Shiloh was the first place the people worshipped the Lord,
in the time of Eli and before, prior to David making Jerusalem the City of God
according to the Lord's direction. Shiloh
was now nothing at all, there was no worship there of Yahweh. Through Jeremiah the Lord says, from the
temple itself, that this place will become as Shiloh is today. Doesn't Jeremiah sound a bit like Jesus here
in prophesying against the temple because of the people? Wasn't Jesus ultimately tried because of His
words concerning tearing down the temple?
The priests and other prophets accuse Jeremiah of prophesying against
the temple, considering it to be blasphemy.
Jeremiah is not willing to recant, they must repent or this judgment will
fall on Jerusalem. The officials of
Judah, however, believe the prophet has spoken God's word to them. Will they, like the Babylonians of Jonah's
day, repent? Hearing the word of the
Lord is only a small part of the battle, heeding it is the important part.
CS Lewis said, "A man who was merely a man and said the
sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either
be a lunatic — on the level with the man who says he is a poached egg — or else
he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was,
and is, the Son of God, or else a madman or something worse." We see exactly that in the debate here about
Jesus, some say he is insane and others that he has a demon. Jesus makes it plain, "I and the Father
are one." He speaks here in the
temple precincts near where Jeremiah would have given his prophetic word of
judgment against the nation. Jesus calls
them to believe in the one who is worshipped in this place. The Lewis quote finishes with, "You can
shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can
fall at his feet and call him Lord and God." Which will it be?
Paul says that the Jews were destined to reject Jesus in
order that God's grace might redound to the Gentiles. They have not been rejected in favor of the
Gentiles, God's covenant with them is everlasting, we are merely grafted into
Israel, we are not the new Israel. I love
his language of a remnant chosen by grace.
We are chosen and it is nothing more than grace, no merit, no works, that allows us to become
children of God, covenant members through Jesus. We, like they, now bear responsibility for
the Word of God. Are we faithful to the
revelation of God in Christ Jesus? Are we
obedient to His commands to love God and one another? What would He say in our churches today?
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