Jeremiah 7-8

Jeremiah 7
1-15 Jeremiah Proclaims God's Judgment on the Nation

• God to Jeremiah: Stand in the gate of the LORD's house and proclaim to Judah that those that worship in the temple must repent. It is not enough to proclaim "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD." The people seem to think that if they repeat the saying enough times, it will be true.
• If you repent, God will dwell with you there.
• But you have been deceived. You break all the commandments then expect to go to the temple and expect to be safe.
• Don't be deceived. What I did to Israel for their faithlessness I will do to you. "I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim."

16-34 The People's Disobedience

• God to Jeremiah: Do not pray for these people, for I will not hear you.
• Have you seen what great offerings they prepare for the queen of heaven, to provoke me to anger?
• Yet I'm not the one who suffers; they do, for I will pour out my wrath on the people and on the land.
  
• When your ancestors came out of Egypt, I did not ask for sacrifices; I only asked that they obey my voice, that they be my people, but they became stubborn and refused to obey.
• I persistently sent prophets, but they stiffened their necks.
• God to Jeremiah: You'll tell the people this, but they will not listen.
• I have rejected them, but they have abominated my house; they continue to build a high place in the valley of Hinnom, where they sacrifice their children – something that never entered my mind to command.
• The valley of Hinnom will be called the valley of slaughter, as the corpses pile up, food for the birds and animals.
• I will bring the sounds of mirth and gladness to an end.

Jeremiah 8
1-3 The People's Disobedience (cont'd)

• At that time, the bones of kings, officials, priests, prophets and inhabitants will be brought out of tombs and spread before the host of heaven, "which they have loved and served."
  
• They shall not be gathered, but be as dung on the surface of the earth.
• Those who remain will prefer death to life.

4-17 The Blind Perversity of the Whole Nation

1-6 God to Jeremiah: Say to them, When people fall, don't they usually get up again? But not my people. They continue to backslide, to be dishonest, pursuing their own interests like horses plunging into battle.
7 Even birds know the course they should follow, but not my people. You hear a voice of shame here: God is ashamed of His children, because they're not even as perceptive as dumb animals.
8-9 How can you claim the Word of God is with you when your scribes write what is false?
10-12 I will give their wives and fields to others because they are all guilty – even their prophets and priests, who cry "Peace, peace," when there is no peace, who act so shamefully they have forgotten how to blush.
13 When I want to gather them, there is no fruit; they have lost what I gave them.
14-15 The people will gather in the cities and perish there for their sin.
16-17 They will hear the sounds of the invading army; the LORD is releasing snakes among them that cannot be charmed.

18-22 The Prophet Mourns for the People

18-21 My heart is sick, for the LORD has left Zion. The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. Jeremiah has lost all hope that Judah will repent and be saved from destruction.
22 "Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there?" This makes me want to cry out to poor Jeremiah, "Yes, there is a balm in Gilead. There is the Great Physician. But sadly, not for you, Jeremiah." How we should appreciate what the LORD has done for us. In Christ we realize the hope that Jeremiah could not have.