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793. Bible Study: Jeremiah 34 (Slavery comes up again! What a coincidence!) · Faith by annm2705

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Chapter 34 from the book of Jeremiah as we start again, we
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remember that all scripture is God breathed and is useful for
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teaching, rebuking, correcting and training and righteousness
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so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every
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good work. That's found in Second Timothy
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chapter 3 verse 16. And also the other reason why we
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read is because as Romans said, as Paul said in the book of
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Romans chapter 10 verse 17. Consequently faith comes from
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hearing the message and the message is heard through the
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word about Christ. So let's get started.
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Dear God, please let the Holy Spirit give us wisdom and
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insight as we read through this chapter.
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We ask this in Jesus name, Amen. So this was a warning to
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Zedekiah. He was the king at the time.
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So chapter 34, while Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon,
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and all his army and all the Kingdom and peoples and the
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empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its
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surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord.
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This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says.
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Go to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, this is what the
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Lord says. I'm about to give the city into
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the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it
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down. You will not escape from his
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grasp, but surely be captured and given into his hands.
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You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will
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speak with you face to face, and you will go to Babylon.
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Yet hear the Lord's promise to you.
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Zedekiah, king of Judah, this is what the Lord says concerning
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you. You will not die by the sword.
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You will die peacefully. So this is really interesting
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because first of all, God is sovereign over all of this.
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He's allowing this to happen because of Israel's sins.
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In the prior chapters, he kept saying, you know, if you don't
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repent, if you don't change your ways, this is going to come upon
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you. And then he told the people
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through Jeremiah, he said, go peacefully with Babylon and you
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will live and you will have children and, and work hard
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there and make it prosperous like that's what God said to do
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if you want to keep your life. But if you stay in Jerusalem,
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then you are going to die either by sword famine.
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I think it might be our wild beast.
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I can't remember our plague, Noah's plague.
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So there were three different things that would come upon
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people who stayed, who remained in Jerusalem, which is pretty
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much the opposite of what God used to do all the time.
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When God was with Israel, He would defeat all their enemies.
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But here God is telling Jeremiah this in advance.
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He's not. It's not an after the fact
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discussion with Jeremiah like This is why it happened.
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He's warning him in advance and he did this for years.
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I think it said something about Jeremiah did either 23 years or
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13 years, something like that, where he was warning people, but
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the people wouldn't listen. And then what God said was
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coming about. And here the king of Zedekiah,
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he wasn't a good king and he it actually imprisoned Jeremiah and
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had him locked up because Jeremiah kept preaching this
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doom and gloom and nobody wanted to hear it.
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So they, they, because it was against the city of Jerusalem
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and there was, they were just not turned to the Lord.
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Their eyes were not opened. They or their eyes were opened,
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but they didn't want to listen to him.
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And so they just wanted good news and they were ignoring
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anything that was negative. And, and that's something that
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we probably need to pay attention to is, you know, if,
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if someone is saying repent, that's pretty much what almost
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all the prophets said. And even if you look at or read
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the parable of the vineyards and the servants or the workers in
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the vineyard, it, it really does kind of suggest that like God
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sends people over and over to talk about repentance and people
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don't want to hear it. People are comfortable in their
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sins. They like doing what they want
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to do. We are born naturally with an
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inclination towards sin. So it it involves change, it
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involves a change in our mind to be willing to live according to
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the way that God says we should live.
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And a lot of people resist that and they don't want to hear it.
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They want to remain living the way that they live, the way they
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think is best, but not necessarily the way God thinks
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is best. And they'll give all these
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reasons and why what God says is not good.
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But we have to remember who the boss is, who our Creator is, who
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made all the laws, who created the earth.
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And what he says is, is truth. Doesn't matter if we like it or
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not. It's what the truth is.
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So are we willing to live according to the truth,
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according to what God has commanded?
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There are consequences when we choose to be rebellious against
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God. We can.
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We can do whatever we want. God doesn't force us.
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He lets us make this decision and ironically, this chapter
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talks about slavery and just a few podcasts ago I talked about
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slavery and it happened just because it came up in a Bible
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study. And now this is coming up again.
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And to keep in mind that what I, I don't know what I've come, the
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conclusion that I've come to is that I will first of all, I
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prefer to say that we are servants.
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That would, that would be a better word.
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And I truly think that I'm a little bit concerned about Bible
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translations because the more recent translations,
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translations use the word slave way more than the word servant.
