Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh.
Jeremiah stands at the temple gate, and God tells the worshippers to eat the meat of their own burnt offerings. The burnt offering belonged wholly to God, so why does He hand it back as if it were ordinary food?
The people were not neglecting worship. They were using it as cover:
The rest of Jeremiah 7 (verse 21 onward) reminds the people that Jehovah's claim was obedience. It was not burnt offerings to hide their transgressions and stubborn wickedness. That wickedness grew worse and worse as the prophets followed the law.
Earlier in the chapter Jeremiah exposed what the crowd believed about the building they stood in:
Their worship was only external. They trusted in the temple of the Lord. They acted as if a blessing belonged to the house itself, and as if the house would shield them from disaster... Such false trust in outward worship and religious rules is only too obvious in Christendom also. Crowds of unsaved people keep up their religious routine and think it protects them and secures the Lord's help and blessing. They trusted in lying words. They were thieves, murderers, adulterers, perjurers and idolaters. Yet they thought that going to the house of the Lord would rescue them from these abominations.
The burnt offering was the one sacrifice given wholly to God. Cut worship loose from that, and what is left is not neutral:
True worship stays tied to the offering of Christ to God — to its power, and to the awareness of how infinitely acceptable that offering is. The point here is not the putting away of sins, though without that we could not approach at all. The point is its own excellence as a burnt offering, all burnt to God as a sweet savour. The moment our worship separates itself from this, it becomes fleshly: either a form, or the delight of the flesh. If the peace offering was eaten apart from this offering of the fat, it was a mere fleshly feast. It was a form of worship with no real communion with the delight and good pleasure of God. It was worse than unacceptable — it was really iniquity.
At the exodus, God's first demand of Israel was obedience:
He brands their sacrifices as worthless. He gave no command concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day He brought them out of Egypt. Destructive critics have built a childish argument on this verse. They claim that Moses did not give the law of sacrifices, and that it was introduced many centuries later. When the Lord first led them out of Egypt, He gave them no laws about sacrifices, but asked obedience. They did not listen; nor did they in Jeremiah's day.
So the temple became the target of judgment, not a shelter from it. There was already a precedent:
Shiloh was the place where the tabernacle first stood in the land (verse 12). What was Shiloh now? God had profaned it. And God would do the very same thing where the ark now stood, in the sanctuary at Jerusalem. It is impossible that God should bind Himself to maintain an empty form. The temple was a beautiful picture of His truth. But He would no longer keep it standing while the state of the people and the priests was the most offensive evil under the sun in His eye.
This verdict on sacrifice is not new with Jeremiah. It runs through the Old Testament and points to Someone else:
The Old Testament itself bore the clearest witness that animal sacrifices had no real value in the eyes of God. This Psalm is like light breaking through the mist. It declares that at least Someone would take the place of all such offerings. The Psalm says, "ears You have dug for Me." The Spirit of God interprets His own words this way: "A body You have prepared Me." Does this not imply that He would take the lowly place of the Servant, fully obedient to the Father's will, ears opened to hear His Word?
- Obedience claimed. God's first demand of Israel was obedience, not offerings. Sacrifice was never a way to cover ongoing wickedness.
- Obedience replaced. They swapped the building and the ritual for the obedience God asked. They trusted the temple to shield them while they lived as thieves, adulterers and idolaters.
- Obedience missing. Worship cut off from the offering given wholly to God is not just empty. It becomes fleshly, a form, and in God's sight iniquity. So He tells them to eat the meat themselves.
- Obedience judged. Shiloh proved God will not keep a hollow form alive for the sake of its history. The same warning stands over religion today.
- Obedience supplied. What no burnt offering could give, Christ brought — ears opened, a body prepared, coming to do God's will.
For I spoke not unto your fathers, nor commanded them concerning burnt-offerings and sacrifices, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt;
Jeremiah's message strikes at the temple itself: the building the people trusted would not save them. Then comes a line that has puzzled readers ever since — at the exodus, burnt offerings were not what God spoke about, so what does this verse deny?
