The four chapters we are covering in this post have more
than Jeremiah’s Temple sermon, but I will focus on it because of its tremendous
impact on the people of Judah and Jeremiah’s ministry following this sermon. Through Jeremiah, God has condemned His
people for false religion (idol worship), oppression of the poor, and injustice
in its court system, and the general corruption of the whole society in
Jerusalem and beyond. But there seemed
to be a new sin that was particularly disturbing. That
sin was the people’s shifting of their worship from God to the Temple. {There has been much commentary on this. I’ll try not to dwell on this too much but
one must understand what was going on in the minds of the people of Judah, and
how God felt about it.} This false
mindset had penetrated the hearts and minds of the people, the priests, the
prophets, and the royal family. {This can
happen fairly easily. One should not
allow his/her allegiance to transfer from God to a building or a structure or a
location that is meant to represent Him.
We should not allow our service to a church to supersede our service to
God. We should be serving God through
the church.} These people did
not fear God or His judgment as long as they were in or around the Temple grounds. They actually said this, as indicated in 7:10. {As a younger Christian I often wondered why
we cannot determine the exact location on which Jesus was crucified. Although there has become a “general” belief
of the location of the skull hill (Golgotha), it was not actually established
as the most likely location until the late 1800s. The crucifixion and the resurrection are the
two acts which save us from our sins and places us back into fellowship with
God. In keeping with the focus of this
post, I believe it is God’s will that we do not know for certain the exact
location lest we worship the location, rather than the Savior and His
immeasurable act. These Israelites in
Jeremiah’s time proved that this can easily happen.} Jeremiah proceeds to lash out boldly against
this mindset. And he prophesied
punishment for this. These prophesies
made Jeremiah extremely unpopular, not only with the Israelite people, but also
with the priests, other prophets, all scribes and clergy, and the king and his
court. This set the pace for the remainder
of Jeremiah’s ministry. Bear in mind,
this happened early in his ministry which means Jeremiah struggled almost
his entire life trying to deliver God’s messages to His people. {No wonder they call him the weeping
prophet.} Not long after this sermon
Jeremiah was arrested and was threatened with execution. As a point of time reference: Jeremiah began his ministry during Josiah’s
reign. Josiah was a good king for Judah
and made happen many reforms that would lead Judah back to God. One of the focal reforms was to bring proper
worship back to the Temple in Jerusalem.
But shortly after Josiah had done this was when the people started the
practice of worshiping the Temple rather than God. Jeremiah’s Temple sermon was during the early
years of king Jehoiakim.
7:16-8:3 - Disgraceful Idolatry
In verse 17 Jeremiah suggested that their idolatry practice
was something of a family affair. In
verse 18 he names “the queen of heaven” as the pagan god they worshiped. She was an Assyrian/Babylonian goddess that could
be satisfied only with the death of children by fire at the hands of the
parents. {Where did they come up with
these gods?}
8:4-9:26 – The Weeping Prophet Laments
Jeremiah laments in these verses for two reasons: The sin of Judah, and God’s forthcoming
judgment on them. In verse 9:6 God, out
of frustration with them, declares that “they refuse to acknowledge Me”. Think about that. The REFUSE to acknowledge God!
10:1-16 - The Difference Between God and Man-made Idols
Jeremiah in these verses
is contrasting God with all idols.
Jeremiah is stating how obviously stupid it is to even compare the
two. Just a brief mention of verse 5
saying that pagan idols cannot speak, they cannot walk and must be carried
around. Jeremiah is somewhat making fun
of the people for being afraid of these idols, as there has been no evidence
that they have ever done anybody either any good or harm.
10:17-25
Jeremiah pronounced
God’s judgment on Judah. He did it in
two parts in this passage. Firstly he
told the people to make preparations to leave their homes. (He knew the Babylonians were coming in a few
short years.) Secondly, he described for
them the horrible and terrifying conditions under which they would be taken captive
then placed into slavery in a far-away land.
{No wonder the people did not like Jeremiah, but they didn’t listen to
any of his prophesies anyway.} And then
in the last three verses of chapter 10, Jeremiah prayed for himself and the
people. Notice that he appeals to God’s
grace in verse 24. He is submitting
himself to God’s judgment and punishment, but at the same time asking God to be
merciful and not punish him in anger. I
believe in verse 25 Jeremiah is asking God to punish only the guilty ones and
to spare the faithful.
Next post: Breaking
the Covenant
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