The Primary Commandment Text: Jeremiah 7:21-28
Introduction: The Religion of the Checklist
We live in an age of religious consumers. People treat church like they treat a supermarket. They walk down the aisles, picking and choosing the bits of Christianity they find palatable. They want the uplifting music, but not the doctrine of sin. They want the sense of community, but not the call to repentance. They want a God who affirms their lifestyle, but not a God who commands their obedience. They assemble a bespoke religion for themselves, a collage of their own preferences, and then have the audacity to call it Christianity.
This is nothing new. This is the ancient sin of Judah, dressed up in modern clothes. In Jeremiah's day, the people of God had fallen into the trap of thinking that their relationship with God was transactional. They believed that if they performed the correct rituals, if they checked all the boxes on the liturgical checklist, then God was obligated to bless them. They brought their burnt offerings, they made their sacrifices, and all the while their hearts were a thousand miles from God. They were meticulously religious and utterly godless at the same time.
And so God sends Jeremiah to confront this hollow piety. This passage is a divine demolition of all religion that is merely external. It is a declaration that God is not interested in the motions of worship when the heart is in rebellion. He is not impressed by the smell of burning fat from a man who will not listen to His voice. God's primary demand has never been ritual. His primary demand has always been relationship, and the defining characteristic of that relationship is obedience from the heart.
What we are about to read is not God's rejection of the sacrificial system He Himself instituted. It is His rejection of the people's abuse of that system. They had turned the gospel provision for their sin into a license to continue in it. They had mistaken the medicine for their daily bread. And God tells them, in no uncertain terms, that He is having none of it.
The Text
Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. 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 and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in the entire way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’ Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart and went backward and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My slaves the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers. You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you; and you shall call to them, but they will not answer you. You shall say to them, ‘This is the nation that did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God or receive discipline; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth.
(Jeremiah 7:21-28 LSB)
Divine Sarcasm and the Pointless Barbecue (v. 21)
God begins with a statement dripping with holy sarcasm.
"Thus says Yahweh of hosts, the God of Israel, 'Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh.'" (Jeremiah 7:21)
To understand the bite of this command, you have to know the difference between these offerings. A burnt offering was wholly consumed on the altar. It was entirely for God, symbolizing total consecration. Other sacrifices, like the peace offering, were shared. A portion was burned for God, a portion went to the priest, and a portion was eaten by the worshiper and his family in a celebratory meal. God is saying here, "You have already erased the meaning of these rituals. You treat them like a common meal, a way to fill your bellies. So go all the way. Stop pretending. Take the offerings that are supposed to be entirely for Me, the burnt offerings, and throw them on the grill with everything else. Have a feast. Gorge yourselves. It makes no difference to Me, because your hearts are not in it."
This is a terrifying dismissal. It is God saying that their most solemn acts of worship are nothing more than a religious barbecue. He is rejecting their worship not because the form was wrong, but because the heart was wrong. They were honoring Him with their livestock, but dishonoring Him with their lives. And God will not be mocked. He will not accept the gift if the giver's heart is in rebellion.
The Priority of Obedience (v. 22-23)
Next, God corrects their fundamental misunderstanding of His covenant with them.
"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 and sacrifices. But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people...'" (Jeremiah 7:22-23a)
Now, at first glance, this seems like a contradiction. We can all turn to Leviticus and see page after page of detailed instructions about burnt offerings and sacrifices. But God is not saying He never gave those commands. He is speaking of priority. He is talking about the foundational command, the first thing He said to them when He established His covenant at Sinai. Before any laws about bulls or goats were given, the covenant was established on this one principle: relationship through obedience.
The foundational word was, "Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples" (Exodus 19:5). The relationship came first. The command to listen came first. The sacrificial system was given afterward, as a gracious provision for when they failed to listen. It was the gospel remedy for their disobedience, pointing to the final sacrifice of Christ. But they had inverted the whole thing. They had turned the remedy into the relationship. They were living at the hospital, thinking that was what it meant to be healthy. God is reminding them that the goal was never to just keep bringing sacrifices. The goal was to walk with Him in such a way that it might be well with them.
The Anatomy of Rebellion (v. 24)
But what was Israel's response to this gracious invitation to walk with God?