One writer traces the argument of the whole chapter. Watch what the temple has turned into.
Jeremiah 7 begins a new prophecy, focused especially on the temple. The people had no conscience about it, and wanted the temple to be their protection. Instead, it had become a further demonstration of their sin. They were to remember Shiloh, because the house of God would likewise be overthrown... He required obedience and not sacrifice, and if the people came into His house while they were practising idolatry, they only defiled it.
The point turns on timing. At the exodus itself, God asked for something other than offerings — and one writer answers a claim critics build on this verse.
He brands their sacrifices as worthless. He gave no command concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day He brought them out of Egypt. Destructive critics have built a childish argument on this verse. They use it to prove that Moses did not give the law of sacrifices, and that it came in many centuries later. When the Lord first led them out of Egypt, He gave them no laws about sacrifices, but asked obedience. They did not listen; nor did they in Jeremiah's day.
One writer sets down the words God did speak at that moment, and what they asked for.
In Exodus the word of the Lord to Moses is, "This is what you shall say: You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to Myself." Then: "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice," and so on. And all the people answered together, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." I am not speaking here of their ability to keep their promise. I am speaking of the principle of obedience — the only principle on which God could deal with man, or man walk with God.
The verse does not cancel Leviticus. One commentator explains what the offerings were for, and what they were never for.
God did command such sacrifices in Exodus and Leviticus. But He did not command them because He desired such things. He commanded them simply to illustrate that these were all symbols of the one future sacrifice of Christ. Israel should at least have realised that they were only symbols. What they were symbols of, Israel no doubt did not know.
There is a historical side too. What did Israel actually bring to God in the wilderness?
As to history, we have no proof that anyone brought a single offering during the whole time they were in the wilderness. Burnt offerings were always voluntary. Given the state of Israel, it is just as likely they never gave it a thought. They sinned without any regret, and they certainly had never circumcised their children, so they really had no right to offer any sacrifice... Indeed Amos 5:25 complains that they did not offer sacrifice to Jehovah, but took Moloch and Chiun for their gods.
These worshippers kept the outward forms. One writer asks what that means for us now.
The Lord had said that He hated their appointed feasts. Why was this? Was it not because of the formal, empty way the people kept the feasts, while they themselves were defiled with sin and going on with evil? Do you not think you and I can learn a very valuable lesson from this for ourselves today? Suppose the heart is away from God, the hands are defiled with sin, and the feet are not walking in the truth. Do you think the Lord likes a correct form and fine outward worship any better?
- Temple — the building was no shelter. Like Shiloh, it would be overthrown, and worship there alongside idolatry only defiled it.
- First — at the exodus God asked for obedience, not offerings. The verse denies that sacrifices came first, not that God ever gave them.
- Symbol — God never wanted the offerings for their own sake. They pictured the one sacrifice of Christ still to come.
- Unused — Israel's wilderness years bear this out. There is no proof of offerings then, and they carried other gods instead.
- Now — the same swap is alive wherever a correct outward form covers a heart away from God and feet not walking in the truth.
but I commanded them this thing, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.
Jeremiah preached these words at the temple gate, to people who thought the building itself would save them. God points them back to what He asked for when He first brought Israel out of Egypt: not offerings, but a listening ear.
The verse looks back to the day Israel left Egypt and states what God commanded then. One writer points out what God asked for first, and answers a wrong conclusion critics have drawn from it:
He brands their sacrifices as worthless. He gave no command concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day He brought them out of Egypt. Destructive critics have built a shallow argument on this verse. They use it to prove that Moses did not give the law of sacrifices, and that it came in many centuries later. When the Lord first led them out of Egypt, He gave them no laws about sacrifices, but asked obedience. They did not listen; nor did they in Jeremiah's day.
The people in Jeremiah's day were still bringing sacrifices. The problem was what they were bringing them for:
The rest of Jeremiah 7 reminds the people that obedience was what the Lord claimed, not burnt offerings to hide their sins and stubborn wickedness.
