Jeremiah 34 Devotional

Freed People Who Free Others

“Recently you repented and did what pleased Me; each of you proclaimed freedom for his neighbor. You made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name.”Jeremiah 34:15 (BSB)

With Babylon's army at the gates, Jerusalem does something good. King Zedekiah leads the people in a covenant to free their Hebrew slaves, made in the LORD's house and sealed by passing between the halves of a calf (34:8-10, 15, 18). Then they change their minds and force the freed men and women back into slavery (34:11).

God's response reaches back to the beginning. He made a covenant with their ancestors on the day he brought them out of the house of slavery, and it required releasing Hebrew servants in the seventh year (34:13-14). A people God had freed were never meant to keep others in chains. Taking that freedom back profaned his name (34:16). So God grants them a grim freedom of their own, freedom to fall by sword, plague, and famine (34:17). Moses told Israel to release servants because the LORD had redeemed them from slavery in Egypt (Deuteronomy 15:15). Grace received is meant to flow outward. Those whom God has set free can loosen their grip on others.

To think about: Whom are you holding to a debt or a grudge, and how might the freedom God has given you loosen that grip?