Jeremiah 7:16-34
16 "Therefore do not pray for this people, nor lift up a cry or prayer for them, nor make intercession to Me; for I will not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. 19 Do they provoke Me to anger?" says the LORD. "Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?"
20 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: "Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place—on man and on beast, on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground. And it will burn and not be quenched."
21 Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. 22 For I did not 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. 23 But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.' 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. 26 Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
27 "Therefore you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you. You shall also call to them, but they will not answer you.
28 "So you shall say to them, 'This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the LORD their God nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth. 29 Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the LORD has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath.' 30 For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight," says the LORD. "They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. 31 And they have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.
32 "Therefore behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "when it will no more be called Tophet, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter; for they will bury in Tophet until there is no room. 33 The corpses of this people will be food for the birds of the heaven and for the beasts of the earth. And no one will frighten them away. 34 Then I will cause to cease from the cities of Judah and from the streets of Jerusalem the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride. For the land shall be desolate.
God’s people had rejected Him and substituted dead idols for the Loving LORD who called them out of bondage in Egypt and led them through the desert to trust and obey Him. Sacrifices were not the focus, yet they pointed to the need for an eternal sacrifice once for all His people and for all time (Hebrews 7:27, 9:12, 10:10). The intent was deliverance to follow Him, just as now we are saved from God’s wrath in Christ to follow Him joyfully in willing obedience and holiness because we now stand in His righteousness. We should beware the sin of Israel then who worshiped other gods and rejected Him and His word bringing hope and a future. They provoked God by worshiping other dead gods to their own shame. This rejection earned His just anger of judgment on them so much that Jeremiah was admonished not to intercede in prayer for them! He would consume their land and them with fire as a foreshadowing of the lake of fire for all who reject His Son the Christ (Luke 3:17, Revelation 20:14-15, 21:8). Because Israel refused to listen and follow God and His correction to reform them and rejected His truth, He rejected them (Luke 10:16, John 12:48) as He will all who reject His work still (John 6:28-29). Continuing in pursuing evil and rejecting Him leads only to certain judgment according to His word. Confession and repentance through faith in His work instead of ours is the only way to please God and escape our due sentence, just as Israel had to only trust and follow and reject false gods instead of Him. Yes, they pursued dead gods of their own imaginations and faced destruction as a nation and individuals. Desolation was their destination if left unchecked by confession and repentance to choose life. Even the joyful voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride would be taken away otherwise (Revelation 18:23). This example was recorded (Romans 15:4) that we might not follow their sin, but Him according to humility and the grace of forgiveness in Christ in a certain hope instead of a certain judgment. Rejection of God in Christ leads to certain judgment, but trusting into Christ and His work is life and peace with God forever!
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