Holy temple, or volcano fortress?
This week's goodness is on Jeremiah 7:3-11:
When I first started getting serious about God, and studying the Bible, I learned about what people called "Sunday Christians." These were supposedly people who went to church on Sunday and then lived like normal people the rest of the week. They'd be evil on Saturday, punch their card by going to church on Sunday, where they'd act all good, and then on Monday they'd go right back to how they were on Saturday. Sitting in church "paid" for the sins of the week. It made no sense to me, but I figured people didn't know any better.
Apparently this is a much older practice than I thought. Jeremiah lived about 2600 years ago, so that predates Christianity itself! In his day, all of Israel behaved like "Sunday Christians." They'd look at the temple and think "This is God's temple. And we're God's chosen people. God is all powerful, so we pretty much have nothing to worry about." Then they'd go out and do evil, confident that they had God to bail them out if they got themselves into trouble.
God tells them they're trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. They don't have God locked up in the temple like a guard dog. The temple itself isn't evidence of God's favor. It's a temple, an official place for people to acknowledge and serve God, not the other way around. God is saying to them that their view on this whole thing is kind of messed up. But how often have we thought the same thing? "I'm a Christian so God's got me." "I go to church, so it's not like I'm backslidden, or faithless." "How can people say I'm a bad person? I'm a member! I tithe!"
God uses the term "den of robbers," which I think is awesome. It's so awesome that Jesus uses it again when he's cleaning house in the temple six hundred years later. When I hear the term "den of robbers," I picture something like Ali Baba's cave, like a meeting place for scoundrels and felons, a secret hideout that provides refuge between robberies. God's question for the Israelites is, "Is this how you see my house? A hideout? A place to conspire to commit crimes?"
If we're doing whatever we want for six days of the week and showing up in church to soothe the guilt on the seventh, isn't that us though? Popping in so the community, or our friends and family, or our inner critic, can see us as good people and then heading back out to wreak more havoc? We're day trippers, slinging and scamming all day on the streets, and back in the shelter again by evening no better than when we started.
Apparently that's not what church is for and it's not what the Christian faith is for. The same God we have today told Jeremiah to tell the Israelites that he's watching. He's not fooled. His opinion of us is the only opinion that matters. If we're faking it, he's going to know. If we're just using his name as a hideout, he's going to know.
I've done my share of bad things, and had my share of seasons of relative indifference towards God, and that terrifies me. Of the people who should know better, I should know even better than that, and I've even done it! I've taken God for granted before. It is possible for us to get on autopilot and be just like these people 2600 years ago, only worse because we should know better by now. Why are we here? Why do we call ourselves Christians? Why do we go to church, or study the Bible, or read Christian stuff on the Internet when most people would be watching videos of cats on YouTube? Is it to soothe ourselves into believing we're on the right path while God watches us incredulously? Or are we genuinely interested in God for something other than his name and his protection?
So God's question to Israel is a good question for us to ponder this week. What is church or the Christian faith to you? Is it a lair you emerge from, equipped and encouraged by other sinners like yourself to do some guilt-free crimes? Or is it a source of something better, a refuge you flee to, a place to actually become something different, not just act it out. Only you can really answer that question.
This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. Do not trust in deceptive words and say, “This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord!” If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless.
“‘Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, “We are safe”—safe to do all these detestable things? Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the Lord.
When I first started getting serious about God, and studying the Bible, I learned about what people called "Sunday Christians." These were supposedly people who went to church on Sunday and then lived like normal people the rest of the week. They'd be evil on Saturday, punch their card by going to church on Sunday, where they'd act all good, and then on Monday they'd go right back to how they were on Saturday. Sitting in church "paid" for the sins of the week. It made no sense to me, but I figured people didn't know any better.
Apparently this is a much older practice than I thought. Jeremiah lived about 2600 years ago, so that predates Christianity itself! In his day, all of Israel behaved like "Sunday Christians." They'd look at the temple and think "This is God's temple. And we're God's chosen people. God is all powerful, so we pretty much have nothing to worry about." Then they'd go out and do evil, confident that they had God to bail them out if they got themselves into trouble.
God tells them they're trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. They don't have God locked up in the temple like a guard dog. The temple itself isn't evidence of God's favor. It's a temple, an official place for people to acknowledge and serve God, not the other way around. God is saying to them that their view on this whole thing is kind of messed up. But how often have we thought the same thing? "I'm a Christian so God's got me." "I go to church, so it's not like I'm backslidden, or faithless." "How can people say I'm a bad person? I'm a member! I tithe!"
God uses the term "den of robbers," which I think is awesome. It's so awesome that Jesus uses it again when he's cleaning house in the temple six hundred years later. When I hear the term "den of robbers," I picture something like Ali Baba's cave, like a meeting place for scoundrels and felons, a secret hideout that provides refuge between robberies. God's question for the Israelites is, "Is this how you see my house? A hideout? A place to conspire to commit crimes?"
If we're doing whatever we want for six days of the week and showing up in church to soothe the guilt on the seventh, isn't that us though? Popping in so the community, or our friends and family, or our inner critic, can see us as good people and then heading back out to wreak more havoc? We're day trippers, slinging and scamming all day on the streets, and back in the shelter again by evening no better than when we started.
Apparently that's not what church is for and it's not what the Christian faith is for. The same God we have today told Jeremiah to tell the Israelites that he's watching. He's not fooled. His opinion of us is the only opinion that matters. If we're faking it, he's going to know. If we're just using his name as a hideout, he's going to know.
I've done my share of bad things, and had my share of seasons of relative indifference towards God, and that terrifies me. Of the people who should know better, I should know even better than that, and I've even done it! I've taken God for granted before. It is possible for us to get on autopilot and be just like these people 2600 years ago, only worse because we should know better by now. Why are we here? Why do we call ourselves Christians? Why do we go to church, or study the Bible, or read Christian stuff on the Internet when most people would be watching videos of cats on YouTube? Is it to soothe ourselves into believing we're on the right path while God watches us incredulously? Or are we genuinely interested in God for something other than his name and his protection?
So God's question to Israel is a good question for us to ponder this week. What is church or the Christian faith to you? Is it a lair you emerge from, equipped and encouraged by other sinners like yourself to do some guilt-free crimes? Or is it a source of something better, a refuge you flee to, a place to actually become something different, not just act it out. Only you can really answer that question.
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