Sermon Tone Analysis

(Jeremiah 34:1-22)

Martin Luther Kings’ I Have a Dream speech is remembered for highlighting the injustices endured for centuries by African Americans but it is most remembered for the hopeful refrain at the end when someday all people will be able to say “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!”

No matter what you think about Martin Luther King as a person, I think we can should all look forward to that day when everyone will be free.

People have been longing for freedom since time began.

Thousands of years ago the people of Israel were longing to be free at last.

The 34th chapter of Jeremiah is about people who longed to be free, recieved their freedom and then lost it.

The chapter is a record of Jeremiah’s experiences during the siege of Jerusalem just before Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians.

It begins with a warning to Zedekiah about losing freedom.

The Warning to Zedekiah (1-7)

The situation seems hopeless to Zedekiah but he’s determined not to give up without a fight.

He was running out of time, though, as verses 6-7 illustrate—one by one all of Judah’s cities had fallen until all that was left was Lachish, Azekah, and Jerusalem.

Treachery Against the Slaves

So in one last ditch effort to save himself, and his people, Zedekiah along with everyone else made a covenant with God to set the Hebrew slaves free.

Maybe Zedekiah made this last ditch effort to get God to relent before Jerusalem was completely taken over.

Or maybe he let them go free so that they could help defend the city.

Either way, this was a great thing for Zedekiah to do because no Israelite was supposed to be in servitude longer than 6 years.

To let them be free is an example of biblical justice.

In the Leviticus, one of the books of the law, it says:

God was and is clearly against slavery.

The Israelites were allowed to hire workers to work off their debts but they were not to possess slaves.

Slavery is an abomination to God because all people are made in his image—we are all his servants.

So, even if they did take on a hired worker, after six years the worker was to be set free without paying anything (Ex 21:2).

This release was called the Year of Jubilee but they hadn’t been practicing it.

History shows that they were keeping and selling slaves.

For example, think of Joseph who was sold into slavery.

Perhaps if they had obeying God and allowing the slaves, which they weren’t supposed to have, to go free every 7 years God wouldn’t have sent them into captivity in the first place.

God loves to set captives free.

He loves it when the disadvantaged and poor are shown mercy.

He loves is so much that he set up a government to encourage it.

For one brief moment the Israelites seemed to do what God loves: they did justice, loved mercy and walked humbly with their God.

But they didn’t do so sincerely and their renewed effort to do right and give the slaves freedom was short-lived.

What this shows is that the covenant they made for the slaves wasn’t motivated by compassion, justice, or obedience but by something else.

We’ve seen this kind of thing before.

At the end of the Civil War a similar thing happened.

After the Emancipation Proclamation was made my President Lincoln on January 1, 1863 slavery became illegal but the spirit of slavery—racism remained alive and well.

Slavery turned into lynching.

Lynching turned into segregation.

Segregation turned into prejudice.

And now 159 years later, things are better for sure but there are still many ways black people in American aren’t yet free at last.

Now, I’ll admit that I’m being political but I am not being partisan.

What’s the difference?

Politics effects every part of life.

It effects how we treat people.

It effects what laws we obey.

It effects everything and so it’s impossible to not be political.

But I’m not being partisan, in other words I am not trying to promote or persuade you to follow a particular liberal or conservative view of politics.

I’m simply trying to be factual about the prejudice that still persists to this day and to remind us of the Bible’s non-partisan view of it.

One of the main reasons for all the polarization among Christians about the subject of racism is because we have chosen to listen more to the voices from partisan politics than to our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The Sin of the Nation

Anyway, the sin commited by the nation of Judah was reprehensible to God.

They said the slaves could go free and then they reneged on their promise.

According to Jer 37:5 it seems that when the Egyptians arrived to lend a hand against the Babylonians, Zedekiah and the people had a change of heart toward the slaves.

Likely, what happened was once the immediate danger was passed, then the domestic work started to accumulate and the people wanted their slaves back.

So broke their promise and went right back into the sin of slavery.

Interestingly, this wasn’t the first time Zedekiah had broken his promise.

In fact the main reason Nebuchadnezzar was marching on Jerusalem was because Zedekiah had broken his promise not make any treaties with the Egyptians.

Ezekiel 17:12–15 (CSB)

The king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and officials, and brought them back with him to Babylon.

He took one of the royal family [Zedekiah] and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath...

However, this king [Zedekiah] revolted against him by sending his ambassadors to Egypt so they might give him horses and a large army.

Then, verse 16 goes on to say of Zedekiah...

It’s a serious sin when we break our promises.

Yet how many times have we do so?

Marriage vows, vows to our church, vows to our children, vows to God have all been broken.

In times of desperation we cry out for God to help us, and in exchange promise to devote our lives to him.

We promise to pray and read our Bible and leave our wicked ways behind.

Then when God helps and the urgency is passed we go right back to our old ways.

Here’s what God says to his people:

Jeremiah 34:17 (CSB)

You have not obeyed me by proclaiming freedom, each for his fellow Hebrew and for his neighbor.

I hereby proclaim freedom for you—this is the Lord’s declaration—to the sword, to plague, and to famine!

I will make you a horror to all the earth’s kingdoms.

The kind of “freedom” that Judah gave their slaves wasn’t really freedom at all and neither was the freedom God gave in return.

God set them “free” to do what they wanted releasing them from his protection.

Because what they did was so sinful God’s punishment was just, especially considering they used to be slaves themselves (Jeremiah 34:13).

And it’s not that they didn’t know the severest of punishments was coming.

They knew what they were getting into when they made the agreement.

Cutting a Covenant

See, Judah didn’t just make a covenant they cut a covenant.

Whenever a covenant was made the people would take an animal and cut it in half and then walk between the two halves essentially saying “may this happen to me if I don’t keep it.”

God is a covenant-keeper and he hates covenant breaking so the harshest of punishments is justified when covenants are broken.

But God also knows his people are incapable of keeping their word.

Yes, because we love God, and want to be like him, we must do our best to keep our promises, and fulfill our vows, but God knows we are going to fail.

That’s why he made an everlasting covenant with himself.

When the covenant with Abraham was made it was God that walked between the animals that had been cut in half.

So when we fail to keep it, which was inevitable, God himself suffers the consequences for our sin.

And, of course, that’s what happened when Jesus was crucified on the cross.

He took upon himself the punishment we deserve.

So God’s people have been set free.

We are free at last.

Jesus’ First Sermon

It’s interesting that freedom from slavery was the subject of the first sermon Jesus ever preached.

As the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on Jesus he declared that The Year of Jubilee was fulfilled in him because he had come to set the captives free.

He had come to do what Judah couldn’t do.

He was going to set people free once and for all.

What kind of freedom?

Not necessarily political freedom.

After all, after Jesus’ death the Romans were still in charge and the Jews had to keep on serving the them.

No, Jesus came primarily to set us free from sin.

John 8:34 says that everyone who sins is a slave to sin and that’s the worst kind of slavery but Jesus offers the best kind of freedom—freedom from sin.