In these studies in the second half of the book of Jeremiah,  we will see God’s word coming through Jeremiah and being rejected again and again. We will see the difficulties of Jeremiah but also the way he is saved through it all. Jeremiah is God’s reporter on the spot, in the midst of one of the most tumultuous periods in Israel’s history.

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, and the particular theme, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Zedekiah warned

Jer 34:1-7

1 Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled were fighting against Jerusalem and all its surrounding towns, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: ² “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Go to Zedekiah king of Judah and tell him, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am about to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he will burn it down. ³ You will not escape from his grasp but will surely be captured and given into his hands. You will see the king of Babylon with your own eyes, and he will speak with you face to face. And you will go to Babylon.

⁴ “‘Yet hear the Lord’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; ⁵ you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, master!” I myself make this promise, declares the Lord.’”

⁶ Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, ⁷ while the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out—Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah.

A. Find Out

1. What was happening at this point? v.1
2. To whom was Jeremiah to speak God’s word? v.2
3. What was he to say would happen to him? v.3
4. Yet what did he say wouldn’t happen? v.4
5. What would happen instead? v.5
6. How many cities still held out? v.7

B. Think:

1. How do you think Jeremiah felt about having to tell the king he would be defeated?
2. How would this word both alarm and comfort the king?
3. Look up 2 Kings 25:7 to see how this being fulfilled wasn’t good.

C. Comment:

Nebuchadnezzar is rampaging through the countryside, and Jerusalem and two other cities are the only ones holding out.  God’s word comes to Jeremiah that Zedekiah will be captured and will be taken before king Nebuchadnezzar. Such a word would challenge Zedekiah’s pride. Kings don’t like to admit failure.

Why should God bother to tell Zedekiah this? First, so that everyone knows that this is God’s activity and not mere chance. Second, perhaps, to allow Zedekiah to humble himself and surrender to Nebuchadnezzar. If he had done that then perhaps he would have been allowed to remain in Jerusalem without losing his sight. Even when the Lord declares bad news it is to allow us the opportunity to repent, so that there may be a change of heart and change of outcome.

We should always remember that there is good news and bad news in the Gospel. The good news is that salvation is possible. The bad news is that refusal to receive it means the judgement of God!  It’s also that God requires us to die to self if we’re to be saved!

D. Application:

1. Look up Ezek 18:32.  Are we convinced that it is God’s desire to bring LIFE when there is repentance?
2. Are we alert to the opportunities the Lord gives us to put right wrong things in our lives?

Freedom for Slaves 

Jer 34:8-22

⁸ The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. ⁹ Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. ¹⁰ So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. ¹¹ But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.

¹² Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ¹³ “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, ¹⁴ ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free.’^[a] Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. ¹⁵ Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. ¹⁶ But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.

¹⁷ “Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So I now proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord—‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. ¹⁸ Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces. ¹⁹ The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, ²⁰ I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.

²¹ “I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. ²² I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.”

A. Find Out

1. What had everybody done at first? v.10
2. But what had they then done? v.11
3. What did the Lord say they had done? v.16a
4. What ‘freedom’ was He now proclaiming for them? v.17
5. Who was He going to do this to? v.18a
6. How was He going to do this? v.21b,22

B. Think:

1. How had Israel first done what is right?
2. Why was changing their mind so abhorrent to the Lord?
3. What did the Lord keep referring back to?

C. Comment:

The king and the people first released all their slaves. This was the first time they had ever done this despite the fact that God’s laws said they should release, every seven years, any person who had sold himself into slavery.

Previously they had disdained the Lord but now they had put things right. However, having done that they then disdained the Lord further by taking their slaves back again.  What was so terrible about this was that originally they could, perhaps, have claimed ignorance of God’s laws. Now, having conformed to those laws, they showed their awareness of them. Turning away from them now indicated that, despite being aware of them, they just didn’t care what the Lord thought about it.  That is just abuse of the Lord!

So, in return, the Lord said He would give them over to the enemy as punishment. The picture He uses is that of the covenant meat that was used. An animal was cut in two and the two covenanting people  walked between the two halves. The meat was then left to the birds. Israel, the Lord says, will be like that meat!

D. Application:

1. Read Gal 6:7a.  Do we understand that God cannot be mocked, or do we “try to get away with it” in respect of the “little things” in our lives?
2. Read 1 Jn 1:9 & 1 Cor 11:28,29  – and do it!