Tuesday, May 24, 2016

Jeremiah 7: Trusting In The Temple

"Do not trust in these deceptive words: 'This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord" (vs. 4).
The people of Judah believed a comforting lie.  Among the Jews of Jeremiah's day, it was an article of faith that nothing truly terrible could ever happen to Jerusalem.   They assumed that, since the Temple was housed in Jerusalem, God would never let anything bad happen to the city.  The Israelites went on persisting in their sin, trusting in the Temple to be their deliverance, their ace-in-the-hole.

But this was a grave mistake.  Jeremiah explains the error of their thinking in verses 8 through 12: "Here you are, trusting in deceptive words to no avail.  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 safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations?  Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight? You know, I too am watching, says the Lord.  Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel."

Jerusalem is not safe, the Lord explains through Jeremiah, just as Shiloh, the original home of the Tabernacle, was not safe.  The people must learn to put their trust in God, not the Temple.  God ends this section by threatening to do to the Temple "just what I did to Shiloh" (vs. 14).  


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