Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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: “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. 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.
“‘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; 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.’”
Then Jeremiah the prophet told all this to Zedekiah king of Judah, in Jerusalem, 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.
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. 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. 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, 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.
“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. 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.”

• Jeremiah 34:1-22

This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord during the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah: “Go to the Rekabite family and invite them to come to one of the side rooms of the house of the Lord and give them wine to drink.”
So I went to get Jaazaniah son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers and all his sons—the whole family of the Rekabites. I brought them into the house of the Lord, into the room of the sons of Hanan son of Igdaliah the man of God. It was next to the room of the officials, which was over that of Maaseiah son of Shallum the doorkeeper. Then I set bowls full of wine and some cups before the Rekabites and said to them, “Drink some wine.”
But they replied, “We do not drink wine, because our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab gave us this command: ‘Neither you nor your descendants must ever drink wine. Also you must never build houses, sow seed or plant vineyards; you must never have any of these things, but must always live in tents. Then you will live a long time in the land where you are nomads.’ We have obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab son of Rekab commanded us. Neither we nor our wives nor our sons and daughters have ever drunk wine or built houses to live in or had vineyards, fields or crops. We have lived in tents and have fully obeyed everything our forefather Jehonadab commanded us. But when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon invaded this land, we said, ‘Come, we must go to Jerusalem to escape the Babylonian and Aramean armies.’ So we have remained in Jerusalem.”
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Go and tell the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘Will you not learn a lesson and obey my words?’ declares the Lord. ‘Jehonadab son of Rekab ordered his descendants not to drink wine and this command has been kept. To this day they do not drink wine, because they obey their forefather’s command. But I have spoken to you again and again, yet you have not obeyed me. Again and again I sent all my servants the prophets to you. They said, “Each of you must turn from your wicked ways and reform your actions; do not follow other gods to serve them. Then you will live in the land I have given to you and your ancestors.” But you have not paid attention or listened to me. The descendants of Jehonadab son of Rekab have carried out the command their forefather gave them, but these people have not obeyed me.’
“Therefore this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Listen! I am going to bring on Judah and on everyone living in Jerusalem every disaster I pronounced against them. I spoke to them, but they did not listen; I called to them, but they did not answer.’”
Then Jeremiah said to the family of the Rekabites, “This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘You have obeyed the command of your forefather Jehonadab and have followed all his instructions and have done everything he ordered.’ Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jehonadab son of Rekab will never fail to have a descendant to serve me.’”

• Jeremiah 35:1-19

To read Jeremiah 36:1-32, click this link HERE.

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Jeremiah 34:1 ‘When Nebuchadnezzar … fought’: “The siege began c. Ian. 15, 588 B.C. (39:1), and ended c. July 18, 586 (3912; 52:5, 6). This chapter was set in Zedekiah’s reign, during the siege of 588-586 B.C., and was an amplification of 32: 1-5, the message that resulted in Jeremiah’s incarceration. against Jerusalem. Babylon’s destruction of Jerusalem began August 14, 586 (2 Kin. 25:8, 9).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 34:8-10 ‘a covenant … to proclaim liberty’: “Zedekiah’s pact to free slaves met with initial compliance. The covenant followed the law of release (Lev. 25:39-55; Deut. 15:12-18) in hopes of courting God’s favor and ending His judgment.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 34:11 ‘They changed their minds’: “Former slave masters went back on their agreement and recalled the slaves. Some suggest that this treachery came when the inhabitants believed that danger was past, because the Egyptian army approached and Babylon’s forces withdrew temporarily (37:5, 11).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 34:17-22 ‘You have not obeyed’: “Due to recent duplicity (v. 16), God promised only one kind of liberty to the offenders, liberty to judgment by sword, pestilence, and famine (v. 17).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 34:21-22 ‘pretending to obey’: “According to the law of Moses, a Jewish master had to free his Jewish slaves at the end of seven years of service (Ex. 2121-11; Deut. 15:12-18). The Jews hadn’t done this for years, and now they decided it was a good thing to do. Why? Perhaps they felt that God would honor their obedience and defeat the enemy in some miraculous way, as He had done for Hezekiah (Isa. 36—37). Instead of believing God’s Word and submitting to Babylon, the Jews tried to bargain with the Lord and ‘bribe’ Him into helping their cause.
“OF course, there were probably some practical considerations behind this covenant. If the slaves were free, they’d have to care for themselves; their masters wouldn’t have to feed them or care for them. Also freemen were more likely to want to fight the enemy and maintain their newfound freedom. Whatever the reason, the effects of the covenant didn’t last very long, for when there was a lull in the siege and Nebuchadnezzar went off to confront the Egyptian army (Jer. 34:21-22; 37:5-11), the masters all forced their slaves back into servitude. The solemn covenant made in the temple meant nothing.
“Before we condemn these dishonest masters too much, let’s admit that God’s people often make promises to the Lord when they’re in tough times, only to repudiate them when things get better.”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

