GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (24) The (first) sermon you never want to have to preach, part I

 


“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery; 

1.      You shall have no other gods before me.

2.      You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth…

3.      You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

4.      Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy…

5.      Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

6.      You shall not murder.

7.      You shall not commit adultery.

8.      You shall not steal.

9.      You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

10.  You shall not covet …anything that belongs to your neighbor.”

(Ex. 20.2-17; cf. Dt. 5.6-21)

“Will you

steal,

murder,

commit adultery,

swear falsely,

make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, 

and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name,

and say, “We are safe!”—only to go on doing all these abominations? 

Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your sight?”

(Jer. 7.9-11)

 

     When Moses came back down the mountain after having received the two tablets of the law, inscribed by the very finger of God (Ex. 31.18), he discovered the people of Yahweh indulging in idolatry – worshipping a statue of a golden calf as a true depiction of “the gods that had rescued them from Egypt” (Ex. 32.1-20).  This would prove to be a preview of coming attractions – for the next 700 years, Israel would combine worship of Yahweh with cults to numerous Canaanite deities (e.g., Baal & Asherah), with fleeting respites from syncretism when the nation would be reformed by a “judge” (i.e., warlord/ legislator) or king who would briefly enforce monotheistic religion (e.g., Josiah, d. 609 B.C.).  The only way to ensure obedience of the 10 commandments was to honour the first one – “no other gods in addition to Yahweh” (cf. Dt. 6.4-5).

     Following the conquest of the Promised Land and near the end of the turbulent period of “the judges”, the ark of the covenant (which contained the tablets of the Law: Ex. 25.10-22; 40.20-21; Hebrews 9.1-5) was kept in a tabernacle in the town of Shiloh.  The ark was captured during a battle with the Philistines, after the Israelites brought it onto the field as a talisman, and Shiloh and the tabernacle were destroyed; the trauma of these events led to the death of Eli, the High Priest/judge (1 Sm. 4-5; cf. Jer. 7.12-14).  The ark was eventually returned to Israel and was brought to Jerusalem many years later by King David, though not without difficulty (cf. 1 Sm. 6.1 – 7.2; 2 Sm. 6).  Once David, the second king of the United Kingdom, had secured Jerusalem as the national capital, the stage was set for Solomon – the first “son of David”[1] – to build the Temple (the ark would reside in the “Holy of Holies”, i.e., the innermost chamber).

     The Jerusalem Temple was the center of both the geographic and spiritual life of the people of God.  When Solomon dedicated the national shrine c. 950 B.C., the cloud of the glory of Yahweh filled the edifice, compelling the priests to evacuate the sanctuary (1 Kings 8.10-11; cf. Ex. 40.34-35).  When the kingdom divided into North and South following the death of Solomon, Jeroboam, first monarch of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, established his own shrines – containing golden calves (!) – in order to discourage his subjects from travelling to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple (1 Kings 12.25-33; cf. Jer. 41.4-8).  Every Northern king that ruled following Jeroboam was said to “have walked in the way of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and in the sins which he caused Israel to commit” (e.g., 1 Kings 16.26; cf. 2 Kgs 17.19-23, where Jeroboam’s sins are said to be the cause of the exile of the Northern Kingdom).

     In chapter 7, God sends Jeremiah to the Lord’s House (i.e., the Temple, and not for the last time) to preach a sermon warning the people of Judah that they are running the risk of reliving the disasters of both Shiloh and Samaria (capital of the Northern Kingdom [“Ephraim”] which fell to the Assyrians in 722 B.C.: cf. Jer. 7.12-15). Israel’s history taught clear lessons – both the use of the sacred things of Yahweh as good luck charms and idol worship coupled with disobedience to the Commandments would lead to the destruction of both Yahweh’s nation(s) and Yahweh’s shrines.

[1] I.e., in a theological sense.  Solomon was by no means David’s firstborn son, but was rather the son of Bathsheba, who became David’s wife in, shall we say, highly irregular circumstances (cf. 2 Sm. 11-12).  It was not easy for Solomon to secure the throne upon David’s death (cf. 1 Kings 1-2).

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