LESSONS FROM JEREMIAH – PART 26 – PROCLAIM GOD’S MESSAGE - MOVE AWAY FROM DECEPTION AND AMEND YOUR WAYS
PART 26 - Jeremiah 7:1-4
CHAPTER 7
{{Jeremiah 7:1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jeremiah 7:2 “Stand in the gate of the LORD’s house and proclaim there this word, and say, ‘Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah, who enter by these gates to worship the LORD.”}}
[A]. THE WORD OF GOD WILL NOT BE SILENCED AND MUST BE PROCLAIMED
No word is truly useful unless it comes from the Lord; unless it comes with the LORD’s direction. The prophets who were faithful to God knew the confirmation of the word that came to them. As they waited on God and served Him, then at the appropriate times, the word of the Lord came to them in thought, or vision or dream.
When a man knows the word of God, it rings with a resonance with him. It is the clear clarion call to a man of God/preacher to expound the message of God. That of course may land him in trouble with the authorities and even endanger his life. The living word of the living God abides in the heart of the preacher and he must proclaim that word or the inner fire will eat him up. It may even mean his death as it did in Isaiah’s case where he was sawn in two by Satan’s men. The lazy or uncommitted preacher does not know that fire of the Lord’s Spirit.
The word of God is pure and powerful, and a man engrossed in God’s word can testify of the energy of the word. It is little wonder why the New Testament writers were so careful to set forth the word of God as essential in knowing God and growing strong in the faith. Doctrine, correction and instruction are all vital components necessary for a balanced and strong growth of any Christian life. Jeremiah lived by God’s word as did David, and in the Psalms, David spoke of the majesty of God’s word such as in Psalm 119.
We seem to see the pattern in the prophets where the word of the Lord came to them for a specific purpose, usually to declare the counsels of God, or to set out the restoration future for the nation over many centuries, even millennia, or to chastise, challenge, and reprimand the nation, or to warn of impending judgement unless repentance was forthcoming. Usually the prophet’s ministry was balanced and all elements of the above were present in the entire ministry.
What must not be overlooked is the correlation between the prophet’s ministry and the prophet’s personal life. God will not use an unclean vessel to issue forth His word. The brackish fountain or well cannot handle the unadulterated word of God. The godly and obedient man is the one who will hear God’s word, but the self-willed man only thinks he heard the word of God. The false prophets have no idea of the word of God/scriptures and are demonically deluded in thinking they even proclaim God’s truth.
There is another element of hearing God’s word in the prophet’s ears. It gives boldness so that the messenger can face his enemies without fear, knowing in faith that he is proclaiming the truth. God’s word will always be a sword to divide, and a hammer to strike, and a lamp and light to guide, and milk and meat to nourish and grow. Woe unto the prophet who does not do the bidding of the Lord when He has spoken. Finishing up in the belly of an appointed fish may not be the only chastisement from God for a disobedient prophet who hears God speaking and chooses to disobey. The true man of God knows his mission and his message and can boldly exclaim, “Thus says the Lord!” He must speak out without compromise and in all aspects, honour the true word.
The Holy Spirit is the Author of the Bible when holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit breathed the word into the prophets and the Holy Spirit interprets the word for us today, and convicts us through the word, and prompts us by the word. He feeds us and guides us, and reproves us and builds us up into spiritual men and women. The word of the Lord comes to us through the agency of the Holy Spirit.
God’s word always comes with directions. It is never an abstract word or a confusing word. If a Christian finds the word confusing or seemingly irrelevant, then I’d suggest there is a blockage where the channels are clogged by the world, or by sin, or by aspects of the old nature. As Paul instructed the Corinthians, {{1Corinthians 5:7 “Clean out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened, for Christ our Passover also has been sacrificed.”}}. If God tells us to desire the unadulterated (pure) milk of the word (1Peter 2:2) then He will not make it difficult or confusing. A baby is not confused about the milk from the breast. In fact it is natural, and it should be natural for us to be instructed by the Spirit in the word. Even before that, in the first instant, it should be the absolute longing for the knowledge of God that impels us to the bible.
The directions to Jeremiah were clear – he had to go to the temple and stand in the gate and preach the message God had given him. He was even given the content of the message, and indeed, the very words of the message. Jeremiah made no bones about the fact that what he would speak was the word of the Lord – not his own word but the word of Jehovah for the people. The message was for all of Judah, but specifically, for those entering the gates falsely to worship Jehovah.
