A Chosen People Who Will Not Listen: From the Prophets to Christ and His Church (Jeremiah 7:23-28; Matt. 23:29–35)

This rather is what I commanded them: Listen to my voice; then I will be your God and you shall be my people. Walk exactly in the way I command you, so that you may prosper. 24 But they did not listen to me, nor did they pay attention. They walked in the stubbornness of their evil hearts and turned their backs, not their faces, to me. 25 From the day that your ancestors left the land of Egypt even to this day, I kept on sending all my servants the prophets to you. 26 Yet they have not listened to me nor have they paid attention; they have stiffened their necks and done worse than their ancestors. 27 When you speak all these words to them, they will not listen to you either. When you call to them, they will not answer you. 28 Say to them: This is the nation which does not listen to the voice of the Lord, its God, or take correction. Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech.

From the earliest days of Israel’s history, God has been speaking to His people.  Through Moses, He gave the covenant law.  Through the prophets, He pleaded with the hearts of kings and commoners alike, calling them to return.  In Jeremiah 7:23–28, the prophet delivers a sobering oracle at the Temple gate, recalling God's foundational command to Israel: “Listen to my voice... Walk exactly in the way I command you, so that you may prosper” (v. 23).  This conditional covenant recalls Exodus 19:5–6 and Deuteronomy 6:3–5, where obedience and faithfulness were the terms of Israel’s identity as God’s people.  This call to “listen” (shema) forms the very heart of covenant relationship—not just a command but an invitation to communion with the living God (cf. Deut. 6:4–6).

In Jeremiah’s time, the verdict had become tragically clear: “They did not listen to me, nor did they pay attention” (Jer 7:26).  The Lord declares through the prophet that Israel had turned away: “They walked in the hardness of their evil hearts, and turned their backs, not their faces, to me” (v. 24).  This vivid image of turning one's back rather than one’s face reflects a willful rejection of God’s presence and word, a theme reinforced throughout the Deuteronomic history (cf. 2 Kings 17:13–15).

The core of this passage is not a failure in ritual observance but a deeper moral and spiritual rebellion.  The people’s refusal to listen to God, despite His sending prophets “daily, without fail” (v. 25), shows a persistent pattern of covenant infidelity.  The expression “they stiffened their necks” (v. 26) is a common biblical metaphor for obstinacy, used also in Exodus 32:9 and Acts 7:51, where St. Stephen connects Israel’s rejection of Moses and the prophets with their ultimate rejection of Christ.

The passage concludes with divine lament: “Faithfulness has disappeared; the word itself is banished from their speech” (v. 28).  This signals not only moral decay but also the collapse of prophetic discourse itself—the silencing of God’s word among His people.

Jesus draws directly from this prophetic tradition when He says: “Woe to you... You build the tombs of the prophets... Thus you bear witness against yourselves that you are the children of those who murdered the prophets” (Matt. 23:29–31).  Like Jeremiah, Jesus stands as a rejected prophet before a hardened people.  His lament over Jerusalem—“How many times I yearned to gather your children together...” (Luke 13:34)—echoes Jeremiah’s sorrow and divine yearning.  John 1:11 summarizes the same tragic reality: “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.”

The call of Joel 2:12–13—“Rend your hearts, not your garments”—and the warning of Hebrews 3:7–15—“Today, if you hear His voice, harden not your hearts”—both reflect the same theological plea found in Jeremiah: true conversion must come from the heart, not through outward observance or inherited religious identity.  These passages are central to the season of Lent, often reflected upon in personal devotion, communal worship, and Scripture-based preaching—especially at the beginning of the season and throughout its weeks of repentance and renewal.

Jeremiah’s lament reaches its climax in the Gospels, where Jesus, the eternal Word made flesh, weeps over Jerusalem—the city of David, the place of the Temple— the city that had long silenced the prophets.  Like those sent before Him, He too is rejected, not because He failed to speak clearly, but because the hearts of the people remained hardened.  Jesus not only recalls the sins of the past but exposes the spiritual blindness of the present.

Jeremiah’s prophecy is fulfilled in Christ, who is the final and fullest Word of God (Heb. 1:1–2).  Just as Israel rejected the prophets, so too would they reject the Son.  Yet in that rejection lies the mystery of salvation: Christ, the Suffering Servant (Is. 53:3–5), bears the consequences of Israel’s unfaithfulness and opens the New Covenant to all who believe in Him (Rom. 11:11–24).  “He humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:8)—His obedience reverses the disobedience of the people and inaugurates a new eternal covenant in His Blood: “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you” (Luke 22:20).  This new covenant is not a replacement but the fulfillment of God's plan to write His law upon the hearts of His people (cf. Jer. 31:31–34).

This passage holds deep relevance for Lent. Like ancient Israel, and like the Church today, we are summoned once again to listen to the voice of the Lord and examine whether our religious practices flow from true conversion.  Though we are the people chosen in Christ, we are not immune to the temptation to honor Him with our lips while our hearts remain far from Him (cf. Matt. 15:8).  Lent is a time of grace to repent of hardened hearts and return to the Lord with sincerity.

The Church’s liturgy re-echoes the warnings and promises of Jeremiah, Joel, and the Psalms: “Return to me with your whole heart (Joel 2:12);  “If today you hear His voice, harden not your hearts” (Psalm 95:7–8).  As members of Christ’s Body, we are called not only to hear but to respond—to become a Church that listens, repents, and follows.  Lent invites us to break the cycle of spiritual deafness and receive anew the mercy offered through Christ, the living Word.

Almighty God, You have spoken through the prophets and through Your Son, calling us to listen with humble hearts.  Yet we have often turned our backs and hardened our hearts.  In this holy season, help us to rend our hearts and not our garments and welcome Your Word with faith and repentance.  This we pray through Christ our Lord.  Amen!

                                                       

Sources

• McSorley, Joseph. An Outline History of the Church by Centuries (From St. Peter to Pius XII). 2nd ed., B. Herder Book Co., 1944.
• Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
• Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
• Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: New Testament Expanded Edition. Four Courts / Scepter, 2008.
• Faculty of the University of Navarre. The Navarre Bible: The Pentateuch. Four Courts Press, 2017
• Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Prentice Hall, 1990.
• Charpentier, Etienne. How to Read the Old Testament. Translated by John Bowden, 1981.
• Komonchak, Joseph, et al., editors. The New Dictionary of Theology.