Jeremiah – Chapter 7

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat the flesh. Jeremiah 7:21 – The previous book we studied together was Leviticus. In Leviticus we learned God’s commands about how He wanted all the different sacrifices to be handled, including the burnt offerings. While most all the other offerings allowed the giver and the priests to enjoy a portion of the sacrificed food after it had been cooked on the altar, burnt offerings were meant to be fully consumed on the altar. These offerings were for the Lord alone. So what’s up with the Lord saying here in Jeremiah that the people offering burnt offerings should eat the meat when it was commanded earlier in scripture not to? The reason is because God saw the heart behind the offerings. Israel wasn’t following God at this time; they just were giving ritual offerings with the hopes to blind God from seeing the sin they were doing. These burnt offerings weren’t given out of a desire to make right their wrongs or seeking closeness with God, Isreal at this time cared nothing for ceremonial cleanliness. God then, seeing this sort of heart, told the people to just eat the meat of the offering for was worthless to Him. An offering given with a wrong heart is no offering at all to the Lord. This lesson ought to cause us to evaluate the heart behind our offerings to the Lord. For if we are going to church for the wrong reasons, God would likely say don’t go. If we are giving money to the church just to make God bless us, then God would say don’t give. Church attendance, offerings, prayer, and holy deeds, if done with the wrong heart, are not pleasing to the Lord and is then just a wasted effort for the giver. Find that change of heart so the offerings we give are pleasing to the sight of the Lord. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 3236

Then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever. Jeremiah 7:7 – So what comes before the “then” in order for us to dwell with God? Like if you do _____, then… We often put things like if you go to church, if you are a good person, if you follow the ten commandments. Thankfully though there is a verse 5&6 that answers it for us. Even back in Jeremiah’s time God was seeking from His people to truly change from their sinful way, love those in need, and put God first and only. If that’s our story, then we dwell with God. This is for us Christians what God is inviting us into, a life dwelling with Him. We’ve been saved by Jesus, now as we follow His lead on what our life should look like and be filled with we begin to taste what a life with God in it is all about. Jeremiah is reminding us that God is all about us following Him and He is giving us all the chances in the world to do it, you just need to settle in your heart who you’re going to follow today. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 926

“Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you have done all these things, declares the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, and in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh.” Jeremiah 7:12-14 – What happened at Shiloh that was so bad? Shiloh was a place that God settled as a place of worship of Him where people could come and sacrifice and serve Him. The people though disgraced this place with idolatry and evil and God forsook that place and moved on. Now we have the temple of the Lord, a place the people are in awe of, becoming as Shiloh was, a place of idolatry and evil. God is warning that if a change doesn’t happen to where the people follow Him again, this temple they love will end up as Shiloh…a place abandoned by God. How then have we been treating the temple of God today? Keep in mind we’re not talking about the church building, we’re talking about you. You are a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit if you’ve chosen to follow Jesus. Are you taking care of this temple? Are you allowing other gods to be worshipped in it? Are you setting it apart as holy like we should? Thankfully we have the promise of God that there will never be an abandonment of the Holy Spirit in our story, yet as believers we should never settle with disgrace being given towards God’s dwelling place. Remember who you are and remember who dwells with you. I love you, but Jesus loves you more – Mac – Daily DEVO 2139