Jeremiah 34:8-22

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we are finishing up Jeremiah chapter 34. What happens when you kind of like promise to repent and then don't repent or kind of repent on your repenting? I always got a feel about that type of stuff. Let's have some coffee.
We'll pray and we'll get into God's word. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, we thank you for what a blessing it is to know that you indeed are the King of kings and the Lord of lords, the one who was and who is and who is to come. God, we pray that you would please help us as we read your word this morning, that you would teach us, that we would know what you have for us, that your Holy Spirit would make our hearts alive comprehend, to know, and to live. You are a good God.
In Jesus' name, Amen. Here we go, Jeremiah chapter 34, beginning at verse 8. This is the word that came to Jeremiah from Jehovah after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem to proclaim liberty to them. that every man should set free his male and female slave, a Hebrew man or woman, that no one should keep a Jewish brother in bondage. Now when all the princes and all the people who had entered into the covenant heard that everyone should set free his male and female slaves, that no one should keep them in bondage anymore, they obeyed and let them go. But afterwards they changed their mind and made the male and female slaves return, whom they had set free, and brought them into subjection as male and female slaves. Therefore, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, At the end of seven years, let every man set free his Hebrew brother who has been sold to him. And when he has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you.
But your fathers did not obey me, nor incline their ear. Then you recently turned and did what was right in my sight, every man proclaiming liberty to his brother, to his neighbor. And you made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name. Then you turned around and profaned my name, and every one of you brought back his male and female slaves whom you had set at liberty, at their pleasure, and brought them back at this objection to be your male and female slaves? Therefore, thus says the Lord, you have not obeyed me in proclaiming liberty. everyone to his brother and everyone to his neighbor. Behold, I proclaim liberty to you, says the Lord. to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine. And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth.
And I 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 off the calf in two and passed between the parts of it. The 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. I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be for meat for the birds of the heaven and beasts of the earth. And I will give Zedekiah king of Judah and his princess into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, which has gone back from you. Behold, I command, says the Lord, and cause them to return to this city. They will fight against it and take it and burn it with fire. And I will make the cities of Judah desolation without inhabitant. Well, we got our three questions we need to ask ourselves. A, what's this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do? So what's this about?
Well, Zedekiah and the people enter into a covenant with the Lord. It's like they remembered back to the law about they weren't supposed to have female and male slaves who were Hebrews, right? If they did, it was supposed to be more like indentured servitude, only like a set number of years. And on the seventh year, they were supposed to be released. Well, they got all sorts of Hebrew slaves.
And so the king and the people, they come into this covenant. They even have a very similar ceremony. It sounds like from the end of the chapter here of what Abraham and God did with the splitting of the animals, you know, and, but they release these slaves, right? There's an emancipation of their slaves, but then they behave just like Pharaoh. They go and chase back their slaves and make them come back. And the Lord says, whoa, whoa, hold on. Remember what I did with Pharaoh. Remember what I commanded when I gave you the law that you're supposed to free slaves.
And instead, you've proclaimed liberty, everyone to his own brother. But then you've brought them back and he says, so I'm gonna This is somewhat ironic language here the Lord uses. He says, Behold, I proclaim liberty to you, to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine. And I will deliver you to trouble among all the kingdoms of the earth. He says, you've trespassed my covenant. You've wanted liberty, so I'll give you liberty to reap the consequences of breaking the covenant.
And then he lists what's going to happen and why it's happening. This is covenant judgment on God's people. They acted like they were going to repent, like they were going to keep the law, and then, well, never mind. The Lord says, OK. Okay, this is a covenant ceremony done according to the law. Now there's covenant consequences for breaking that.
And it's going to be horrendous. I will give them into the hand of their enemies and into the hand of those who seek their life. Their dead bodies shall be as meat for the birds of the heaven and the beasts of the earth. So he's going to turn the Babylonians around. They're going to come back and they're going to destroy the city.
The Lord isn't interested in half-hearted repentance. Now, none of us can ever repent perfectly, right? We may be tempted to come at this point. It might be my natural inclination to want to, at this point, be like, so you gotta truly repent, you gotta truly change, you gotta truly, right? Well, yes, Jesus even says we need to repent. But here's the point, right? I know better. You're no better than these Israelites here. We would do the exact same thing.
But by the grace of God, there go we. And so, we don't look at this with pride, but with humility and say, that could be me. Thank God that Jesus has perfect righteousness. And yet, in our lives, we still say, God's not a fool, he will not be mocked. There's all sorts of people who make a profession of faith as some type of emotional highlight in their lives, this point at which they say, OK, I'm going to follow you, Lord. I'm going to follow you.
But then they don't. There's no fruit that flows from faith because they've not actually been engrafted into Christ. There's no grief and hatred for our sins. This is the point of effectual calling, that it makes sin like vomit in our mouths, and we don't want to be like dogs going back to it and eating up our vomit again.
The Lord won't be fooled. God's not going to be played for an idiot. He knows the heart. He knows our lives. And so are we truly following Him? If we're walking in sin, How can God be with us? That's not what we're called to do. We're called to confess our sins and He is faithful and He is just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all of our transgressions. But we must not then continue to walk in sin, thinking that somehow then grace will abound and may it never be.
I'm gonna pray for us. God, I pray for myself and for everybody else, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would please work in us. God, please give us lives of repentance, hearts of seeing the depth of our sin and the corruption in our souls, and Father, we pray that we would turn away. We pray that our eyes will look unto Christ and we would see the glory of your holiness. And then when we look at ourselves and we would see the depths of the wretchedness of our sin, that we would hate it. Our lives would turn away from the patterns of death and destruction and turn towards you, our joy.
God, we pray that you would let us walk in holiness. Please, Lord, sanctify us. We pray these things in Jesus's wonderful name. Amen. May God bless you. May that God who raised up from the dead, that great shepherd that sheep, watch over you, equip you, and enable you for every good work. I'll see you next time.