LESSONS FROM JEREMIAH – PART 28 – THE LORD EXPOSES THE PEOPLE’S SINS FOR THEY HAD MARRIED SIN AND RELIGION
PART 28 - Jeremiah 7:8-15
CHAPTER 7
[A]. THE LORD’S HOUSE IS DISHONOURED BY THE WICKEDNESS OF THE DECEIVED PEOPLE – GREAT HYPOCRISY
{{Jeremiah 7:8 Behold, you are trusting in deceptive words to no avail.
Jeremiah 7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known,
Jeremiah 7:10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ - that you may do all these abominations?
Jeremiah 7:11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Behold, I, even I, have seen it,” declares the LORD.”}}
VERSE 8
Jeremiah’s message from the Lord continues with another reference to the deceptive words. There obviously was a serious problem with the lies from false teachers and prophets, and widespread acceptance of those lies. It was a continual deception. The inhabitants of the land were being given convincing and untrue falsehoods about the impending danger for the nation. “Continue in your sin. God’s in His heaven and all’s right with the world.” That philosophy prevails today and was no doubt prevalent in Jeremiah’s time as well. God tells them such a path will be a destructive one for them, no profit and much pain. Those lies will not protect them or give them security. It will avail them nothing.
The world is full of deception and delusion – lies are the clothing for deception. If you are on the internet, Google makes sure you keep getting bombarded by all these advertisements promising bald headed people a new treatment that restores luxuriant hair, and other (made in China) devices to do miraculous things so that you will never have to do this or that again. It is deception.
We had an example here where I live. Because the money-pinching City Council (local authority) wants every cent wrung out of people, then they decided to change the water metres for everyone, because the odd one was not reading exactly. A letter was sent by the Council explaining these very expensive metres and one heading was, “Will you have to pay for these metres?” The answer was, “No, there will be no charge for the ratepayers.” That is gross deception because the ratepayers ARE PAYING for these metres in their rates and taxes. Just because there is no separate charge billed for each metre, does not alter the fact that each ratepayer is paying.
The world is deceived constantly. Global warming is a great deception shrouded in lies because it is the vehicle of an agenda towards a one world authority and compliance. Some go as far to call carbon dioxide a poison!
The greatest deceptions rule the education system. Sexuality and gender and evolution are now in the school curriculum. “There is no God; death is the end of it all; Jesus Christ was a myth; Christians are stopping progress; lots of church people are homophobic,” and so the list goes on. One day Jesus will rule in righteousness and deception will be gone forever.
VERSES 9-10
{{Jeremiah 7:9 Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and offer sacrifices to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, Jeremiah 7:10 then come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’ - that you may do all these abominations?}}
Verses 9 and 10 go together. Verse 9 lists 6 transgressions of the people, but that is just the beginning of a question God is asking. He goes on to say that with that accumulation of sin, the people go to God’s house and make a statement of lies about deliverance. What greater hypocrisy can you have?
The month January got its name from the god Janus who was two faced with a face looking in opposite directions. One looked back and one looked forward. These people were two-faced. They lived in sin yet claimed to be holy in God’s sight.
There are 6 sins/practices listed in verse 9 and they are there because God has declared them particularly objectionable. With these 6 listed sins, some have been stated by Jeremiah in the sections before this one, and a few are new.
What is interesting is that in lists like this, sin comes in clusters. Once you add a few sins, it is most likely that extra sins will be added to the group. These sins indicate a very corrupt people so we can assume they are capable of committing any sin you want to list, but God, through Jeremiah, gives 6 - THIEVES, MURDERERS, ADULTERERS, TRUCEBREAKERS (lying oaths), Baal worshippers, and devotees of pagan gods all cover the people like a thick, suffocating blanket.
Lying and murder take a prominence in scripture. You recall when Cain murdered Abel, in response to a question God asked Cain he answered, {{Genesis 4:9 “Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” and he said, “I DO NOT KNOW. Am I my brother’s keeper?”}} Murder and lying are heinous before God. Lying is actually theft. It is theft of the truth. Today truth lies shattered in the streets. In this generation in which we live, truth has been stolen.
In the coming Tribulation on earth (the Church won’t be here), after all the horrific judgements of wrath from God, you’d expect the people to wake up and repent but they don’t and then 4 obnoxious sins are listed against these people, ones they will not repent from. Here is the verse – {{Revelation 9:21 “and they did not repent of their MURDERS, nor of their sorceries, nor of their IMMORALITY, nor of their THEFTS.”}} These parallel what Jeremiah lists – murder, adultery, lying, and thefts. In the Lord’s account, these are really bad sins.
