Psalms 20:1-4, 31:1-4, and 8:1
My Shepherd met me in His green pastures and laid me down in Jeremiah. The story of Jehudi using his knife to slash the Bible, and throw it into the fire, and King Jehoiakim approving of this, is distressingly sad (Jeremiah 36:18-25). God’s illustration of preservation is wonderful: God restored the original, “and there were added besides unto them many like words” (Jeremiah 36:28-32).
I thought to bring this from my prayer closet to you this morning. However, when I stopped by the Dove’s prayer closet, she asked a question regarding Jeremiah 7:21, and the Mind of the Spirit engaged the mind of my spirit as I pondered her question:
Jeremiah 7:21 ¶ Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh.
Dove asked me what God was, is, saying to His remnant in this verse.
In verses 3-7, God challenges His people to “amend” their ways and their behavior with a promise to secure them in their land (v. 3). He called on them to trust Him, and His words, not in their religious forms: saying “The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, The temple of the LORD, are these” (v. 4). The thrice repeated expression denotes the depth of Judah’s reliance on their Temple as a guarantee of divine protection and favor, regardless of their heart’s departure from Him.
The LORD tells them plainly what it is that secures His blessing: “throughly execute judgment” (v. 5), oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow,” shed no “innocent blood,” and do not turn to “other gods” (v. 5-7).
The people were trusting in “lying words” (see v. 4—The temple of the LORD, 3x), which allowed them to steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom [they] knew not” (v. 8-9).
Our LORD then rebukes His people, who chant, “The temple of the LORD,” for saying they were “delivered” to “do all these abominations” (saved by grace to sin)! He speaks to their conscience, asking: “Is this house, which is called by my name, [and in which you trust] become a den of robbers in your eyes?” (v. 10-11). He didn’t like what His house had become in their eyes. He challenges them to remember His house in Shiloh (the Tabernacle, long before Solomon’s Temple). He destroyed His house in Shilo “for the wickedness of my people there” (v. 12).
The LORD then proclaims He will reject “The temple of the LORD” built by Solomon, as He rejected the tent in Shiloh (v. 13-14; see Jeremiah 10:19-21). He pronounced upon Judah the judgment of Ephraim (Israel) (v. 15), and instructs Jeremiah, “Pray not for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee” (v. 16; compare Jeremiah 6:16).
Then the LORD describes their evil departure from Him in serving other gods, their women baking cakes to the “queen of heaven,” pouring out drink offerings to false gods” (v. 17-18), and the provocation this caused (v. 19-20).
But their conscience was seared (1 Timothy 4:2), they did not regard these behaviors as departing from the One true GOD, for they embraced the lie that “The temple of the LORD” was with them, and so they were under its protection, and the favor of GOD was on all their evil works. “Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?” (Romans 6:1).
This brings us to verse 21. God tells Judah to take their burnt offerings and combine them with their sacrifices to their “gods”: “Put your burnt offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat flesh” (v. 21). Their worship had become nothing more than a BBQ to them.
Along the still waters, I contemplated all of this in the context of what GOD said next: “For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I bought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices.” He reminded them that “to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than to the fat of rams” (1 Samuel 15:22): “But this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you” (Jeremiah 7:23).
Remember when David thought to build a house for GOD, and GOD sent the Prophet Nathan to David, saying, “Go and tell my servant David, Thus saith the LORD, Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?” (See 2 Samuel 7:5-15) and when Solomon considered the house he would make for the LORD, the Spirit humbled his spirit, so he confessed, “But who is able to build him an house, seeing the heaven and heaven of heavens cannot contain him? who am I then, that I should build him an house, save only to burn sacrifice before him?” (2 Chronicles 2:6).
David understood: “For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” (Psalm 51:16-17)
God has revealed what draws His favorable attention: “Thus saith the LORD, The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: where is the house that ye build unto me? and where is the place of my rest? For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word (Isaiah 66:1-2). Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3).
It occurred to me that what means most to God is what our service to Him means to us. In other words, chanting “The temple of the LORD” means nothing to Him, because the focus is on the House and not the LORD of the House. If it does not mean anything to us for Him, it only means something to us for ourselves. On the other hand, obedience is personal service to Him.
In the valley, kneeling before the empty cross, I understood Jesus would never have been removed from it until He died, until He “gave up the Ghost” (Luke 23:46). The word ghost translates the word for spirit, which is breath. Conversely, the Spirit He exhaled into His Father’s hands when He gave up the ghost, saying, “Father, into thy hands I commend my Spirit” (Luke 23:46), enters us when we receive Him Who died for us there. Thereafter, to be filled with His Spirit, we must “cleanse ourselves of all filthiness of the flesh and spirit” (2 Corinthians 7:1; see 1 John 1:7-9), present this body to Him a living sacrifice (Romans 12:1-2), and humble ourselves under the mighty hand of GOD (1 Peter 5:6). We maintain this filling by following the instructions of Ephesians 5:18-21. I asked Him to fill me with His Spirit. He responded: “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
At the table, He anointed my head with His oil and filled my cup with His grace. Goodness and mercy followed us into the harvest.
Praying for revival! 🙏
Going live asap:
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