Today, Lord I Will Listen for Your Word

16th
Jeremiah 7:1-15
This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD : 2 "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message: " 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 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!" 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers forever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. 9 " 'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, [a] burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"-safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a atching! declares the LORD. 12 " 'Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. 14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your fathers. 15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your brothers, the people of Ephraim.'
Jeremiah was an Old Testament prophet who lived religion as an inner personal feeling and God as a being with whom one could communicate. Israelites, on the other hand, put their trust in the Temple, feeling confident that as long as it was there, they were safe from any evil. They assumed they could do almost anything and then come stand in the Temple and say, “We are delivered!” They did not comprehend religion in the prophet’s personal way. To the prophet, the Temple services in Jerusalem were too formal and were not caring for the spiritual lives of the people.
The prophet knew that Israelites needed to understand the true meaning of religion and had to change from within. They had to learn that religion was a personal relation with God, not with external objects: “other gods.” Jeremiah had to do something drastic to wake them up to their wickedness and undercut their trust in their objects. So he delivered an address at the gate of the Temple in Jerusalem recalling to the people that the Lord destroyed His earlier Temple at Shiloh, and if people did not turn from their wicked ways, Jeremiah declared, He would destroy His Temple at Jerusalem.
This Lenten season, let us ask ourselves if we put as much trust in the Church as the Israelites did in their Temple? Can we do just anything we please during the week and come to church on Sunday and say, “We are delivered”? It is true that God forgives our sins, but as Jeremiah points out, we need more: we need to build a personal, inner relation with God. Lent is a good time to do this. Let us pray to God for His help. When we do this, we will no longer desire to indulge in wickedness that God does not like and that hurts Him. Our faith will be stronger. God will be pleased, and we will live blessed lives. –Loretta Smith
Prayer –Today Father, I will spend some time listening to your Word for my life.