Obedience, Not Sacrifice

I need you to listen to me.

I heard, overheard, a mom say that one day to her son.

And the tone of her voice told me that what she wanted from her son

was not merely for him to hear her, what she is saying,

but to listen in the sense of obey.

That her patience running thin, hearing wasn't enough,

and it was time for him now to do what the mom was telling him to do.

And in Hebrew, the word listen, in a similar way, has two senses.

It can mean hearing something, an auditory function,

but it also means to obey, to listen.

And Jeremiah here plays on that word skillfully to drive home the point

that God wants his people to listen to him

rather than paying lip service to him.

That's really the main point of this passage,

that God wants us to listen to him rather than pay lip service to him.

And the word listen, hear, obey throughout this passage

are all the same word in the original language.

And so using that, there's this kind of flow.

First, God calls disobedient Judah to listen,

verse 15 verses of chapter 7.

Then God says, I will not listen to disobedient Judah,

chapter 7, verse 16 to 26.

And at the end, it says that disobedient Judah will not listen.

They will continue to not listen to the Lord.

That's kind of the outline that I will follow here.

And so we see here that it's the word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah,

which means it's God's word.

It's the authoritative word that came to him

that he is calling God's people of Judah to listen to and to hear.

And then we see whom the word of God came to,

whom it's directed toward at verse 2.

It says, all you men of Judah who entered these gates to worship the Lord.

So this is referring to men and women who worship the Lord in the temple.

And it's using, it's referring to the worshiper.

So at this point of the chapter, it kind of reads like a psalm, right,

that invites people to come and worship him.

And it sounds good so far because maybe these are the ones that are faithful

who still remain in the land because up to this point,

we've only heard of God's judgment.

But these are people who are coming to worship the Lord.

So so far, it sounds good.

And the worship, the word literally means to prostrate yourself before God,

to bow down to him.

It's an acknowledgment of his superiority,

and it's an act of, it's an expression of total submission to him.

So it's a deeply humbling gesture.

And for that reason, kings of the ancient world,

when they conquered a kingdom, would subject the kings to that treatment.

They would make them bow down and worship,

or bow down and prostrate themselves to them.

And so surely the people who are coming to the temple to do that,

to prostrate themselves in an expression, a gesture of submission to God,

are ones that are faithful to him.

That's what you'd be led to think.

Until we get to verses 3 to 4.

Read verses 3 to 4 with me.

He says,

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel,

amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place.

Do not trust in these deceptive words.

This is the temple of the Lord.

The temple of the Lord.

The temple of the Lord.

Far from commending these worshipers,

God commands them to amend their ways and deeds.

Only then, God says, I will let you dwell in this place.

The designation this place is a little bit unclear.

It's ambiguous.

But later in verse 7, it tells us that this place refers to the land that God gave of old to their fathers forever.

So it's a reference to the promised land of Canaan that stands and represents God's dwelling among them,

his presence with them, his favor toward them.

And apparently there was an often mentioned saying among the people of Judah that fostered this sense of false assurance.

Because when prophets like Jeremiah warned of impending judgment and doom due to their unfaithfulness and sin,

they would say to themselves,

this is the temple of the Lord.

This is the temple of the Lord.

This is the temple of the Lord.

You see that building right there at the heart of Jerusalem?

That's the temple of the Lord.

The very dwelling place of God.

God promised to David and his descendants that they would rule over this kingdom forever.

God lives here with us.

What can possibly go wrong?

What can possibly happen to this place?

Who can possibly harm us?

Stop being paranoid.

This is the temple of the Lord.

Leave us alone.

But God warns them,

do not trust in these deceptive words.

The existence of the temple is no guarantee of the presence of God.

It's not like God was somehow bound physically to Judah because of this temple.

God's dwelling among his people was an act of pure grace on his part.

So for that reason, people were wrong to think that the land was somehow above reproach,

that it's inviolable, that it's their birthright, that they didn't have to be true to God or just toward their neighbors.

All they needed to do was dwell in the land where the temple existed and everything would be fine.

But God challenges that false belief in verses 5 to 7.

Read with me.

It says,

As we saw last week in Jeremiah 5, 1,

the covenant requirements, the requirements that God had for his people entailed being true and faithful to God

and being just toward their neighbors.