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But if you go back to the oldest translations, they sparingly use
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the word slave. And so I just, you know, I think
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that also like matches up culturally with the world.
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And I think we really need to be careful about that because go
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back to the the podcast about slavery because our mindset in
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America and what we know of slavery is different than what
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is in the Bible. But ultimately, in a spiritual
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sense, we are slaves. We are either slaves to sin or
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slaves to God. Or if you want to say we're a
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servant of sin or we're a servant of God.
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And that's really what it is. It's either we're in rebellion
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to God and, you know, sinful, or we are submitted to God and have
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him as Lord over our life, as the boss over our life.
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What he says goes. So that's a choice that we all
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get to make. Going back to scripture as
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people made a a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the
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kings who ruled before you so that so they will make a fire in
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in your honor and lament. So God is foretelling.
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How would you like that Zedekiah that you're going to die
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peacefully, but they're going to have a funeral fire and you're
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you know, just like your your predecessors.
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That would not be of such a welcoming thing.
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At last, master, I myself make this promise, declares the Lord.
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Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah, king of
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Judah in Jerusalem, while the army of the king of Babylon was
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fighting against Jerusalem and other cities of Judah that were
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still holding out Lakish and Asakai.
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These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.
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So everything was getting demolished.
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They're seeing the enemy approaching Zedekiah seeing this
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and he didn't want to believe it.
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When Jeremiah was prophesying, this was speaking, this is the
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word of the Lord, this is what's going to happen.
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And he didn't want anything to do with it.
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But now he's seeing it with his own eyes.
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And then God's saying, you're actually going to see the king
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of Babylon, you specifically, and you're going to be taken and
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you're, but you're going to die peacefully.
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So here, that's one word like that's, I guess a little bit of
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God's mercy and compassion for him.
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So here's where it gets into about the slaves.
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The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had
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made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim
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freedom for the slaves. Now, the slaves were essentially
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indentured servants going back to scripture.
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Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and
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female. No one was to hold a fellow
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Hebrew in bondage. So what how the slavery came
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about. God did allow this.
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He allowed this for poor people, for people who didn't have the
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means for the basic necessities like food and shelter when they
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had nothing else they could offer.
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They could offer themselves as labor.
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And basically they were brought into another person's home and
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they didn't have, or if they didn't have money to pay the
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debt, instead, they could work for the person.
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And that's what this quote slavery was.
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So is it better to call them a servant or, you know, they are,
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they're they're being taken care of through this, through this
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process. And it's a willful decision for
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a Hebrew to become a slave. And it's an A result out of
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hardship. So it's very unlike what America
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saw where there were people that were kidnapped and brought into
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slavery. The the Bible very clearly says
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that if you kidnap somebody like that, you, you are to be put to
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death. So the Bible does not condone
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slavery in the way that we know it happened here in America.
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So it's not condoning slavery. But at the same time, God did
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allow people to essentially sell themselves to do work for debt
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that they couldn't pay off. But he also said don't get into
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debt like that. So anyway, it was a means of
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survival. So, so all going back to
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Scripture. So all the officials and people
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who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free
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their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage.
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They agreed and set them free. But afterward they changed their
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minds and took back the slaves they had freed and it's and
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enslaved them again. Then the word of the Lord came
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to Jeremiah. This is what the Lord the God of
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Israel says. I made a covenant with your
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ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of
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slavery. I said every 7th year, each of
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you must, must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves
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to you. So here you can see this is a
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willful act on the Hebrews part. They, they sold themselves to
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someone and the 7th year, this is a a there is, you know, not,
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it's not an, a forever kind of a thing.
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It is like, you know, at the end of the sixth year they get, they
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need to be freed After they have served you 6 years, you must let
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them go free. Your ancestors, however, did not
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listen to me or pay attention to me.
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So see, people are not listening to God because that's what God
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said. That's the process by if you
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have debt, you can work for somebody for six years and then
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then you're free. Recently you repented and did
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what is right in my sight. Each of you proclaimed freedom
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to your own people. Now this is really important
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because God is a God of freedom. Like he doesn't even force us to
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love him. I mean, that would not be real
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love if you force somebody, but he gives us free will.
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He is a God of freedom. And and so this is something
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that gets, I guess, misapplied or misunderstood by people, but
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it's really important to know the character of God and to see
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it for what it is and don't try to twist Scripture to make it
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something actually, it would be like defamation against God is
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what I would say is that you're ruining his reputation by saying
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that he supports slavery because he doesn't not in the way that
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it's being alluded to in in, you know, when people say these
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kinds of things. So OK.