"Yet they did not listen or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart and went backward and not forward." (Jeremiah 7:24)
Here is the diagnosis of the fallen human condition in four parts. First, they "did not listen." The root of sin is a refusal to hear God's Word. Second, they "walked in their own counsels." This is the sin of autonomy. It is man setting himself up as his own god, preferring his own wisdom to God's clear command. Third, they did this because of the "stubbornness of their evil heart." The problem is not merely intellectual; it is moral. The heart is not neutral; it is bent, hard, and rebellious. It does not want to submit. And fourth, the result is that they "went backward and not forward." Sin is never progress. Disobedience is never an advancement. It is always a regression, a de-evolution, a slide back into the chaos from which God's Word first called us.
This is a perfect picture of our secular age. We have refused to listen to God's voice, we walk in our own counsels, we celebrate the stubbornness of our hearts as "authenticity," and as a result, our civilization is going backward at a terrifying speed.
Relentless Grace and Stiff Necks (v. 25-26)
Despite this rebellion, God did not abandon them. His grace was relentless.
"Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My slaves the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them. Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers." (Jeremiah 7:25-26)
The picture of God "daily rising up early" is a striking anthropomorphism. It shows God's earnest, diligent, fatherly care for His people. He did not just give them the law and leave them to it. He pursued them. He sent prophet after prophet to call them back. He wooed them, warned them, and pleaded with them. God is not a distant, uncaring deity. He is passionately invested in His people.
And their response? They "stiffened their neck." This is the posture of a stubborn ox that refuses to accept the yoke. It is the posture of pride. It is a refusal to bow. And this stubbornness is degenerative. Each generation took the rebellion of their fathers and compounded it. Sin has a terrible spiritual interest rate. This is why our culture is where it is. We are standing on the shoulders of generations of neck-stiffeners, and the apostasy has accelerated with every passing year.
The Prophet's Thankless Task (v. 27-28)
"You shall speak all these words to them, but they will not listen to you... This is the nation that did not listen to the voice of Yahweh their God or receive discipline; truth has perished and has been cut off from their mouth." (Jeremiah 7:27-28)
Here, God prepares Jeremiah for the reality of his ministry. He is called to be faithful, not successful. His job is to deliver the message, regardless of the reception. This is a profound encouragement for every faithful pastor, every parent, every Christian who speaks the truth into a hostile culture. Our success is not measured by conversions or applause. Our success is measured by our obedience to the commission.
The final diagnosis is chilling: "truth has perished." When a people refuse to listen to God's voice for long enough, they lose the very category of truth. They can no longer receive discipline or correction because there is no standard left to appeal to. Their very mouths become instruments of falsehood because the truth has been "cut off" from them. They are adrift in a sea of subjectivity, where every man does what is right in his own eyes. This is not a description of ancient Judah. This is a description of the evening news.
The One Who Heard
This passage should drive every one of us to our knees. For who here can say they have perfectly listened to God's voice? Who can say their heart is not stubborn? Who can say they have never stiffened their neck? This passage condemns us all. Our religion, left to ourselves, is just as much of a pointless barbecue as Judah's was.
But this is why the gospel is such good news. Where we failed to listen, Jesus Christ listened perfectly. He is the true Israel, the obedient Son who always did what was pleasing to the Father. His entire life was a resounding "Yes" to God's voice. He never walked in His own counsel, but only did what the Father told Him.
And on the cross, He became the ultimate burnt offering, wholly consumed for the glory of God, and the ultimate sacrifice, whose broken body and shed blood are the feast of our salvation. He took the judgment for our stiff-necked rebellion so that we could be forgiven and transformed.
The New Covenant, which Jeremiah himself would later prophesy, is God's answer to the stubbornness of our evil hearts. God says, "I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts" (Jeremiah 31:33). Through the Holy Spirit, God gives us a new heart, a heart that desires to listen, a heart that delights in obedience.
Therefore, true Christian worship is not a checklist. It is the overflow of a new heart. We don't obey in order to be saved. We obey because we have been saved. We listen to His voice because we now know it as the voice of our loving Father. So the question for us today is simple. Are you just having a barbecue? Or have you, by the grace of God, had your heart replaced, and are you now learning, day by day, to listen to His voice?