Obedience Over Sacrifice and Coming Judgment

Jeremiah 7:21-28: "'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: "Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat! For I did not speak to your fathers, nor command them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, 'Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be My people. And walk in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it may be well with you.'" Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their own evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have even sent to you all My servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did worse than their fathers. Therefore, you shall speak all these words to them, but they will not obey you; you shall also call to them, but they will not answer you. So you shall say to them, 'This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God, nor receive correction. Truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.'"

Jeremiah 7:29-34: "'Cut off your hair and cast it away, and take up a lamentation on the desolate heights; for the Lord has rejected and forsaken the generation of His wrath. For the children of Judah have done evil in My sight,' says the Lord. 'They have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name, to pollute it. And they have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire, which I did not command, nor did it come into My heart.' Therefore, behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'when it will be called Topheth, or the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, but the Valley of Slaughter. At that time I will make void the counsel of Jerusalem and Judah in this place, and I will cause them to fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hands of those who seek their lives; their corpses I will give as meat for the birds of the heavens and for the beasts of the earth. I will make this city desolate and a hissing, and everyone who passes by it will be astonished and hiss because of all its plagues. I will cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and everyone shall eat the flesh of his friend in the siege and in the desperation with which their enemies and those who seek their lives shall drive them to despair.' Then you shall break the flask in the sight of the men who go with you and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts: "Even so I will break this people and this city, as one breaks a potter's vessel, which cannot be made whole again. And they will bury them in Topheth till there is no room. Thus I will do to this people and this city,' says the Lord, 'even as I have done to Topheth and to its king. And I will cause their houses in Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah to be defiled like the place of Topheth, because of all the houses on whose roofs they have burned incense to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to other gods.'"'

Today, they are doing the same thing: not passing their children through the fire, but abortion. Same thing. Spirit of Molech. Even free abortion in Israel. They are doing the same things as their ancestors. Different techniques, but still killing babies. It did not enter His heart, and they will be judged tremendously. Wait and see what He keeps saying about the Valley of the Son of Hinnom and what He will call it during the time of Jacob's trouble and the second coming events.

Summary of Jeremiah 7: Do not trust in the temple while living in rebellion. God says, "Trust not in lying words, saying, 'The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.'" Judah believed the temple guaranteed protection. Jeremiah says the temple will not save a people who oppress, shed innocent blood, follow idols, allow abominations, and refuse repentance. Unfortunately, today we see the same thing: oppression, innocent blood shed, idols, abominations, and refusal of repentance. Judgment will come. Key scriptures: "Religious buildings cannot protect a rebellious people. God wants obedience, not empty religious pride."