Confidence in the temple is in vain

Jeremiah 7:12
But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I set My name at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel.

Shiloh was the place the tabernacle was first set up. It was the center of Israel's worship. Shiloh was destroyed after Eli and his son's corrupted the worship of God. They used what was to be sacrificed to God as food for themselves, demanding it be given to them. Though for a time the established traditional place of worship had brought comfort and connection with God, He allowed it to be destroyed because it had become a place of defilement. 

The implications of Jeremiah 7 is huge to us as believers.  Where we have made idols or corrupted the things of God such as, worship, sacrifice and living our own interpretation of the Word, we are setting ourselves up to live in the consequences of disobedience. Eli feared his son's more than God and paid a high price for their disobedience. He did not constrain them with his love he allowed then to be unrestrained and wilful.

The love of Christ constrains us. (2 Cor 5:14)  

Constrain means to restrict, limit, to use pressure, to force.  

When we are in love with Christ, truly in love because He is our first love, the constraints that His word and obedience to it place on us we will be seen for what they truly represent. His love and goodness to us.  Love without constraints lets us do what we want. True love always comes with constraints which brings freedom, rather than freedom for the sake of feeling loved.

Deutronomy 30:11-20.
¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.
¹⁵ “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; ²⁰ that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”
These consequences are often not outworked immediately but over time as the blessing and favour dries up and we keep doing what we have been because it worked or had the blessing and favour initially on our efforts, we sometimes don't notice the dryness and the struggle , the lack of fruit and blessing over our work.


I saw a vision of the church (the establishment) being whitewashed by a dark hand. An arm with black clothing on and a black glove up to the elbow was painting the white wash over the establishment. The Father said, "The church has been white washed."  

White washed- to gloss over; cover up vices;  embracing other cultures as well as your own; concealing flaws or failures.

Taking a rain-check on where we are at and what fruit is growing in our lives might help us to see if there is some truth we need to face where our obedience has become routine and ritualistic and not a fresh daily intimate walk with The Father, Son and Holy Spirit. 

The Father has chosen to reveal himself through us and put His name in us. If sin through disobedience resides in us then we have polluted the temple of God, his habitation. If we think our living in the dispensation of grace gives room for The Father to accommodate disobedience then we lessen the sacrifice Jesus made by believing that obedience is not obligatory but optional because of grace. 

Jeremiah 7:21-28. 
²¹ Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat meat. ²² For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices. ²³ 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.’ ²⁴ Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but followed the counsels and the dictates of their evil hearts, and went backward and not forward. ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ Yet they did not obey Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck. They did worse than their fathers.
²⁷ “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.

Judgment on Obscene Religion

²⁸ “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.

To think that God can be anything but displeased with disobedience and that we can interpret the word to suit ourselves is only hurting ourselves because the consequences of sin will outwork themselves in our lives. Jeremiah 7:28-34.

 Our confidence must be in Him, His word. The temple, people, things, ideas we construct around how we feel are never going to bring the blessing and fruit we are promised in the Word of God as we walk in obedience to Him. He has set before us life and death, blessings and curses, therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live and that you love the Lord your God, obey His voice and cling to Him. He is your life and the length of your days.