1.  Introduction

     a.  A Serious Siege 1

     b.  A Temporary Break 2

     c.  Scripture Reading

2.  The Covenant

     a.  Its Occasion (8-10) 3

     b.  Its Annulment (11) 4

3.  God's Response

     a.  His Law at the Exodus (12-14)

     b.  God's Assessment (15-16)

     c.  God's Judgement (17)

4.  Our Word & God's Name

     a.  We Bear Christ's Name 5

1 Jeremiah 34:8-17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  Honour God's Holy Name

 

1.  Introduction

     a.  A Serious Siege

          i.   the book of Jeremiah is not strictly in chronological order

                (1) many students have puzzled over the exact order of events, and this is how I understand them to the best of my ability

                (2) chapters 1 to 31 record his prophetic messages in order

                (3) chapters 39 on tell in order the events after the fall of Jerusalem except for the last chapter which is a summary historical note

                (4) while the chapters between those two sections are various notes of events during the siege by Nebuchadnezzar, not all in sequence

          ii.  last week we looked at Jeremiah 32

                (1) Zedekiah had shut up Jeremiah for his preaching for the first time

                (2) Jeremiah's cousin, Hanamel, coming to Jerusalem for business

                (3) Jeremiah was asked to redeem family property in Anathoth

          iii.  this was intended to be an illustration of faith in God by Jeremiah

                (1) it was not an auspicious time to do a real estate deal

                (2) the siege was at its height, as described in 32:24, “Behold, the siege mounds have reached the city to take it, and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans”

          iv. why was Nebuchadnezzar's attack so fierce? F. B. Meyer explains: 2

                   (1)  Zedekiah, … on ascending the throne, bound himself under the most solemn sanctions to be loyal to the supremacy of Babylon, and there is no doubt that, at the time, he fully intended to be faithful, the more especially as, at Nebuchadnezzar's command, he took the oath of allegiance in the sacred name of Jehovah. But he was weak and young, and wholly in the hands of the strong court party that favoured an alliance with Egypt, and the casting off of the Chaldean yoke.

                   (2)  Stung to the quick by the perfidy and ingratitude of the Jews, who had persistently and obstinately outraged him, Nebuchadnezzar gathered a vast army, resolved to make a public example of them to surrounding peoples, by the swiftness and mercilessness of his vengeance.

                (3) but there was yet to come …

 

     b.  A Temporary Break

          i.   it was back on the Sunday before Christmas that we looked at the 37^th chapter of this book, not to examine it in detail, but to contrast the bad news that Zedekiah received when he asked Jeremiah, with the good news that we celebrate at Christmas

                (1) but let us look back at that chapter for a moment this morning in order to get the background for our passage today

                (2) at that time Jeremiah had freedom to come and go; the reason given is in 37:5, “Meanwhile, Pharaoh’s army had set out from Egypt; and when the Chaldeans who had been besieging Jerusalem heard the report about them, they lifted the siege from Jerusalem.”

          ii.  but though the people of Jerusalem, listening to their false prophets, thought that suddenly the siege was over, God warned otherwise:

                (1) in 37:7-9, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Thus you are to say to the king of Judah, who sent you to Me to inquire of Me: “Behold, Pharaoh’s army which has come out for your assistance is going to return to its own land of Egypt. The Chaldeans will also return and fight against this city, and they will capture it and burn it with fire. … Do not deceive yourselves, saying, 'The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,' for they will not go.”'”

                (2) it was at that time that Jeremiah left the city to take possession of the property and was arrested and put in prison – but that is a story for another day

                (3) that is the situation that existed at the time of our …

 

     c.  Scripture Reading

          i.   ⁸ The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were in Jerusalem to proclaim release to them: ⁹ that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, a Hebrew man or a Hebrew woman; so that no one should keep them, a Jew his brother, in bondage. ¹⁰ And all the officials and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant that each man should set free his male servant and each man his female servant, so that no one should keep them any longer in bondage; they obeyed, and set them free.

          ii.  ¹¹ But afterward they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection for male servants and for female servants.

          iii.  ¹² Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, ¹³ “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘I made a covenant with your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying, ¹⁴ At the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother, who has been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall send him out free from you; but your forefathers did not obey Me, or incline their ear to Me.

          iv. ¹⁵ “Although recently you had turned and done what is right in My sight, each man proclaiming release to his neighbour, and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name. ¹⁶ Yet you turned and profaned My name, and each man took back his male servant and each man his female servant, whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your male servants and female servants.”’

          v.  ¹⁷ “Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release each man to his brother, and each man to his neighbour. Behold, I am proclaiming a release to you,’ declares the Lord, ‘to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.'”

 

2.  The Covenant

     a.  Its Occasion (8-10)

          i.   what brought about this covenant the Zedekiah made with all the people in Jerusalem?

