The basic message which Jeremiah gave in this sermon, which is recorded in detail in 7: 1-15, with further commentary on it in the rest of the chapter, is this: external religious practices which are separated from day-to-day behaviour and obligations to others, are meaningless and useless in the eyes of God. Amos and Isaiah had made the same point earlier. The external expression of religion ought to reflect the inner attitude of the worshipper to God and to his fellow-men.

7: 1-3. Jeremiah took his stand at the gate of the Temple court where the crowds of people went in to worship, and commanded the people to change their way of life if they wanted to continue alive in Jerusalem. He spoke on behalf of God, as his spokesman.

7: 4 attacks the false idea which was widely held in Jerusalem and which may have reflected a serious misunderstanding of some of the words of Isaiah, that Yahweh would not allow his Temple and city to be destroyed. The deliverance of the city in 701 B.C. from the Assyrian army (2 Kings

19: 35-36) was remembered but interpreted quite wrongly as showing that the Temple in itself possessed a power which would protect it and the city from danger. The popular idea was that God would protect his 'house' and his city in the way that a king would protect his palace and capital from his enemies.

7:5-10. Jeremiah then accused the people of injustice, murder, pagan worship, stealing, adultery, and lying. To understand the impact of his words on the crowd who had stopped to listen to him, we should try to imagine how such accusations would be received by a large church congregation who had gone, as usual, to their Sunday worship, expecting to hear an encouraging sermon.

7: 11-15. Speaking in the first person, on behalf of God, Jeremiah called the people 'robbers' who used the Temple in a blasphemous way. God's attitude to the Temple is then revealed by the reference to the old shrine of Shiloh which had been destroyed and left in ruins. The Bible does not tell us how Shiloh was destroyed but archaeologists have cast light on this. Following excavations in 1929 at the site of old Shiloh, it was thought that the city had been destroyed around 1050 B.C. by the Philistines; but much more recent archaeological studies indicate that total destruction of the place occurred much later, either about the time when Samaria was destroyed in the late eighth century B.C. , or even nearer to Jeremiah's time while the Assyrian armies were still menacing Palestine. If Shiloh was totally destroyed by the Assyrians, Jeremiah was referring to a disaster which was still in the memory of the people of Judah. Verses 14-15 are then very significant, As Shiloh had been reduced to a ruin by the Assyrians who destroyed the northern kingdom, so the Jerusalem Temple would be ruined by the next invaders who would destroy the southern kingdom. About twenty years later the Babylonians did this.

7: 16-28. The utterances in this section provide further commentary on the main point of the sermon. How can people who openly offer pagan sacrifices and reject the covenant obligations expect God to accept the sacrifices they offer in his name? Verse 21 comments that they might as well eat the meat which they offer on the altar; their burnt-offerings mean absolutely nothing to God. Verses 25-26 refer to the succession of prophets who had been true spokesmen of God, from the time the Israelites left Egypt, i.e. from the time of Moses, until Jeremiah's own ministry. The people of Israel had never been without those men who had spoken for God and taught them what God's will was for their way of life, but the witness of these faithful servants of God had been ignored and rejected. Verses 27-28 reiterate what Jeremiah had been warned about when he was called to be God's prophet and what Isaiah had also been warned about when he was, called. The people would oppose the prophetic message, because it challenged their self-interest and sinful desires which they did not want to give up.

7: 29 is a brief lament for the rejection of Jerusalem by God.

7:30-34 foretell the terrible desecration of Jerusalem at the hands of invaders. The corpses of the people would lie unburied and savaged by vultures and wild animals, a thought that would be horrible to the Jews who considered burial rites essential.

26: 1-6. This passage summarizes 7: 1-15.

26: 7-16 describes the consequences of Jeremiah's preaching. We have to try to understand the shock which his words gave to those who were at the Temple. He was condemning everything that the priests and cult prophets were doing. In the name of God he condemned and rejected the sacrifices which were at the centre of the Temple worship. He condemned the whole body of worshippers as evil and immoral. Finally, he said that the God they claimed to worship would destroy the Temple and city, bringing it to a state of horrible desecration because it was no longer the means through which God's name was honoured.

It is not surprising that he was seized by the priests and threatened with death for apparent blasphemy of the most dreadful kind. The riot at the Temple so alarmed the court officials, and probably the king himself, that they hurried to the Temple. The hearing of cases and disputes traditionally took place in the sanctuary and a case was quickly brought against Jeremiah, in the presence of all the leading men as well as the great crowd of the people of Jerusalem who had gathered. Jeremiah was formally accused of blasphemy, i.e. speaking and acting against the name of God in what he had said about the destruction of God's house and city. Exodus 20:7 says, 'Do not use my name for evil purposes, for I, the Lord your God, will punish anyone who misuses my name.' From the point of view of the prophets and priests of the Temple, Jeremiah was misusing God's name, although from the position of his understanding of God, he was revealing the truth about God's character.

Verses 12-15 show the great courage with which Jeremiah’ stood by what he had said and done. Verse 16 shows a very interesting reaction from the leaders and the crowd, in contrast to the priests and prophets. They had no doubt that Jeremiah had spoken on behalf of Yahweh, however little they had understood of his message. Their feelings towards the prophet were probably mainly superstitious, but they feared to condemn a man who was in communication with Judah's God.

26: 17-19 and 24 describe how some of the elders, including the son of Shaphan who had been Court Secretary to King Josiah and who had taken the book of the Covenant to him (2 Kings 22: 8-10), advised the leaders not to kill Jeremiah. They cited the case of the prophet Micah, who had prophesied in Jerusalem in the time of Hezekiah, at the same time as Isaiah, and had foretold God's judgement on the city. The elders said that because Hezekiah listened to Micah and tried to please the Lord, God withheld the punishment. The elders were obviously trying to persuade the king and the leaders to take the same attitude as Hezekiah, and to respect the prophet. Their words influenced the judgement of the case and Jeremiah was released, but verses 20-23 indicate that King Jehoiakim was not like his ancestor Hezekiah in his understanding.

26: 20-23 gives a brief account of the killing of another prophet, named Uriah, who also prophesied the judgement of Yahweh against Jerusalem. Uriah, however, did not show the great courage which Jeremiah did, and fled to Egypt which angered King Jehoiakim who ordered his execution.

From this time onwards, Jeremiah had open enemies in Jerusalem and had become a notorious figure, but there were those who supported him, such as Ahikam, son of Shaphan, and Baruch the scribe, who was responsible for recording the preaching of Jeremiah.

Although Jeremiah had said many things in his earlier utterances which condemned the worship and way of life of his people, he does not appear to have faced open conflict and opposition in Jerusalem until he preached in the Temple courtyard. He had been rejected by his own village and community, which had caused him great unhappiness (11: 18-23), but it was after the Temple sermon and the trial for his life that he became a national figure who frequently aroused fierce opposition. It was during this period that he went through a great spiritual crisis, doubting that he could continue any further with his prophetic task but finally overcoming his agony of spirit.