In the first six chapters of Jeremiah, the Lord has revealed that disaster is coming on Jerusalem because of his people’s wickedness. There are those in the city who spread the message “’Peace, peace,’ they say, when there is no peace.” In Jeremiah 7:1-29, he delivers his temple sermon and warns against falsely trusting in the temple to save them.
Jeremiah calls on the people to repent. They went through the outward rituals of religion. They assumed that they were safe because they had the temple. They were using the temple as a lucky charm.
Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord” Jeremiah 7:4
Yet their hearts were far from God and they were living sinful lives. They worshipped false gods, were unjust, violent, adulterers. The Lord says that it was pointless praying and sacrificing without repentance from sin.
In Matthew 21:13, Jesus quotes this chapter as he cleanses the temple. He then goes onto condemn the religious leaders who like the people of Jeremiah’s day trust in their outward religion but have forsaken mercy and justice. He then predicts the temple’s destruction – it would no longer be needed because of Jesus’ imminent death. He is the temple of God and his people, with transformed hearts to worship him, become the temple of God.
It would be easy to criticise the people in Jeremiah or Jesus’ day. However, we can easily do all the external religion, but with hearts far from God and sin in our lives that we are unwilling to deal with. This is a call to take sin seriously and guard our hearts.