Jeremiah 7:3-7

I. PRESUMPTUOUS WORSHIP Jeremiah 7:3-15

The men of Judah, like the majority of all ages, took worship for granted. They were content simply to show up at the Temple and participate in the prescribed ritual. They assumed that God was pleased with their conduct. In the opening paragraph of his Temple sermon Jeremiah attacks this presumptuous attitude toward worship by (1) indicating a fundamental requirement of true worship (Jeremiah 7:3-7,); (2) challenging the fallacious assumption that worship had no bearing on conduct nor vice versa (Jeremiah 7:8-11); and (3) threatening the destruction of the Temple and the exile of the populace (Jeremiah 7:12-15).

A. A Fundamental Requirement Jeremiah 7:3-7

TRANSLATION

(3) Thus says the LORD of host, God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds that I may cause you to dwell in this place.-' (4) For your own sake do not trust in the words of the lie: The Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD, the Temple of the LORD are these. (5) If you thoroughly amend your ways and your deeds; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; (6) if you do not oppress stranger, orphan and widow; and if you do not shed innocent blood in this place; and if you do not go after other gods to your own hurt; (7) then I will cause you to dwell in this place in the land which I gave to your fathers forever and ever.

COMMENTS

Jeremiah's sermon opens with a call for repentance. Amend (lit., cause to be good) your ways and your deeds, i.e., change the whole pattern of your conduct. Only if such a fundamental change took place would God continue to allow them to inhabit the land of Judah (Jeremiah 7:3). Jeremiah begs his hearers for their own sake not to give any credence to the superstition that the presence of the Temple of the Lord was a guarantee for the safety of the city. The people were acting as though merely the repetition of the phrase Temple of the Lord was some sort of a magical charm to ward off all evil. What a dramatic moment it must have been when Jeremiah thrice repeated the phrase for emphasis gesturing as he did so to the courts and building that were part of the Temple complex (Jeremiah 7:4).

Jeremiah 7:5-7 contain a conditional sentence of which Jeremiah 7:5-6 are the protasis and Jeremiah 7:7 the apodosis. Five conditions for national survival are laid down: (1) Repeating the basic demand of Jeremiah 7:3, they must thoroughly amend their ways and their deeds. (2) They must make sure that justice is executed in the courts (Jeremiah 7:5). (3) They must not oppress the stranger, the orphan and the widow. The Old Testament enjoined Israel to show respect for peoples of other nationalities and races simply because they were fellow human beings. Many Christians have not yet caught up with this passage. There was to be a concern for the weak and for those who had lost their natural protector. No other code of laws from antiquity is marked by such humanity in respect to the unfortunate. (4) Innocent blood must no longer be shed in the land through violence and miscarriage of justice. (5) They must cease to follow after other gods to their own hurt. Idolatry would lead deeper and deeper into sin and have dire repercussions both on the national and personal level. If they fulfilled these fundamental requirements God would cause t h e m to continue to dwell in the land. God had given that land to their forefather for ever and ever. (lit., from the most remote antiquity to the most distant future). But that divine promise was conditional. If the present generation was to continue to enjoy the land gift of God they must meet the conditions which God specifies here.