Jeremiah 7:3–4

In chapter 2:1-2 he must go and cry out in the hearing of Jerusalem. In chapter 7:1-2 the test becomes harder. Now he must stand in the gate of the Lord's house and call every man of Judah who enters those gates to worship to hear the word of the Lord.

The Greek word comes from a verb meaning 'to amend, make right.' So we get the 'time of reformation,' or 'setting things right.' The prophets raised this thought, and the kingdom will fulfil it. It means putting things on earth in order according to the mind of God. Christianity looks forward to this. Heb. 9:10. The same Greek verb appears in the Greek Old Testament at Isa. 16:5; Isa. 62:7; Jer. 7:3, 5.

In Jeremiah 7 he begins a new theme. He takes up the temple itself, and shows that the flood of evil in Judah had polluted the very sanctuary of Jehovah. What is more, while they stood in danger, they were trusting not in God nor in His word. They trusted lying words of their own: that the outward forms would be enough to hold back the Gentile power that was destroying them.

It is very sad when God's people trust the symbols of God's presence instead of God Himself… They trusted in the temple, not in God. If they had trusted Him, their ways would have matched that faith… The presence of the ark did not save Israel, and neither did the presence of the temple. Their ways did not please the God they claimed to serve.

God must have reality in His people. Grace was never meant to weaken the moral ways of God, and it never can be allowed to. In fact, grace is the only source of power that makes those ways precious to us and gives us firmness in walking by them… There is no more destructive trap than pleading that privilege while you sin and keep on sinning. God's righteous government of His people is as certain as the mercy that chose and blessed them. Let them forget neither!

There are two different conditions in which we may call on God. We may call on Him in deep sorrow over our sin, and He hears us. Or we may call on Him with a good conscience and a heart that does not condemn us, and He hears us… Both stand in sharp contrast to the indifference and hardness of heart that would dare to count on God while living in open disobedience and in unrighteousness day by day… To imagine that we can trust God while our feet walk the path of sin is nothing less than shocking contempt for God.

Jeremiah's prophecies are more conditional than any other, except Jonah's. In fact they state their condition even more plainly than Jonah's did. Jonah did not put the condition into words: "If you repent, God will spare Nineveh." But Jeremiah does state it: "If you repent, Jehovah will turn back from what He means to do."

People claim they are safe most loudly when they pay least attention to God's sovereign grace and to their own duty to bear true witness to Him. The Jew told himself that the temple must stand by God's power, whatever the people were like. So Christendom, fallen and still falling, made claims that matched how far it had sunk: that it can never fail and never err, though that belongs to God alone.

In Jeremiah 7 the prophet begins on a new theme. He takes up the temple itself. He shows that the tide of evil in Judah had completely polluted the very sanctuary of the LORD. In the middle of their danger, they were not trusting God or His word. They were trusting lying words of their own: that the outward forms would be defence enough against the destroying Gentile power.

Their worship was only external. They trusted in the temple of the Lord, as if the house itself carried some kind of blessing and would shield them from disaster. Micah describes the same delusion in the apostate people: "Yet they lean on the LORD and say, 'Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us'" (Micah 3:11). They trusted in lying words. They were thieves, murderers, adulterers, perjurers and idolaters. They thought that going to the house of the LORD would deliver them from these abominations.

A hypocritical group may "enter these gates to worship the LORD," trusting in deceptive words — "This is the temple of the LORD" (Jer. 7:4). But such sayings did not take the place of inward reality before God. It only made their case worse.

God must have reality in His people. Grace was never meant to weaken the moral ways of God, and it never can. In fact, grace is the only spring of power that makes those ways precious to us and gives us firmness in walking in them. No snare is more destructive than the idea that people who sin, and go on sinning, can plead their privilege. God's righteous government of His people is as certain as the mercy which chose and blessed them: let them forget neither! "For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow ... then I will let you dwell in this place."

How empty and foolish the idea, that God would keep His seat where His people insulted Him to His face! "Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel."

That would be exactly what they did in Jeremiah's time, when judgment was coming, and it is what Christendom is doing now. They said, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD," and, "the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise" — while they were all on their way to Babylon. The faithfulness of God was unchanging. But the moment they used it to prop themselves up in a place of evil, it became the very ground of their ruin.