Jeremiah 35 ‘The Rechabites’: “Jeremiah 35:1-19 is an eschatological passage that mentions the Rechabites, a branch of the Kenites, a clan of the Midianites from which Moses’ in-laws came. Their ancestors advised them to live a life of migration rather than settlement and live off of flocks instead of plantings. This was a commitment the Rechabites kept, and they moved to the city only temporarily due to the threat of invasion by Babylon. This is then contrasted with the Israelites’ failure to keep their commitment to the Lord. Verses 18-19 tells us that because of the Rechabites’ favorable commitment to a vow, God promised that the house of the Rechabites will always have descendants who will be among the elect, and furthermore, from among them, some will be chosen to be priests in the messianic kingdom. Isaiah 66:18-21 prophesied that there would be Gentile priests in the messianic kingdom, and among these Gentile priests will be the descendants of the Rechabites.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

Jeremiah 35:8 ‘obeyed’: “What was commended here was not the father’s specific commands about nomadic life, but the steadfast obedience of the sons. Their obedience was unreserved in all aspects, at all times, on the part of all, without exception; in all these respects, Israel was lacking (v. 14).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics

Jeremiah 35:15 ‘Too much’: “We have too many gods. We have too many irons in the fire. And we have too much theology that we don’t understand. We have too much religion and too much ‘churchianity’ and too much institutionalism and too much, too much. The result is, God isn’t in there by Himself. He says, ‘If I’m not in your heart by Myself, I won’t work.’ When Jesus Christ has everything cleansed from the temple and dwells there alone, He will work.“

• A. W. Tozer, Success and the Christian

Jeremiah 35:18-19 ‘Because you have obeyed’: “God will bless the Rechabites not in spiritually saving them all, but in preserving a posterity in which some can have a place in His service. A Rechabite still has a role in Nehemiah 3:14. Also, the title over Psalm 71 in the LXX was addressed for use by the sons of Jonadab and the earliest captives.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 36:4 ‘Baruch wrote’: “Jeremiah’s recording secretary (cf. 32:12) wrote the prophet’s messages (cf. 45:1), and penned them a second time after the first scroll was burned (cf. 36:32). He also read the messages in the temple (v. 10) and in the palace (v. 15). Later, Jehudi read a small part of the first scroll before King Jehoiakim (vv. 21-23).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 36:5 ‘confined’: “The word means ‘restricted, hindered, shut up,’ and is the same term used for imprisonment in 33:1; 39:15. The fact that princes allowed Jeremiah to depart into hiding (v. 19) may indicate that he was curtailed in some ways without being in prison. There is no record of his being imprisoned in Jehoiakim’s rule.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 36:10 ‘chamber’: “On the north side, above the wall overlooking the temple court, where the people gathered, Baruch read from a window or balcony.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 36:23 ‘cut it’: “As often as Jehudi read ‘three or four columns,’ the king cut it up, doing so all the way through the whole scroll because he rejected the message (cf. v. 29). Jehoiakim is the king who sent men to Egypt (ch. 26) to bring back God’s faithful prophet, Urijah, so he could execute him.”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 36:30-31 ‘I will punish him’: “Consequences followed Jehoiakim’s defiance. In 598 B.C. he died (22:18, 19; 2 Kin. 23:36; 2 Chr. 36:5), but there were none to occupy the throne for long (v. 30). Jehoiachin or Jeconiah (Coniah in 22:24), his son, did succeed him, but with virtually no rule at all, lasting only three months and ten days in 597 B.C. (22:24—3O; 2 Chr. 36:9, 10). Babylon deported him for the rest of his life (cf. 52:31-34) and none of his descendants ruled (cf. 22:30).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Jeremiah 36:32 ‘Battle of Carchemish’: ”The fourth year of Jehoiakim was 605 BC, the year of the fateful Battle of Carchemish when Pharaoh Necho defeated King Josiah and made Judah a vassal to Egypt (Jer. 46:2; 2 Chron. _35;20-27).  Jehoiakim had gotten his throne only because Egypt had deposed his brother Jehoahaz.  Jerimiah had been ministering for twenty-three years, and now God commanded him to write his messages in a scroll so they would be permanent and could be read by others. Note that his messages dealt with Israel, Judah, and all the nations, and when he wrote the second scroll, he added other material (Jer. 36:32). The first forty-five chapters of the book of Jeremiah focus primarily on Israel and Judah, while chapters 46 to 51 deal with the other nations in the Near East.”

