This second time that
the Creator God speaks to His people about changing their ways and doing what
is right, follows the mocking repetition of the high-mindedness of the people,
in thinking that they were safe from judgment, because they could simply say,
“The temple of the Lord is here! The temple of the Lord is here!
The temple of the Lord is here!” (Jeremiah 7:4b).
Why would they say
that? To answer that, one must understand the purpose that the temple
served. Along with being a reminder and representation of their God, of
the tabernacle of the wilderness, and therefore of their redeeming exodus from
Egypt at the hands of their covenant-making-and-keeping God, the temple was the
place where the covenant people could go for the purpose of offering sacrifices
for transgressions of the provisions of the law. It was central to the life of Israel and served
an extremely important role.
Members of the
covenant people could go to the temple, and through offering the requisite
sacrifices prescribed under the law, receive atonement for their covenant
failures. In that day, the Creator God’s people relied upon this
aspect of the temple every bit as much as the Creator God’s people, in this
day, rely upon the sacrifice of the Christ to provide the necessary atonement
for transgressions that represent their failures to be the divine image and
light bearers that the Creator God intends His people to be.
So when the Creator
God directs His people to change their ways, it needs to be determined what it
is that they are doing that needs to be changed. When God instructs them
to do what is right, to what is He referring as their actions that are wrong in
His sight? What are His people doing that has their God looking upon
those things and saying, “If you keep doing these things, I am going to bring
My promised curses and send you into exile away from the land that I have given
to you”?
After imploring them
to treat others as they would want to be treated, the covenant God gives a list
of those things that are severely offending Him. Having been so long
steeped in a Christian culture that highlights certain types of “sins” (sex,
drugs, alcohol, etc…), one might register a bit of surprise to hear the Creator
God speak through His prophet and draw attention to that which offends Him most
by saying “Stop oppressing foreigners who live in your land” (7:6a). Apparently,
the Creator God’s people had forgotten that they had been foreigners in the
land of Egypt. They had forgotten their previous exile from the land that
had been given to Abraham. They had forgotten their exodus. They
had forgotten Who it was that was represented by the temple, and from Whom they
were seeking their atonement.
The oppression of
foreigners in the land of Judah is such an interesting phenomenon, not only in
that it demonstrated such a tremendous amount of forgetfulness on the part of
God’s people, but also because it seems that a great many Christians think that
this does not really apply to them, primarily because of the unfortunate (and
anti-Scriptural) long-held tendency, insisted upon by so many erstwhile and
well-meaning preachers of the Gospel, for Christians to think of themselves as
foreigners---as strangers in a strange land (the mindset of “this world is not
my home, I’m just passing through”).
However, if the body
of Jesus believers represents a renewed Israel, then it is incumbent upon that
group to recognize that they are not the foreigners. They are not the
strangers. As those that represent the kingdom of the sovereign God of
the universe, and as harbingers of the renewed creation that is and will be brought
to bear in this world, they are those that ultimately possess the land and are
actually the ones in the position to be potential oppressors. They are
living in a world that began to be re-claimed two thousand years ago, serving
as kings and priests to the most High God, through their believing union with
the Christ.
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