This message demonstrates a structure that is quite typical of many others in the Book of Jeremiah (cf. 11:1-17; 17:19-27; 34:8-22). First there is an explanation of Yahweh's will (word, law; vv. 1-7), then a description of Israel's departure from it (vv. 8-12), and then an announcement of divine judgment (vv. 13-15). A similar message, or the same message in abbreviated form, appears later in the book (26:1-6).163
7:1-2 Jeremiah received another message from the Lord. He was to go to the gate of the temple in Jerusalem and deliver a prophecy in Yahweh's name to the Judahites who entered to worship. This was probably the New or Eastern temple gate (cf. 26:10; 36:10).
". . . during the pilgrimage festivals in the temple, the pilgrims were greeted at the temple gates by a servant of the institution, who asked them to examine their moral lives prior to passing through the gates and participating in the worship (see Pss 15, 24 . . .). If Jeremiah assumed his role of preacher at the gate' in an unofficial capacity, then it is possible that the custom had lapsed at that time (as seems entirely probable from the substance of the sermon) and was consciously resumed by the prophet to his own moral and spiritual ends."164
7:3 The prophet was to announce that sovereign Yahweh, the God of Israel, promised that if His people would repent (change their way of life and their actions) He would allow them to continue to dwell in their land.
7:4 The people were not to assume that just because they had the temple the Lord would keep them safe. Many of the Judahites believed that the existence of the temple guaranteed Jerusalem's inviolability. God's supernatural deliverance of Jerusalem in Hezekiah's reign probably accounts for some of this feeling (2 Kings 18:13-19:37). Furthermore, Josiah had glorified the temple during his reforms.
"They [these Judeans] would argue that God had chosen Zion as his earthly dwelling place (cf. Ps. 132:13-14) and had promised to David and his descendants a kingdom for ever (2 Sam. 7:12-13). In the light of such promises it seemed to be a natural conclusion that God would not allow either his dwelling place (the temple) or his chosen ruler to come to any harm."165
"The temple building itself had become the people's object of worship, replacing the Personof the building."166
7:5-6 Jeremiah proceeded to explain God's promise (v. 3). He listed three examples to illustrate what God wanted, two related to actions toward fellow Israelites and one related to actions toward God. True repentance meant dealing justly with one another, namely, refraining from oppressing the vulnerable such as strangers, orphans, and widows. It also meant not putting people to death without proper justification.167Godward, repenting meant not worshipping other gods, which the people were doing to their own ruin.
7:7 If the people did these things, then Yahweh would allow them to remain in the land that He had given their forefathers as a permanent possession (cf. v. 3; Gen. 12:7).
7:8 The prophet also explained what the Lord meant by trusting in deceptive words (v. 4), which they had been trusting in but to no profit.
7:9 The people were committing robbery, murder, adultery, perjury, offering sacrifices to Baal, and following other foreign idols. These were all violations of Israel's law (Exod. 20:3-5, 13-16).
7:10 The Judahites would commit these sins and then come to the temple, stand before Yahweh, and conclude that He had forgiven them. They would go through this ritual only so they could go out and sin again. They apparently felt that they had an indulgence that permitted them to go on sinning (cf. Eccles. 8:11).168
"They flee to the temple for protection, thinking to be safe there, believing that participation in the formal rituals of the cult would somehow deliver them from the Judge. But the temple was no sheltering place for covenant-breakers."169
The house that was called by Yahweh's name is a description of the temple that stresses that it was the building with which He associated His personal presence uniquely.
7:11 By treating the temple this way the people had turned it into a den of robbers, a gathering place for those who stole from others and God, and violated God's word with impunity (cf. Matt. 21:13; Mark 11:17; Luke 19:46).
"They have profaned God's house by making it a place of retreat between acts of crime . . ."170
The Lord assured the people that He Himself had seen what they were doing; they had not deceived Him.
7:12 Yahweh told the people to go to Shiloh to see what He had done to another town where He had met with the Israelites in former years (cf. Josh. 18:1; Judg. 18:31; 1 Sam. 1-4). In Jeremiah's day it lay in ruins.171Yahweh had allowed Shiloh to be destroyed because of the wickedness of the Israelites. Therefore Jeremiah's hearers should not think that He would preserve the temple from destruction in spite of their sins. The temple was not a talisman that guaranteed their safety.172
7:13 The people had been sinning in the ways just enumerated for a long time. The Lord had sent them prophets and leaders who had warned them from the earliest days of their departure from Him, but they had refused to respond.173
7:14 Consequently, the Lord promised to destroy the temple and Jerusalem as He had destroyed Shiloh. He would do this even though the temple bore His name, His people trusted in it, and He had given it to them and their fathers.
7:15 Furthermore, the Lord would drive the Judahites from His sight in the land as He had driven their brethren in the Northern Kingdom from His sight, by sending them into captivity.
