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Context No. 1869 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 34:6-11: in context

6Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, 7when the king of Babylon’s army was fighting against Jerusalem and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these alone remained of the cities of Judah as fortified cities. 8The word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them, 9that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free, that no one should make bondservants of them, of a Jew his brother. 10All the princes and all the people obeyed who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his male servant and everyone his female servant go free, that no one should make bondservants of them any more. They obeyed and let them go, 11but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids whom they had let go free to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.

With Babylon's army besieging Jerusalem, King Zedekiah leads the people in a covenant before God: everyone is to free their Hebrew slaves, to hold no fellow Jew in bondage. And they obey; the princes and all the people let their slaves go free. It is a genuine act of obedience, done under the pressure of the siege. But then, afterward, they turn back: they take the freed slaves again, and bring them back into bondage, reversing the good thing they had just done.

The turn in this passage is deflating: they did the right thing, and then undid it. Under the pressure of the siege, perhaps hoping to win God's favor in their crisis, the people made a covenant to free their slaves, and they kept it, letting them go. But then, once the immediate pressure eased, they reversed themselves, taking the freed slaves back into bondage. The good resolution, made in the crisis, did not survive the passing of the crisis. There is a very human pattern here, and a sobering one. We often make good resolutions and even genuine acts of obedience under pressure, in a crisis, when we are afraid or in need, hoping God will help us; and then, when the pressure passes and the crisis eases, we quietly reverse them, going back on the very commitments we made when we needed God's help. The promise made in the foxhole is retracted once we are safe; the resolution made in the hospital fades once we are well; the obedience begun in the crisis is undone once the crisis is over. This is a kind of faithlessness, and Scripture treats it seriously: no one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom. The commitments we make to God are not meant to be provisional, kept only while we need something from him and abandoned when the pressure eases. It is worth examining our own good resolutions honestly: are they real turnings that will hold, or crisis-driven promises we will quietly reverse once we are comfortable again? The people of Jerusalem freed their slaves under siege and re-enslaved them when the pressure lifted; and the question their reversal puts to us is whether our commitments to God will outlast the crises that prompted them, or be taken back the moment they are no longer convenient.

Do I make good resolutions and commitments to God under pressure, in crisis or need, only to quietly reverse them once the pressure eases and I am comfortable again, and can I examine whether my commitments to God are real turnings that will hold, or foxhole promises I will retract the moment they are no longer convenient?

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