Jeremiah’s Temple Sermon (7:1-15): Jeremiah’s temple sermon is one of his most famous speeches. The core of its message attacks those who appear religious by participating in religious ceremonies, while not backing up their apparent beliefs with ethical lives. In other words, this sermon is an attack on the hypocrites of his day. We do not know the exact time before the destruction of the temple when this sermon was delivered. However, its strong conditional tone holds out hope that God’s judgment might be diverted or at least mollified, and this may be a sign that it is relatively early in Jeremiah’s ministry, before the people’s categorical rejection led to an unconditional message of doom. See the commentary on Jeremiah 26 for a similar but not identical message delivered at the temple …