November 12th, 2012
Today’s reading from Encounter with God

Empty Gestures or Faith?

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Opening Prayer

Father, I praise You that I live in Your presence now and forever. I come to be with You now.

Read Jeremiah 34:1-22

[1] While 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. [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.’ 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.”

Scripture taken from the Holy Bible, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. All rights reserved throughout the world. Used by permission of International Bible Society.

Meditate

“If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself” (2 Tim. 2:12b,13).

Think Further

Jeremiah was uncommonly brave. The message he had for his commander, King Zedekiah, bordered on treason, and this in the midst of a military campaign that was going disastrously wrong! The word of hope for the king’s own personal survival as a captive provides only minimal comfort. Both the king and his people knew that the prophet was speaking from God, however, and they realized that they deserved all that was happening to the nation because of their disobedience to the Law of God. They did something about it, belatedly releasing fellow Jews whom they were holding as slaves and should have set free in the year of Jubilee, but had not (Deut. 15:12). They evidently considered it an unnecessary gesture once the enemy withdrew, and so they took back their hapless slaves.

What they failed to appreciate, and where we too often miss the boat, is that God really cares for the most vulnerable people in society and holds to account those who oppress them. It was part of the covenant that Israel had made with him (14). The ratification of such covenants often included cutting a sacrifice in two (18,19; c.f. Gen. 15:9,10,17). Walking between the two halves was probably a symbol of commitment and a recognition that failing to keep the covenant would involve judgment. Pious platitudes and half-hearted gestures hold no stock with God. Israel was going to pay the full penalty for their willful refusal to heed the warning sent by the One who did not want them destroyed.

Thankfully, we live in the age of grace and we do not have to live under the sort of threat in vs. 18-20. The apostle Paul warns us, however, that we cannot continue in sin while expecting the grace of God to increase (Rom. 6:1,2)!

Apply

Meditate on this: what token gestures do we sometimes use today as substitutes for true obedience to God?

Closing prayer

Gracious Lord, often I sing and speak way beyond where I am living. I pray for a genuineness between my outer profession and inner walk with You.

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