A Study in Contrasts

Jeremiah 34-35

            The siege of Jerusalem was intense, and Judah was wildly outnumbered: “the king of Babylon and all his army and all the kingdoms and peoples in the empire he ruled.” In this case, the emphasis is how helpless Judah is against this threat. Other places in the Scriptures when Israel is woefully surrounded the Lord promises to deliver them against superior enemies. (See the incident at the Red Sea in Exodus 14 or the story of Gideon in Judges 7.) The Lord is capable of delivering His people miraculously, but this siege was the Lord’s righteous judgment against a disobedient people. There would be no deliverance.

            Judah’s disobedience is highlighted in the second half chapter 34. The king orders a sabbatical year, specifically freeing all the slaves (Leviticus 25). The people comply but change their minds and re-enslave their fellows. It’s a rare case where the king is trying to be obedient but the people are the ones resisting. It’s more common for the blame to fall on faithless kings. Here we are reminded that the whole nation is corrupt.

            Chapter 35 offers a counter-example. A family had followed their forefather’s admonition not to drink wine for some 250 years. And they were still at it. Consider the contrast: this family obeyed a random injunction from a human ancestor for two and half centuries and wore it as a badge of honor. Israel as a whole refused to keep the holy commands of their creator and redeemer, the LORD, for even a short time. You would think that people would take the Lord’s words more seriously than human words, but that wasn’t the case.

            Same thing happened in Jesus’ day. Jesus condemned the Pharisees for loving their traditions more than the laws of God (Mark 7:9-13). Not incidentally, it happens today, too. How often people—even those who name themselves Christians—follow the ways of the world rather than the ways of the Lord! We are quick to dismiss the Scripture as if we know better now. Just consider the way we justify all sorts of ungodly sexual ethics… It’s important to recognize that we can’t just condemn Israel’s condition, because Israel’s condition is the human condition.