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CHAPTER 7
If Jerusalem repent she shall be preserved—The temple has become a den of robbers—The Lord rejects that generation of Jews for their idolatries—They offer their children in sacrifices. |
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1 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 ye of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship the LORD. |
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3 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel,
aAmend 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, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these.a |
4a The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these. Without further context and particularly without the body jestures which likely accompanied these words of Jeremiah, one is left to some speculation and perhaps the guide of the spirit as to what Jeremiah is saying. Jeremiah will continue to speak concerning false idolatrous religions, so perhaps one interpretation is that Jeremiah is pointing out the competition between the false religions, each claiming their place of worship, there temple, to be 'The Temple of the LORD'. And certainly at one point the Jewish 'tolerance' for religions was such that each had their own shrine within the confines of the House of the LORD. And thus Jeremiah may have be jestering towards each and so stating that each was calling out that their's was the truth 'temple' of the LORD. Another possibility, depending also upon Josiah's cleansing of the temple of these other presences, even then the Jews would come to worship at the House of the LORD but they would also go and do additional worship at the 'holy' sites of the idolatrous gods as well. Jeremiah also points this out in his message. One final possibility which brings in personalbly home is that Jeremiah might have first stated, 'The temple of the LORD' and jestering to the structure of the physical building of the temple. But in one frame of reference is the LORD's temple a dead inanimate object? In the wilderness it was but a tabernacle of worship. And in a sense the none living structure of a building is not the living temple of the LORD. In other scriptures and teachings of the prophets we are taught that 'We are The Temple of the LORD. And that the Spirit of the Lord does dwell with each of us. ' If this was Jeremiah's message, he was emphasizing that true worship is not the outward actions of what goes on at a 'temple' site, sut that which goes on within the soul of an individual. In this case, the Hebrew which has no punctuation, but relies upon one's own understanding, may will have ended the 'lie' with that first statement of 'The Temple of the LORD.' And Jeremiah by body language, tonal inflection and direct jesture may have turned from the 'lie' to such truths as then jesturing to himself, his own body, and again stating, 'The Temple of the LORD.' in a manner which presented a truth that the body of man was the true temple of the LORD. And his final jesture and truth of the third statement may have been that towards the people assembled, indicating that each of them, their bodies was the house or the temple of the LORD that ought to be made clean for the habitation of the Spirit of the LORD within each individual person. Surely gospel doctrine supports this view that we, our temporal body, is indeed that which houses the Spirit of the LORD, an ought to be a temple of habbitation for it. The closing verese of this line of thought emphasizes this perspective. (See verse 7 and note) | |
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5 For if ye athroughly amend your
ways and your doings; if ye throughly execute judgment between a man and his
neighbour;
6 If ye oppress not the astranger, the bfatherless, 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 placea, in the land that I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. |
7a Then will I cause you to dwell in this place After stating that if the people would amend their ways, the Lord states that he would preserve and cause the people to dwell in this place. That is, if they would clean up their lives, and the ways of their temporal beings, then the Lord would cause them to stand in this place and not to be removed. And with the inference that each of them did stand as a temple of God in righteousness, this is what would preserve the land and not the false oblitions presented at the inanimate stone house in falseness of intent. The outward motions and the temple ordinances in and of themselves lose all meaning and power. The meaning and power is what is going on inside the person, the true temple of God, if he is true and committed to God and to none other. If one but pays their tithing and then goes out and lives wickedly and without the true intent of the oblition to the Lord, it is meaningless. Only when one performs the 'rites' with the true intent within themselves, within their heart are the sacrifices and ordinances significant and so recognized before God.-- | |
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8 ¶ Behold, ye atrust in
blying words, that cannot profit.
9 Will ye steal, amurder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal, and bwalk after other gods whom ye know not; 10 And come and astand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations? |
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11 Is this ahouse, which is called
by my name, become a bden of crobbers in
your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the LORD.
12 But go ye now unto my place which was in aShiloh, where I set my name at the firsta, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. |
12a go ye now unto my place which was Shiloh, where I set my name at the first Moses instructed Israel that after having entered into the land and had obtained a state of staybility, the LORD would choose a place out of the tribes to put his name there (Deut. 12:5). The place was in the heart of the land of the tribe of Ephraim and the name which was given unto it, which was a name of the LORD was Shiloh. All during the era of the Judges when Israel still held the LORD to be their head and king, Shiloh was the place of 'temple' worship, even to the days of the last judge in Israel, the Prophet Samuel. It was then that Israel demanded a king, a man from among Israel to be a temporal king over them like unto other nations round about. The Lord relented and had Samuel select a king, King Saul from the tribe of Benjamin. Thus at the time that Israel would no longer have the LORD to be there king, was when there was the man named Elimelech whose name means the LORD is King. And it was the second king, King David who determined to move those things of the tabernacle, including the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem, as David had chosen Judah over Israel despite the fact that Israel had the greater right in David, being the covenant right of the house of Elimelech and Mahlon over the blood linage of the Jews through Boaz (See Messiah ben David ~ Messiah ben Joseph). | |
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13 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 aanswered not;
14 Therefore will I do unto this ahouse, 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. |
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15 And I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brethren, even the whole seed of Ephraim.
16 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not ahear thee. |
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17 ¶ Seest thou not what they do in the cities of
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem?
18 The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to athe queen of heaven, and to pour out drink offerings unto other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. |
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19 Do they provoke me to anger? saith the LORD:
do they not provoke themselves ato the
confusion of their own faces?
20 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, mine aanger 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. |
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21 ¶ Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
22 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: 23 But this thing commanded I them, saying, aObey my bvoice, 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. |
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24 But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear,
but walked in the counsels and in the aimagination
of their evil heart, and went bbackward, and not
forward.
25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day I have even asent unto you all my servants the bprophets, daily rising up early and sending them: 26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but ahardened their neck: they did aworse than their fathers. |
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27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but they will not answer thee.
28 But thou shalt say unto them, This is a nation that aobeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. |
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29 ¶ Cut off thine hair, O Jerusalem, and
cast it away, and take up a alamentation on high
places; for the LORD hath rejected and forsaken the generation of his
wrath.
30 For the children of Judah have done evil in my sight, saith the LORD: they have set their aabominations in the house which is called by my name, to bpollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of aTophet, which is in the valley of the son of bHinnom, to cburn their sons and their daughters in the dfire; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my heart. |
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32 ¶ 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 bury in Tophet, till there be no place.
33 And the acarcases of this people shall be meat for the fowls of the heaven, and for the beasts of the earth; and none shall fray them away. 34 Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of amirth, and the bvoice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride: for the land shall be cdesolate. |
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