Jeremiah 7

CHAPTERS 710THEME: Warning delivered in the gate of the Lord’s houseWe have seen in chapters 2-6 the prophecies which Jeremiah delivered during the first five years of his ministry. As a young man around twenty years of age, he delivered those severe predictions, condemning his people and pronouncing judgment upon them. Now the prophecies in chapters 7-10 were given after the Law of the Lord had been discovered in the temple during the time of cleansing ordered by the young king Josiah. Josiah was greatly concerned about his people, which revealed that he had a personal relationship with God as a young man. He and Jeremiah, being approximately the same age and both zealous for God, were probably good friends. Hilkiah the priest, who was evidently the father of Jeremiah, is the one who found the Law of the Lord. The temple was cleaned out and repaired and back in use, which was, of course, a very wonderful thing. Now Jeremiah stands in the gate of the Lord’s house and gives a prophecy to his people. This is the way chapter 7 opens

Jeremiah 7:1

“Stand in the gate of the LORD’S house.” There are some who think this is very similar to the prophecy that is found in chapter 26 of Jeremiah. The prophecy is similar, but you will notice that it was delivered in the court of the house of the Lordhe was no longer standing by the gate but had gone into the courtand it was given during the reign of another king. However, the message is very much the same; Jeremiah had not changed his viewpoint. Now that the temple has been repaired and the Book of the Law has been found, the people are returning to the temple in droves. Coming back to the temple is the popular thing to do, and they are talking about returning to God. Young Jeremiah hears the conversation of the people, and he gives the following message

Jeremiah 7:3

PLEA TO AMEND THEIR WAYSIt is evident that, although they are going to the temple and are returning to temple worship, there is no real change in their lives. They are still living as they did when they were worshiping idols. It is only an outward revival at this time. The time would come when it was more real, but at this point it is only a surface movement. Now we see the attitude of the people, which was the thing that concerns Jeremiah.

Jeremiah 7:4

You can imagine how the people felt about all of this. They were exclaiming, “My, look at the temple! Isn’t it beautiful? Didn’t they do a good job of repairing it? Isn’t it nice to get back to the temple; it’s just like old times!” You see, there was enthusiasm about the temple, but there was no genuine turning to God. This is the thing that Jeremiah noticed. So he said, “Don’t trust these lying words that you’re saying. You act as if it is the greatest thing in the world just to return to the temple.” If you will turn back to 2 Chronicles and read chapters 34 and 35, it will be very helpful for you to understand what is going on at this time in history. What happened was truly wonderful. Hilkiah gave the Book of the Law to Shaphan, who read it before the king. The king gathered together all the elders of Judah and Jerusalem, and they had the Law read to all the people. Then they made a covenant with God to walk before Him. They celebrated a Passover in Jerusalem: “And there was no passover like to that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did all the kings of Israel keep such a passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel that were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this passover kept” (2Ch_35:18-19). They reinstituted the services in the temple with all the sacrifices and feasts. That was good and wonderful. Then what was the problem? The problem was that they were not changing their ways. They lived just as they had lived before.

He refers not to the Ten Commandments but to that which the Lord gave them after the Ten Commandments, instructions in Exodus 21-23, which dealt with everyday life in Israel and their relationships to one another.

Jeremiah 7:9

Although the people were talking about how wonderful the temple was, they were still worshiping Baal. Their philosophy was that, since the temple was repaired and they were at least tipping their hat to God on the Sabbath Day, He would protect them. Now it is true that when people genuinely turn to God, He will protect them, but they were resting on a fact that did not apply to them. They had taken up quite an offering for the rebuilding of the temple, and people who had given generously felt this was all that was necessary for God’s blessing. I know of no book that fits into the present hour with a message for us better than this Book of Jeremiah. After World War II there was a little wave of revival. There were several evangelists out at that time, and the crowds came. During that time I began my Bible studies which were said to have the largest attendance of any midweek service in America. During that time we would hear pastors say that church attendance had doubled and tripled. They were putting chairs in the aisles and building new buildings.