The same misplaced confidence, one writer observes, did not die with Judah:
Their worship was only external. They trusted in the temple of the Lord, as if the house itself carried some blessing and would shield them from disaster… The same false trust in outward forms and ceremonies is only too clear in the Christian world as well. Crowds of unsaved people go through their religious routines and think this protects them and guarantees the Lord's help and blessing.
One writer goes back to what God said to Moses after the Exodus, and to how the people answered:
In Exodus the word of the Lord to Moses is: "Thus you shall say, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice," and so on. And all the people answered together, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." I am not speaking here of their ability to keep what they promised. I am speaking of the principle of obedience — the only principle on which God could deal with man, or man walk with God.
The same principle reappears in judgment on a king, in the life of Christ, and in the calling of the believer:
When Saul turned away from God in 1 Samuel 15, judgment rested on the same ground — "Why then did you not obey the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice." We see the same principle, in perfection, in our Lord's constant walk. It is also the character of the believer's sanctification — sanctified to obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2). This is the purpose, the object, of his sanctification.
"I will be your God, and you shall be my people" is the heart of the offer. One writer weighs what this promise means for Israel and what it means for Christians now:
Next, "I will be their God, and they shall be my people." As this will be Israel's portion in that day, so it is ours now. More than this is ours, because we can say by the Spirit "Abba, Father," Christ's Father and our Father, Christ's God and our God. As before, it will no longer be an imposed ordinance or a possibly empty title of relationship. All is now made real, intrinsic and lasting by His grace.
The closing clause ties wellbeing to walking in the whole way God commands. One writer separates how a person is saved from how much blessing that person enjoys:
If the people honoured the Lord by submitting to His word, He would bless them in the way described — in the land, and with earthly blessings that matched the covenant they lived under. It is different with Christians. Pure unconditional grace saves them. But once saved, their blessing and their enjoyment of spiritual blessing depend on their walk, on obedience to the Word. We must always insist on this. They do not obey to be saved… but God has brought them to Himself through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, and their blessing during their stay in this world depends on their subjection to the mind and will of God.
- Voice first. At the Exodus God asked for a listening ear, not for offerings. Sacrifices were never meant to cover disobedience.
- Voice as the only ground. Obedience is the one principle on which God could deal with man, or man walk with God — broken in Saul, perfect in Christ, and the aim of the believer's sanctification.
- Voice refused, form kept. Judah's worship was external; they treated the temple as a shield. Writers apply the same warning to religious observance today.
- Voice answered by relationship. The promise attached is God Himself: not an imposed ordinance or an empty title, but a bond made real and lasting by grace.
- Voice obeyed, wellbeing enjoyed. Christians are not saved by obeying. But their subjection to God's word decides how much of their blessing they enjoy.
But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels, in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward.
Jeremiah 7 speaks to people who kept up worship at the Lord's house while ignoring His voice. Verse 24 is God's own account of the result: they would not listen, they followed their own hearts, and the whole nation moved backward.
The chapter has been dismantling the people's confidence in sacrifice and ceremony. Verses 22-24 push that further: what God required at the very start was a listening ear, and that is exactly what was refused.
He brands their sacrifices as worthless. He gave no command concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day He brought them out of Egypt. Critics who attack the Bible have built a childish argument on verse 22, to prove that the law of sacrifices did not come from Moses but was brought in many centuries later. When the Lord first led them out of Egypt, He gave them no laws about sacrifices, but asked obedience. They did not listen; nor did they in Jeremiah's day. It is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord, and does not receive correction.
Offerings were being used as a cover rather than an answer, and the problem hardened as time went on.
The rest of Jeremiah 7 reminds the people that obedience was the Lord's claim, not burnt offerings to hide their transgressions and stubborn wickedness, which grew worse and worse as the prophets followed the law.
The verse describes movement, and the movement is in reverse. One writer shows what that cost them, starting with the "lying words" Jeremiah warned about.