And we see here both the horizontal obligation that we have toward one another

and the vertical obligation to God in this requirement that God's laying out again here.

They're to execute justice one with another.

And it's common for sinful people to seek justice only for themselves.

But when God speaks of justice, his mind goes immediately to the weakest and most vulnerable members of a society.

So he says,

If you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place.

The true moral fiber of a society is not tested and seen in the way it treats its strongest members,

in the way it treats its most powerful members,

but in the way it treats its weakest and most disempowered members.

So do the sojourners who have no home find a home among us?

Do the fatherless who have no family find a family among us?

Do the widows who have no one to advocate for them,

who have no champion for them,

find advocates and champions among us?

Have you been careful and fair in your execution of justice so that no innocent blood is shed in this place?

To claim to love God while hating people who are created in the image of God and loved by God is hypocritical.

And that's what God is pointing out here.

Nor can we be just toward our neighbors without being true to God.

Because if we're not spiritually right with God,

we cannot have a reliable moral compass.

Because God is the north point to which our moral compass is supposed to point.

And God is the one for whom we were created and to whom we should be directed.

Without being true and faithful to God,

we will be misled by our blind spots and prejudices

and inevitably will be unjust toward our neighbors.

So God has another conditional statement to that.

And if you do not go after other gods to your own harm,

then I will let you dwell in this place,

in the land that I gave of all to your fathers forever.

Then in verses 8 to 10, God continues to expose the hypocrisy of his people.

He says,

The offenses mentioned in verse 9 are taken directly from the Ten Commandments.

The first half of the Ten Commandments deal with loving God,

and second half of the Ten Commandments deal with loving our neighbors.

And so people of Judah have kept neither of the halves of the Ten Commandments.

They steal from their neighbors.

They murder their neighbors.

They commit adultery with and against their neighbors.

They also swear falsely using the name of God in vain.

They make offerings to Baal instead of bowing down and making offerings to God alone.

They go after other gods that they have not known,

instead of following the very first commandment,

which says,

You shall have no other gods before you.

And the verb to know in Hebrew has covenantal overtones.

It deals with God's enduring and loving and intimate personal relationship that we have with God.

That's why in Amos 3.2,

God says to Israel, his people,

You only have I known of all the families of the earth.

That knowledge refers to covenantal knowledge.

It means that we have a connection to God.

We're committed to him.

That we are supposed to be loyal to him.

Have this binding, enduring relationship with him.

Yet, these people of Judah,

instead of going to the God whom they have known,

the God who knows them,

they have gone after gods that they have not known.

Gods who are no gods at all.

Gods who have done nothing for them.

Gods who have no relationship with them.

Gods to whom they have no obligation.

And yet, they have forsaken the Lord,

their God,

and have gone after gods that they have not known.

The Ten Commandments are represented of the entire Old Testament law.

And so, by specifically charging Judah of breaking the Ten Commandments,

God's charging them really of breaking all the laws.

There isn't a single commandment that they're keeping satisfactorily.

Yet, in spite of all of this,

they have the audacity to enter the house of God,

which is called by his name and say,

we are delivered.

Only then, afterwards,

resume doing all their abominable deeds.

And so, God asks a biting question in verse 11.

Read with me.

Has this house, which is called by my name,

become a den of robbers in your eyes?

Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.

You could hear God's indignation

in his repeated description of the temple as the house,

which is called by my name.

This is not any temple.

This is not any house.

It's a temple that is known by the name of the Lord God,

the one true God.

Yet, these so-called worshippers of Judah

are sinning in every imaginable way.

And they are brazen enough to stand before God

at the temple and take him for a fool.

By doing that, God says,

they are treating the temple like a den of robbers.

That's a really apt metaphor, right?

Because in the ancient world, robbers would commit robberies,

and then they would retreat to a hideout or a safe house,

a cave somewhere,

where they can stay under the radar

until they are no longer being sat out by the authorities

and hunted by the authorities.

And then they would come back,

rear their heads again,

and go back to commit more robberies.

So the people of Judah then are treating the temple like a den of robbers.

They're treating it like a hideout.

When they're out there,

they do all kinds of evil deeds,

and then they come to the temple thinking,

oh, we'll be safe here.