These may have been more sincere than all the rest of the nation, but did they, in fact, worship with a pure heart divorced from any form of spiritual adultery, which was the worship of foreign gods and pagan practices? Were these, as was the whole nation, compromised in the faith? In previous chapters the prophet spoke about how every single one of them was greedy for money and how evil all the nation was. They could not serve God and idolatry together, any more than they could serve God and mammon together, or walk in light and darkness together. Well, Jeremiah took up his position at the appointed place and delivered the message from the loving God.
David could open his mouth in praise and probably had the gate of the Tabernacle in view when he wrote – {{Psalm 100:4 “Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him. Bless His name.”}} What joy Jeremiah would have had if that was the attitude of his people in the gate where he stood to declare God’s counsels. Righteousness had gone from the city, and iniquity flourished everywhere. Where Jeremiah stood, could be termed “the gate of the Lord,” it being the entry into the Temple, more likely, probably between the inner and outer court, in the latter of which the crowd from city and country would assemble on a fast day or festival, all crammed into the court of the people.
David could continue to rejoice – {{Psalm 118:19-20 “Open to me the gates of righteousness. I shall enter through them. I shall give thanks to the LORD.” THIS IS THE GATE OF THE LORD. The righteous will enter through it.”}} What a contrast. Jeremiah stood in the gate to challenge a sinful and willful people, the whole lot, sinful from the youngest to the oldest, but David could see the righteous entering in there, and in the bigger picture, he could understand the “universal gate”, the gate of the LORD, or may we say, “The GATE of the LORD”, the “Door”, by which all may enter in to be righteous and find pasture (John 10 v 9). Psalm 118 is a Messianic Psalm but we won’t explore it much further.
Then of course, a greater than David or Jeremiah will enter those gates – {{Psalm 24:7-10 Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the KING OF GLORY may come in. Who is the King of glory? The LORD, strong and mighty, the LORD, mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O gates, and lift them up, O ancient doors, that THE KING OF GLORY may come in. Who is this KING OF GLORY? The LORD of hosts. He is the King of glory. Selah.}} It will be glorious when the King of Glory (the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ) will enter, Himself the Door, the Gate to heaven. However Jeremiah’s reality is that there is sin in the gate and his message is about to be delivered.
[B]. THE NATION WARNED AND THE GODLY REQUIREMENTS DELIVERED
{{Jeremiah 7:3 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 7:4 “DO NOT TRUST IN DECEPTIVE WORDS, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,’
Jeremiah 7:5 for if you truly amend your ways and your deeds; if you truly practise justice between a man and his neighbour;
Jeremiah 7:6 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,
Jeremiah 7:7 then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers forever and ever.”}}
VERSE 3
The message is simple but directly aimed at the injustice of the people. Jeremiah is claiming authority as the challenge begins. It is not his message, but that of Jehovah. This is the case when Old Testament prophets begin with, “THUS says the LORD . . .”
The opening challenge is the summary of the message, that unless the people change their ways, they will not be allowed to remain in their land. He told them to amend their ways and their deeds. Now we know that self-reformation does not work, and no man can change his old nature through his own efforts. It must be a spiritual work completed by the agency of God, beginning with repentance.
There would need to be a lot of repentance and spiritual exercise here because Judah was like a raging torrent of sin as in a river rushing to a steep waterfall over a cliff. The nation would have to reverse that river and cause it to flow in the opposite direction. Difficult? Indeed it is difficult as repentance is among any people in the world. Sin has such a grip, a vice like grip and breaking the shackles can only be done with the Lord’s intervention. Willingness is required. Regarding Israel (and Judah was the same), Hosea wrote, {{Hosea 4:17 “Ephraim is JOINED TO IDOLS. Let him alone.”}} It is like they are superglued to the idols. Hosea sometimes covered both nations as in this verse – {{Hosea 5:14 “I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away. I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver.”}}
When Jeremiah told them to amend their ways, it would be understood that they must desire to change their sinful ways then trust in God to live according to His way. That is why Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life,” or as I sometimes like it, “I am THE Way, THE Truth and THE Life.” The “Way” comes first for there is no other way to the Father except through Him. You can’t live the truth or the life if you don’t firstly have the Way. Jeremiah’s people had to place their lives in the hands of God or their ways would never be amended.
