Jeremiah 7:23

But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. BUT THIS THING COMMANDED I THEM - (; )....

_I spoke not _then to _your fathers, nor commanded them in the day I brought them forth from the land of Egypt, etc. _The Prophet calls the attention of the Jews to the first condition of the Church; for though God had made his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, yet he then only formed or framed for himself a Church when the Law was promulgated. Hence God at that time showed what pleased him, and prescribed certain things, which were in future to be inviolably observed: and as the Jews violated the rule given them, the Prophet concludes that God was corruptly and absurdly worshipped by them. This is the reason why he expressly speaks here of the deliverance granted to the fathers. There follows afterwards a clearer explanation, which removes all ambiguity: for God subordinates sacrifices to obedience. Yet sacrifices are a part of obedience: very true; but as the people were to be s...

21-28 God shows that obedience was required of them. That which God commanded was, Hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord thy God. The promise is very encouraging. Let God's will be your rule, and his favour shall be your happiness. God was displeased with disobedience. We understand the gospel as little as the Jews understood the law, if we think that even the sacrifice of Christ lessens our obligation to obey....

Verse Jeremiah 7:23. _THIS THING COMMANDED I THEM - OBEY MY VOICE_] It was not _sacrifices_ and _oblations_ which I required of your fathers in the wilderness, but _obedience_; it was to _walk in that way_ of righteousness which I have commanded; then I should have acknowledged them for _my people_, and I should have been _their God_; and then it would have _been well with them_. But to my commands, 1. _They hearkened not_ - paid no regard to my word. 2. They _inclined not_ _the ear_ - showed no disposition to attend to my counsels. 3. They _walked in the imaginations of their evil heart_ - followed its irregular and impure motions, rather than the holy dictates of my Spirit. 4. They _went backward and not forward_. Instead of becoming more wise, obedient, and holy, they grew more corrupt; so t

OBEY ... - These words are not found verbatim in the Pentateuch, but are a sum mary of its principles. Sacrifice is never the final cause of the covenant, but always obedience (Exodus 19:5; Leviticus 11:45. Compare Exodus 20; Deuteronomy 11, in which the moral object of the Mosaic dispensation is most clearly taught). In connection with Jeremiah’s argument, notice that Amos 5:25 (taken in conjunction with Joshua 5:2) proves that the ceremonial law was not obs

EXPOSITION Ch. 7-10.—Severe rebukes of idolatry alternating with announcements of the impending judgment. The circumstances connected with this discourse, or part thereof, appear to be detailed in Jeremiah 26:1. Among the parallelisms between the two sections, notice especially the reference to the fate of the temple of Shiloh (comp. Jeremiah 26:14 with Jeremiah 26:6). The date of the original utterance of the prophecy is thus fixed for one of the early years of the reign of Jehoiakim. Jeremiah 10:1, however, requires separate consideration....

BUT THIS THING COMMANDED I THEM, SAYING,.... This was the sum and substance of what was then commanded, even obedience to the moral law; this was the main and principal thing enjoined, and to which the promise was annexed: OBEY MY VOICE: the word of the Lord, his commands, the precepts of the decalogue; obedience to which was preferable to the sacrifices of the ceremonial law; see 1 Samuel 15:22, wherefore it follows: AND I WILL BE YOUR GOD, AND YE SHALL BE MY PEOPLE; the meaning is, that while they were obedient to him, he would protect them from their enemies, and continue them in their privileges and blessings, which he had bestowed upon them as his peculiar people: AND WALK YE IN ALL THE WAYS THAT I HAVE COMMANDED YOU; not only in some of them, but in all of them; not merely in the observance of legal sacrifices, but chiefly

Jeremiah 7:21. _Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices:_ You have heard what God said to them when they came out of Egypt. Jeremiah 7:23. _But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their car, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward._ Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the lan

THE PROPHET'S TEMPLE ADDRESS (7-9) CHAPTER 7 _ 1. Amend your ways and your doings (Jeremiah 7:1) _ 2. No prayer-answer to be expected (Jeremiah 7:16) 3. Sacrifices rejected; Obedience demanded (Jeremiah 7:21) 4. Jerusalem's rejection (Jeremiah 7:29) Jeremiah 7:1. We call this next address of the prophet “the temple address,” because he was commanded to stand in the gate of the LORD's house. There he stood, a solitary figure, and said: “Hear the Word of the LORD, all ye of Judah, that enter in a

OBEDIENCE NECESSARY, NOT SACRIFICE. Yahweh scornfully tells these formal worshippers to eat even the burnt-offering (wholly offered to God), as well as the peace-offering (which was eaten by the worshippers, except the blood and portions of the fat); both are mere flesh, without sacrificial value in the hands of the disobedient. In the desert days He asked for obedience, not sacrifice; but Israel has refused it, notwithstanding the continued ministry of the prophets, nor will Jeremiah's own message be heard. Jeremiah 7:22 f. clearly show that the Pentateuch in its present form was not known to Jeremiah (_cf._ Amos 5:25), for the Priestly Code lays the greatest stress on sacrifice as Divinely prescribed from the beginning....