REMEMBER SHILOH Jeremiah Prophesied about 600 years before Christ was born. At that time the people of Judah, populating the Southern Kingdom were faced with very difficult times. The Northern Kingdom, known in Scripture as both Israel and Ephraim and consisting of the 10 tribes that Jeroboam took north after the death of Solomon, had already been taken into captivity by Assyria. And now, the King of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had defeated Assyria, and was making his way to conquer Judah. Over the years the people of Judah had developed a false trust. This deviation from the True God was condemned by the Lord through His prophet Jeremiah. We do well to remember some of the details of this rebuke, and labor to avoid the same mistakes today. Two very important Scripture verses are found in I Corinthians 10:6 & 11. Together these verses let us know that the things that happened to O. T. Israel, and that are written in the N. T., are recorded for our admonition upon whom the end of the ages have come. So before we go to Jeremiah 7, let us review a little Bible history in order to see why we must Remember Shiloh. We pick up the history in Deuteronomy 12:10-14. The Israelites have wondered in the wilderness for 40 years, Moses is going to die soon and God is going to bury him. Just before the Children of Israel, the People of God, were about to cross over the Jordan into the promise land, God instructs them about something extremely important to Him. It is that He is going to have a place in one of the tribes where He will put His Name. In Deuteronomy 12:5, 11 and 14, the LORD tells Israel that He will choose a place for His Name, and that only there shall it be acceptable to offer worship and sacrifice. Upon a quick reading of these Scriptures, one could get the impression that God is talking about Jerusalem. That is because today we hear so much about Jerusalem as the place where He put His name latter on, and read so much about it from the New Testament. But that is not the place that God originally chose. If you will read Joshua 18:1-10, you will realize that it was Shiloh that He chose at the first, and not Jerusalem. So what happened that Shiloh did not remain the chosen place? That is the subject of this article. As a matter of fact, the Tabernacle along with the Ark of the Covenant and all the other symbols of the Lord’s care for the nation of Israel remained in Shiloh for over 300 years. That was were Joshua divided the land. That was where the little boy Samuel was taken by his mother to live with Eli the priest. This story is found in I Samuel 3 through 7 and other places. The significant parts of the story tell of Eli failing to restrain his two sons, and about young Samuel’s message from God that He would destroy the family of Eli for this failure. The sins of these two sons of Eli were many, but the most egregious were those involved with their service at the Tabernacle. You may read about that part of the history at your leisure. My concern here is to answer the question of why we should be careful to remember Shiloh. In I Samuel 4, we find the Israelites at war with the Philistines. The battle is not going well for them, and so the elders of Israel get the idea to bring the “The ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth between the cherubim” from the Tabernacle in Shiloh to the field of battle, thinking that the Ark would give them the victory. They were placing their trust in the Ark instead of in God, and of course they had no authority to do that, and so the battle turns worse and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas are killed outright, and the Ark is taken by the Philistines back to their own country. Meanwhile, Eli is told of the death of his sons, but when he is told of the loss of the Ark, he falls backward and breaks his neck and dies on the spot. This is also the news that causes Phinehas’ wife to name her son ICHABOD i.e. "There is not glory" I Samuel 4:21 as he was born just at the time she received news of the Ark, her husband and her father in law’s deaths. Leaving the Israelites for a while, let us follow the Ark that is now in the hands of the Philistines. They of course believe that they have gained a tremendous victory. And perhaps they have, over Israel, but not over the God of Israel. I Samuel continues to reveal how the Ark was taken to the Temple of Dagon, their heathen god, and set before him as a tribute to his granting them victory. But in the morning, the idol had fallen before the Ark as if in worship to the true God. This was repeated a second day, putting the fear of God in the Philistines. God ends up giving them serious grief, including “emerods”, which is the King James word for hemorrhoids. Moving the Ark to three different cities fails to remove the curse, and so they cause the Ark to return to Israel in a miraculous way. You may read about this in I Samuel 6. It would be 20 more years before David would bring the Ark to Jerusalem with great fanfare. Psalm 78 tells us about the consistent rebellion of the Children of Israel against the Lord. And reading from verse 58 we find the time of the removal of the ark from Shiloh to Zion and the transference of the leadership of Israel from Ephraim to Judah finally allowing the Ark to be safe in the Tabernacle again. David lives and dies, Solomon lives and dies, and then the kingdom is divided as I explained in the first paragraph above. Now Judah begins to trust in the Temple as their security against the Babylonian attack that is eminent. Yet not only did they trust in the Temple, but also in the Ark, the Law, their Bloodline, Jerusalem, anything but God. This is where Jeremiah is commissioned to preach in the Temple, Jeremiah 7:1-2, He Calls for repentance when the city was in danger of being destroyed by Babylonian forces - Jeremiah 7:3-4. Their attitude is "We are safe; surely the Lord will not allow His temple to be destroyed!" This is implied by the threefold statement "The temple of the Lord...!" But the Lord required more than rituals involving temple worship and outward piety. (1) Repentance and service was required - Jer 7:5a (2) This Service must affect their individual and daily dealings with people - Jeremiah 7:5b-6. (3) Such true service would have sparee them from the Babylonian captivity - Jeremiah 7:7 (4) Theirs was a deadly false trust - Jeremiah 7:8 (5) They were Blatantly transgressing the Law - Jeremiah 7:9 (6). They went to the temple, believing that this excused their conduct - Jeremiah 7:10. (7) But the Lord saw their hypocrisy - Jeremiah 7:11 The Lord's response to Judah's foolish and false trust; "Remember Shiloh!" - Jeremiah 7:12 God will do the same with Jerusalem and the temple - Because of their failure to heed His prophets - Jeremiah 7:13 What happened at Shiloh would happen at Jerusalem - Jeremiah 7:14 They would be taken into captivity, just like Ephraim (Israel) - Jeremiah 7:15. Then, sadly, the Babylonians come as recorded in Jeremiah 52:12-14. [God indeed does unto Jerusalem as He did to Shiloh, and that was in 70 A.D. when Rome was His instrument] How about the false trust of Christians? In 1Corinthians 10:6 & 11 we are told that God's dealings with Israel "were written for our admonition." What application can we draw from our text in Jeremiah? Could some have a false trust in the church which Christ built? There may be those who cry "The Church of Christ, The Church of Christ, The Church of Christ are we" Believing that membership will excuses negligence and inactive service? They think "With an attitude based on faulty reasoning The church will be saved, I am a member, so I will be saved". As long as I am a "member", I can get by. But remember the parable of the tares - Mt 13:41-43. Salvation is dependent on individual faithfulness, not group association! - John 15:2 As you remember Shiloh, remember also Jesus words to Sardis.and Laodicea in Revelation 3. God has always dwelt with His People, first in the Garden of Eden, then with Noah in the ark, then with Israel by Fire and Cloud, then in the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle and in the Temple. Next the Godhead dwelt fully in Christ, who promised the Spirit to His disciples. Finally, He is dwelling in you and I by the Spirit given on Pentecost. He is not finished … ultimately, we will experience the ultimate Presence of the Living God when … we shall dwell with Him in eternity … Glory To His Name. Pastor Hayden
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