Jeremiah 34:17-22: a reflection

17Therefore the LORD says: “You have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim to you a liberty,” says the LORD, “to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine. I will make you be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. 18I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts: 19the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf. 20I will even give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and for the animals of the earth. 21“I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes into the hands of their enemies, into the hands of those who seek their life and into the hands of the king of Babylon’s army, who has gone away from you. 22Behold, I will command,” says the LORD, “and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it, take it, and burn it with fire. I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.”

This is a hard word of judgment, and its sting is in the wordplay. The people had made a covenant to free their slaves, then broken it and dragged them back into bondage. So God answers with a bitter irony: you would not proclaim liberty to one another, so I proclaim a liberty to you, to the sword, to famine, to exile. The freedom they withheld comes back on them as a freedom they do not want.

It is sobering, but notice what God is so angry about. Not a ritual detail, but that they had promised freedom to the vulnerable and then taken it back. The oppression of people who had briefly tasted release is what provokes this. God is not indifferent to how the strong treat the weak; the cry of the re-enslaved reached him, and he answered.

There is a warning here worth taking personally. Promises made to God are not small, especially promises that concern mercy to others. Have you offered someone freedom, forgiveness, release, and then quietly taken it back, tightened the grip again? God notices that. Let this hard passage sober you: keep faith with the vulnerable, and do not un-give the mercy you have given. The God who hears the oppressed is paying attention.

Lord, you care how I treat the vulnerable, and you hold me to the mercy I promise. Keep me from taking back the freedom and forgiveness I have offered, and make me faithful to my word.