Jeremiah 7:21

"Thus saith Jehovah of hosts, the God of Israel: add your burnt-offerings unto your sacrifices, and eat ye flesh. For I spake not unto your fathers nor commanded them, in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt-offerings or sacrifices: but this thing I commanded them, saying, Hearken unto my voice, and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people; and walk ye in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. But they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt unto this day, I have sent unto you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers."

"Add your burnt-offerings to your sacrifices, and eat flesh ..." (Jeremiah 7:21).

"These words express God's indignation at the sacrifices of those who were so wicked and alienated from God. God had so little pleasure in their sacrifices, that they might as well eat of the very burnt-offerings themselves."[21]

Of course, the Law of Moses had forbidden the worshipper to eat of the burnt-offerings which were to be burned upon the altar; but God placed so little value upon their insincere and hypocritical sacrifices, that he here said, "Why don't you just go ahead and eat the burnt-offerings also; they are doing you no good anyway!"

We reject all of the critical assertions that God here was declaring that the commanded sacrifices were not necessary, or that it was God's will to be worshipped with genuine purity of life instead of through offering any kind of sacrifices. What God truly desires is both (1) purity of life and (2) the offering of the sacrifices which he commanded. The effort to eliminate either originates with Satan. "The idea here is that there is no sanctity in offerings brought by unrepentant men."[22]

"This thing I commanded them ..." (Jeremiah 7:23). The thing stressed here is that "hearkening unto God," and obeying his commands, were the very first things God commanded to Israel when he undertook to adopt them as his people. This was required even before the institution of the forms and sacrifices of the Mosaic covenant, and were therefore more important even than the sacrifices; but both were required. Israel's great failure was that of substituting the lesser of two commandments instead of the greater.

"They hearkened not ... but walked in their own counsels ... and went backward and not forward ..." (Jeremiah 7:24). This rebellion had begun almost simultaneously with the crossing of the Red Sea, and also after Sinai. "Such behavior after Sinai was incredible! It stresses the prolonged rebellion of Israel, the infinite patience and longsuffering of God, and showing that disobedience was as old as the Exodus itself."[23]