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And so God's saying to them, You even made a covenant before me
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in the house that bears my name. But now you have turned around
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and profaned my name. Each of you has taken back the
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male and female slaves you had set free to go where they
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wished. You have forced them to become
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your slaves again. So God's not happy with us.
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Now here is a consequence of rebellion to God.
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Therefore, this is what the Lord says.
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You have not obeyed me. You have not proclaimed freedom
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to your own people. So I now proclaim freedom for
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you, declares the Lord, freedom to fall by sword, plague and
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famine. I will make you abhorrent to all
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the kingdoms of the earth. Those who have violated My
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covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they
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made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two
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and then walked between its pieces.
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Now this is something from the Old Testament when there was a
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covenant made. It goes way back, I thought to
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the book of Genesis where they actually like animals were
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sacrificed and then they walked between and that was like a, a
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symbol or a sign of a, a covenant.
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And maybe this study Bible will have more explanation on it, but
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that's what I recall. So this was some sort of a, a
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almost like a ritual process, but I don't know the
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significance of it and I'd have to study that a little bit more.
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But it was, you know, it was, it was something that was like a
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very, very sincere covenant agreement between and and God is
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faithful to his covenant, but his people are not faithful back
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to him. We are not always faithful to
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God. And then there are consequences
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that come from it. So verse 19, the leaders of
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Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests, and all
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the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the
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calf I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want
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to kill them. Their dead bodies will become
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food for the birds and wild animals.
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So there are some pretty hefty consequences of disobeying God
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and not doing the right thing because we have to think He is a
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God of justice and He wants people to be free and His own
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people are enslaving people and he's not happy about that and
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he's bringing justice against his own people.
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This is where you can see God doesn't have any favoritism,
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like he chose Israel to be his people and where his name would
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be glorified throughout the earth.
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But he doesn't excuse their bad behavior.
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They still get the same consequences just like everyone
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else for their bad behavior. So it, you know, like it says
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God chooses, he can, you know, he's the creator.
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He can choose certain people for certain purposes and certain
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people for special purposes, but it doesn't mean that there's
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anything better about a person that he chooses.
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He often chooses A lowly person or, you know, like somebody.
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I mean, he, he chooses the opposite of the way we would in
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the world. We would always choose the very
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best, you know, in whatever way we describe best.
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But that's not the way God is. God is, he sees all people the
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same. And he just said, you know, this
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is the group that I'm going to work through.
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And he made a covenant with them.
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So they had a very special promise or covenant with God
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that should have been respected. But honestly, if any of us were
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in that position, we're all human.
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We probably would have done the same.
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Not every single one of us, but as a nation, just think about
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that. Like our nation right now is not
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godly. There, there may be some in our
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nation who are godly, but there's a lot that are not
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godly. And so as a whole, there's a lot
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of things that our nation is doing that is against God and
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what God says. And, and we are going to face
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judgement. I mean, when you follow history
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and you see what God does when people do not listen to him,
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there's going to be a judgement to pay.
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The people who do not listen to God are the ones who will pay
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for this. One thing that comes to mind
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right now is something that came up in our elections recently
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and, and it's been quite a number of times and it's very,
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very, very highly contested between opposing views and it
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has, it is abortion. And I know from Scripture that
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God does not support abortion. Abortion.
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God gives life and he's the only one who can determine when a
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life is taken, and He's the only one with authority.
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I know other people can do it to people, but that's murder and
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they will have consequences for that, whether it's in this
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earthly life or at judgement time.
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They will face God someday with this.
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So anyway, as a nation, we need to really we need to do the same
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thing that Jeremiah's telling Jerusalem to do.
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We need to repent and turn to God and and seek what he desires
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and pray for our country. That the Holy Spirit will begin
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to operate within people that are in power and positions of
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power. That the Holy Spirit will
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influence them to make godly decisions.
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And hopefully lessen the judgement that will come to our
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nation, but we are certainly due for some judgement and it
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doesn't go on forever unpunished.
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So it it's concerning, especially when you see what
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happened to Jerusalem, God's own people, where it was completely
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devastated. There were only two cities that
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were remaining, he said, And everything else is going to be
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put to fire. And all the people who stayed in
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Jerusalem were going to die in one of three ways.
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So, OK, back to verse 21. I will deliver Zedekiah, king of
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Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want
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to kill them to the army of the king of Babylon, which has
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withdrawn from you. So he might be thinking, oh, the
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king of Babylon's already withdrawn.
