Jeremiah 7:21-27

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.
Jeremiah 7:21-27 NKJV

Verses 21 and 22 are hard to understand. The Lord seems to be saying that He did not instruct their fathers concerning the sacrificial system, when Exodus makes it clear He very specifically did. According to the SDA Bible Commentary this is a literary device that is used elsewhere (such as Genesis 45:8 or Luke 14:26) where two opposing ideas are presented with one being shown its importance with the denial of the other. In other words, compared to the sacrificial system, the idea of God requiring obedience and requiring them to walk in the ways put before them is more important the mere offering of sacrifices. This is what Samuel told Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22 when Saul did not obey God but offered sacrifices. It seems that verses 21 and 22 could also mean that while God told them about the offerings and sacrifices of the sacrificial system, those were to be used to lead the people to true worship in their hearts and to point them to the salvation they were to get when Jesus died for them. In that sense, the offerings and sacrifices were not what would save them or even mark them as His people. By obeying the Lord and walking in the ways He set before them, they would show that He was their God and they were His people. Their days would be well with them, not because they kept the rules of the sacrificial system, but because the meaning of the system would become part of them and they would walk with their God and learn from Him. At the time Jeremiah was telling the people what God wanted them to do, they thought that by keeping the rules would be what saved them. Just as by offering offerings to the rocks and sticks that they liked to worship, they expected god to save them based on the offerings they made to Him. They would not listen as God called them to true repentance. God made it as clear as possible that it was not following the rules and making offerings that made them His people, but obedience to Him through a relationship with Him. God had been telling them since He brought them from the land of Egypt through His prophets and messengers that obedience to Him through love was what saved them. Jeremiah was to speak God's words to them, but God warned that they would not listen and warned that the people would not answer when called. Their sin had closed their eyes to seeing the truth and blocked their ears from hearing God's messages.Their hearts were hardened to God's voice and to His love. They could not see or hear God because they chose not to.

Lord,

Help me today to open my heart to you. Help me to allow You to come into my heart and rule there, so that I will walk in the paths You set before me. Help me to not think that by merely keeping the rules I decide to keep in the way that I am willing to keep them that I will be saved. Help me to understand that by obeying You in all that I do and by allowing You to cleanse the sin from my heart is what will save me.