“Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘I made a covenant with your forefathers in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, saying, ‘At the end of seven years each of you shall set free his Hebrew brother who has been sold to you and has served you six years, you shall send him out free from you; but your forefathers did not obey Me or incline their ear to Me. Although recently you had turned and done what is right in My sight, each man proclaiming release to his neighbor, and you had made a covenant before Me in the house which is called by My name. Yet you turned and profaned My name, and each man took back his male servant and each man his female servant whom you had set free according to their desire, and you brought them into subjection to be your male servants and female servants…. I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not fulfilled the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts'” (Jer 34:12-16, 18).
Jeremiah 34 tells the sad story of short-lived obedience on the eve of Israel’s first exile. Every seven years, God commanded His people to release Israelites who had been unfortunate enough to sell themselves into slavery (Lev 25). With Nebuchadnezzar’s armies pounding against the walls of Jerusalem, the people decided to give obedience a try. They even sealed it with a solemn oath before God, passing between the pieces of slaughtered animals (v. 18; see Gen 15:9-11, 17). Very quickly, however, they realized that obedience was simply too hard.
No matter how hard I tried, a life that pleases God felt like an impossible dream that worked for others but never for me.
But no matter how hard we try to change ourselves, no matter how many promises we make to God, obedience will always be short-lived when it is driven by the deceitful motives of our hearts (Jer 17:9). This episode reinforces the point Jeremiah makes throughout his book: Israel desperately needs a change of heart that only comes through the gift of a new covenant (Jer 31:31-34).
I recall with revulsion a three-year trail of broken promises to God, self-hatred, and slavery to sin, when I tried with all my might to become a better person by obeying Him. No matter how hard I tried, a life that pleases God felt like an impossible dream that worked for others but never for me.
Then, in a moment of despair, I looked up in my mind’s eye and saw a Savior with outstretched arms, who died like a criminal to set captives free, waiting for me to enter His loving embrace. And when I did, my daily bread of broken promises was exchanged for a life empowered by God’s unbreakable promises, and my self-hatred was exchanged for His love which never fails.
Are you sick and tired of being sick and tired? Run to the Savior who died for sinners!
“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners” (Isa 61:1).
