Jeremiah 7 - 10, July 31st

Henry David Thoreau: “The more we know @ the ancients, the more we find that they were like the moderns.”
Zealous King Josiah led a reformation – restored the temple building, removed idols. BUT then he did not heed God’s warning – meddled in a war involving Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. He was wounded and died, the people did not see this loss of their king as God’s call to national repentance and confession. Son, Jehoahaz reigned as king for 3 months. The Egyptian king made his brother king and gave him a different name. He reigned for 11 years – took the people further into idol worship. Removal of the idols earlier had not removed the idol worship in their hearts. They went to the temple for worship but took their idolatry with them only offering Jehovah lipservice and the position of being one of their gods. They knew it was wrong because they were MY people…but they did it any way.
DESENSITIZATION: A process by which a patient with allergies receives weekly injections, containing an increasing amount of the substance to which that patient is allergic. As a result, the body in time becomes accustomed to the foreign substance and is no longer irritated by it.
Sadly, the same desensitization can occur in the spiritual life. Sins that once were considered unthinkable are at first tolerated, then condoned, and finally openly endorsed. “If sin wasn’t such a pleasure, it wouldn’t be such a problem.” Judah’s citizens suffered from such a desensitization. Called to be God’s holy and distinct people, little by little they became indifferent to sin’s poisonous intrusion. At last they had sunk so low that even the burning of their little children at Topheth, as sacrifices to idols no longer bothered them.
It is a process much like the frog in a pot of cool water over a low flame.
Make a list of the daily lapses and “little sins” in your own life that ought to bother you—but somehow don’t. I was going to name some, but only the Lord can shine His light of conviction and revelation into the individual heart! Read 7:5-7 slowly, thoughtfully, outloud, and give your list to God in a prayer of confession. There is no better way to restore your sensitivity to sin.
READ: 7:5-7 Cause and effect in any situation – IF you do this, this will happen! “You may remain under these conditions only: IF you stop your wicked thoughts and deeds, and are fair to others, and stop exploiting orphans, widows and foreigners. And stop your murdering. And stop worshipping idols as you do now to your hurt. Then, and only then, will I let you stay in this land that I gave to your fathers to keep forever.” LIVing Bible
Ol’ Jerry sticks with his commission: In Chp. 7, Jerry tells us to #1. V.1-2 Hear the Lord’s Word #2. Correct behavior v.3-8 #3. Get real v.9-11 and #4. Learn from past failure v.12-15
V. 2 hear the Word of the Lord who enter in at these gates to worship the Lord.
v. 3 AMEND your ways and your doings and I will…
GET REAL: 9-11 God tells of My People violations…yet they came into the temple shamelessly claiming to worship the Lord. This pretense was a stench to the Lord and made a mockery of the temple’s purpose. A day of accountability would come! Worship that does not include a righteous daily lifestyle is worthless.
THE LORD’S TEMPLE TODAY IS??? Jesus quoted Jer. 7:11 in His day when He condemned the practice of the buying and selling in the temple Matt. 21:13. God’s people in every generation need to avoid misusing the Lord’s house or presuming that the Lord does not notice our insincere worship. When we get real with God by refusing to live hypocritical lives, we demonstrate that our faith is genuine. Satan’s definition of a hypocrite: one who does not act like he feels!
God’s definition: Acting like what you are not! What are you?
LEARN FROM PAST FAILURES: v.12-15 The people of Jeremiah’s time committed the same perversions that doomed the sanctuary at Shiloh. The Lord had repeatedly warned His people of the consequences of their disobedience. They ignored His words and persisted in the inappropriate conduct.
God still actively works in our live to correct unacceptable behavior. We must be careful in attributing all terrible events to divine judgment. Most of the time we lack sufficient insight to determine the true nature of an event. But when ‘stuff’ happens, we must examine our behavior and determine if something in it displeases the Lord.
A name such as My [Hebrew - thought, a name was more than a label for identification. It expressed the essential nature of the one called by the name. The temple was supposed to have the same character as God.]
The people of God must behave according to His demands or face His disciplinary judgment. The nature and character of God never changes. Live out through His Temple, His life!
Are you trusting in activity and not in the Lord that we worship? Are you trusting actions, rules, your own smartness or are you looking unto the Lord?
Just as instruction to small children should be SIMPLE, the Lord has given SIMPLE instruction to My people: 7:23 But this thing I did command them: Listen to and obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people; and walk in the whole way that I command you, that it may be well with you. BUT THEY WOULD NOT listen and obey, or bend their ear to Me, but followed the counsels and the stubborn promptings of their own evil hearts and minds and they turned their back and went in reverse instead of forward.
Our God is jealous…He tells us over and over throughout His Word to have ‘no other gods’ v. 31…yet man continues to have other gods!!! Idols made with his own hands, heart, thoughts, education, etc. – things one would never openly deem as his god! And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire in honor of Molech, the fire-god, which I did not command, nor did it come into My mind or heart. [ABORTION IN OUR AMERICA!]
The Valley of Slaughter 7:30-34, Topheth literally means “altar” or ‘fireplace.” It was the place where child sacrifices were offered to the heathen deity Molech—a practive outlawed by Josiah and repudiated by God v.31. The valley of Ben-Hinnom would later become the municipal refuse dump, where fire burned continuously to consume the rubbish. As such its name became a synonym for hell. Mark 9:47-48
Idolatry and its abuses—including the most gruesome of Judah’s sins, child sacrifice—make up the heart of Jeremiah’s stinging indictments in 7 – 10. Guilty from the top down, with greedy priests (8:10) foolish leaders (10:21) apostate counselors (8:9) and reprobate families (7:18) the Jews would soon see their homeland reduced to a wasteland. Yet even as they listen to the tearful charge of the prophet, the people remain totally heedless and indifferent to God’s message of coming calamity (8:4-7)
Who does this warning seem to suit best in our present day? Speak all these words to them, but they will not listen and obey you; also call to them, but they will not answer you. Yet you shall say to them, This is the nation that did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, or receive instruction and correction and warning; truth and faithfulness have perished, and have completely gone from their mouths. …
DO NOT BOAST IN ANYTHING BUT…66+9:23-24 This says the Lord, Let not the wise, and skillful person glory and boast in his wisdom and skill; let not the mighty and powerful person glory and boast in his strength and power let not the person who is rich in physical gratification and earthly wealth glory and boast in his temporal satisfactions and earthly riches; BUT LET HIM who glories glory in this, THAT HE UNDERSTANDS AND KNOWS ME personally and practically, directly discerning and recognizing My character, that I am the Lord Who practices loving-kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth; for in these things I delight, says the Lord
THE ONLY CIRCUMCISION THAT COUNTS: Behold, the days are coming says the Lord, that I will punish all who though circumcised outwardly are still uncircumcised in corresponding inward purity; Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab all of whom are related, except Egypt and all who live in the desert who cut the corners of their hair; for all these nations are uncircumcised in heart and the house of Israel is uncircumcised in heart.
Idols cannot walk, speak, or hear…you even have to carry them around. We carry them most often (although made with our own hands) around in our hearts. They will be revealed when we are caught up in the majesty, the grandeur, the power, the holiness of our heavenly Father. Idols are substitutes for Him!
God did not promise Jeremiah an easy ministry but He promised to keep him strong. He told J that they would not listen, or obey, but do it anyway! Just as we must not allow what we think will result or people’s reaction/response to control what we do. Act upon God’s instructions to you. He will “never leave you nor forsake you…He is in you…you are in Him…we are one with the Father.” IN OTHER WORDS: Do (OBEY) what He says…It is His life lived out through you!