No one will get us here.

This is the temple.

They're saying to themselves,

we're in God's temple performing the required rituals.

What evil can possibly befall us?

But God has a stern warning for them in verse 12.

Go now to my place that was in Shiloh,

where I made my name dwell at first,

and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel.

So Shiloh was a city in the territory of the tribe of Ephraim.

It was the place where the tabernacle,

the dwelling place of God then was set up after the conquest of Canaan in Joshua 18.

And even though Shiloh was a dwelling place of God at that point in Israel's history,

due to Israel's sin,

they were defeated by the Philistines.

The ark of God was captured,

and Shiloh was destroyed,

and it was abandoned and left the heap of ruins.

And God uses that vivid memory that these people still have to tell them,

to use it as a cautionary tale.

He tells them,

go take a look at my old sanctuary,

in Shiloh,

and see for yourself what has happened to it because of Israel's sin.

The fact that God established a dwelling place among them as a place for his name to dwell

did not guarantee their safety and prosperity.

If they want to enjoy the covenant blessings,

they have to keep their end of the covenant obligations

by being faithful to God.

Isn't that an accurate description of our demeanor,

sometimes toward God?

How many times do we presume upon God's grace?

When faced with recurring temptations,

how often do we think to ourselves,

I really shouldn't do this,

but I'm a Christian,

God will forgive me anyway.

And then go on sinning.

After describing a list of sins that God condemns,

Paul says in Romans 2, 2-5,

we know that the judgment of God rightly falls on those who practice such things.

Do you suppose,

O man,

you who judge those who practice such things

and yet do them yourself,

that you will escape the judgment of God?

Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience,

not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance,

but because of your heart and impenitent heart,

you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath

when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

God's grace and forbearance are meant to lead us to repent of our sins,

not to persist in them.

The fact that we acknowledge that we are sinners

and we admit that sin is sin

doesn't make it okay for us to go on sinning.

As people who know that God's righteous judgment will fall upon sinners,

we should take all the more care

to avoid sin rather than presuming on the grace of God.

I'm not saying that God's not going to preserve his saints to the end.

He will.

God will preserve all of his saints to the end

and all the saints will persevere to the end.

But this does not mean that you will be saved

whether you persevere or not.

Every true saint perseveres to the end.

You cannot take that perseverance for granted.

Our perseverance in good works until the end is proof

that we are truly in Christ,

that we really took hold of him in faith

and therefore belong to him.

So our assurance of salvation can't be severed

from our perseverance of faith.

The more you persevere, the more you will be assured.

And the more you're assured in God's grace,

the more you will have the strength to persevere in faith and good works.

Those two things go hand in hand.

And Judah presumed upon the grace of God

and believed that they were beyond judgment.

They believed that the temple guaranteed God's perpetual favor.

And God says to them in verses 13 to 15,

read with me,

Verse 2, remember,

Verse 2, remember,

But now at the end of this section,

first section,

God says,

Though he spoke to them persistently,

they did not listen.

The same word.

God has repeatedly called out to Judah to listen,

but they have not listened.

And for that reason,

in the same way,

the sanctuary in Shiloh,

of the northern kingdom of Israel,

was destroyed,

and Israel was exiled from the promised land,

in the same way,

God will destroy the sanctuary,

the temple in Jerusalem,

and the southern kingdom of Judah

will be exiled from the promised land.

God wants them to listen to him

rather than pay lip service to him.

Jeremiah then transitions to his next point,

that God calls,

that from,

he said that God called disobedient Judah to listen,

but they have refused up to this point.

And the second point is that

God will not listen to disobedient Judah.

God says to Jeremiah in verse 16,

As for you,

do not pray for this people,

or lift up a cry or prayer for them,

and do not intercede with me,

for I will not hear you.

Judah has refused to listen.

They have now gone past the point of no return,

and God says,

I will not listen to you.

I will not hear your intercessory prayers

on their behalf.

That's a fearful thing to hear from God.

You know it's a bad sign, right?

When you're in the middle of a relational conflict,

and you've been going back and forth,

and then all of a sudden,

you don't get anything back.

There's no return texts.

There's no phone calls.

They've cut off communication.

When God says,

I will not hear you,

that means the line of communication

is being cut.

