12 “But go now to My place which was in Shiloh, where I made My name dwell at the first, and see what I did to it because of the wickedness of My people Israel. 13 And now, because you have done all these things,” declares the Lord, “and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you did not hear, and I called you but you did not answer, 14 therefore, I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15 I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the [d]offspring of Ephraim.
16 “As for you, do not pray for this people, and do not lift up cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me; for I do not hear you. 17 Do you not see what they are doing in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The [e]children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods in order to spite Me. 19 Do they spite Me?” declares the Lord. “Is it not themselves they spite, to [f]their own shame?” 20 Therefore thus says the Lord [g]God, “Behold, My anger and My wrath will be poured out on this place, on man and on beast and on the trees of the field and on the fruit of the ground; and it will burn and not be quenched.”
21 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat flesh. 22 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. 23 But this is [h]what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’ 24 Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and [i]went backward and not forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them. 26 Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck; they did more evil than their fathers.
In the first paragraph here, God tells the people that He will leave Jerusalem and the temple desolate, just as Shiloh was apparently at that time. As we come to the second section, God tells Jeremiah not to bother praying for the people, but to see the evil which they do. While they do this evil, God sees that they worship the “queen of heaven” (among other made up gods), in order to spite Him.
However, God flips this on its head in v. 19. They think they are spiting God, but really it is “themselves they spite, to their own shame.” We see again that God’s instructions were for their benefit, and for their good. This is reiterated in the final section, where God asks them why they bother with sacrifices? For what He desires is that they obey His voice, that they “will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.”
We see a lot of this same attitude in our world today, and we may even be in that camp ourselves at times. But just when we think we’ve really told God off, we’ll find that it hurts us even worse. Whether we admit it or not, following God isn’t about blindly following a bunch of religious customs. God plainly told Israel the burnt offerings and sacrifices were never the point (v. 22).
Instead, God asks us to follow Him so “that it may be well with us.” Not smooth sailing so much (as Jesus reminded His followers), but a peace that the world cannot give, cannot understand, and cannot take away. How are we doing with that today? Are we obeying His voice, or stubbornly clinging to our own way to spite God? He knows exactly what you need, after all, He knit together every fiber of your being. Trust God today, and walk in all His ways.