The Pulpit Commentary — Jeremiah — Volume 1 — Section 213

directness and closeness in dealing with the unfaithful; and no want of coura<Ye 0 and candour on the part of the man who was chosen to warn. II. TWJ MESSAGE IB To MIBTAKEN woBBHIPPEBS. To look round with pride and say these buildings are the temple of God, was as the utterance of some first principle. 'l'hese worshippers, precise enough in outward forms, had a superstitious feeling that whatever vicisRitudes might come elsewhere, Jehovah would keep the place of worship secure. The mistake lay in thinking that God valued the temple for itself. Yet it had not been made by his command, in the same sense as the tabernacle had been; rather, it was accepted as a sign of David's deep religious feeling and Solomon's pioua regard for his father'd wishes, There is nothing to show that out of his own will God would ever have commanded the erection of a temple, It was unseemly in the eyes of David that he should be dwelling in a house of cedar, when the ark of God was behind curtains. But this feeling had in it a certain barbaric element, a fondness for 9ntward pomp and display. It was the best that was in the king's heart, and so it was accepted. He did what he could. But there was no inherent sacredness in the temple, that it should be kept inviolate amid the wreck and defilement of everythi □"' else. The peoplo needed to be taught this truth in very plain language. The feelin~ towards the building is made manifest in such a passage as Ezra iii. 11-13. In fact the more the people became alienated in heart from the God of the temple, the mor; enthusiastic, fanatical even, they seem to have become with regard to the mere building. Ill. 'l'HE WAY IN wmcH THE MISTAKE IB BOUGHT TO BE REMOVED, There is no heaping of scorn on the feeling of the people. Their feeling is rather made the occa- sion of strengthening the hold of God's truth upon them, If they really value the temple, they are shown the way by which they may keep it and dwell within it. Jehovah shows very distinctly that in his eyes the true glory of Jerusalem is not the temple, but the sort of people who dwell in the city. It is better to have a co=unity of the pious, the upright, the truly brotherly, dwelling in cottages, than to have whole streets of spleudid palaces, inhabited by luxurious, self-indulgent oppressors. Men bold in h'igh esteem buildings, pictures, books, statues, great fruits of human intellect. God looks at good actions; little but significant kindnesses-the giving of the cup of cold water, the visiting of the sick, and the feeding of the hungry. A community of meu, selfish to the core, will not be preserved for the sake of a splendid building; but that building may be preserved if a community of good men will be really pleased by its preservation. The truth, however, is that a community, living such a life as God here indicates should be chosen, would care very little about the pomps of a building. They would prefer to spend their substance in satisfying pressing needs of men. Many of the ecclesiastical buildings of to-day are inexcusably sumptuous. They are put up to gratify the lust of the eye, and meanwhile the spiritual glories of the upper room nt Jerusalem and the Pentecostal miracle are quite forgotten. The publican, the penitent after God's own heart; went up to the temple; but what were its material splendours to him, as he stood, smiting his breast, and saying, " God be merciful to me a sinner"? IV. THE MESSAGE IS CLINCHED DY A CLOSELY FITTING EXAMPLE FROM HISTORY. One instance is enough to prove a negative. The feeling in the hearts of the people is that Go,\ will fence the temple site around, for the sake of the temple. Dut Shiloh is at once brought forward as a capital instance to the contrary, Evideutly it still remained in a ruined, neglected state, fur any one to go and see it. Israel knew what Shiloh had been at the first, and they could see how different it was now. In reading history, we are bound to profit by all of Divine warning that may appear in what we read.-Y. Ver. 18.-The fami1y J<Yined in idolatry. I. REMEMBER Goo's IDEAL OP AN ISRAELITE FAMILY, This is not set before us in any particular passage, but we can gather it from different institutions and commandments. Religion not only concerned the individual in his relation to the priest, the altar, and the holy of holies, and in his general relations lo his fellow-men; but there was a very special mention of institutions and rcaulations which made the individual remember his position in the family. These inatitutions and regulations were as vital bonds, making the family into a true organio  212 THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH. [oa. VII. 1-34-.