Because Judah has been so stubborn

and unrepentant in their sins,

they've gone past the point of no return.

And of course,

God's assessment of this is perfect,

and he's correct.

Because if we find out later that

even after God's discipline,

even after his judgment falls on them,

and they are exiled out of the promised land,

and after fleeing the Babylonian Empire,

some of them are,

you know,

a remnant is kind of trying to survive in Egypt.

Guess what they're doing?

In Egypt,

they are worshiping the same queen of heaven

that could do nothing to save them.

That's how stubborn

they were in their sin.

Unrepentant they were.

That's what we find in chapter 44.

So God was right.

They were past the point of return,

and God says,

therefore I will not listen to you.

Look at verse 18.

God brings another accusation against him.

He says,

The children gather wood,

the fathers kindle fire,

and the woman ned dough.

Doesn't that sound like such a beautiful portrayal

of a harmonious family?

Right?

They're all working together.

And the Jewish vision for the family

that's basically rooted in the Old Testament

was to see the family as a real mini sanctuary.

See the home as a mini sanctuary

where the father served as a priest-like figure,

and the dinner table was the altar.

And they were supposed to teach their children,

the father and mother,

together.

And so there's this picture of a family

as a sacred unit

that's supposed to preserve

and protect

and pass on the worship of the Lord God.

And so that's kind of what it looks like.

They're harmonious family.

The children gather wood,

the fathers kindle fire,

and the woman ned dough.

But then for what?

That's the kicker at the end.

To make cakes for the queen of heaven.

And they pour drink offerings to other gods

to provoke me to anger.

The queen of heaven is a reference

to the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess

of Astarte or Ishtar,

which may be another name

for the Canaanite goddess Asherah.

Right?

It was an astral deity,

a god associated with the stars,

the heavens,

and hosts of heaven mentioned

in 2 Kings 21 and 23.

And so this,

and during the days of King Manasseh of Judah,

the cult of the queen of heaven

was quite popular,

as we find in 2 Kings.

And archaeologists have actually found

47 molds of cakes

representing a goddess

shaped in the form of a female goddess

from the early 2nd millennium BC.

It's probably the same thing

that's going on here.

There, it's a whole family

working together

to bake these cakes

in the shape of the queen of heaven.

For the queen of heaven.

The worship of Yahweh,

the Lord God,

was meant to be

a whole family affair,

yet instead of maintaining

the worship of the Lord,

the whole households

have sold themselves

to the worship

of the so-called queen of heaven.

And they did this seemingly

to provoke God's anger,

according to verse 18.

But more than provoking God,

it says in verses 19 to 20

that they were provoking themselves.

It is I,

is it I whom they provoke,

declares the Lord.

Is it not themselves

to their own shame?

Therefore thus says the Lord God,

behold,

my anger and my wrath

will be poured out

on this place

upon man and beast,

upon the trees of the field

and the fruit of the ground.

It will burn

and not be quenched.

It says earlier in verse 6,

God said that

going after other gods

was to their own harm.

The worship of the queen of heaven

is to their own shame.

Though God alone

is worthy of worship

and he calls us,

all of us,

all people,

to worship him,

it's not like God

needs us to worship him

so that,

you know,

we can boost his fragile ego.

That's not what's going on,

right?

God's glory itself

in and of itself

is not damaged.

He incurs no loss

or damage to his own glory

because we rebel against him,

refuse to worship him.

He doesn't need us.

It's not to his shame.

Rather,

God says,

it's to Judah's shame.

They're the ones

that will incur tragic loss.

They're the ones

that are doing great injury

to themselves

by not worshiping the Lord

but turning to idols.

And because God created human beings

to represent and rule,

represent God,

represent him

and to rule over the rest of the creation

as his representative,

the sin of humanity

affects all of the created orders.

So God's judgment falls

not just on man

but man and beast.

And it falls on the trees of the field

and the fruit of the ground.

Because God is already determined

to pour out his judgment upon Judah

and it's declared

that he will not listen to them,

he goes on also to negate

the sacrifices

that they were bringing to him.

Read verse 21 with me.

It says,

add your burnt offerings

to your sacrifices

and eat the flesh.

The burnt offerings

were sacrifices

that were entirely devoted to God.

