Context No. 3593 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 7:12-19: in context

12“But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13Now, because you have done all these works,” says the LORD, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn’t hear; and I called you, but you didn’t answer; 14therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole offspring of Ephraim. 16“Therefore don’t pray for this people. Don’t lift up a cry or prayer for them or make intercession to me; for I will not hear you. 17Don’t you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19Do they provoke me to anger?” says the LORD. “Don’t they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?”

God points to Shiloh, where his sanctuary once stood before it was destroyed, and warns: I will do to this temple you trust in as I did to Shiloh. The people trusted in the temple building as a guarantee of safety, but God's presence is not a lucky charm bound to a place regardless of how people live.

He had spoken to them again and again, rising early to speak, and they would not listen or answer. The heart of their sin was persistent deafness to God, together with idolatry, baking cakes for the queen of heaven, a foreign goddess. And God asks a piercing question about it all: is it I whom they provoke? Is it not themselves, to their own shame? Their sin did not really harm God; it harmed them. This is a sobering truth about all sin: it is ultimately self-destructive. When we defy God, we do not wound him but ourselves, bringing confusion and shame on our own faces. The rebellion we imagine is aimed at God recoils, in the end, upon us.

Do I recognize that my sin harms not God but myself, and do I listen when God speaks rather than trusting in outward religion while my heart drifts?

Sources

Jeremiah 7:13: "I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and I called you, but you didn't answer."
Jeremiah 7:14: "Therefore I will do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust... as I did to Shiloh."
Jeremiah 7:19: "Do they provoke me to anger? Don't they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces?"