Jeremiah warns them against "lying words" in verses 4 and 8... This might sound very pious and religious. But they themselves gave in to oppression and idolatry, and they carried on wicked trade in His house. So He would pour out His anger and His fury on this place. They went backward and not forward. Truth had perished from their mouth. They had become the generation of His wrath. Their evil practices silenced the voice of gladness. Judgment from the Lord, who had called to them so often, must fall on them.
Why does a people that hears God's word still walk by its own plans? Later in Jeremiah, another group asks the prophet for guidance while having already made up their minds — and the same mechanism is at work.
Self-will had decided on its own course, and it deceived them. Nothing will so warp the understanding, and hinder the grasp of the truth, as self-will. It will not see what it does not want to see.
Scripture has an animal picture for this untamed condition, and this verse is one of the places it is drawn from.
The wild donkey is very wild and very swift. It is seldom tamed. It is a fitting emblem of man's natural birth.
The verse is not a sudden verdict. It sits inside a long record of God speaking first, and speaking again — a patience that runs from the prophets to His Son.
God, in His goodness, has kept renewing His testimony. In His patience He has sent His prophets, rising up early, as it is said, to send them until there was no remedy (see Jer. 7). Last of all He sent His own Son.
Jeremiah also looks ahead to a day when this ends. The change does not come from the people. God Himself gathers the nations to Jerusalem.
At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord. All the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem. They shall no longer walk after the imagination of their evil heart. In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel. They shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance to your fathers.
The ESV puts that line of Jeremiah 3:17 as "stubbornly follow their own evil heart." Verse 24 says that is just what they did.
- Asked — God asked for obedience from the start, not offerings. Sacrifices used to cover stubborn wickedness were worthless.
- Refused — Self-will picks its course first, then bends the understanding to fit. It will not see what it does not want to see.
- Backward — Refusing God's voice never holds ground. The wickedness grew worse and worse, truth perished from their mouth, and gladness fell silent.
- Pursued — Against that backward drift, God kept renewing His testimony. He rose early to send prophets until there was no remedy, and last of all He sent His own Son.
- Reversed — The hope is not a stronger will. God promises a day when they no longer walk after their own evil heart, and Jerusalem becomes the Lord's throne.
Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt, unto this day, have I sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them;
Jeremiah 7 is a message about worship God would not accept. The people kept up their sacrifices, but they would not obey His voice. Verse 25 looks back over centuries of that. God kept sending messengers, one after another. So what does such persistence say about God — and about the people who ignored it?
Where the ESV says God "persistently sent" the prophets, older translations read "rising up early and sending them." God does not use that picture once. One writer counted the repeats and heard in them the Lord's love:
The book repeats strong expressions over and over again. In His zeal for their good He speaks of "rising up early" to speak to them, time after time — eleven times at least! How this speaks of the Lord's intense love for them! No wonder He wept over Jerusalem! They have "forsaken Me!" they have "forgotten Me!" they have "turned their backs unto Me!" He says again and again. This shows how deeply He felt the way they treated Him. He felt too the bitter suffering they were bringing on themselves.
The verses just before this one set the terms. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, His first demand was not ceremony:
He brands their sacrifices as worthless. He gave no command concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day He brought them out of Egypt... When the Lord first led them out of Egypt, He gave them no laws as to sacrifices, but asked obedience. They did not listen; nor did they in Jeremiah's day. It is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord, nor receive correction.
A book so full of rebuke can look grim. One writer praises God for that very record:
Inspired history is true history, and gives the evil as well as the good. A mere flattering history would prove itself not inspired... As to prophecy, it is, I may say, constant attack on evil. Unbelief throws God's patience back in His face — the patience that went on rising up early and sending prophets, till there was no remedy. I adore Him for it, as for all His goodness.
That patience was never a promise of safety. One writer shows both sides of it:
How untiring too is the patience of the Lord! He promises to turn back from the evil He had to threaten, if only they would listen and turn from their evil deeds. But if they kept on rejecting the prophets He had sent — He speaks of "rising up early and sending them" — let them prepare for the worst... It is an awful blindness when men presume on God's favour to His people, while staying indifferent to His will and glory.
