Old Testament -October 10, 2022 - Jeremiah 7

 10/10/2022 – Jeremiah 7

God had called Jeremiah as a prophet, and his calling was to warn the people of Judah that unless they repented, they would be conquered by another nation. In v 2 we find that Jeremiah has been commanded to stand at the temple gate, pleading with the people to enter into the temple gates to worship the Lord. And then he gave them the reason for coming into the temple: “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place.” (v 2) At this time, the people of Judah were NOT following the Lord’s commandments, and the Lord wanted them to know that if they repented, they would be blessed.

At this time the Lord reminds them that their problem is their placing their “trust in lying words, that cannot profit”. (v 8) And the Lord also gave them instructions as to how to turn their lives around: “amend your ways and your doings; thoroughly execute judgement between a man and his neighbor; oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow; shed not innocent blood in this place; neither walk after other gods to your hurt; {no longer are they to} steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, worship Baal and other gods. (v’s 4-9)

Instead, He asks them to “come and stand before me in this house (temple), which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?” (v 10) He warned them not to harden their hearts or minds against the Lord. 

The Lord will give us every chance to repent of those things we should not be doing. But He also allows us to make our own decisions in how we live. In v 13 we learn that the Lord will not continue to help us change our ways when we refuse to listen to Him: “And now, because ye have done all these works, saith the Lord, and I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not.” The Israelites had fallen into the false worship of those around them. While they still entered their own temple, behaving as though worshipping there, they also continued to follow false gods the rest of their time. 

We learn from these people at this time that religious worship and practices alone cannot save if we do not keep God’s commandments; if we realize this and change our ways to fully follow His commandments, then He will be our God and we will be His people. If we work to walk in all of God’s ways, then it will be well with us, and we will be able to pray to Him and have Him answer.

Once again in v 23 the Lord explains to them what He expects of them…and us: “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 with you.” And then in v 24 He gives us the opposite side of the coin: “But they harkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward.” The Lord reminds them that they are “a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God, not receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.” (v 28)

As long as we walk in the right direction, and stay close to our Father, then all is well.

The Israelites did NOT correct their ways, and v 34 became a reality of what happened to these Israelites: “Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride; for the land shall be desolate.”

When we are ignoring the Lord and His ways, He will work with us for only so long. BUT if we do leave our mis-guided ways and turn to Him, He will open His arms to us once again, for His desire is for us to walk in His ways…that is the way we can return to Him. This would be the time when we would reach out to access Christ’s atonement. We can always turn to that, whether we have made small mistakes or large mistakes. Our Father and His Son, want only to have us return to them—but they will always allow us to make our own decisions.


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