Jeremiah 26:4-6

2. A stirring message (Jeremiah 26:4-6)

Jeremiah's sermon in the courtyard of the Temple must have been quite a bombshell! It stirred a hornet's nest of opposition. Doubtlessly in Jeremiah 26:4-6 only a brief summary of the sermon preached on this occasion has been preserved. Had the entire message been recorded it would probably have included a stinging indictment for injustice, hypocrisy and rebellion against God. No doubt it included threats of the enemy from the north which would devastate the land. The summary which has been preserved here contains two points of emphasis. First, there is an oblique call for repentance (Jeremiah 26:4-5). Jeremiah is here threatening the people that if they do not do certain things they will be punished. This is tantamount to calling upon the people to act in certain ways. Basically Jeremiah is calling upon them to hearken to the Lord. This involves two distinct responses on the part of the people. First they must listen to the voice of God as it was recorded in the ancient law of Moses. While he frequently condemned formalism and ritualism Jeremiah never minimized the importance of obedience to the written law of God. Second, the people must listen to the contemporary spokesmen of God, the prophets. The people thus far had failed to give credence to the words of God's servants even though He had persistently sent them unto the nation (Jeremiah 26:5).

In no uncertain terms Jeremiah spells out the consequences of impenitence in this Temple sermon (Jeremiah 26:6). Two distinct threats are contained here in the summary of his message. First, God threatens to make this house, i.e., the Temple, like Shiloh. The shrine at Shiloh had been destroyed centuries before, apparently by the Philistine invasion during the judgeship of Eli (1 Samuel 4:10-11). A persistent delusion in the days of Jeremiah was that God would never allow His sanctuary to be destroyed by any foreign enemy. The prophet here marshals the facts of history to support his contention that no spot was too sacred to be decimated when God pours out His wrath upon a sinful people. The second threat in Jeremiah 26:6 concerns the city. God would make it a curse among the nations of the earth. That is to say, God would so destroy Jerusalem that when anyone wished a pronounce a curse on a city he would say, May such and such a city become like Jerusalem!