They were asked earlier to amend their ways. Is it possible for a man or woman who is into sin too deeply, to repent and be converted? Is God’s power limited by the chains of men’s sins? Of course the answer to that is “No” and the Holy Spirit can revolutionise a man, but when a person has stopped up the ears and refuses to listen, then he hardens his heart, and the hammer of God is not able to break up the basalt rock. Jerusalem’s heart was basalt, and they had set their faces as a flint to sin against God and not change from it. They only had a few years left before those entrenched, sinful hearts felt the fury of God’s wrath, but even so late down the road, God outlines to them His truth so no man has any excuse.
VERSE 10 speaks of hypocrites, the ones who sin grossly, yet tell God they are delivered, so they can continue to do more abominable things. “Which is called by My name” is used in both verse 10 and 11. This is very significant because God allows His name to be attached to the Temple in spite of the filthy abominations Manasseh and others put in there. God’s name is holy and His house must be too. We claim the Lord’s name and we too must be holy.
It always disturbs me the practice in the Roman Catholic church where a person goes to confession with awful sins and the priests tells the person to say Hail Marys or do penance and he is forgiven. Then the person goes right out to continue that sin because it is too easy just to return to that priest or another one for another absolution. Contrition and confession of sin in repentance is a totally different thing. If you want to look into that, start with Psalm 51.
VERSE 11
{{Jeremiah 7:11 Has this house, which is called by My name, become A DEN OF ROBBERS in your sight? Behold, I, EVEN I, HAVE SEEN IT,” declares the LORD.”}}
A DEN OF ROBBERS. What a terrible situation it is when people don’t know the seriousness of personal sin, yet just front up to the temple in the time of Jeremiah, or to a church today, as if it does not matter that a person is living with bad, unconfessed sin. It is as if it does not matter but it does, and God does not tolerate that behaviour.
The people spoke of deliverance when they were in God’s house because they had believed the lie, and in this evil world it is easier to believe lies rather than the truth. Verse 11 declares a well-known truth that the Lord misses nothing. The Lord said – {{Mark 4:22 “Nothing is hidden, except to be revealed. Nor has anything been secret, but that it should come to light.”}}
The prophet Hanani came to King Asa of Judah when Asa sought help from Aram instead of from Jehovah in a time of crisis, and declared to him – {{2Chronicles 16:9 “for THE EYES OF THE LORD MOVE TO AND FRO THROUGHOUT THE EARTH that He may strongly support those whose hearts are completely His. You have acted foolishly in this. Indeed, from now on you will surely have wars.”}} The Lord misses nothing and all is recorded in the books. It will be horrible at the great white throne when the books are opened for the unsaved gathered there.
There is specific identity in that verse 11 with the emphasis on “I”. People think they can sin in the dark and God does not know. Robbers, like cockroaches, get around at night. They might be unseen by human eyes but not by God. They think what is done in secret will be obscured from God, but it will be shouted from the rooftops one day. It will come to light. The books will be opened and the dead will be judged from the things written in the books, and men will know God not only sees in the dark, but knows the thoughts and intents of the heart.
What a restful blessing it is to know our sins are forgiven and will never be put on our account once we take Jesus as our personal Saviour. We are justified from all things.
Throughout Judah, the accumulation of sins had been seen by the Lord, and they were to have a day of reckoning. Because of the willful, sinful people in the Temple, or the courts of the Temple, God asked the question, “Has this house become a den of robbers?” He actually asked the Jews if that was not the case in THEIR sight. Well, would they know? Would they know what was evil or good because they had departed so far from the dictates of the LORD.
The den of robbers takes us to a similar situation in the Gospels – {{Luke 19:45-46 He entered the temple and began to cast out those who were selling, saying to them, “It is written, ‘And My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it A ROBBERS’ DEN.”}} The commercialisation of God’s house was there in Jeremiah’s time; it was there in the Lord’s ministry; and ever present as men try to make capital from religion or gloss over sin for profit.
[B]. GOD APPEALS TO HONEST THOUGHT TO UNDERSTAND THE PAST BLESSINGS
{{Jeremiah 7:12 “but go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel,
Jeremiah 7:13 and now, because you have done all these things,” declares the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer,
Jeremiah 7:14 therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.
