Surely the Lord would protect his own Temple…
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand at the gate of the Lord’s house and there proclaim this message: ‘Hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the Lord. This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!”’” (Jeremiah 7:1-3)
This is Jeremiah’s famous ‘Temple Sermon’. It is one of the most important declarations in his recorded ministry. It summarises the moral and spiritual state of the nation during the reign of King Jehoiakim, about the year 604 BC, before the Babylonian invasion of the land in 598 BC.
Challenging the National Belief System
Jeremiah was told to stand at the gate of the Temple, probably at the time of a major festival when crowds would be flocking to the Temple to witness traditional religious practices, which Jeremiah had already said were useless. The word of the Lord was “Your burnt offerings are not acceptable; your sacrifices do not please me” (Jer 6:20).
This was a major challenge, not merely to the religious establishment based at the Temple, but to the whole belief system of the nation. The belief in the inviolability of the Temple was a tradition that went back to the time of King Solomon and the Temple’s dedication. When he had completed building the Temple, Solomon called the whole nation to an assembly in Jerusalem where he declared that God had promised his father David that a temple would be built for the name of the Lord.
Solomon then offered a prayer of dedication, asking that when prayer is directed towards the Temple it would be heard by God and petitions would be granted. God’s response was “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a temple for sacrifices” (2 Chron 7:12).
The belief in the inviolability of the Temple was a tradition that went back to the time of King Solomon.
This was accompanied by the pledge: “If my people who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there for ever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.”
If…
The belief became established that the presence of God in the Temple guaranteed its defence against all enemies. This was reinforced in the time of the 8th Century BC Prophet Isaiah, who declared: “This is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: he will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it for my sake and for the sake of David my servant!” (Isa 37:33-35).
This tradition was celebrated in the Psalms sung in the Temple, such as, “For the Lord has chosen Zion, he has desired it for his dwelling: this is my resting place for ever and ever; here I will sit enthroned” (Psa 132:13-14). But the Temple priests and prophets in Jeremiah’s time failed to notice the previous verse in this Psalm, which imposed a condition, “If your sons keep my covenant and the statutes I teach them…”.
The Temple authorities also failed to recognise that the whole moral and spiritual situation in the nation was very different in Isaiah’s lifetime. When King Hezekiah received a threatening letter from Sennacherib, the Assyrian Emperor, insulting the God of Israel, both the King and the Prophet Isaiah spread the letter before the Lord in the Temple and cried out in prayer. Their prayer of faith was answered: “Then the angel of the Lord went out and put to death 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp” (Isa 37:36).
No doubt the Royal Temple authorities advising King Jehoiakim remembered what God had done to the Assyrian army and they were convinced that the same would happen to the Babylonian army. They were utterly convinced that God would never allow his presence in the Temple to be violated by a heathen army.
The Temple authorities were utterly convinced that God would never allow his presence in the Temple to be violated by a heathen army.
The Terms of the Covenant
Jeremiah’s great burden was that he appeared to be the only one who recognised that the promises given at the time of David and Solomon, and upheld during the time of Hezekiah, were made within the context of the covenantal relationship between the children of Israel and God.
The terms of the covenant went right back to the assembly at Mount Sinai when Moses received both the Ten Commandments and the Torah (Deut 4:10). From that time God’s protection was dependent upon the faithfulness of the nation to keep the commandments and to hold fast to his teaching. Jeremiah knew that the first commandment was absolute loyalty to God: “You shall have no other gods before me” (Deut 5:7).
Idolatry was to be seen everywhere in Judah - not only in the countryside where people worshiped the local Baals, but there were idols to foreign gods at every street corner in Jerusalem. Even worse than that; there was idolatry to be found in the Temple itself.
Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon dismissed the popular chant, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” With devastating precision, he outlined the six sins of Jerusalem that were offensive to God which abrogated the protection that God had promised if the nation remained faithful to his commandments and his teaching. God’s blessing, his protection and prosperity, were all dependent upon the faithfulness of the nation and its leaders in keeping the covenantal relationship established in the time of Moses.
God has not changed! What was true in the time of Jeremiah is still true today. But will the nations learn the lessons of history that are clearly recorded for our benefit?
This article is part of a series on the life and ministry of the Prophet Jeremiah. Click here for previous instalments.