The line of messengers did not end with the prophets. One writer follows it to its last name:
God sent the prophets to deal with their consciences, "rising up early, and sending them." After all this, God says, "I have still one Son, they will respect Him." But they cast Him out.
Why were these messengers refused? One writer points to something that has not changed:
Nothing is more striking than the way God's people, then and now, have persecuted the prophets again and again. We do not like to have our conscience disturbed by hearing of our failures. To admit that we are wrong, or have done wrong, is too humbling to religious flesh. We will only own it in vague, general terms. So the prophet who stirs the conscience — who reminds God's people of their sins — is never popular. People welcome the mere "teacher" with applause... but who wants a prophet to arouse the conscience by telling us of our failures and sins?
- Sent early. Jeremiah repeats "rising up early" again and again. It pictures God's eagerness for His people's good — and a heart that felt it when they forsook and forgot Him.
- Sent to ask obedience. At the exodus God asked for obedience, not sacrifices. They did not listen then, and they did not listen in Jeremiah's day.
- Sent on. A book full of rebuke is no stain on the record. It is proof of God's patience, and one writer adores Him for it.
- Sent last. After the line of servants came the Son — and they cast Him out too.
- Sent to consciences. Nobody welcomes a messenger who disturbs the conscience. Yet the real blindness is to count on God's favour while ignoring His will.
but they have not hearkened unto me, nor inclined their ear; and they have hardened their neck they have done worse than their fathers.
Jeremiah is speaking to people who kept bringing offerings while refusing to obey. Here God gives His verdict on the long line of prophets He sent: each generation grew worse, not better.
The charge lands hard because of what came before it. God did not speak once and give up. He kept rising up early, and one writer counts how often Jeremiah repeats that phrase.
We must mention a feature of this book. It conveys the intensity of feeling that filled the Lord's heart for His people and city. The same strong expressions come again and again. In His zeal for their good He speaks of "rising up early" to speak to them, time after time — eleven times at least! How this shows the Lord's intense love for them! No wonder He wept over Jerusalem! They have "forsaken Me!" they have "forgotten Me!" they have "turned their backs to Me!" He says again and again. This shows how He felt their treatment and the bitter suffering they were bringing upon themselves.
"They did not listen" does not describe people who missed the message. A parallel passage in Zechariah shows what refusing looked like, right down to the stiffened neck of our verse.
Can anything be more solemn than the description of how they treated these divine messages? "They refused to listen, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, so that they should not hear. Yes, they made their hearts as hard as flint, so that they should not hear the law and the words that the Lord of hosts had sent in His Spirit by the former prophets." There was therefore not only indifference, but real hostility to the word of God, even open rebellion against Him and His claims. Nehemiah confessed the sins of his people in almost the same words: "They dealt proudly, and did not listen to your commandments … and withdrew the shoulder, and hardened their necks, and would not hear." … So it was the will of Israel not to hear.
The rest of this chapter names what God wanted, and it was not a fuller altar.
The rest of Jeremiah 7 (verse 21 onwards) reminds the people that obedience was the Lord's claim, not burnt offerings to cover up their transgressions and stubborn wickedness. That wickedness grew worse and worse as the prophets followed the law.
The strangest part of the verse is that more warning produced more evil. One writer explains why: evil does not stay level, it builds up.
The very solemn point brought out here is that iniquity accumulates. The patience of God waits. More than that, it uses every means to call back to sincerity and to Himself those who have the truth and at least its outward form. The most touching appeals, the most forceful warnings, the condescension that reasons almost as between equals — stubborn men make all of it useless by despising grace and practising iniquity. At last God exhausts all His means of calling to repentance. Then comes the judgment that this divine patience had held back. Sin piled up from age to age brings it in, along with the hardness of heart that grew as men despised divine warnings and grace.
Doing worse than the fathers is also what makes the judgment fair. A son who has seen where his father's path led has no excuse for taking it.
