Reading for June 29th

The Temple sermon.

Chs. 7-8: This long prose sermon presented by Jeremiah at the Temple in Jerusalem appears to interrupt the poetry of chs. 1-10. The poetry contains multiple images and voices that intrude upon each other and, in chs. 4-6, focus on the cosmic battle. The prose sermon, by contrast, contains only the voice of Jeremiah as the divine spokesperson. The sermon's subject is the hypocrisy and arrogance of the people's worship. Rather than completely changing the subject from the poetry, the Temple sermon focuses attention on one more aspect of the people's sinfulness. The people themselves, not God, should be blamed for the destruction of the nation. Judah and its capital city, Jerusalem, fell to Babylon in the sixth century BCE because their worship was false. The sermon must have been immensely shocking for its original audience. Since the time of David, the king and the Temple had been closely bound  together in the people's thinking. When David came to the throne, God promised that David's son would build the Temple and that David and his throne would be established forever (1 Sam 7.1-7). A century earlier than Jeremiah, the prophet Isaiah had interpreted the promise to David as unconditional assurance of Jerusalem's safety (Isa 36-37). By the time of Jeremiah,the people of judah seemed to think they were safe no matter what they did.

 Read Jeremiah 7.1-7. Standing at the gates of the Temple, Jeremiah tells the people that they must change their ways to dwell in this place (7.3, 7, 10,11). The "place" probably refers to the Temple, the land, and the city. To live there, they must stop their false reliance on the place itself. Instead, they must act justly toward one another. They claim God's protection in the Temple even though, by oppressing weak members of their society, they act as if they are not God's people. The threat to the nation stems notably from the invading foe but also from their own behavior Comments or Questions..