Churches were moving out to the suburbs. One pastor I know built a very wonderful church out in suburbia, and he was packing them intwo thousand people in a service. He said, “The trouble was that when I got a new church, I didn’t get new people. The same people should have been made new, but they were not.” It was the same old people in a new church. They mistook growth in numbers for spiritual growth and development. This is the point that Jeremiah is making. Now Jeremiah says something further. In fact, our Lord quoted him in His day

Jeremiah 7:11

This is the same charge that the Lord Jesus used when He cleansed the temple centuries later. In the days of Jeremiah he called it a den of robbers because the people were spending the week robbing their brethren and then would piously come to the temple. There was no change in their business habits or in their relationship with one another. People today still think there is something valuable in great religious splurges and conventions. This type of thing doesn’t appeal to me, because I am not an organization man, nor am I a joiner. I have never enjoyed organizations and conventions. Some people love them. The problem is that some people mistake enthusiasm for a moving of the spirit of God. Now I will probably be as unpopular as Jeremiah when I say that kind of thing is not revival. Nothing is true revival unless it transforms lives. The Wesleyan movement in England changed lives. It just about put the liquor industry out of business in England. It changed conditions in factories and resulted in the enactment of child labor laws. It was a spiritual movement that reached into the lives of the people. I want to see a spiritual movement today that will reach into the ghetto. When the government reaches into the ghetto with so-called social reform as we have it today, there is crookedness and misappropriation of funds, and nothing is made right. What we need is true revival, which is the only thing that will really change the ghetto. That was the message of Jeremiah in his day. You can see how popular that young man would have been as he stood there in the gates of the temple and delivered God’s message. I can picture him therea lonely fellow, heartbroken at the message he is giving to his people. But he is giving it faithfully, and it does bring partial revival.

Jeremiah 7:16

JUDGMENT FOR IDOLATRYGod says, “Jeremiah, you don’t need to pray for these people until they turn to Me.” This is an awesome verse. God says that it is no longer useful to pray for the people. The nation has gone too far away from God. Unless they will turn to God, there is no hope for them. I believe there are times when we do not need to pray for folk to be blessed. I visited a member of my church in the hospital and prayed for him, then a man in the other bed asked me to pray for him. I asked him whether he was a Christian, and he said he believed in God. I told him that didn’t make him a Christian, and then I explained the gospel to him and asked him to put his trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. He said he could not accept that, but he wanted me to pray for him. I told him, “Brother, I will pray for you, but not the way you want me to pray for you.

You want me to pray that you will get well and that God will bless you. I am going to pray that you will be savedthat is the only prayer I can pray for you.” I believe we do too much praying for people to be blessed of God when we ought to be praying that those people will be saved. This is what God is saying to Jeremiah. “Don’t stand there in the temple and pray that these people will not go into captivity. Pray that they will turn back to Me. You are giving them My message, and that is the important thing to do.” This gets right down to the nitty-gritty, doesn’t it? God is not as interested in your ritual on Sunday as He is in your behavior on Monday. The place to judge whether a Christian is genuine or not is not to watch him in church on Sunday but to see him at work on Monday.

Jeremiah 7:23

God clearly states for them again that what He wants is their obedience. Coming to the temple is wonderful, but it is no substitute for obedience. It has been said that some people go to church to eye the clothes and others go to close their eyes. That may be true in a great number of cases. Their purpose is not really to worship God. Their lives have not been changed. They still gossip, still crucify other Christians behind their backs, still live their lives out in the worldjust as Jeremiah’s people were still going to the altar of Baalliving without a testimony for the Lord. There is a certain testimony given by going to church, but it is the testimony you give out in the world that counts. This is very real and very personal, isn’t it?

Jeremiah 7:26

Jeremiah did not have people come forward and declare themselves for God. His message went unheeded; yet it was his responsibility to deliver the message. God told him to do the job, to give out His Word, even if there was no response to it. It is not important for us to be able to count noses and see a response to our message. The important thing is the report we must give to God, to be faithful in giving out His Word and backing it up with our lives.

Jeremiah 7:29

God calls them “the generation of his wrath.” Judgment will come to Jerusalem.

Jeremiah 7:31

“Tophet” was the high place of the valley of Hinnom, where the children were sacrificed upon the heated brass arms of Moloch.