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He's not coming back. But here's what God saying, no,
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he's going to come back for you. So verse 22, I am going to give
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the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to
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the city. That's where we can see God is
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sovereign. He's in control of all this.
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He can use bad people for his purposes.
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So the people himself themselves will be they they do get
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punished for what they do against God's people, but God
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can use their free will and their desires that they don't
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like. Is Judah the tribe of Judah?
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Because we're talking about that right now.
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The king of Babylon doesn't like Judah and it's going to conquer
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there. And so that is in his heart to
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do that. And that's not necessarily what
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God wanted for his people. But because of their rebellion,
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he's allowing the enemy to succeed this time.
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And he's, you know, he's, he's behind it.
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It's not a surprise to him. He's warned these people, but
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nobody listened. They will fight against it, take
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it and burn it down. He's letting the enemy destroy
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his the place he calls its own Jerusalem.
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Look at that. And I will lay waste the towns
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of Judah so no one can live there.
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And that's the end of chapter 34.
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So I will read the study Bibles, commentaries and then we'll wrap
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it up. So why did nations conquered by
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Nebuchadnezzar fight against Jerusalem?
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Powerful nations demanded both tribute and allegiance from
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those they had conquered. It was advisable for a subjected
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people to comply with the wishes of their overlord.
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It was far better to aid the eventual victor than to oppose
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him. Another reason some were so
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willing to fight against Jerusalem may have stemmed from
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the rivalry between Judah and her neighbors.
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With no love lost between them, Judah's neighbors would have
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been glad to see Judah defeated. This is very much similar to
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today. How many of the surrounding
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countries around Israel would be happy to see Israel defeated?
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We're in a very similar situation to this time.
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OK, how could they take back their freed slaves?
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By law, no Jew was to remain in bondage more than six years, but
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the wealthy and the influential apparently had begun to ignore
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this command after King Josiah's death in six O 9 BC.
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Threatened by Babylon, King Zedekiah freed the slaves in an
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attempt to gain favor with God. But when the Babylonians lifted
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their siege to deal with an Egyptian offense, the former
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slave owners felt they could return to life as usual.
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They probably used their wealth and political clout to put the
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indentured workers back into bondage.
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How did they profane God's name? God desired to liberate, not
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enslave his people. God's nature is to release
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captives. Sin's nature is to people in
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bondage. Think about that.
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So, you know, if we are a slave to sin, the Bible does say that
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like when before we we, our eyes are opened, we don't even know
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it. We're a slave to sin until we
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invite the Holy Spirit in, until we believe in Jesus and the Holy
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Spirit comes to us, we're pretty much blinded.
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We don't even know it. Since God's name represents his
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character, to attack his character, whether by word or
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deed, is to profane his name. So I think we could people could
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be profaning God's name when they say God is.
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He condones slavery because of what they're saying.
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They're giving him a bad name by associating God with slavery
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when that is not who he is. That is not the character of
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God. If we read the whole Bible, we
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realize that is not. But when people don't know the
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whole Bible, when they don't have the Holy Spirit, when
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they're confused or they're seeking and they see some
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things, they misinterpret things.
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And that's why it's so important to study this and to, I mean, go
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deeper than you know and ask God about confusing things like God,
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how can this be? You're the creator.
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Please help me understand what this is.
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And and God says if we seek him, we will find him, so he'll
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answer our questions. Because Jeremiah's countrymen
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lived in a way contrary to the nature of God, They profaned
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God's name and corrupted his character.
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So here's that question about the slaughtered calf.
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Why did they walk between the halves of a slaughtered calf?
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In ancient times, sacrificing an animal and dividing it along the
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spine was part of the process of making a covenant.
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The parties to the covenant then walked between the halves and
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met in the middle to take their solemn oath.
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Many think the custom implied that if one of the parties
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violated the terms of this covenant, then he, like the
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animal, was to be cut in two. Some some believe God was
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promising judgement because the people had broken their covenant
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with him. And that concludes chapter 34.
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So I hope, I hope these are meaningful or significant.
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And if they are, please share them with others and please come
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back again or subscribe to this podcast.
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The main thing is that I personally want to grow closer
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to God and we do. So like we said, you know,
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through reading the word about God, about Christ.
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And so it's really something important for all of us because
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we need to stay close to the Word because the world will
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pollute our thinking. And if we just listen to what's
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in the world, we'll be far from God.
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But if we stay in the Word, we'll be close to God.