Jeremiah 34-36 show how the events that take place in his writings are not compiled in chronological order. Chapters 34 and 36 take place during the reign of Tzidikyahu (Zedekiah) and Chapter 35 during the reign of Y’hoyakim (Jehoiakim). While not in order, as I was studying them, they presented a flow from chapter to chapter that I had never seen before. One word summed up each chapter for me. 34 – covenant, 35 – faithfulness, and 36 – hardheartedness.
Chapter 34
In this chapter, Jeremiah was to go to Zedekiah and tell him that Jerusalem would be handed over to the king of Babylon, that he would not escape but be captured and that his eyes would see the eyes of Nebuchadnezzar, that he would speak with him face to face and he would go to Babylon. However, he would not be killed but would die peacefully and be mourned by his people. (34:3-5)
Jeremiah spoke this word to Zedekiah after he, his officials, and the priests had cut a covenant with the people freeing all the Jewish slaves. This emancipation declared, “Everyone who had a male or female slave who was a Hebrew was to let him go free; none was to keep as his slave a fellow Jew.” (v 9) The slaves were released for a time, but the leaders changed their minds and brought those freed back into subjection as slaves. Adonai then through Jeremiah reminded Zedekiah, [13] “Here is what Adonai the God of Isra’el says: ‘When I brought your ancestors out of the land of Egypt, where they lived as slaves, I made this covenant with them: [14] “At the end of seven years every one of you is to set free his brother Hebrew who has been sold to you and has served you six years. You are to let him go free from you.” But your ancestors did not listen to me or pay any attention. [15] Now you repented, you did what was right from my viewpoint when each of your proclaimed freedom to his fellow; and you made a covenant before me in the house bearing my name. [16] But then you changed your mind. You profaned my name when each of you took back his male and female slaves, whom you had set free to live as the wished and brought them back into subjection as your slaves.’” He then revealed that they would see sword, plague, and famine because of this.
The next part of the text reveals the seriousness of covenants, and that Adonai does not take them lightly. He speaks specifically concerning the covenants the leaders cut in verses 18-22, [18] “As for the men who violated my covenant by not living up to the conditions of the covenant which they made in my presence when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts – [19] the leaders of Y’hudah, the leaders of Yerushalayim, the officials, the Cohanim and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf; [20] I will hand them over to their enemies, hand them over to those who seek their lives; and their corpses will become food for the birds in the air and wild animals. [21] Tzidkiyahu king of Y’hudah and his officials I will hand over to their enemies to those who seek their lives and to the army of the king of Bavel, which has withdrawn. [22] I will give the order,” says Adonai, “and cause them to return to this city. They will attack it, capture it, and burn it to the ground; and I will make the cities of Y’hudah desolate and uninhabited.”
To understand the importance about cutting a covenant in these verses, we have to go all the way back to Genesis 15.
