Chapter 34

One of the problems with understanding the book of Jeremiah is that it’s not written in chronological order. It’s written in thematic order.

You remember that I talked about a chiasm? A chiasm is like a set of brackets – you have a beginning, something (which may be unrelated) in the middle, then the end. And you can have nested chiasms.

Jeremiah is a set of nested chiasms, so you get things like this – Jeremiah’s letters to the King DURING THE SIEGE. Yet just a couple of chapters ago we get the letters he sent to the people AFTER the exile.

Anyway, let’s look at this passage on its own merits.

People are often convinced that the Bible condones slavery. I would hold that it accepts slavery as a reality (as it was during the time it was written) but doesn’t particularly like it, and if you want proof of that, note that God says that fellow jews are NOT to be slaves.

Right there you see that Slavery certainly isn’t a harmless and universal thing. It’s something God tolerates, not something He likes. He puts up with it because at this time it is seen as a necessary evil, but He ensures that there are laws (in the book of Leviticus) for how a slave is to be treated; and you have this rule that fellow Jews are not to be slaves. God’s communication is basically “I really don’t want this slavery thing, but I can see I’m not going to get anywhere by commanding you not to do it; so can we at LEAST have no fellow Hebrews kept as slaves? Oh, and even the others; can you treat them properly please?”

Of course, people being what people are, the Jews fail to keep it. So when God calls them to account, one of the things He has accused them of is keeping each other slaves.

There is a promising part early in the chapter (verse 10) when the leaders and elders of Israel sign a contract for releasing of all Jewish slaves. But wouldn’t you know it, as soon as God’s metaphorical back is turned, not only do they go back to keeping slaves from among their own, the People even track down and re-enslave the same people as before!

God is angry. He is angry because Slavery exists in the first place. He is angry because people have kept brothers and sisters as slaves. He is even angry because the people have broken their word and reneged on their agreement.

God has a lot to be annoyed about, so He declares once again that there will be judgement as a result.
In amongst all this gloom, the King of Judah is told that he too will be exiled!

Another thing that confuses people a little is this: What was walking through the animals cut in half meant to represent?

That’s easy enough. It’s the generally accepted signal of an agreement from that era. The two people who agreed were to take a prescribed list of animals and divide them in half. Then they were to walk through the avenue formed by the separated animals – then the agreement was made.

In this case, they walked through the avenue with God – yet they didn’t end up keeping their commitment. Bad move.

But before you hassle them about it, I want to ask you : How many times have you made an agreement of some sort with God? And how many times have you totally ignored it afterwards?

We needn’t be smug. We too are guilty of the same thing, and we need to be aware that God wants us to follow our commitments. This is why God says repeatedly to think twice before making a vow; once you have made a promise, as a Christian, it is important to keep it totally.

No wonder God got upset with them – that thing about slavery was just one area where Judah failed to follow through.

How are WE doing for following our promises to God?