NOTES for Jer 7:1-34
Jeremiah continues to prophesy, and again across the centuries we feel ourselves to be his contemporaries. How many centuries have passed since the call not to keep repeating words about the temple sounded, and now we again risk replacing spiritual life with restoration work! Meanwhile, in our own land there are enough of the same injustices that existed in ancient Judah. And according to the word of the prophet, later repeated by the Savior, a temple without the true conversion of those who visit it becomes a den of robbers, a thieves' lair. And what good is confidence in one's own salvation if it is soaked in superstitions and unwillingness to bring true repentance?
It is interesting that among the injustices mentioned, the oppression of the foreigner comes first. In our time anyone who decides to speak, for example, about the situation of "guest workers" will receive a united and massive rebuff: "Who is oppressing them? What are they doing here? They would run anyone over themselves!" But for a people called chosen, keeping the commandment to treat newcomers from other lands with respect was important precisely in order to preserve faithfulness to their election and not to return to the self-perception of practically all pagan peoples at a certain and very long stage: only we are people, and everyone else is no one knows what.
But the Lord does not want us to return to paganism, even if we continue to perform all the required temple rituals. Those who replace true following of the Lord and keeping His commandments with rituals will be rejected by Him.