Jeremiah 7:15 I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim.”}}
After informing the people that God sees everything, He then invites them to consider the Tabernacle or dwelling place for the Ark that was housed or kept at Shiloh, which had become the centre of Israel's worship in the time of Eli the priest. Shiloh was among the first places entered in Canaan, and the Tabernacle was set up there for about 400 years, all through the time of the Judges, and down to Samuel who was the last of the Judges and the first main prophet. Eli was careless in his life, and his sons were very wicked, and these wicked men attended the Ark and thought nothing of their grossly compromised lives.
The Ark had been taken as a lucky charm into the battle at Ebenezer and was captured, with Eli’s sons being killed. All was a disgrace to the name of the Lord. How often do you hear this comment, “And he is supposed to be a Christian (or religious) and see how he behaves,” even though the person concerned might not be a Christian, but in the eyes of the world he is, because he might have some religious affiliation, but the whole thing makes you cringe. It brings disgrace on the Lord’s name, that even the professors of religion, disgrace it.
VERSE 12
Verse 12 is very clear that the closing chapter in Shiloh’s history was the Lord’s intervention to bring it down because it was a disgusting testimony. Wickedness had overflowed the brim so it was time to smash the container. The whole nation was guilty and went into defeat, and after that time Shiloh became insignificant.
This message from the Lord is very clear. The people are told they were to suffer the same fate as those at Shiloh, for their wickedness was to be their downfall also. Their house (Temple) would suffer the same fate as did the “house” at Shiloh.
There is too much playacting with religion. Some churches have become very vile. We have them in Australia where they support Palestinian Hamas, and practise homosexual “marriage” and march in the Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, and support climate change in a radical way. This is not the Christian gospel or any testimony to God. We could call it Satan’s church. They are in the USA as well. In fact there has just happened a great division in the United Methodist Church.
I wrote to the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia to ask them how they can have a pastor over them (The Honorable Reverend Dr. Raphael Gamaliel Warnock) who is a Democrat Senator for Georgia, when the Democrats stand for abortion and homosexuality, climate change, corruption, and many unbiblical doctrines. This church supports all sorts of social action which today means liberalism. Well, instead of replying to me, they blocked my internet location, so I can’t go to their site, I suppose considering me worse than a Samaritan! It does not matter. It is not God’s church. The Baptist organisation in my State is recognising Aboriginal spiritism which is the worship of Satan. How the Baptist Organisations are falling!
VERSES 13 AND 14 AND 15
{{Jeremiah 7:13 and now, because you have done all these things,” declares the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, Jeremiah 7:14 therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.”}}
The conclusive word in verse 13 is “NOW”. God had had enough. The picture is of a concerned man getting up early at the crack of dawn so he could have all day to warn people and to spend his time trying to make them see what they had become and to call for repentance. The people did not hear the message. The DID NOT WANT to hear the message.
Sin hardens. It grows callouses. It causes Teflon ears. God’s message just slips away with ease. The people did not hear nor answer. This was Judah before its destruction by the Babylonians. It is our word today before its destruction in the Tribulation.
VERSE 14 says again that the people’s trust and hope of security rested in the Temple (not God). They had thrown God out but rested in the Temple for deliverance. There is deliverance and security in the Lord only. “My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus’ Name.” Our trust is in Him, not in device nor creed, nor in the ornate constructions of man’s invention. The result is final.
They would be cast out as God had done to Samaria, and they would lose their temple and land. The rising up early to speak to the nation was God confirming that in the longest possible timeframe God and Jeremiah had been getting His message to His sinful people, and all that was done through men who did not sleep on the job, but like Elijah and Jeremiah and all the godly prophets, they worked while it was day and battled from the time of first light to turn the people around.
The expression “rising up early” is peculiar to Jeremiah and used 4 times by him. God said He did that but we see the result was negative because the people had rejected hearing, and they refused to respond when called. Sin will always result in expulsion from the land. Today “the land” may be this world we live in, but the wicked will be cast out into outer darkness and will have no part in God’s kingdom. The call today is still the same – “Amend your ways and repent and turn to your God who will hear and abundantly pardon.”
In verse 11 God had the nation in His sight to see all their evil, which they could not see, and in verse 15, He will cast them from His sight so they, in their expulsion, might see their evil and reflect on their evil. Casting out of God’s sight also meant throwing Judah into a foreign land for it was over Judah where “God’s sight” prevailed. Sin will never prevail. The Lord will cast it out of His sight. We must end here.
