Chuck Larsen

The religious leaders of Judah taught that God would never desert them. God was on their side in every conflict. They proclaimed security and safety from all their enemies as long as the Temple and its sacrifices and rituals continued. Jeremiah’s long boney finger pointing at them warned that this was false. He urged the people of Judah not to listen to the lies of these religious leaders. To drive his point home Jeremiah reminded the people of what happened to them at Shiloh. In Jeremiah 7:12, he says, “Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.” He allowed the Philistines to take the ark of the covenant from the Israelites. Psalm 78:60-62 recounts this episode. It says, “He forsook his dwelling at Shiloh, the tent where he dwelt among mankind,  and delivered his power to captivity, his glory to the hand of the foe.  He gave his people over to the sword and vented his wrath on his heritage.”

Feinberg tells us the story in some detail. “At Shiloh, Israel went into idolatry (1 Sam 4:1–11); so the ark was captured by the Philistines at the Battle of Ebenezer. The Bible gives no historical account of the destruction of Shiloh. Jeremiah’s references to its destruction (cf. also 26:6, 9) have been confirmed by excavations of the site, which revealed a city destroyed by the Philistines about 1050 b.c., probably after the Battle of Ebenezer. The dig was carried out by the Danish Palestine Expedition. Their findings confirmed Psalm 78:60–64. Shiloh was to the judges what Jerusalem was to the kings. Jeremiah was a descendant of the Eli family; so the tragedy had personal implications for him. The destruction of Shiloh did not necessarily mean the demolition of the tabernacle, because it was still in existence at Gibeon in David’s time (cf. 1 Chronicles 21:29), at the commencement of Solomon’s reign. The sanctuary at Shiloh proved the falsity of the claim that the Lord was unalterably committed to an earthly temple and its preservation regardless of the moral state of the people.”^[1]

Pointing out to the men of Judah the destruction that befell Shiloh in spite of the presence of the tabernacle had to have been offensive to the religious leaders of the Southern Kingdom that Jeremiah was addressing. By the time Jeremiah addresses the men of Judah, the Northern Kingdom of Israel with its capital in Samaria, was destroyed by Syria years before. They were destroyed because they deserved it. Not us! It was the cry of the southern kingdom at the time of Jeremiah. But in connecting the fate of Shiloh with the future of Judah and the temple in Jerusalem, Jeremiah wanted to illustrate that “God is thus shown to be independent of any given locality and uncommitted to a specific cultic object. However valuable as an aid to spirituality such things might be, they can never be acceptable substitutes for implicit faith in the living God. This affirmation must have seemed the worst kind of heresy to Jeremiah’s superstitious hearers.”^[2]

^[1] Feinberg, Charles L. 1986. “Jeremiah.” In The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein, 6:429. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

^[2] Harrison, R. K. 1973. Jeremiah and Lamentations: An Introduction and Commentary. Vol. 21. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Jeremiah argues that the men of Judah have bought into the lie that religious ritual is all that God wants from them and that once they bring their sacrifices and buy their plenary indulgence, they can proceed with living their sinful lives. But what God wants is the heart of his people. They don’t want to love God; they want to barter with God. God will have none of that! Jeremiah points his long finger at them and condemns them for the expectation that ritual in the temple will save them.  In Jeremiah 7:9-10, He says, “Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known,  and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations?”

The Temple itself is not the key to a relationship with God. It represented God’s presence with his people, but it was not the “thing” but what the thing represented. At the time of Isaiah, the nation had exchanged a personal connection with God for the rituals observed at the Temple. Isaiah, says, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Heaven is My throne, and earth is My footstool. What kind of house will you build for Me? Or where will My place of repose be?’” He’s more than any building, even the Temple in Israel. In the first two verses of Mark Chapter 13, we read, “And as he came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, Teacher, what wonderful stones and what wonderful buildings!’ And Jesus said to him, ‘Do you see these great buildings? There will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.’” This is precisely what happened in 70 AD when General Titus with his Roman soldiers burnt it to the ground and scattered the rubble so it could not be rebuilt.

All the offenses named in Jeremiah 7:9-10 are violations of the ten commandments. Thou shall not steal. Thou shall not kill. Thou shall not commit adultery; Thou shall not bear false witness. Thou shall not have other gods before me. Other condemnations by Jeremiah fill out the entire list of the Ten Commandments. It is essential to notice that when Jesus confronted the religious leaders in his day, he confronted their strict adherence to the letter of this law, yet their hearts were far from God. The commandments can become bricks we use to create temples that we mistakenly worship rather than loving God. Jesus addressed these religious leaders by explaining that the laws are deeper than behavior. He told them that lusting in the heart was the same as adultery. He said hatred made one guilty of murder. It is the issue of the heart that God is addressing. Dearman gets this when he writes, “Behavior matters are a powerful indicator that reveals the allegiances of the heart.”^[1] Jeremiah will speak of getting a new heart under the new covenant. When Jesus presided over the last supper, he identified the bread as symbolic of his body, which would be offered for the sins of the world. He pointed out that the wine symbolizes the New Covenant in which faith in Him will bring a new heart.

^[1] Dearman, J. Andrew. 2002. Jeremiah and Lamentations. The NIV Application Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.

In verse 8 of Jeremiah Chapter 7, he continues his condemnation of the men of Judah for believing lies, “Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail.” The lie his addressing is again the one mentioned and repeated three times in verse 4, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.”  As Ryken observes, “The first thing to understand about Jeremiah’s message is that it was delivered to a religiously observant people. Jeremiah was preaching to people who were on their way to the temple to offer sacrifices to God. The people he told to mend their ways were devout. They were ‘churchgoers.’ They wore their Passover best and had their scrolls tucked under their arms.”^[1] It seemed at this time that the building had taken the place of God in their lives. As long as they participated in the activities of the Temple, they considered themselves right with God. They believed that the temple itself would keep them safe, going to church would be enough!

Ryken summarizes it well, “The problem was that God’s people thought God’s promise about the temple gave them the freedom to be immoral. The temple had become a superstition. They assumed that as long as they fulfilled their religious obligations, they could do whatever they wanted with the rest of their lives.” The deceptive words of the priests and other leaders of Judah might be compared to selling indulgences. Fall in line with the religious practices of the group, bring your sacrifices, pay your tithes, show up for meetings and you need not worry about how you live. This is the same thing that Martin Luther raved against when Tetzel came to Germany selling plenary indulgences in the Pope’s name to raise funds to build Saint Peter’s Cathedral in Rome. You can buy an “indulgence” that will exempt you or your loved ones from the consequences of any sin.

This kind of religion is more of a business proposition. If I do this, God will respond in a certain way. This is so much of what our world is based on. We all live in the world of agreements and contracts that are satisfied through deeds to do and duties to keep. But God is never satisfied with our external performance. He wants our hearts. Both Jeremiah and Ezekiel speak about the New Covenant where God will remove our hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh. This is the message of the Gospel. We need new hearts because our hearts are deceitful. Jeremiah will tell us later in the book that they are deceitful above all things. But God offers a new clean, true, tender, and warm heart. Paul tells us that as we come to faith in Jesus, all things will become new. This is especially true concerning the heart.

^[1] Ryken, Philip Graham. 2001. Jeremiah and Lamentations: From Sorrow to Hope. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books.