[7] Then he said to him, “I am Adonai, who brough you out from Ur-Kasdim to give you this land as your possession.” [8] He replied, “Adonai, God, how am I to know that I will possess it?” [9] He answered him, “Bring me a three-year-old cow, a three-year-old goat, a three-year-old ram, a dove and a young pigeon.” [10] He brought him all these, cut the animals in two and placed the pieces opposite each other; but he didn’t cut the birds in half. [11] Birds of prey swooped down on the carcasses, but Avram drove them away. [12] As the sun was about to set, a deep sleep fell on Avram; horror and great darkness came over him. [13] Adonai said to Avram, “Know this for certain: your descendants will be foreigners in a land that is not theirs. They will be slaves and held in oppression there four hundred years. [14] But I will also judge that nation, the one that makes them slaves. Afterwards, they will leave with many possessions. [15] As for you, you will join your ancestors in peace and be buried at a good old age. [16] Only in the fourth generation will your descendants come back here, because only then will the Emori be ripe for punishment.” [17] After the sun had set and there was thick darkness, a smoking fire pot and a flaming torch appeared, which passed between these animal parts. [18] That day Adonai made a covenant with Avram: “I have given this land to your descendants – from the Vadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River – [19] the territory of the Keni the K’hizi the Kadmoni, [20] the Hitti, the P’rizi, the Refa’im, [21] the Emori, the Kena’ani, the Girgashi and the Y’vus.” Genesis 15:7-20
www.jewishjewels.org defines covenant as “A solemn, binding agreement entered into by two parties. The Hebrew word for covenant is b’rit (b’reet) which literally means ‘cutting,’ and implies making an incision until blood flows. A covenant is the most sacred of all binding contracts.” They go on to say about the covenant between Adonai and Abraham, “The God of Israel cut a covenant with Abraham that day. Normally, both parties walked through the pieces when a covenant was cut. In doing so, each party reckoned himself dead to a life apart from his covenant partners (symbolized by the dead pieces). Each party pointing to the bloody animals split in two would say: ‘God do so to me and more if I ever try to break this covenant.” In this case, God made a covenant with Himself. This covenant was unilateral. Abraham was asleep! God assumed full responsibility for the covenant. There was no way that sinful man could be an equal covenant partner with a Holy God.”
When the leaders of Y’hudah broke the covenant concerning freeing the slaves, they didn’t just go back on their word. They broke the most sacred of contracts, one that includes the passing between the animal parts. Thus, they invoked “God do so to me and more if I ever try to break this covenant”, which is exactly what happened. This also brought to mind, Yeshua’s teaching from The Sermon on the Mount when He said, “Just let your ‘Yes’ be a simple ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No’ a simple ‘No’”. To not swear oaths at all. (Matthew 5:33-37) We serve a God of covenant, and He has provided the most miraculous of all covenants with the salvation that can only come through Yeshua.
Chapter 35
Chapter 35 takes place during the reign of Jehoiakim and involves the Rechabites. It is a chapter of contrast. The opening of the chapter carefully sets up the scene. Jeremiah was to send for the Rechabites, to speak with them, to bring them to one of the rooms in the house of Adonai, and to give them wine to drink. Jeremiah specifically mentions by name those he invited and exactly where this meeting would be held. When he sat before them and said to them, “Drink some wine”, they themselves had a very specific response. [6] But they said, “We will not drink any wine; because Yonadav the son of Rekhav, our ancestor gave us this order: ‘You are not to drink wine, neither you nor you descendants forever. [7] Also you are not to build houses, sow seed, or plant or own vineyards. Rather you are always to live in tents; so that you may live a long time in the land, in which you are not citizens.’ [8] We have heeded the words of Yonadav the son of Rekhav, our ancestor, in all that he instructed us to do: not to drink wine as long as we live – we, our wives, our sons and our daughters; [9] not to build houses for ourselves to live in; and not to have vineyards, fields, or seed. [10] We have lived in tents, and we have heeded Yonadav our ancestor and done everything he ordered us to do.” Jeremiah 35:6-10 In fact the only reason they were living in Jerusalem at this time was due to the Babylonian invasion and they were afraid of their armies.
After this, the word of the Lord came once again to Jeremiah instructing him to go to the people of Judah and ask them, “Won’t you ever learn to listen to my words?” He contrasts the disobedience of His chosen people to the faithfulness of the Rechabites and implores them to turn from their evil ways, to do what was right, to not live in idolatry. Because of their disobedience all that He had spoken against them would come to pass. “I have called out to them, but they have not answered.” (v 17) At the conclusion of His word against His own people, He then gave this word to the Rechabites. [18] “Because you have heeded the order of Yonadav your ancestor, observed all his commands and done what he ordered you to do; [19] therefore Adonai-Tzva’ot, the God of Isra’el, says this: “Yonadav the son of Rekhav will never lack a descendant to stand before me.” Jeremiah 35:18-19 This contrast shows that the Rechabites commitment to their ancestral covenant was exemplary in contrast to Judah’s unfaithfulness to the Mosaic Covenant. Faithfulness was rewarded, while unfaithfulness was met with judgment.