The wonderful thing about God is that He is not at all vindictive or takes pleasure in harming anyone. Jehovah loved His earthly people and wanted the absolute best for them, so He provided for them prophets and messages and warnings but we know, to no avail. The sad thing is they knew the consequences – “Amend . . . and I will let you dwell in this place.” Sin makes a person disregard inevitable consequences, but they will come at the appropriate time – {{Colossians 3:25 “He who does wrong will receive the consequences of the wrong which he has done, and that without partiality.”}} Sadly the “he” in that verse, in our context, is Judah.
Their right to remain in the land was conditional upon a whole change in behaviour. It was the land God gave Abraham (well part of that promised land because it has not yet been fully occupied as it will be after the Second Coming) and God did not want to expel the people to Assyria and Babylon, but there was not another option. Prophet after prophet had been dismissed and the finality was captivity.
VERSE 4
{{Jeremiah 7:4 “DO NOT TRUST IN DECEPTIVE WORDS, saying, ‘This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD,’}}
Verse 4 is a directive to the people whose ideas were all distorted. They were trusting in lies which are called “deceptive words”, and the rulers were themselves deceived so they passed the deception on to the people. They were taught they were invincible because they possessed the Temple, and God would never forsake His Temple. They were looking on the Temple as being something sacred in their midst that acted like a magic charm. Some hold to their talismans.
This is no different from the misplaced trust in Saul’s time when they grabbed the Ark from the Tabernacle to lead them in battle thinking there was some mystical power or charm in the Ark that would grant them victory, but the opposite happened, and Saul and Jonathon were killed, and the Ark was taken by the Philistines as their trophy of war. Their victory was to be their trust and faith in Jehovah, but He got relegated by sinful men who dismissed God, but thought the “holy things” might save them instead.
The repetition three times was to emphasise the earnestness of the priests basing their support in the Temple and not the Lord. Micah 3:11 has a similar thought – {{Her leaders issue rulings for a bribe, her priests teach for payment, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean on the LORD, saying," Isn't the LORD among us? No disaster will overtake us."}} Benson has written, [[“There were priests and prophets who took upon themselves to flatter the people with opposite predictions. They taught them to look upon such threats as groundless, since God, they said, would have too much regard to his own honour, to suffer his temple to be profaned, and the seat of his holiness to be given up into the hand of strangers.”]]
The building was the place where God placed His name and where a godly ministry of sacrifice and intercession were to operate for the salvation of the people, but the rulers, priests and false prophets had polluted the Temple. Jeremiah lived in godly Josiah’s time and the Temple was a disgrace. We read of Josiah’s reforms – {{2Kings 23:4 “Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest and the priests of the second order and the doorkeepers, to bring out of the temple of the LORD all the vessels that were made for Baal, for Asherah, and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and carried their ashes to Bethel. 2Kings 23:7 He also broke down the houses of the male cult prostitutes which were in the house of the LORD, where the women were weaving hangings for the Asherah.”}}
They were Josiah’s wonderful reforms but his own godless sons brought back the filth into the temple again and the temple was desecrated. Jeremiah had seen both sides of the coin. Sadly Josiah’s reforms were not taken up by the people who remained idolatrous and wicked even as Jeremiah explained it all in his prophecy.
It was just unbelievable what evil resided in God’s House. These vile priests were the ones who would treat the temple as a lucky charm to protect them for all enemies, in the same way that we have the portrayals on media of a Catholic priest holding a cross before him when approaching a troubled soul or supposed werewolf. The cross was considered a lucky charm with supernatural powers. The deceived priests of Jeremiah’s time would mouth the three temple repetition, but the Jeremiah Targum intimates that the reason for the three-fold repetition of the words, “The temple of the Lord”, was, because every Jew was obliged to visit the temple three times a year.
Deception and its half brother delusion are ruling our present generation. People are following lies, one after another. I would like to elaborate on these, especially how it is sweeping some churches, but I won’t and have done it before in articles. Just begin with evolution and global warming.
Stability found in the scriptures is lacking today so people are adrift and so many fall in line with delusion. They are like the people who are described here who have no inner peace and contentment in God – {{Isaiah 57:20-21 “The wicked are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up refuse and mud. There is no peace,” says my God, “for the wicked.”}}
Next time we will continue this section in Jeremiah starting from verse 5.
