Holy Spirit teach us Your way, take the words of Jesus Christ and instill them in our heart that we may not sin against You. Keep the gods of money, power and control, of pride and arrogance far from us.
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Jeremiah’s message of judgment must have sounded incredible. Jerusalem was the site of the temple, the magnificent house of worship that David had envisioned and Solomon had built to the glory of God (see 2 Chr. 5:1). How could God allow His temple and its city to be destroyed? Yet if anyone doubted Jeremiah’s warning, all they had to do was travel a little more than 20 miles north to Shiloh.
Apparently, few people heeded the prophet’s word, because Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians within a few short years. The temple was burned and most of the people were either killed or deported.
This tragic outcome challenges us to consider whether idols exist in our own lives. We don’t bow down to images of wood and stone, but if we allow anything to take the place of God, then we are practicing idolatry. This can happen in our work, in our relationships, and, like the people of ancient Judah, even in our houses of worship. In that case, God may take away the thing that we hold so dear in order to redirect our attention and affection to where they belong—on Him. The first commandment is still in effect: “You shall have no other gods before Me” (Ex. 20:3).
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Jeremiah’s audience would be everyone coming and going from the temple for worship or sacrifice. The essence of the message is their need to change their behavior and their attitude. They possessed the land as long as they kept the covenant law.
Popular sentiment was that Yahweh’s continued presence in the temple guaranteed the protection of Jerusalem. The city’s deliverance from Assyria in 701 bc likely intensified this belief in Yahweh’s special concern for His temple and Jerusalem.
The alien, the orphan, and the widow were Symbolic of the most vulnerable of society. The accusations reflect behaviors prohibited in the Ten Commandments. It emphasized the Gospels to highlight the injustice taking place in the temple. Faithlife Bible.
The word that came to Jeremiah was a direct message from God in His temple courts. The call to repentance here uses a different term from the usual word translated “return”. A complete transformation of the people’s ways and doings, lifestyle and beliefs, was necessary.
They believed that since God had chosen Jerusalem as His dwelling, had promised that a Davidic king would remain on the throne forever, and had delivered the city from attack in the days of Hezekiah and Isaiah, He would never allow the city or the temple to be destroyed. Lying words may refer to the unfounded reliance on the temple as an idolatrous symbol or to the worship of foreign gods. The temple of the Lord had become a talisman to the Israelites. They believed the building guaranteed their security whether or not they obeyed the provisions of the covenant. This false hope was a lie.
The only true hope for dwelling in the context of the temple was a radical restructuring of Judah’s society. The emphatic phrase “thoroughly execute judgment” implies the depth of corruption that existed in the land; there was no justice. Stranger refers to resident aliens who were dwelling in the land. The fatherless and the widow were accorded special treatment in the Law, but they had been abused by the leaders of Jerusalem.
Humanitarian concern for all persons was a central element of the covenant.
In order for the nation to dwell in the land, it had to be faithful to God. The idea that the temple was inviolable was as profitless as the powerless gods that Israel idolized. Furthermore, for the people to think that they were secure (delivered) enough to perform perverted abominations was the ultimate hypocrisy. Like robbers hiding in a cave for safety, Judah attempted to hide behind the sanctuary of the temple for protection from the divine hand of judgment. But the Lord had seen the hypocrisy of Israel’s ways. NKJ Bible.
Jeremiah 7:1–11 (NKJV)
7 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, 2 “Stand 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 in at these gates to worship the Lord!’ ” 3 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4 Do not trust in these lying words, saying, ‘The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are these.’
5 “For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings, if you thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor, 6 if you do not oppress the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and do not shed innocent blood in this place, or walk after other gods to your hurt, 7 then I will cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.
8 “Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit. 9 Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, 10 and then 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 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of thieves in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” says the Lord.
Hosea 4:1 (NKJV)
Hear the word of the Lord,
You children of Israel,
For the Lord brings a charge against the inhabitants of the land:
“There is no truth or mercy
Or knowledge of God in the land.
Hosea 4:2 (NKJV)
2 By swearing and lying,
Killing and stealing and committing adultery,
They break all restraint,
With bloodshed upon bloodshed.
Exodus 20:3 (NKJV)
3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.
Deuteronomy 4:40 (NKJV)
40 You shall therefore keep His statutes and His commandments which I command you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
Deuteronomy 6:14 (NKJV)
14 You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are all around you
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