Jeremiah 7:20-26: a reflection

20Therefore the Lord GOD says: “Behold, my anger and my wrath will be poured out on this place, on man, on animal, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and will not be quenched.” 21The LORD of Armies, the God of Israel says: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22For I didn’t speak to your fathers or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices; 23but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. Walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’ 24But they didn’t listen or turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 25Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26Yet they didn’t listen to me or incline their ear, but made their neck stiff. They did worse than their fathers.

God says something here that must have startled his people. When I brought your fathers out of Egypt, he says, I did not simply command them about burnt offerings and sacrifices; this is what I commanded: obey my voice, and I will be your God and you shall be my people, and walk in the way I command you. The heart of what God wanted was never mainly the ritual; it was a listening, obedient relationship.

Notice the priority. Sacrifices, ceremonies, religious observance, these had their place, but they were never the point. The point was to listen to God's voice and walk in his ways, to actually obey. And the tragedy God names is that his people reversed the priority, keeping up the religious acts while refusing to listen: they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own stubborn hearts, and, he says, went backward and not forward.

That phrase is worth pausing on, went backward and not forward. Refusing to listen to God does not leave you standing still; it moves you backward, away from him, even while the outward religion continues. It is possible to keep all the forms of faith while quietly declining to obey God's actual voice, and to drift backward all the while. The question this passage presses is not are you religious, but are you listening and obeying? Do not substitute the forms for the thing itself. Obey his voice, and walk forward with him.

Lord, you desire a listening, obedient heart more than religious performance. Forgive me for keeping up the forms of faith while declining to obey your actual voice. Keep me from going backward while looking religious. Help me listen to you and walk in your ways, moving forward with you.