And as such,

they burned the whole thing up.

Nothing remaining.

So there's nothing left

for people to eat.

That's the nature

of a burnt offering

according to Leviticus 1.

Other sacrifices, however,

were to be eaten

by the worshipers afterward.

You don't burn it,

consume it,

all of it.

It was not devoted wholly

to the Lord.

So when God says,

add your burnt offerings

to your sacrifices

and eat the flesh,

God's essentially telling them

that it makes no difference to him.

Your sacrifices

are all the same.

They are altogether worthless.

So keep the burnt offerings

for yourselves.

Eat the flesh.

And he gives his reason

why this is the case

in verses 22 to 23.

For in the day

that I brought them out

of the land of Egypt,

I did not speak to your fathers

or commend them

concerning burnt offerings

and sacrifices.

But this command

I gave them,

obey my voice

and I will be your God

and you shall be my people

and walk in all the way

that I commend you,

that it may be well with you.

But they did not obey

or incline their ear

but walked in their own counsels

and the stubbornness

of their evil hearts

and went backward,

not forward.

As I mentioned

in the beginning,

the word obey,

here is the same Hebrew word

that's been repeated

up to this point.

Hear, listen.

God has repeatedly commanded them

to listen to his voice

but they have stubbornly refused

and now God rejects

their sacrifices.

What God is referring to

is this.

After rescuing Israel

out of their slavery in Egypt

and when he came to Mount Sinai

and gave the Ten Commandments

from Mount Sinai

in Exodus 20,

at that point,

God didn't give any requirements

and commands about sacrifices.

All he was requiring of them

was to obey him,

to follow the Ten Commandments.

That's what he did

in Exodus 20.

It was only later

after that covenant

was already established,

later in Exodus 24,

that God gave detailed provisions

for how to maintain

the tabernacle

and to perform sacrifices

and he gave instructions

for the priesthood.

And what Jeremiah

is referring to

is that that order

of God's revelation

reflects the divine priority.

As 1 Samuel 15, 22 says,

Has the Lord

as great delight

in burnt offerings

and sacrifices

as in obeying

the voice of the Lord?

Behold, to obey

is better than sacrifice

and to listen

than the fat of rams.

Sacrifice was to be

an expression of obedience

that stemmed from

their heartfelt commitment

to God,

but instead,

sacrifices had been reduced

in Judah

to a formality,

an empty ritual

devoid of love

and devotion.

So God reiterates

the proper priority

of obedience

over sacrifice.

Sacrifice apart

from obedience,

he says,

is useless.

But just like

their rebellious descendants now,

the forefathers

whom that Jeremiah

is talking about here

also did not listen

or incline their ear,

but walked in their own counsels

and the stubbornness

of their evil hearts.

And in doing so,

they thought that

they were progressing

beyond this primitive religion

of the Lord God

and they thought

they were evolving

and growing

into this cosmopolitan religion

of Canaan,

but in reality,

they were regressing.

They went backward,

not forward.

So God continues

in verses 25 to 26,

from the day

that your fathers

came out of the land

of Egypt

to this day,

I persistently

sent all my servants,

the prophets,

to them

day after day.

Yet they did not

listen to me

or incline their ear,

but stiffened their neck.

They did worse

than their fathers.

It's generation

after generation

of disobedience.

It seems they're getting

worse and worse

as they go.

And the stiffening

of the neck

is such a helpful metaphor.

It's a farming metaphor.

It's when a farmer

is trying to control

an ox to plow the ground,

for example,

and they try to direct them

using a yoke

or what's around their neck,

the binding.

A yoke,

an ox that is rebellious

and does not want

to do its owner's will,

will stiffen its neck

and not move,

like a dog

that's on a leash

that's trying not to go

the direction you're

trying to take it to go,

right?

That's the image here.

These people

are stiffening their necks.

They refuse to

heed God's direction.

They stiffen their necks

and refuse

and want to stay

in the course

of their sinful ways.

So it's no wonder

then that their descendants

now are following

exactly in their footsteps.

God wants them

and God wants us

to listen to Him

rather than pay

lip service to Him.

So let me ask you,

what are some sacrifices

that you offer?

In an attempt

to appease God,

all the while

persisting in sin.

