Why does the “Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel” tell the people to eat the flesh of their burnt offerings?

The different parts of this whole section (Jeremiah 7:1–8:3) are from different periods of Jeremiah’s ministry, but they are brought together to give a unified message. In Jeremiah 7:1–15 it is clear that the Lord’s judgment is coming because of Judah’s hypocritical temple worship. This is matched by the worship of false gods in the home in Jeremiah 7:16–20, and so in the next part, Jeremiah 7:21–28, it comes as no surprise that the Lord says that the whole sacrificial system has become worthless.¹

The Hebrew word used for burnt offerings is olot and it comes from the verb ala which means to go up. This describes the rising smoke and flame as the offering is presented to the Lord as an atonement for sin.² Worshippers could eat other sacrifices, or parts of them (Leviticus 3:1–17; Leviticus 7:11–18; Leviticus 22:18–23, Leviticus 22:27–30), but the burnt offering was totally consumed by the fire and meant for the Lord alone. But now the Lord commands the people to add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices and eat the flesh. They may as well eat the burnt offering that was meant for the Lord since it is doing them no good, thanks to their hypocrisy and refusal to repent.³ There may also be a hint here that all the worshippers cared about was the feast that followed their sacrifices.⁴ Essentially the Lord is rejecting their empty worship and then all the sacrifices they offered, even when everything was done according to the letter of the law.