Suppose a child has grown up knowing his father's dishonour, hearing of his disgrace and punishment. Would not that sin be hateful above all in his eyes, if he had any right feeling? … But suppose the son made light of it, and used it as encouragement to walk in the same path. Is it not just that a still more severe punishment should fall on that son?
So what let them ignore prophet after prophet? They assumed their standing with God could never be lost. One writer says that same false confidence lives on.
He shows them that their boast in an unbroken line of national privilege was an empty trust. The Jews held this false confidence as strongly as anyone else in Christendom ever has. The delusion was as destructive to them as it will be to Christendom. Nothing is more certain to bring destruction on Christendom than the idea of a security that cannot fail.
- Early — God rose up early and sent prophet after prophet. The phrase He repeats measures His love.
- Refused — Not hearing was a choice. They pulled away the shoulder, stopped the ear, hardened the neck.
- Obedience — He asked for obedience, not offerings to cover stubborn wickedness.
- Accumulated — Despised grace leaves no one neutral. Sin piles up from age to age, so sons outdo their fathers.
- Exhausted — When God has used every means of calling to repentance, the judgment His patience held back falls.
And thou shalt speak all these words unto them, but they will not hearken unto thee; and thou shalt call unto them, but they will not answer thee.
God tells Jeremiah in advance how the people will treat his preaching. He must say every word, and no one will listen or answer. That raises a hard question. Why keep speaking to people who have already decided not to hear?
These words close a message Jeremiah gave at the temple gate. The chapter has already shown what kind of hearers stood there. One writer sums up the gap between what they said and what they did.
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 missed standing before the Lord in "This house which is called by My name." They even thought God had rescued them so they could go on in their detestable practices (v.10). They had every appearance of godliness. They even met together in the place of God's choice. But what about their actual behavior? How much injustice, oppression and idolatry? Their actions contradicted what they claimed to be. So judgment would come upon them and upon their temple.
The chapter itself shows why no reply would come. One writer gathers up what the people had become.
They went backward and not forward. Truth had vanished from their mouth. They had become the generation of His wrath. Their evil practices silenced the voice of gladness. Judgment must fall on them from the Lord, who had called to them so often.
A message sent to deaf ears is not God losing patience. One writer places this chapter in a long line of renewed appeals that ended with the sending of the Son.
In His goodness, God has kept renewing His testimony. In His patience, He has sent His prophets. He rose up early, as it is said, to send them until there was no remedy (see Jer. 7). Last of all, He sent His own Son.
A message that will be refused is still not a death notice. The same writer shows Jeremiah doing two things at once, and states the principle about repentance and a sentence already announced.
And Jeremiah (chapters 7-14, and in other places) does exactly what Peter does. By his prophetical knowledge he says plainly that the people and the vessels of the temple would go into Babylon. At the same time he urges the people to repent, and says that by doing so they would be spared. And here is the principle. When Jehovah had pronounced the condemnation of a people or of a city, if that people or that city repented of its wickedness, He would turn away from the judgment He had pronounced (Jer. 18:7-11).
God warns Jeremiah in advance that no one will respond. That removes the one thing servants lean on. One writer, describing the same discouragement in a servant, separates judging work by its results from judging it by the Master's word.
This was a moment for that particular discipline in a servant's life. When it works, it lets him carry on his service whatever the results. Most people judge service by its results: good results mean it worked, poor results mean it did not. But the real servant must keep his eye only on his Master's word and leave the result to Him.
Trusting a sacred building while ignoring the One named over it is not the fault of one nation only. One writer draws the same line to those who now bear God's name.
Corrupt Christendom will be judged no less than corrupt Judaism was. In God's own thought, His house is "the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth" (1 Tim. 3:15). It is marked by the mystery of godliness, seen perfectly expressed in our Lord Jesus Christ Himself — God manifested in the flesh. When the truth is falsified and true godliness is gone, what can come but judgment from God? And all the more so if this false thing bears His holy Name.
- Patience first. God sent prophet after prophet until there was no remedy. This verse stands at the end of that long patience, not at the start of His anger.