                (1) the commentators give various reasons, and probably all are true, in part at least:

                     (a) Jeremiah's preaching of their sins have brought conviction and repentance to some

                     (b) this law of the release of fellow Jews from slavery seems to have been long neglected: some may have been truly contrite in seeking their proper release

                     (c) their slaves could no longer work the fields on account of the siege and this relieved their owners of feeding them

                     (d) freeing these slaves allowed them to be used in the badly needed defence of the city

                (2) but certainly a major element, whether the owners motivation was bad or good, was the dim outlook provided by the siege at its height

                     (a) after all, what was their future? having slaves wouldn't help

                     (b) one writer 3 calls it “panic piety”, a.k.a. “battlefield religion”

          ii.  F. B. Meyer 4 describes how this covenant was made, partly from verses 18-19 later in this chapter, and partly from how other such covenants in the Bible were ratified: “… His people … resolved … to make some reparation for their sins, and at the same time strengthen their garrison, by setting free their slaves. This was done at a solemn convocation, specially summoned to the temple; and the national resolve was ratified before God with the most sacred rites. A calf was cut in twain; and the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs and priests and all the principal people passed between the parts of the calf, as much as to say, 'May God part us in twain, as this beast is, if we turn back from our vow to emancipate our brethren and sisters, Hebrews and Hebrewesses, who are enslaved.'”

 

     b.  Its Annulment (11)

          i.   “But afterward they turned around and took back the male servants and the female servants, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection for male servants and for female servants.”

          ii.  what caused this 180° turn about face?

          iii.  the bit of history we reviewed at the start of the message should make it clear

          iv. but if not, the words of the Lord that conclude the chapter leave us in no doubt: “'…'the hand of the army of the king of Babylon which has gone away from you. Behold, I am going to command,’ declares the Lord, ‘and I will bring them back to this city; and they shall fight against it and take it and burn it with fire; and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without inhabitant.’” (Jeremiah 34:21-22)

          v.  the temporary lifting of the siege turned them from any thought of repentance, filled them with false self-confidence, so that they again enslaved their fellow countrymen who ought to have been free.

          vi. so, what is? …

 

3.  God's Response

     a.  The Law at the Exodus (12-14)

          i.   first of all, the Lord through the mouth of Jeremiah recalls the basis for which they should have kept their enslaved countrymen free

                (1) they had spent four generations as a nation enslaved in the land of Egypt, but God redeemed them from that slavery

                (2) so, servanthood of one Israelite to another was never to be a permanent relation – they had been freed by God

          ii.  the law of God for His people was therefore designed so that no Israelite became a permanent slave

                (1) after 7years (that is in the Hebrew way of reckoning time, such as “after 8 days” meaning at the end of a week) – the person who had to sell himself into slavery, for any reason, must be freed

                (2) but verse 14 tells us that this law could be heaped upon the pile of other laws of God that they did not obey

          iii.  God's purpose for them to be a righteous, exemplary nation, broken

 

     b.  God's Assessment (15-16)

          i.   some people think that in gaining a right relationship with the holy God, it is sufficient to make a good effort, have intentions; not so!

                (1) the Lord does commend them for the step they had taken in making this covenant, “you had turned and done what is right”

                (2) it was a step in the right direction to correct what had long been wrong, but it not only ceased but reversed itself

          ii.  moreover, they had made a show of worship and obedience which amounted to less than nothing

                (1) this covenant was made under the auspices of God's house, the temple that bore His holy Name, that represented Himself

                (2) and because it was not carried out, because it was false & feigned worship, it was an affront to their Lord God Almighty

          iii.  their attitudes and actions in annulling their covenant

                (1) they had, as the NLT puts it, shrugged off their oath; which is the same as shrugging off God, treating Him as though nothing

                (2) “You have profaned My Name,” says the Lord; or another version,

                (3) “You have polluted My Name,” says the God of Israel

                (4) and you cannot treat God in that way; God's Name matters

 

     c.  God's Judgement (17)

          i.   “Therefore thus says the Lord, ‘You have not obeyed Me in proclaiming release each man to his brother, and each man to his neighbour. Behold, I am proclaiming a release to you,’ declares the Lord, ‘to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you a terror to all the kingdoms of the earth.'”

          ii.  for this false release, a deceptive freedom that they proclaimed to the slaves their countrymen, a release in word only, but not in fact; thus will God now pronounce a release, a freedom to them

                (1) from now on those living in Jerusalem and Judah are released from being His servants, His worshippers, His people

                (2) no longer shall they be under His Lordship and thus protection

          iii.  so the doom, that is repeated through these chapters, is applied once more to them “the sword, the pestilence, the famine”

          iv. for these who bore His Name as a nation had despised, disrespected and profaned that name by the false oath and false actions

 

4.  Our Word & God's Name

     a.  We Bear Christ's Name

          i.   the Bible makes quite clear that what we say and what we do reflects upon the Name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ

                (1) “But above all, my brethren, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or with any other oath; but let your yes be yes, and your no, no; so that you may not fall under judgment.” (James 5:12 NAS)

                (2) we do not interpret these words as do the Quakers and perhaps other groups, as forbidding taking oaths in court

                (3) nor simply of abstaining from profane language, although that is most certainly included (including those “weakened” words)

          ii.  but rather that as believers we be known for our truth of speech, that what we say, we do; that what we promise, we carry out

          iii.  because to do otherwise is to dishonour the Name of God, and bring disrespect upon the One who has loved us and redeemed us from sin.

Outline Notes