God cannot be

hoodwinked in that way.

Are you maintaining

a superficial

semblance

of being a Christian

but is your life

not wholly given

to the Lord?

With the same tongue

you bless

our Lord and Father,

do you turn around

and curse people

who are made

in the likeness of God?

Do you sing

words of praise

to God

on Sunday morning

and then utter

profanities to your friends

and say hateful

and hurtful things

to your spouse?

Do you act

like you are filled

with the Spirit

when you're at

the church service

and then fill yourself

with drugs

or get drunk

elsewhere?

Do you put on

an air of humility

on Sunday morning

but at work

on Monday morning

turn into an

insufferably prideful

boss or employee?

Do you think

that you can make up

for your disobedience

to God

by doing some

community service

or by going

to church services

and act

an act of worship

without the heart

of obedience

is meaningless

to God?

God wants us

to listen to Him

rather than pay

lip service

to Him.

Imagine this

with me,

maybe this analogy

will be helpful.

Imagine a husband

who brings

His wife flowers.

Not out of His love

for her,

not out of His delight

in her

but as a calculated

maneuver

to score a favor

of some kind.

I can bring her favor,

put her in a good mood

and then I can float

this idea of making

this big purchase

that I want for myself

that I know

she will not approve of.

Is that romantic?

That's paying lip service

without really listening

to the heart

of the wife's desire.

We are not,

and we do this to God,

we're not submitting

to God

but instead

we're manipulating Him.

We seek to control Him,

keep Him

at our arm's length

but God's not looking

for such sacrifices.

He wants our obedience.

He wants to listen

to Him

rather than pay

lip service to Him.

So, so far

as we saw

how God calls

disobedient Judah

to listen

but then they don't listen

so God says

God will not listen

to Him

and then now

in the final section

in chapter 7

verse 27

to chapter 8

verse 3

we see that

disobedient Judah

will continue

to not listen

in the future.

God says to Jeremiah

in verses 27 to 28,

so you shall speak

all these words to them

but they will not

listen to you.

You shall call to them

but they will not

answer you

and you shall say

to them

this is the nation

that did not obey

the voice of the Lord

their God

and did not accept

discipline.

Truth has perished

it is cut off

from their lips.

Once again

the word obey

is the same

as the word

that means listen.

So as God's

appointed mouthpiece

Jeremiah will declare

the word of the Lord

but as the Lord

has experienced

this stubborn refusal

and rejection

from His people

Jeremiah will experience

the same rejection.

They will not listen

to Him

and Judah will become

known as the nation

that did not listen

to the voice

of the Lord

their God.

There's a warning

for us here.

When we repeatedly

refuse to heed

the voice of God

we become desensitized

and our ability

to hear God

decreases.

to illustrate

my family and I

live in a condo

that's right next

to the train tracks

and shortly

after moving there

we were amazed

by how quickly

our brains

were able to adjust

because we got so used

to tuning out

the sound of the train

not long after we moved

we stopped hearing

it all together.

Our consciences

and our hearts

work in a similar way.

If you keep tuning

God out

if you keep

ignoring His voice

when He's speaking

to you

His warnings

His consolations

His proddings

your ability

to hear Him

will diminish.

Are you listening

to Him?

Or are you merely

paying lip service

to Him?

Because of Judah's

failure to listen

God commands

Jeremiah to announce

in verse 29

Cut off your hair

and cast it away

raise the lamentation

on the bare heights

for the Lord

has rejected

and forsaken

the generation

of His wrath.

Cutting off the hair

was a sign

of mourning

and grieving

and there may be

also a deeper meaning

here in the sense

that Nazarites

who were to give

their lives

as wholly devoted

to God

were commanded

to grow out

their hair

and to never cut

their hair.

And Israel

in a similar sense

were a people

a nation

that were consecrated

to God

sanctified for Him

for a special purpose

yet God's saying

you are no longer

fulfilling that obligation

and you have been rejected

and now cut off

your hair.

Raise the lamentation.

And once more

God gives His reason

for this judgment

in verses 30 to 31

for the sons of Judah

have done evil

in my sight

declares the Lord.

