Read Jeremiah 7-8 at Bible Gateway.
Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods whom you do not know, and then come and stand before Me in this house which is called by My name, and say, ‘We are delivered to do all these abominations’? Jer 7:9-10
The people of Judah were, Sunday through Friday, doing all the things the LORD charges them with here, then on Saturday, the Sabbath day, coming to the LORD’s house of worship, and saying, “The LORD is a great deliverer, this place is called by His name, therefore it will endure forever and we will endure forever.” The LORD is saying, “What? Am I going to deliver you so that you can continue to do all your abominations?”
All that the LORD charges them with, are violations of the Ten Commandments. Stealing, murdering, adultery, falsehood, idolatry, coveteousness shows up later in the reading (Jer 8:10) — passages like these taught Jesus and Paul, as well as most Hebrew scholars, that the Ten Commandments summarized the entire Law of Moses, or, conversely, that the detail of the Law of Moses merely explains what keeping the Ten Commandments looks like in specific instances.
“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. 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.’ ” Jer 7:22-23
Judah was disregarding the Law of the LORD, then bringing their sacrifices for sin to the Temple, and thinking in their hearts, “My sins are covered now by the blood of the sacrifice! I can go now and sin even more!” Jesus, when He came, forgave sins, but then said, “Go, and sin no more.” Listen, church, when we have the idea that our obedience does not matter because Jesus has died on the cross for our sins and we are living under grace now — we are making the same mistake that Judah made. Jesus is our sacrifice for sin. We are expecting the LORD to deliver us so we can continue to disregard His Word.
I am speaking of all the Ten Commandments. Do we realize that the vast majority of the church today does not even try to keep all Ten of the Commandments, never mind that they are completely ignorant of the LORD’s explanation of those Commandments found in the rest of Torah? Do we realize that resting on the seventh day is a Ten Commandment along with Do not murder and Do not worship idols?
This is the Commandment that the vast majority of most sincere Christians break without even giving it a second thought. I apologize for harping on this issue, but this is the issue that the enemy has targeted in the church today. Dears, let us examine ourselves in the light of God’s Word. Let us not be lulled to sleep by men who say that OBEDIENCE has passed away or who have changed the definition of obedience to something other than the Word’s definition. Let us not be like Judah who listened to the prophets and priests who spoke falsely, saying, “Peace, peace,” when there was no peace.
Why is resting on the seventh day as important to God as not murdering? To man, it seems that not murdering is way up there on the list of importance, but to rest, well, that hardly matters. God does not explain why it is as important; we can just accept the fact that in His wisdom, it is.
“The wise men are ashamed, They are dismayed and taken. Behold, they have rejected the word of the LORD; So what wisdom do they have?” Jer 8:9
We repent of rejecting Your Word LORD, and replacing it with the so called wisdom of the wise! Thank You for opening our eyes, Thank You for teshuvah, repentance; Thank You that Your desire is to relent from calamity and to receive us to Yourself; Thank You for the death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord, by which You have freely forgiven us of all our transgressions of Torah! Thank You for washing us clean in Your blood and being so faithful to teach us Your ways in truth! Help me today to walk in the way which pleases You!
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