Chapter 36
Before looking at the content of chapter 36, allow me to share a story. A man went to church; he had been going there for the past few weeks. Like each previous week, the pastor’s message was one that seemed to hit him right between the eyes. His heart sped up, his stomach clenched, and he felt the spiritual pain of conviction just as he had each service. It was almost like the pastor KNEW what was going on in his life and was tailoring his sermons just to make him uncomfortable. This week was a little different though, with each word that came from the pastor, he felt an anger replace the guilty feelings. An anger that by the time this service ended, he couldn’t get out of there fast enough. An anger that would fester in his heart to where he wouldn’t return to that church, or any other. This religion thing didn’t work. All these pastors were doing was trying to make you feel guilty so that you would give your money to them. The anger became a rage, and he burned with it. If God were really love, He wouldn’t make you feel bad or guilty because He was all about compassion, not judgement and punishment. That’s why Jesus came, right? With a hardened heart, he walked away not realizing that it was God Himself reaching out to him, and imploring him to come to the alter, to repent, and to live in the fulness of all that Yeshua paid for with His blood.
While this account is a made up fictious scenario for this writing, it is an all too real situation that has happened to people. It also paints a modern picture of what took place in Jeremiah 36. Jeremiah had been banned from the Temple, so when the word of the Lord came to him, he called his scribe Barukh and dictated the message. Barukh then went to the temple and read from the scroll. Upon hearing the words, he was reading one of the men went to the officials and told them what he had heard. They called for Barukah and had him read the scroll to them. After they had heard all the words, they turned in fear to each other and said to Barukh, “We will certainly tell the king about all these words.” Jeremiah 36:16 The confirmed with Barukh that he wrote these words from Jeremiah’s dictation and then said for Barukh and Jeremiah to go and hide, to not let anyone know where they were. They knew that Jeremiah and Barukh would be in danger from the king. When the king sent for the scroll, it was during winter, and he had a fire blazing in front of him. This scroll was parchment that was sewn together and attached to wooden rollers, much like a Torah scroll, and as the secretary would read three or four columns, he would cut of that portion off the scroll and throw it into the fire and did this until the entire scroll was consumed. The words did change the heart of the king, instead he hardened his heart and would not listen. Enraged, king Jehoiakim sent for Jeremiah and Barukh to be arrested, but Adonai hid them. (Jeremiah 36:21-26)
Adonai then spoke to Jeremiah, telling him to write yet another scroll, with everything he had written in the first one, plus an additional message to Jehoiakim, saying, “You burned this scroll, asking, ‘Why did you write in it that the king of Bavel will certainly come and destroy this land and leave it without either humans or animals?’ Therefore, Adonai say this about Y’hoyakim king of Y’hudah: ‘He will have no one to occupy David’s throne; and his dead body will be thrown out to lie in the heat by day and in the frost by night. Moreover, I will punish him, his offspring, and his officials for their wickedness; and I will bring on them, the inhabitants of Yerushalayim and the people of Y’hudah all the disaster I have decreed against them, to which they have paid no attention.” Jeremiah 36:29-31
Romans 2:4 in the Tree of Life translation reads, “Or do you belittle the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience – not realizing that God’s kindness leads you to repentance?” Regardless of whether it is an ancient Hebrew king, or a twenty-first century regular old Joe, it is because of His kindness that we are convicted by the Holy Spirit to repentance. If He didn’t love us, He wouldn’t implore us to turn from our sins. When our hearts are pierced by the Word, a sermon, or a song, we have the choice to harden our hearts and remain in bondage and exile, or to come to the altar just as we are. Messed up and broken in need of the one who provided the ultimate covenant to fix and mend us, to make us whole in Him, bringing us out of our exile. He extends the covenant to us. Will we be faithful or hard-hearted? Will we be like the Rechabites, or King Jehoiakim? Do we say yes to the world, or yes to Yeshua? The choice is ours.
Comments