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"Yahveh spoke to Jeremiah saying: Hear the Word of Yahveh, all you
of Judah, that enter in at these gates to worship Yahveh - Thus says Yahveh: Amend your ways and your doings, and you will
remain to dwell in this place. Trust not in 'false words', saying: 'The temple of Yahveh, the temple of Yahveh, the temple
of Yahveh." Jeremiah 7:1-4
Yahveh's primary interest is not in receiving prayers or offerings, rather He wants
moral and just people that will represent Him properly, primarily by the way they act (and interact) with one another. Sacrifices
and prayers, though important, only become significant when righteousness and justice are established.
The First Temple stood for four hundred years, and everyone was sure that it would never be destroyed. How
could it be - it was Yahveh's House. Israel experienced some very difficult times during those four hundred years, including
military conquests by Egypt, Aram, and Ashur (II Chronicles 12:1-4, 32:1-4), yet, no matter how angry Yahveh had been with
them, and no matter how bad they were defeated, the Temple itself was never destroyed. Just as Yahveh's choice of the nation
of Israel was eternal, so too was the existence of His House - The Temple, the people reasoned.
"Amend your ways and your doings, and you will remain to dwell in this place. Trust
not in 'false words', saying: 'The temple of Yahveh, the temple of Yahveh, the temple of Yahveh." Jeremiah 7:1-4
To merely suggest that Yahveh's House could be destroyed would be considered 'heretical'. When Jeremiah
raised this possibility, he was immediately accused as a 'false prophet', tried and sentenced to death by the high Jewish
court that sat in the Temple courtyard. (Jeremiah chapter 26)
Jeremiah refers to what had become a popular slogan "The Temple of Yahveh" - and his repetition of this
phrase three times indicates that his message stood in direct contrast to the people’s belief.
"Go to My place which was in Shiloh (referring to the Tabernacle), where I caused My
name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it - because of the wickedness of My people Israel. And now, because you
have done all these bad things, and I spoke unto you but you heard not, and I called you, but you answered not; Therefore
I will do unto the house whereupon My name is called, wherein you trust, and unto the place which I gave to you and to your
fathers, as I have done to Shiloh." Jeremiah 7:12-15
Yahveh's warning was very specific and clear, His House - the Temple - will be destroyed if the people do
not repent, just as the Tabernacle in Shiloh was destroyed several hundred years earlier.
Jeremiah mentioned Shiloh as precedent to prove that the House of God can be destroyed - contrary to what
the people were claiming - that Yahveh's House could not be destroyed. Instead of heeding his rebuke, the people attacked
his credibility - which ultimately led to his trial (for this specific prophecy), as described in chapter 26.
What was there in Jeremiah's rebuke that made the people so angry?
"If you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice
between a man and his neighbor; if you oppress not the stranger, the orphan, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in
this place, neither walk after other gods to your demise; then you will be able to dwell in this place, in the land that I
gave to your fathers, for ever and ever." Jeremiah 7:5-7
Jeremiah continues his rebuke:
"Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely (the last five commandments)
and offer unto Baal, and walk after other gods... And then you come and stand before Me in this house, whereupon My name is
called, and say: 'We are saved!' – in order that you may do all these abominations? Has this house, whereupon My name
is called, become a den of robbers in your eyes?" Jeremiah 7:8-11
Jeremiah first mentioned the sins "between man and his neighbor", to emphasize how Yahveh dispises
this attitude, even telling Jeremiah not to pray for them:
"Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither
make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you." Jeremiah 7:16
"I spoke 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 - rather this thing I commanded them, saying: 'Hearken unto
My voice, and I will be your Elohim, and you shall be My people; and walk you in all the way that I command you, that it may
be well with you." Jeremiah 7:21-24
Yahveh's primary interest is not in receiving prayers or offerings, rather He wants
moral and just people that will represent Him properly, primarily by the way they act (and interact) with one another. Sacrifices
and prayers, though important, only become significant when righteousness and justice are established.
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