Jeremiah: Courageous Prophet 09/11/2021

In this blog, I want to look at Jeremiah in action and I want to emphasise his courage. It must have taken considerable strength of character to do what he did as recorded in chapter 7 of Jeremiah's prophecy. Read through the chapter for yourself and look at two aspects in particular.

1. His audience and the location of his preaching.

2. The content of his message from the Lord

Jeremiah's audience and where he was directed to address his own people. Jeremiah was instructed to stand at the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim an unpopular message to his fellow countrymen as they entered the temple. Maybe you might imagine that they would be receptive to his message - after all they are going to worship the Lord, so you might imagine that they would have soft hearts and open ears to the message of God's prophet who is proclaiming God's message. What we saw of the Pharisees would contradict that supposition. As we looked at John's Gospel, we learned that the fiercest opposition to Jesus came from the religious hierarchy in Jerusalem and other places. The Pharisees, in particular, hated Jesus vehemently. You might have expected that the ungodly Roman soldiers or the unscrupulous disloyal tax-collectors or the prostitutes would have been his enemies but surely not the religious people. So it should come as no surprise that away back in Jeremiah's time it was just the same. It was the religious people who were Jeremiah's enemies. These people were coming through the gates to worship the Lord but there was a big problem and verse 4 provides the evidence of this.

Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is Temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD." [Jeremiah 7:4 NIV]

Why were these words repeated three times? What is the significance of the statement these temple-goers were making? It was a chant - in the Hebrew language when something is repeated it is for emphasis (Compare Isaiah 6: 3 - Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty). The people of Judah were treating their attendance at the temple as a sort of talisman or amulet. Amulets are worn by people as a form of protection and defence against the evil around them. A talisman is just the opposite of an amulet; a talisman is a sort of good luck charm which is believed to give more power to the person wearing it. They are generally made of crystals and gemstones. Another form of good luck object is a mascot which people take to a competition to bring them good luck.

In Jeremiah 7, God's chosen people were regarding the temple as little more than a talisman - it would bring them good luck or maybe more of an amulet - it would keep bad luck away from them. The prophet Jeremiah says that they were chanting 'the temple of the Lord'; 'the temple of the Lord'; 'the temple of the Lord' - maybe this is not to be taken literally. It may be more the attitude of their heart and mind rather than them actually chanting these slogans.'

The people of Israel were really thinking that their temple would keep them safe. God had given them the temple and He would never destroy it. They felt superior to other nations round about them. They didn't have a temple. 'God is on our side,' they reckoned. There is a danger that we regard our church like that. We talk about being a 'church member' or being in 'assembly fellowship' so we are better than our neighbours or our workmates. Deep down in our sub-conscious we might go to the family service simply to make sure we have a good week.

Sadly those who were going through the gates as they made their way to the temple were even saying that as long as they attended the temple, it did not matter what kind of life they lived. We will find out what sins they were committing in the next section.

The content of the message from the Lord. Jeremiah was preaching a message of repentance - God wanted them to really appreciate their sin and to change their ways. Although they were attending the temple supposedly to worship the Yahweh, the One God, they were also worshipping other gods (verse 6) and they were burning incense to Baal - this was the god they particularly worshipped. Some have thought that this Baal was the male god, the most important god of the heathen nations in the region around Israel and Judah (there was a goddess named Ashtoreth). It has been suggested that Baal was the god of the sun and Ashtoreth was the goddess of the moon. But this is not certain. What is not disputed is that the worship of Baal was a predominant feature of the nation of Israel from the time they left Egypt right up till the time they were taken into captivity. This was deeply offensive to Yahweh or Jehovah, the One God. The first of the ten commandments was, "You shall have no other gods before me." [Exodus 20:3 NIV] We may not worship Baal, but do we engage in a form of worship on a Sunday and then spend the rest of the week worshipping the gods that our neighbours worship?

But there were other sinful practices which God instructed Jeremiah to condemn utterly.

• Not protecting those who could not protect themselves - the widows, orphans and foreigners (God is a God of justice) [Jeremiah 7:6]

• Not providing proper justice - 'shedding innocent blood.' This might include other forms of character assassination such as gossip and slander. [Jeremiah 7:6]

• Stealing [Jeremiah 7:9]

• Murder [Jeremiah 7:9]

• Adultery [Jeremiah 7:9]

• Perjury - taking bribes to pervert justice [Jeremiah 7:9]

Notice that God is a God of justice. There is a strong emphasis on the failure of the leaders to deliver justice to the people. The message from God through the mouth of Jeremiah utterly condemned the conduct of the people. Jeremiah described the temple as a 'den of robbers,' because the people thought that they could behave in whatever way they liked as long as they had the temple there to keep them safe (Jeremiah 17:10-11). God warned them that they were going to be punished for their sin and disobedience.

‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: My anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place—on man and beast, on the trees of the field and on the crops of your land—and it will burn and not be quenched.

[Jeremiah 7:20 NIV]

God is clearly angry with His own people and He is going to act in judgement. There is strong hint of the devastation which would come when the Babylonians would attack - the devastation would affect the landscape and agriculture of Judah and its inhabitants and livestock. There are other chapters of the prophecy where there is more detail (see chapter 14, for example. In chapter 7, Jeremiah emphasises that the devastation and suffering will be as a result of God's anger. Notice the phrases - 'My anger and wrath will be poured out on this place," and 'it (meaning the fire of God's wrath) will burn and not be quenched.'

Jeremiah's prophecy does not make for light reading and not just because there are passages which are difficult to understand. The overwhelming message is that God is a God of righteous judgement. He cannot tolerate sin and disobedience. He cannot overlook sin. This must have been a hard message for the prophet to deliver to his own people - but Jeremiah was faithful to God and delivered God's message without compromise. This example is valid for us today - we should not seek to water down the claims of the Gospel - which is a message of good news but it is based on the need for repentance for sin and faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross to pay the price for our sins.

Picture by Maxim Tajer on Unsplash. Fire represents God's holiness and his wrath against sin.