Let Me Dwell With You

Sunday, August 9, 2015
Jeremiah 7:1-15 NIV 

1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 "Stand at the gate of the LORD's house and there proclaim this message: " 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you people of Judah who come through these gates to worship the LORD. 3 This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Reform your ways and your actions, and I will let you live in this place. 4 Do not trust in deceptive words and say, "This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!" 5 If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, 6 if you do not oppress the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, 7 then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your ancestors for ever and ever. 8 But look, you are trusting in deceptive words that are worthless. 9 " 'Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, 10 and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my Name, and say, "We are safe"--safe to do all these detestable things? 11 Has this house, which bears my Name, become a den of robbers to you? But I have been watching! declares the LORD. 12 " 'Go now to the place in Shiloh where I first made a dwelling for my Name, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of my people Israel. 13 While you were doing all these things, declares the LORD, I spoke to you again and again, but you did not listen; I called you, but you did not answer. 14 Therefore, what I did to Shiloh I will now do to the house that bears my Name, the temple you trust in, the place I gave to you and your ancestors. 15 I will thrust you from my presence, just as I did all your fellow Israelites, the people of Ephraim.'

OBSERVATION QUESTIONS
1) What did the Lord tell Jeremiah to do? (v.1-2a)
2) Who was the Lord's message to? (2b-2c)
3) What was the Lord's message to His people? (v.3)
4) What five (5) things did the Lord command His people to do, or refrain from doing, to continue to live in the land of their ancestors? (v.4-7)
5) What did the Lord accuse His people of doing? (v.8-10)
6) What question did the Lord ask His people and what did He declare? (v.11)
7) What did the Lord tell His people to do? Why? (v.12)
8) What did the Lord do for His wayward people and how did they respond to Him? (v.13)
9) What would the Lord do to His house and to His people, as a result? (v.14-15)

APPLICATION QUESTIONS
10) Have you, or anyone you know, forsaken the Lord to do what you pleased instead?
11) If so, what was the result of that disobedience?

LIFE LESSONS
12) The Lord longs to be gracious to His people and gives us every opportunity to repent of our transgressions. But, when we refuse to return to Him, we forsake His presence.