- Profession exposed. The hearers claimed the temple as theirs while living in injustice and idolatry. That double life brought judgment on both the people and the building.
- Ears already closed. They went backward, not forward, and truth had vanished from their mouth. The silence shows what the hearers are, not what the message lacks.
- Speak anyway. The Master's word measures the servant, not the results. That is what keeps him going when no success is promised.
- Mercy still open. Even while announcing Babylon, Jeremiah calls for repentance. When God has pronounced a sentence, repentance turns it away.
And thou shalt say unto them, This is the nation which hath not hearkened unto the voice of Jehovah their God, nor received correction; fidelity is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
God tells Jeremiah what to say once the preaching has run its course, and it is a verdict rather than an appeal. The hardest words come last: truth itself has died out, and the question is how a nation reaches the point where honesty has no home even in its speech.
One writer finds the same spirit in Jerusalem just before it fell, and in a church that thinks it needs nothing.
A similar spirit prevailed among the people in Jerusalem just before its destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. Those who refuse "correction" are claiming by that refusal to be all they should be... The same thing meets us in Revelation 3, since Laodicea is so rich as to have need of nothing, and therefore no need of correction. So again we have to remind ourselves of our own danger here. It grows sharper as we draw near to the end of the church's history.
The verse closes a passage about sacrifices. God's first claim on this people was never their offerings.
He brands their sacrifices as worthless. He gave no command concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices in the day He brought them out of Egypt... When the Lord first led them out of Egypt, He gave them no laws about sacrifices, but asked obedience. They did not listen; nor did they in Jeremiah's day. It is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord, and does not receive correction.
Truth did not perish because the religion had stopped. It died while the temple still stood and the ceremonies still ran, and while every layer of society shared the guilt.
All this shows how far it is possible for men to go with an outward profession of piety. Every section of the community indulged in evil of almost every kind. Kings, princes, priests, prophets and people were all guilty before God, yet they trusted in "the temple of Jehovah." They imagined, with no ground for it, that nothing could harm them as long as the temple was in Jerusalem. Jehovah's word was nothing to them; they did not care for the honour of His Name, truth had perished, and only an empty form remained.
Another writer traces the same backward movement, and where it ends:
They went backward and not forward. Truth had perished from their mouth. They had become the generation of His wrath. Their evil practices silenced the voice of gladness. Judgment must fall on them from the Lord, who had called to them so often.
Keeping a form after the reality has gone is not only an ancient failure. One writer treats it as a standing human tendency, and a trap the devil is happy to use.
There has always been a strong tendency in the human mind to keep forms going when the power is gone. Power may clothe itself in a certain form, and as long as the form is the expression of the power, it is all right and good. But the danger lies in going on with the mere outward form without a single particle of inward power. So it was with Israel of old, and so it is with the professing Church now. We all have to watch against this trap of the devil. He will use a positive ordinance of God as a means of deceiving the soul and shutting out God altogether.
A verdict on the nation was not a verdict on every person in it. In the same dark years, God kept His eye on the few who listened.
In the last days of the kings of Judah, when the nation had turned away from Jehovah, there were still those He took notice of... The divine record has kept the names of the princes. They were afraid when they heard the word of the Lord, and they pleaded with the king not to burn the scroll. The record also commends the sons of Jonadab, the son of Rechab, in that evil day, because they obeyed their father's commandment. It was a day marked by gross disobedience, and simple obedience has its reward from God.
- Refusal. To refuse correction is to claim you are already all you should be. That was the spirit of Jerusalem before it fell, and of Laodicea.
- Obedience. When God brought them out of Egypt, He asked for obedience, not sacrifices. Without it, their offerings were worthless.
- Decay. Kings, princes, priests, prophets and people were all guilty. They still trusted the temple, and they moved backward, not forward.
- Emptiness. Truth perished and only a form was left. Keeping the form after the power has gone traps the professing Church too, not just Israel.
- Exception. In that same evil day God recorded the names of those who trembled at His word. Simple obedience has its reward from Him.