Why does God command, "Obey my voice, and I will be your God" (Jeremiah 7:23)?

Verses 21-28. 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 upon this verse (22) a puerile argument to prove that the law of sacrifices was not given by Moses, but introduced many centuries later. When the Lord first led them out of Egypt, He gave them no laws as to sacrifices, but asked obedience. They harkened not; nor did they in Jeremiah's day. It is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord, nor receiveth correction.

Let us now trace other parts of scripture. In Exodus the word of the Lord to Moses is, "Thus shalt thou say, Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you unto myself; now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed," etc. And all the people answered together, "All that the Lord hath spoken we will do." I speak not here of their competency to fulfil their undertaking, but of the principle of obedience - the only principle on which God could deal with man, or man walk with God.

So, in the blessing of Abraham in Genesis 22, the Lord closes with this - "Because thou hast obeyed my voice." And Jeremiah takes up the word of the Lord to Israel by Moses (chap. 7:22), "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 and sacrifices; 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."

The rest of Jeremiah 7 (21 et seq.) reminds the people that obedience was the claim of Jehovah, not burnt-offerings to hide their transgressions and stiff wickedness, which grew worse and worse as the prophets followed the law. Jeremiah should speak of them; but they were incorrigible idolaters. Jerusalem only dishonoured the Lord and His house, and is therefore called to mourning. As the Lord had rejected the generation of His wrath, so the high places of Tophet in the valley of Hinnom's son should be superseded by the valley of slaughter till Tophet should have no more space for burial, and the carcases of Judah should be meat for birds and beasts; and all joy should cease and the land be desolate.

Now we will go back to the nineteenth chapter of Exodus. "In the third month, when the children of Israel were gone forth out of the land of Egypt, the same day came they into the wilderness of Sinai. And Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself." That was the expression of His own goodness. That was unconditional grace. "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people: for all the earth is mine" (Ex. 19:1, 3-5). There is a condition — obedience — brought in. And now mark, without even waiting to hear what the demands of the law were, as given in chapter 20, look at the blindness that leads Israel to say rashly and boldly, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do" (Ex. 19:8). And what was it? They were to obey His voice. It was quite right that God should make claims, and there is not a man in this hall whose conscience does not tell him that the claims of the law are right. And what does the law tell me? It tells me what I ought to be as a responsible creature of God. It tells me my responsibility to God and my neighbour, and ensures a curse on failure therein. "And all the people answered together, and said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do." Now do you not see their blind folly? They did not even wait to learn the character of the claim that God was going to make, nor the responsibility that they were going to accept. "And the Lord said to Moses, Lo, I come to thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever" (Ex. 19:9). Ah, it was not now face to face work. It was not like the Lord coming down to Abraham and speaking to him as in days gone by. No. I retire, says God. As far as the unfolding of what God is in His nature, save as to holiness and righteousness, the introduction of law was retrogression on God's part. Man could only fail, and then God could only judge.

In the opening verses of the chapter now before us, the Lord recapitulates His actings toward Israel in the following touching and beautiful language: "Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel: Ye have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles' wings, and brought you to myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people: for all the earth is mine. And ye shall be to me a kingdom of priests and an holy nation." (Ver. 3-6) Observe, it is "my voice" and "my covenant." What was the utterance of that "voice?" and what did that "covenant" involve? Had Jehovah's voice made itself heard for the purpose of laying down the rules and regulations of a severe and unbending law-giver? By no means. It had spoken to demand freedom for the captivity — provide a refuge from the sword of the destroyer — to make a way for the ransomed to pass over — to bring down bread from heaven, to draw forth water out of the flinty rock. Such had been the gracious and intelligible utterances of Jehovah's "voice," up to the moment at which "Israel camped before the mount."

Hence therefore, no sooner does God propose to them that they should obey His law as the condition of their blessing at His hands, than they at once accept the terms: "Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people: for all the earth is mine." The result soon appears in their ruin; but Jehovah shows that He knew from the first, before any result appeared, their inability to stand before Him: "Lo," says He to Moses, "I come to thee in a thick cloud, that the people may hear when I speak with thee, and believe thee for ever." But in this chapter, and indeed in the next still more, the people entreat that God's voice should not speak to them any more.

Here, then, at Sinai, He proclaims the principle of law, — obedience as the ground of blessing. He recalls to them the mighty deliverance He had accomplished for them, and the way in which He had sustained and blessed them, and brought them to Himself. And now it was in His heart for them to have them as His own, — from among all the nations, His peculiar treasure. In an earthly place, and not a heavenly, they should be to Him a kingdom of priests (with perpetual right of approach to Himself ), a nation all holy. For this He demands obedience: without it, plainly this access to Himself would be a denial of His nature.

Thus they undertook to fulfil the law as the condition of continuance in relationship to God according to His nature. They must be a "holy nation," to suit His holiness. They would be a holy nation if they obeyed His voice, and so, as a "kingdom of priests," have continual access to Himself.

Being the recipients of such marvelous grace from God, Israel was surely responsible to Him. God therefore addresses them on the basis of their responsibility. If they would obey God's voice and would keep the covenant that God was now establishing with them, then they would be His special treasure above all the nations (v. 5) and “a kingdom of priests,” a holy nation, that is, sanctified above all others.

Verses 1-15. 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 at these gates to worship Jehovah." Their worship was but external. They trusted in the temple of the Lord, as if with the house itself some kind of a blessing was connected and the house would shield them from disaster. Micah gives the same delusion of the apostate people: "Yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, is not the LORD among us? no evil can come upon us" (Micah 3:11). Such a false trust in ordinances and outward worship is only too evident in Christendom also. The masses of unsaved people with their religious observances think it is a protection and insures the Lord's help and blessing. They trusted in lying words. They were thieves, murderers, adulterers, perjurers and idolators, and they thought if they go to the house of the LORD they would be delivered from these abominations. The Lord calls upon them to amend their ways and their doings, to work a better righteousness. They had made His house a den of robbers. This verse (verse 11) was quoted by our Lord in Matt. 21:13. He tells them of the fate of Shiloh when it was overthrown on account of the wickedness of Israel; such would be the fate of the temple (Psa. 78:60). They would be cast out as the whole seed of Ephraim had been cast out.