The message in Jeremiah 7:1-29 is delivered at the Temple Gate. The word came to Jeremiah and to stand there and proclaim to all there that they are to hear the word of the Lord, all that enter the gate to worship the Lord. Why stand in the gate? If Jeremiah would've stood inside the temple authorities or those people who were members of the priestly order would have had the legal ability to arrest, or harm Jeremiah for the message he was speaking. Had he been outside of the temple, then he would have been within the realm of the evil king Jehoiakim who would have been able to stop him from speaking, and possibly done him harm or killed him. So God tells him to stand in the gate of the temple. There, no one was in power (except God), and because of the ambiguousness and neutralness of this area of the temple, Jeremiah would have been able to talk for longer, and deliver the message in its entirely. Knowing this we should prepare ourselves for a sermon that neither the priestly order nor the people of the city were going to like.
It is clear the worship taking place by many entering the Temple of the Lord is clearly window dressing and we hear the first stinging rebuke in verse 3, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Jeremiah goes on to say the people entering the temple should “not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.' For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly practice justice between a man and his neighbor, if 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, then I will let you (I)dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”
What Jeremiah is telling the people of Israel that God sees right through them. They may believe they are fooling other men by revering the temple and claims to piety but the truth is they are only in the Temple in body, physically and mentally they are miles away. It is similar to the false circumcision mentioned by Paul in Philippians 3 or Jesus’ statement in Matthew 15:8 “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.” They are talking the talk but not walking the walk, they are pretenders believing people that use “deceptive words”. As a matter of fact not only are many of the people in the Temple not godly that actually, thieves, murderers, adulterers , sacrifice to Baal and people that bear false witness. After they are done these sinful behaviors they then go before God and claim “We are delivered!” The people of Israel were practicing syncretism and trying to have their cake and eat it too. Because of this God had turned his back on them. He would cast them out of His sight. The Israelites had take a faith in the true God and turned it into a superstitious act at the Temple more than it was a sign of reverence to holy God. This is sort of what a lot of marginal Christian believe they can continue to live their old lives in sin, cheating, lying, abusive, etc and then show up at church on Sundays, say a few Hail Mary’s, take communion and say the Lord’s Prayer and then be good for the week until next Sunday. Wrong. This is worship that does them no good. Come to think of it, it isn’t even worship. Predictably, God actually tells Jeremiah NOT to pray for the people, 3 times in verse 16 alone God says it three different ways: "…do not pray for this people”, ”do not lift up cry or prayer for them”, ”do not intercede with Me”.
We see in verse 17-20 that the entire family was in on the acts of idolatry too. We see the roots of the societal decay here also. When a society decays it starts in the home. We see it happening now in America. The postmodern philosophy of if it doesn’t immediate hurt anybody, its okay to do is cause the undermining and decay of marriages and the family unit. This is then bleeding over into society. It is especially evident in the inner cities where there is and enormous shortage of fathers in the homes and it is leading to households with no spiritual or even male leader. This is having a negative effect on society. Because the family unit is destroyed it should not come as a surprise that society quickly follows.
In verses 21-26 we see that the sacrificial system, which is perfect by the Law, is worthless to people that have no heart intent behind it. It is as if they are just killing animals, bleeding them and roasting them for dinner. They are serving nearly no spiritual purpose because Israel has abandoned their true God. The chapter ends with a heads-up to Jeremiah from God that he shall speak these aforementioned things…and he would be ignored. Israel had gone so far off the deep end that they didn’t even know which way was up anymore. They couldn't right the ship because their ship had sunk. They were totally submerged in sin. He was to cut off his hair and mourn. This tells me with certainty that Israel was past the point of no return. No praying only mourning. You mourn dead people, you pray if they are still alive. Praying over the “dead” does little good. These people were already dead.
Wiersbe, Warren. "The Voice In The Temple." Bible Exposition Commentary: Old Testament: The Prophets (Bible Knowledge). Acambaro: Victor, 2003. 87-88. Print.
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