Jeremiah 34, "Freed" Slaves (DRAFT)

(This DRAFT study has been done fairly quickly, without the further guide of commentaries. I hope to improve on it later.)

Jeremiah has been prophesying about a coming invasion. Now it approaches.

Jeremiah 34:1-5, Promise to Zedekiah

While Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, `This is what the LORD says: I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and handed over to him. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.

"`Yet hear the promise of the LORD, O Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the LORD says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your fathers, the former kings who preceded you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, "Alas, O master!" 

I myself make this promise, 

declares the LORD.'" 

Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out--Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah

Jerusalem will be burned down but Zedekiah will not be killed. Instead, he will die peacefully of old age. Jeremiah passes this on to Zedekiah while Nebuchadnezzar continues to besiege the last three fortresses of Judah.

Jeremiah 34:8-11, Free your slaves!

The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free his Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Jew in bondage. 

So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again. 

Zedekiah orders the people of Jerusalem to free their Hebrew slaves. This is a good first start in giving justice to the people. The people do this and then renege on the agreement.

Jeremiah 34:13-16, Profaned my name

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: 

"This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your forefathers when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, `Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrew who has sold himself to you. After he has served you six years, you must let him go free.' Your fathers, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. 

Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to his countrymen. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again. 

YHWH tells Jeremiah that he has noticed their breaking of their covenant vows. Their  reversal of their vow profanes the name of God, since the people bear His name.

Notice that the actions of the Israelites breaks the Third Commandment -- they have profaned the name of YHWH.

Jeremiah 34:17-22, "Freed"

"Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now proclaim `freedom' for you, declares the LORD--`freedom' to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. 

The men who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, I will hand over to their enemies who seek their lives. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth. 

"I will hand Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials over to their enemies who seek their lives, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. I am going to give the order, declares the LORD, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there." 

The people of Jerusalem will be "freed" just as their slaves have been "freed". 

The people have violated God's covenant with them. In the ancient Near East culture, covenants were ratified by splitting an animal in two and walking between the two halves. This sybolized that if either party broke the covenant, they would expect to be cut in two like the animals. (See Genesis 15:7-21 for the ratification of a covenant between Abram and God.)  Here the people of Israel are about to experience this penalty.

Some Random Thoughts

The Third Commandment says to not profane the name of God. Modern Christianity has watered this down to avoiding words like "God!" or "damn!" But the commandment is much much deeper than that. It speaks to people who claim the name of God and then acts in disobedience to Him. In American society today, there are many politicians who claim to speak for Jesus and Christianity -- while living out a life of abuse, adultery, slander... and evil is various forms.