Approaching studies within Jeremiah, instead of trying to follow chronologically, which is difficult with this book, for roughly the first half of the book, the first 29 chapters, we will instead only produce studies within their appropriate chapters, theming them as follows:

• Jeremiah’s Calling                     Ch.1
• Jeremiah’s Main Message        Ch.2,3,5,7,21,22
• Jeremiah’s Action Parables      Ch.13,18,19,27
• Jeremiah’s Opposition              Ch.11,12, 14,18,20,26,28
• Jeremiah’s Message of Hope   Ch.3,23,24,25,29

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, and the particular theme, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Jeremiah’s Main Message: 4. False Assurance

Jer  7:1-11

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “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. ³ 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. ⁴ 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!” ⁵ If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, ⁶ if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, ⁷ then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. ⁸ But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.

⁹ “‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury,^[a] burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.

A. Find Out:

1. Where was Jeremiah to stand? v.2a
2. Why would people be coming? v.2b
3. What was he to call them to do? v.3
4. What were they relying upon? v.4
5. What 4 things were they to do? v.5-7
6. What were they doing? v.9,10

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise what these people were doing?
2. Who were these people?
3. I what were they trusting?

C. Comment:

In this next instruction from the Lord, Jeremiah is to go specifically to the temple in Jerusalem to speak to the religious people who were coming to worship, the people whose hearts should have been the most open to hear and respond to the Lord.  His call is basically to put their lives right.

These people had a show of religion but things were very wrong in their lives.  They were relying on the fact that  the temple was God’s special building and they believed that nothing could ever happen to it, so as long as they went to it, everything would be all right. They had yet to learn that God was more concerned with the truth and with righteousness  than He was with a building.

It’s very easy for any of us, as Christians, to know that there are things wrong with our lives, but do nothing about it because we believe “it will be all right” (Satan’s lie in Gen 3:4). The Bible tells us that Jesus’ death will not avail for us if we deliberately sin, and God disciplines those He loves and He will NOT therefore, just let the situation carry on, but will bring correction (Read Heb 12:10). God loves us so much that He won’t let us carry on and get away with it!

D. Application:

1. Ask the Lord to help you face wrongs He wants you to deal with.
3. Thank Him that even though He disciplines, He still loves us and corrects us for our own good (even if it doesn’t feel like it!).

Jeremiah’s Main Message: “Remember Shiloh!”

Jer 7:12-19

¹² “‘Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. ¹³ While you were doing all these things, declares the Lord, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. ¹⁴ Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. ¹⁵ I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.’

¹⁶ “So do not pray for this people nor offer any plea or petition for them; do not plead with me, for I will not listen to you. ¹⁷ Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? ¹⁸ The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes to offer to the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to arouse my anger. ¹⁹ But am I the one they are provoking? declares the Lord. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?

A. Find Out:

1. What place were they to remember ? v.12
2. What had God done again and again ? v.13
3. What was the Lord going to do? v.14,15
4. Why? v.12c, 13c
5. What were they NOT to do? v.16
6. What were they now doing? v.18,19

B. Think:

1. What sin were they committing now?
2. What had happened at Shiloh?
3. Why were they to remember that now?

C. Comment:  

 In continuing to challenge the people about their superstitious belief about the Temple, the Lord goes on to remind them what had happened at Shiloh where the Ark of God had first been housed in a tabernacle in Joshua’s days. Then in Eli’s day, while Samuel was a young boy, God had allowed the Philistines to carry it away. The fact that it was a “holy place” didn’t protect it while the people were sinning against God.  So the Lord reminds them of this and says the same will happen here in respect of the Temple.

In the years to come the Temple was completely destroyed when the Babylonians came as God’s judgement. Even the Temple was not a place of refuge when the people went on rejecting God. There is no place of safety for those who continually reject God and refuse to hear Him, however “religious” they might be!  The fact that the people were still doing “religious things”, such as praying was not going to help them.

Some people often think that religious observance will save them: it won’t!  Only trusting in Jesus’ death on Calvary and allowing Him to be Lord of our lives will save us. We pray and read the Bible and meet with the church BECAUSE we are saved not as a means to saving us.

D. Application?

1. Thank the Lord that He so clearly warned the people.
2. Thank Him that He does not bring judgement until He has warned and warned again His people.