They have set

their detestable things

in the house

that is called

by my name

to defile it

and they have built

the high places

of Topheth

which is in the valley

of the son of Hinnom

to burn their sons

and their daughters

in the fire

which I did not command

nor did it come

into my mind.

The word detestable things

occurs about 28 times

in the Old Testament

and most of the time

it refers to some kind

of pagan ritual object

a cult object

that represents

a pagan god

an idol

and they had

they were bold enough

brazen enough

to bring this item

into the temple

of the Lord God

that is called

by His name

to the house

that is known

by His name

to His house

with His name on it

they brought

a pagan god

they defiled the temple

and by doing so

they rejected

the sovereign reign

of God over them

and if that weren't enough

they built the high place

for idolatry

and burned their sons

and daughters

in the fire

this is a reference

to worship of Molech

in 2 Kings 23 10

Molech is mentioned

and even though

Old Testament

explicitly

and repeatedly

forbade human sacrifice

these people engaged

in that abominable practice

and not only that

as they were doing it

it seems

at the end of verse 31

it suggests

that perhaps

they even imagined

that human sacrifice

were acceptable to God

because God says to them

no I did not command it

nor did it come to my mind

not only did I not tell you

to do such things

yet I also never

even thought of it

it is far

it was far from my mind

as it could have been

and yet you

were so ingenious

and creative

in your sinful abominations

that's what God's

trying to tell them

for this

they will receive

a fitting

just punishment

verse 32 34

therefore behold

the days are coming

declares the Lord

when it will no more

be called Topheth

or the valley of the son

of Hinnom

but the valley of slaughter

for they will bury in Topheth

because there is no room

elsewhere

and the dead bodies

of this people

will be food

for the birds of the air

and for the beasts

of the earth

and none will frighten them away

and I will silence

in the cities of Judah

and in the streets of Jerusalem

the voice of mirth

and the voice of gladness

the voice of the bridegroom

and the voice of the bride

for the land

shall become

a waste

the people of Judah

sacrificed

their children

whom they should have

protected

in a vain attempt

to please

the so-called gods

to secure

their own welfare

it was an extremely

self-serving atrocity

and God decrees

that now they themselves

will be slaughtered

by the invading army

and the valley

of the son of Hinnom

which they had

wrongfully consecrated

for the worship of Molech

will instead become

the valley of slaughter

and those people

who repeatedly

refuse to listen

to the voice of the Lord

will find their own voices

of mirth

silenced

and then God continues

his announcement

of judgment

chapter 8

verses 1 to 3

the final part

at that time declares

the Lord

the bones of the kings

of Judah

the bones of its officials

the bones of the priests

and the bones of the prophets

and the bones of the inhabitants

of Jerusalem

shall be brought out

of their tombs

and they shall be spread

before the sun

and the moon

and all the hosts of heaven

which they have loved

and served

which they have gone after

and sought

and worshipped

and they shall not be

gathered or buried

they shall be as dung

on the surface

of the ground

that shall be preferred

to life

by all the remnant

that remains

of this evil family

in all the places

where I have driven them

declares the Lord of hosts

can you hear

that growing sense

of indignation

and passion

that God has

as he's

as he's indicting

his people

he's charging

his people of these sins

they're worshipping

the sun, moon

and all the hosts

they have loved

these idols

and served them

they have gone after them

they have sat

and worshipped them

yet in

right underneath

the nose

of these

so-called planets

and gods

your dead bodies

will be displayed

and those gods

whom you loved

and served

and went after

and sought

and worshipped

will look on your

corpses

in cruel indifference

powerless

before the Lord God Almighty

to do anything

for their devotees

what are

the sins

the idols

in your life

that you love

that you serve

that you are going after

that you seek

and worship

because

the picture

that

scripture paints

of us

today

is not far so different

from the picture

that is painted

of here

of people of Judah

in the gospel

of Mark

Jesus

makes use

of this passage

of Jeremiah

to describe

the sins

of his people

and actually

throughout the gospel

of Mark

the Pharisees

and the Jewish leaders

in particular

are portrayed

as people

who are breaking

specific commandments

of the Ten Commandments

and remember

that Ten Commandments

were specifically cited

here in chapter 7

verses 8 to 10

