an example

Good morning friends,
Today's reading continues God's criticism of Judah's worship. God tells Jeremiah, or maybe the people, to take a field trip to learn about worship and faithfulness. God sends them to Shiloh, which at one point was one of the most important worship sites in Israel. If we remember back to the story of Samuel, who anointed Saul and David as Kings of Israel, that story began at the temple in Shiloh. God's point is that once the people who worshipped at Shiloh turned away from God, it didn't matter any more that that had been a house of God. At this point in Judah's history the Northern Kingdom of Israel has already been conquered by Assyria. Judah can see the fate of part of God's people who turned away from God and from justice. There is still time to choose the better way, the path of love and faithfulness. What will Judah choose? What will we choose?

God bless,
Sam

Jeremiah 7:12-20
12Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13And now, because you have done all these things, says the Lord, and when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen, and when I called you, you did not answer, 14therefore I will do to the house that is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place that I gave to you and to your ancestors, just what I did to Shiloh. 15And I will cast you out of my sight, just as I cast out all your kinsfolk, all the offspring of Ephraim.

16As for you, do not pray for this people, do not raise a cry or prayer on their behalf, and do not intercede with me, for I will not hear you. 17Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18The children gather wood, the fathers kindle fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 19Is it I whom they provoke? says the Lord. Is it not themselves, to their own hurt? 20Therefore thus says the Lord God: My anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on human beings and animals, on the trees of the field and the fruit of the ground; it will burn and not be quenched.