Today's Scripture
Trying to obey – Jeremiah 34:8-22
TODAY’S READING SCHEDULE: Jeremiah 32-34
8 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. 9 Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. 10 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. 11 But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.
12 Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 13 “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, 14 ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’[i] Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. 15 Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. 16 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.
17 “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. 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. 18 Those 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. 19 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, 20 I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.
21 “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. 22 I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city.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.”
What does this passage mean to me/us
We see a failed attempt of the Israelite obeying God’s word. According to God’s word, they wanted to free their slaves. It is in the year of the Jubilee when slaves were to be set free and debt to be cleared. It was a commandment from God to put an order in the society.
Even it was a hard command to follow, the obedient of the people brought justice and a new start to the community.
The people, who lived far from being obedient to the Lord’s word, attempted to follow the word.
It was a noble and joyful obedience of the people. They did it as a covenant with the Lord. And they freed their slaves.
“But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again” (v.11).
This happened. They saw how their will overcame God’s will, again.
Following God’s will means that our will is completely aligned with God’s will. It might cost and it might be tough.
But the meaning of entering into the covenant means, we give all to our Lord, who gave us His all.
Prayer
Lord, help us to live fully aligned to your will and your will only. In Christ name, AMEN.
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