GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (25) The (first) sermon you never want to have to preach, part II

 


“Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels; they had no regard for the Lord or for the duties of the priests to the people.

When anyone offered sacrifice, the priest’s servant would come, while the meat was boiling, with a three-pronged fork in his hand, and he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fork brought up the priest would take for himself. This is what they did at Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there… 

Thus the sin of the young men was very great in the sight of the Lord; for they treated the offerings of the Lord with contempt…

Now Eli was very old. He heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who served at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 

He said to them, “Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all these people…

But they would not listen to the voice of their father…”  (1 Sm. 2.12-17, 22-25)

“The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle was joined, Israel was defeated by the Philistines …When the troops came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord put us to rout today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, so that he may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.” …The two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God.” (1 Sm. 4.2-4)

“Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your doings, and let me dwell with you in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” (Jer. 7.3-4)

 

     It was ever Yahweh’s desire to live among his people; this was the raison d’être of the tabernacle in the wilderness and then Shiloh and later still, in the Temple in Jerusalem.

“…I will meet with the Israelites there, and it shall be sanctified by my glory; I will consecrate the tent of meeting and the altar… I will dwell among the Israelites, and I will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who brought them out of the land of Egypt that I might dwell among them…” (Ex. 29.42-46)

The locus of Yahweh’s presence in the Holy of Holies was the ark of the covenant, which was alternatively described either as Yahweh’s throne or his footstool (Ps. 99.1, 5).  As the Israelites had used the ark as a talisman in a vain attempt to ensure victory in battle at the time when a young Samuel was being prepared to embark on his prophetic mission, at the time of Jeremiah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem were reassuring themselves that since Yahweh’s Temple was situated in their city, nothing could touch them (Jer. 7.1-4).

     God sent Jeremiah into the Temple courts to challenge this presumptuous attitude on the part of his people with, as we say, a “jeremiad”.  As Jeremiah takes pains to point out, cultic observance is worthless if not accompanied by faithfulness to the covenant – as codified in the 10 Commandments – accompanied by a lifestyle and a political apparatus whose priority is the doing of justice (7.5-7; cf. the preaching of John the Baptist: Lk. 3.7-9).  Yahweh makes it clear that his presence in the midst of his people is conditional on the people’s having a positive response to the fact that their God lives among them.  If they insist on, essentially, spitting in Yahweh’s face, then Yahweh will abandon his house[1] – and their city – to their doom.  As Yahweh allowed the ark of the covenant to be captured by the Philistines and the Shiloh tabernacle to be destroyed, so he will permit the Temple and the “city of David” to be burned to the ground by the Babylonians, unless his people repent.

     As the Philistines had discovered upon capturing the ark of the covenant, Yahweh is not a God to be trifled with (1 Sm. 5-6).  Yahweh refuses to be manipulated or co-opted into promoting the prideful and self-serving projects of humans – be they his own people!  Yahweh is not only the god of Judah, he is also God of all the nations – all peoples carry out his will, whether they acknowledge him or not.  Every nation is responsible for its conduct and will face the music if they persist in injustice and inhumanity; also, they can be sure that following judgment, they will experience Yahweh’s mercy.  It would be to every nation’s advantage to enter into covenant with Yahweh, to be his “vassal”; however, sadly, the one nation that Yahweh chose to bind himself to in a covenant is rebelling against him.

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