March 6, Jeremiah 34
"You recently repented and did what was right in my eyes by proclaiming liberty each to his neighbor, and you made a covenant before me in the house that is called by my name, but then you turned around and profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your slaves." - Jeremiah 34:15-16
Our vertical relationship with God and our attitudes toward him exert a powerful influence on our horizontal relationships with and attitudes toward our fellow human beings. Our disobedience to God betrays a lack of respect for him. That lack of respect for God is almost certain to be mirrored in the way we treat the people around us.
The Israelites failed to honor God by serving him only. They turned to idols despite plain commandments and warnings against doing so. Once they no longer loved the Lord their God with all their heart, soul and might, they quickly descended into other sinful disobedience.
In Chapter 34, the Lord called out the people of Judah for their cruel mistreatment of their fellows. They made their poor neighbors their slaves and did not release them as God commanded them to do. When God threatened to destroy them for their sinful mistreatment of their brothers, they "repented" and released their slaves. They even went through a covenant ceremony, making a solemn vow in the temple before God. But their shallow, fear-driven repentance didn't last. When Egypt distracted Nebuchadnezzar from the siege of Jerusalem, the Jews went right back to enslaving and mistreating their debtors again. They broke their solemn vow and mocked God by going back on the pledge they took in his name.
God told them because they failed to give their slaves liberty, he would give the slave masters a terrible liberty--liberty to die by the sword, pestilence and famine. It was a death sentence that could have been avoided if they had done what they vowed to do.
God's reaction to their sinful conduct illustrates the law of sowing and reaping. The harvest is related to what is sown, and it is greater than what is sown. That harvest according to seed sown is guaranteed by God who cannot be mocked. He offers mercy that may save us from consequences that could follow our sowing. But those who reject his offer of mercy or mock him by failing to truly repent will reap a bitter harvest of painful consequences.
King Zedekiah is a tragic personal example of how a sinner may choose to intensify suffering by rejecting God's instructions. The nation couldn't be saved. Zedekiah and the people were going to captivity. But God offered him a reduced sentence if he would not continue his rebellion and go peacefully, submitting to Nebuchadnezzar when he came. But he didn't obey God. He resisted Nebuchadnezzar even when the Lord told him the Babylonian invasion was God's discipline against them. So Zedekiah did go into captivity, but he lost more than his throne and his freedom. He lost his sons and his eyesight. He died in prison and lost the honor of a king’s burial.
I see three big lessons for us in this chapter's narrative. First, let's realize that repentance means far more than saying some word or going through some ritual without making the change we were supposed to make in our lives. Let's learn once again the law of sowing and reaping. It has been in effect since God created the world, and it is still in effect in our lives. Also, let's see that God wants to be merciful. Even when discipline is unavoidable, there is still mercy for those who humble themselves. But we should all remember that God means what he says. All those who dare to mock him by saying and not doing will learn that lesson in painful, perhaps fatal ways. I can see the errors and foolish thinking of Zedekiah and the people of Judah. Can I see my own? Can you?
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—March 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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