so these Jewish leaders

are seen

as stealing

from their parents

they are seen

as conspiring

to share innocent blood

they are swearing falsely

by professing love

for God

yet they avoid

the most important commandments

they have committed

idolatries of the heart

and have been blind

and deaf

toward God's voice

and especially

in Mark 7

1 to 23

Jesus goes on

to describe

the sins

of these people

in very similar ways

as is described here

people in Jeremiah's day

as well as people

in Jesus' day

as well as people

in our day

are guilty

of paying lip service

to God

rather than

truly listening to Him

and it's these

stubborn

and incorrigible people

that God

sent Jesus Christ

to save

and in Mark

11-17

after

you know

cleansing the temple

of money changers

and people

who are trying

to profit

from the worship

of the Lord

Jesus quotes

this expression

from Jeremiah 7-11

he said

has this house

which is called

by my name

become a den

of robbers

in your eyes

behold

I myself

have seen it

declares the Lord

so what God

was saying in Jeremiah

was this is my house

and you think

you see this

as a den of robbers

you see the temple

as a den of robbers

but I myself

as the owner

and the Lord

of this house

have seen the house too

and that's what Jesus

does when he uses

this word

when he comes out

in Mark

he says

when people ask him

by what authority

he says

it is not written

is it not written

my house shall be called

a house of prayer

for all the nations

but you have made it

a den of robbers

and Jesus

when people ask him

after Jesus

says this

by what authority

are you doing

these things

who gave you

the authority

to do these things

and Jesus

tells them

he implies to them

that it's because

he is the one

who has come

from heaven

he is the one

to whom this house

belongs

his name is the one

that is on this house

it is his house

he is the Lord

the son of God

who has come

and he has come

to save us

because he recognizes

and that's

the truth

is that we

as people

it's easy to judge

the people

who are described

in this way

as the stubborn people

rebellious sinners

yet as Jesus describes

we too

create dens

of robberies

we too pay lip service

to God

rather than listening

to him

and Jesus

that's why he had to come

to save a people

who do not listen

to him

because that judgment

that is prophesied here

in Jeremiah

of the people of Judah

is the same judgment

that we would face

of being separated

from God

and being rejected

by him

and Jesus came

to restore

the true worship

of the Lord God

and to raise up people

who will obey him

and follow him

Jesus is the only one

who can save us

because repeatedly

in this passage

we're told

that they were believing

and spreading

deceitful words

yet Jesus

is described

in 1 Peter 2

22

this way

he committed

no sin

neither was deceit

found

in his mouth

Jesus is the one

who faithfully

proclaims the word of God

in fact

he's the embodiment

of the word

and Jesus

is the only person

who has faithfully

listened to God

and yet

according to 2 Corinthians

5 21

for our sake

he made him

to be sin

who knew no sin

so that in him

we might become

the righteousness

of God

this is how we get

out of this judgment

that's prophesied

in Jeremiah

we have

not listened to him

but Jesus

who knew no sin

Jesus who listened

to God perfectly

took on our sin

and when we

entrust ourselves

to him in faith

he gives us

his righteousness

and counts it

as our own

so that we can be

restored to right

relationship with God

and that great

exchange of salvation

is what we call

the gospel

of Jesus Christ

there's still a lot

of deceptive words

nowadays

as there were

in Jeremiah's days

you don't need

to listen to God

all you need

is this temple

you don't need

to listen to God

you just need

to bring sacrifices

you don't need

to listen to God

know him

you just need

to do good deeds

and try to be

a good person

you don't need

to listen to God

you just need

to follow your

own religion

faithfully

these are

deceptive words

they are terrible

words

that lies

that lead you

to the awful

judgment

of being rejected

by God

as described

here in Jeremiah

your only hope

is in Jesus Christ

who committed

no sin

your only hope

is in Jesus Christ

in whom

no deceit

was fined

because

there is no

other name

under heaven

given to mankind

by which you

must be saved

there is salvation

in no one else

except in Jesus

so

I ask you

stop paying lip service

to him

turn to him

listen to him

obey him

and cling to Jesus Christ

for your salvation

let's reflect on that truth

take a moment

of silence

think about

what ways

in which you

may be paying

lip service

to him

instead of truly

listening to God

and then after you've

reflected for a moment

we'll respond

by praying

out loud together

as a church

and see you

seated

in