Jeremiah 7

“Behold, you trust in lying words that cannot profit.”  What lying words are these?  They are in v4: “The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the LORD of the LORD are these.”

God here confronts a major issue: that of religious hypocrisy.  It is the thought that we can live according to our own imaginations, practicing wickedness, and then come to the place of worship and carry out religious practice as if nothing was wrong.

This was the message of Shiloh, which Judah had clearly forgotten.  Shiloh was the place where the tabernacle was set up when Israel first came to the Promised Land.  It was the capitol in the days of Joshua (Josh. 18:1-10).  Israel continued to worship there until the time of the priest Eli and the days of Samuel.  It was then that Israel engaged in the ultimate of hypocrisy.  Having lost a battle to the Philistines, they determined that they would have victory if only they could carry the Ark of the Covenant into battle the next day.  And so it was, that the two evil sons of Eli who were unfit to be priests, nevertheless carried the Ark in the fray.  The battle was lost, Hophni and Phineas were killed, and the Ark ended up in the hands of the Philistines.  The Ark never returned to Shiloh, but rather was brought to Jerusalem by David (2 Samuel 6).  Psalm 78 is a lengthy song devoted to this time when God “forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent He had placed among men” (Ps. 78:60).

In Jeremiah’s day the people believed that God would never let them be removed from the land because they had the temple that Solomon built in their midst.  Surely God would respect that.  And further they believed that because they worshiped at that temple, that they were engaged in the truest worship on earth, no matter how incongruous their hearts and lives were with their confessions.  They were sadly and tragically wrong.

Notice what was the end result of their hypocrisy.  God tells Jeremiah not to pray any more for the people because God is not going to hear that prayer (v16-20).  Their perpetual disobedience (v21-26) leaves them guilty before God (v27-31).  A terrible judgment is coming when the “Valley of Hinnom” where they worshiped Molech will become the “Valley of Slaughter” where their dead bodies will be dumped.

Sin against God is worthy of His anger, having created us to worship Him.  But to go beyond that and engage in worship activities when our hearts and lives are engaged in that sin is an absolute affront to the Creator!  What can be more arrogant?  Do not think that God will be happy with your prayers in such a situation.  To think differently is to trust in lying words that cannot profit!