Doing more than the token gesture
This week is on Jeremiah 34:8-17:
These verses struck me because at first they seemed to describe people doing the right thing. God asked people to free their slaves, and they did it. It's a feel good headline. But then when the fuss died down, the same people went back and enslaved the slaves they'd just set free.
God spoke through Jeremiah to tell them that he saw what they did. They made a show of doing the right thing, but then when they thought he wasn't looking they went back to their old ways. They brought a curse on themselves! Why bother doing the right thing if you're just doing it to get God off of your back? Is God so easily fooled? Can we just dabble in obedience for a season and then go back to how we were?
What if God was like that with us? What if we repented and changed our ways and he forgave us, for a season, and then went back to holding us to the debt we owed him? Would that covenant be worthwhile? Would it be worth dedicating our lives to God if he was that fickle or shrewd?
God withdrew his grace from the Israelites when they withdrew the freedom they'd proclaimed to their slaves. Just as the slaves were now only "free" to be oppressed by their Israelite masters, God made it so that the Israelites were "free" to be dominated by nature, their neighbors, and the elements -- the very things they'd previously been free from.
If God asks us to do something, we need to take it seriously. It's not something he's looking for a token effort on. He wants obedience. If he wants us to forgive others and set them free, we should do it. If he wants devotion, we should be devoted fully, not just for an altar call. An act of superficial obedience isn't the same as being wholly dedicated. The Israelites dabbled in doing the right thing but God wants us to take it seriously. His devotion to us isn't just a token gesture. We should strive to match his dedication to us.
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. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. 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. But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “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, ‘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. 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. 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.
“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.
These verses struck me because at first they seemed to describe people doing the right thing. God asked people to free their slaves, and they did it. It's a feel good headline. But then when the fuss died down, the same people went back and enslaved the slaves they'd just set free.
God spoke through Jeremiah to tell them that he saw what they did. They made a show of doing the right thing, but then when they thought he wasn't looking they went back to their old ways. They brought a curse on themselves! Why bother doing the right thing if you're just doing it to get God off of your back? Is God so easily fooled? Can we just dabble in obedience for a season and then go back to how we were?
What if God was like that with us? What if we repented and changed our ways and he forgave us, for a season, and then went back to holding us to the debt we owed him? Would that covenant be worthwhile? Would it be worth dedicating our lives to God if he was that fickle or shrewd?
God withdrew his grace from the Israelites when they withdrew the freedom they'd proclaimed to their slaves. Just as the slaves were now only "free" to be oppressed by their Israelite masters, God made it so that the Israelites were "free" to be dominated by nature, their neighbors, and the elements -- the very things they'd previously been free from.
If God asks us to do something, we need to take it seriously. It's not something he's looking for a token effort on. He wants obedience. If he wants us to forgive others and set them free, we should do it. If he wants devotion, we should be devoted fully, not just for an altar call. An act of superficial obedience isn't the same as being wholly dedicated. The Israelites dabbled in doing the right thing but God wants us to take it seriously. His devotion to us isn't just a token gesture. We should strive to match his dedication to us.
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