then ye come and stand before me, in this house which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered, -- in order to do all these abominations!
In Jeremiah's message the people step out of a list of crimes, walk into the temple, and tell God they are safe. The verse raises two questions: what makes a place "called by my name," and can nearness to God protect someone who means to keep sinning?
One writer sets the scene: what the false prophets promised, and what the list of crimes in the previous verse adds up to.
God still waited in mercy, pleading with them to change their ways and not to trust in lying words. The false prophets were telling them that everything would be fine: as long as they had the temple of the Lord, judgment could not reach them… In one verse the people stand convicted of breaking six of the ten commandments. They worshipped Baal and other idols, and at the same time they kept an outward form of relationship with the true God by standing before Him in His house. They were only a remnant of the nation, a few whom God in His mercy had delivered from the hand of the enemy. It seems they thought God had spared them so they could do their own will. They wrongly imagined that God took no notice of their wicked ways, and that their formal recognition of His temple would satisfy Him.
That title is narrower than it sounds. Very few buildings have ever carried it.
The house of God is the one that bears His holy Name, as He says, "which is called by My Name" (Jer. 7:10-11, 12, 14, 30). In Old Testament times you could say this of the tabernacle or the temple, but of no other such structure then or since.
The people treated their access to God as cover. One writer turns that reasoning around.
God must have reality in His people. God never meant grace to weaken His moral ways, and He will never allow it to… There is no more destructive snare than for people who sin and go on sinning to plead their privilege. God's righteous government of His people is as certain as the mercy that chose and blessed them. Let them forget neither! … Nearness to God, even outward nearness, is the ground for a more watchful holiness, never for indifference.
There are honest ways to call on God, and there is presumption. These people claim God's protection while their feet stay on the road of sin.
There are two different conditions in which we may call on God. We may call on Him in deep sorrow for sin, and be heard. Or we may call on Him with a good conscience and a heart that does not condemn us, and be heard… Both stand in sharp contrast with the hardness of heart that would presume to count on God in the face of open disobedience and unrighteous living… Practical righteousness He owns and approves. Confessed sin He can freely and fully pardon. But to imagine that we can trust God while our feet walk the path of sin is nothing short of the most shocking irreverence.
The same excuse reappears wherever people admit the evil around them and then decide it cannot be helped.
It was a day too when they could boast, "The temple of the Lord are these" (Jer. 7:1-11), and yet add, "We are delivered to do all these abominations." How like the cry of some: we cannot help the evil, it is the best thing we can find, and so on.
Standing in God's house while serving Baal is a blend, not open rebellion. That is what makes it hard to spot.
The form suits the worldly heart, because it keeps the conscience at ease while the heart enjoys the world in all its attractiveness. What a delusion!… Satan's masterpiece is the mixing of things that look Christian with things that are plainly unholy. He deceives more effectively by this scheme than by any other, and we need more spiritual discernment to detect it as a result.
God had already dealt with one site that carried His name. One writer follows that warning well past Jeremiah's day.
And what a solemn fact it is — judgment fell on the house that was in Shiloh, where the Lord set His Name at the first (Jer. 7:12); and it came again on the house at Jerusalem, as He said, "therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust… as I did to Shiloh" (v. 14). And so it happened… "it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God" (1 Peter 4:17)… When the truth is falsified and true piety is gone, what can come but judgment from God? — and all the more so if this false thing bears His holy Name.
- Privilege. God's name rested on one house on earth: the tabernacle, and then the temple. Nothing else could claim that title.
- Presumption. False prophets told them the temple kept them safe. So they broke six of the ten commandments, then stood before God in that house, sure He took no notice.
- Pretence. Trusting God while walking in sin is shocking irreverence. Mixing things that look Christian with things that are plainly unholy is Satan's masterpiece: it keeps the conscience comfortable.
- Precedent. God judged Shiloh first. A house that carries His name is more exposed to judgment, not less, once the truth in it is falsified.
- Practice. God must have reality in His people. Nearness to Him, even outward nearness, calls for more watchful holiness, never for indifference.
Is this house, which is called by my name, a den of robbers in your eyes? Even I, behold, I have seen it, saith Jehovah.
The prophet turns to a crowd that leans on the temple building and asks what it has become in their eyes. The warning is plain: people can hide sin behind a place that carries God's name, and God says He has seen it.
The verse turns on the phrase "which is called by my name."
The house of God is what bears His holy name, as He says, "which is called by My name" (Jer. 7:10-11, 12, 14, 30). In Old Testament times you could say this of the tabernacle or the temple, but of no other building then or since.
The question targets people whose religion and behaviour point in opposite directions.
In chapter 7 the prophet exposes the double life of the people. On one hand they spoke of "the temple of the Lord" as their possession. They never failed to stand before the Lord in "this house which is called by My name." They even thought God had delivered them so that they could carry on in their abominations (v. 10). They had every appearance of godliness. They even gathered in the place God had chosen. But what about their actual behaviour? How much injustice, oppression and idolatry? Their actions contradicted what they claimed, so judgment would come on them and on their temple.
A den is a hideout. That is what the temple had become in their thinking.
Their worship was only external. They trusted in the temple of the Lord, as if the house itself carried a blessing and would shield them from disaster. Such false trust in ceremonies and outward worship is only too clear in the Christian world as well. Masses of unsaved people with their religious routines think this protects them and secures the Lord's help and blessing. They trusted in lying words. They were thieves, murderers, adulterers, liars under oath and idolaters. They thought that going to the house of the LORD would save them from these abominations. The Lord calls on them to amend their ways and their doings… They had made His house a den of robbers.
God ends the verse by saying He has seen it Himself. Privilege raises the standard; it never lowers it.
God must have reality in His people. Grace was never meant to weaken the moral ways of God, and it never can… There is no more destructive trap than for people who sin, and go on sinning, to plead their privilege. God rules His people in righteousness as surely as His mercy chose and blessed them. Let them forget neither! … Being near to God, even in outward form, is a reason for more watchful holiness, never for indifference.
The people assumed God had to defend His own house. Shiloh, where the tabernacle first stood in the land, says otherwise.
What was Shiloh now? God had profaned it, and God would do the very same thing where the ark was now placed, where the sanctuary was in Jerusalem. It is impossible for God to bind Himself to maintain an empty form. He would no longer sustain what was a beautiful picture of His truth. In His eyes, the state of the people and of the priests was the most offensive evil under the sun. God had granted the Jewish people and their priests greater truth and blessing, or at least greater privileges. That made their insults to His holiness in His own temple all the more wicked.
Later, the Lord Himself came into that temple and dealt with what He found.
They had refused to change their ways and their deeds. They had refused to judge justly between a man and his neighbour. They had gone on oppressing the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. They had trusted in lying words while keeping up every outward form of religion. They came into the house of God as if it belonged to them, with hearts full of greed… Then, at this extreme of evil, the Lord comes in. He casts out all who sold and bought. He makes what had been a den of robbers a place of healing and blessing. But this only brings out a more determined rejection of Him and the salvation He brought.
- Named — The house is "called by my name." That name is what makes its misuse serious, not the stonework.
- Misused — In their eyes it was a hideout. They ran to it and kept on stealing, murdering and serving other gods.
- Seen — God's closing "I myself have seen it" removes the cover. Nearness to God calls for more watchfulness, never less.
- Warned — Shiloh already proved God will not prop up an empty form. Greater privilege only makes the insult worse.
- Answered — The Lord came into that temple, drove out the traders, and made the den of robbers a place of healing. They rejected Him for it.