• Warren W. Wiersbe, Be Decisive

 

My Thoughts

Nebuchadnezzar is at the doorstep of Jerusalem.  Jeremiah tells King Zedekiah that the city will be burned to the ground.  Zedekiah will be taken to Babylon.  At this point, there were only three cities holding out against Babylon.

In open defiance of Jeremiah’s prophecy, they tried to appease God by releasing fellow Hebrew slaves.  They were supposed to do that every seven years during the year of Jubilee, but they had disobeyed God even in this rule.  But, when they found not having slaves to be inconvenient, they enslaved the slaves that they had just set free.  The original release of slaves was a case of too-little, too-late.  They were in violation of God’s Law.  And to re-enslave them was simply an insult added to all their other disobedience.  God’s punishment was to declare freedom for the people of Judah: freedom to suffer from the sword, plague, and famine.

Then in Jeremiah 35, Jeremiah invites the Rekabites (Recabites) to have some wine, but they refuse.  Ever since Jehonadab, son of Rekab, told them to always live in tents, never drink wine, and never grow a vineyard, they had obeyed their ancestor.  God spoke through Jeremiah to assure the Rekabites that there would always be a descendant of Jehonadab who would serve God.  The Rekabites were descended from the Kenites.  Moses’ father-in-law was a member of this tribe.  And they went with the Israelites, maintaining their nomadic ways.

Then Baruch, during the reign of Jehoiakim, wrote what Jeremiah dictated.  Jeremiah was again restricted (imprisoned, but not in prison).  Baruch wrote the scroll.  The people that heard it were afraid.  They knew the king must hear Baruch’s reading.  But when Jehoiakim heard the Word of the Lord, he burned the scroll.  The Lord spoke again to Jeremiah and he repeated every word that had been on the scroll, with an added curse, that Jehoiakim’s line would never sit on the throne of Judah.  While Jeconiah is mentioned in the Matthew Gospel, the Luke Gospel, carrying the bloodline of Mary branches onto Nathan, brother of Solomon, thus Jesus was not in the bloodline of King Jehoiakim.

The issue of slavery here is one of the reasons slavery is abhorrent.  In those days, people would sell themselves into slavery, and under the Mosaic Law, they would never have to serve more than seven years, but with the sin nature of man, this means of debt payment (for the most part) turned into a horrible practice.

Those that followed the Mosaic Law treated their slaves fairly, but in the days of Jeremiah, those people were few.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

“Jeremiah 34:1-6 Warning to Zedekiah 1. What blessing has God given you recently that you did not deserve? How do you respond to unmerited goodness?
“2. Are you ‘between a rock and a hard place,’ as was Zedekiah? How so? How can your group help?
“Jeremiah 34:7-22 Freedom for Slaves 1. If this were the only biblical basis for learning how God cares for the poor, what would you conclude about God? About the poor? About rich land-owners and office-holders?
“2. If your CEO or government leader reneges on a pledge to your people, what happens?
“3. Who are the ‘slaves’ in your country today? ls your church proclaiming their freedom, as did Isaiah and Jesus (see Isa 61:1-2; Lk 4:18)? How can your group become involved in this?
“4. Do you feel ‘enslaved’ in any way? What would ‘freedom’ mean to you? What can you do for those enslaved as you once were?
“Jeremiah 35: 1. The Recabites refused to take the ‘modern way’ of Judah. Who in your world is like these Recabites: Any ‘communal nomads’? Any ‘puritan reformers’? Any ‘Christian radicals’? Any ‘loyal traditionalists’? What can you and your church learn from such steadfast pacesetters?
“2. ls yours an ‘alternative lifestyle’—distinct from that of your peers at work, school or neighborhood? What one thing distinguishes you?
“3. How should Christians be separate from the rest of society, yet live close enough so that others can tell what motivates us? ln what respect is your small group a pacesetter for those around you?
“Jeremiah 36: 1. Have you ever persisted in a task tor years despite legal opposition and a total lack of visible success? What would motivate you to persist?
“2. Why do you think officials sympathetic to Jeremiah did not stand up to the king? What would decisive action have cost them? Ever ‘look the other way’ when something unjust or unethical was going on?
“3. How do people today show disdain for God’s word’? Do you honor it? How so?
“4. How do the events of this chapter account for the patch-work quilt shape and nonchronological order of the current Book of Jeremiah? (For instance, if this book were in chronological order, chapter 45 would come in between 36:8 and 36:9.)
“5. What is your theory, based in part on this chapter, of how the ‘Word of God’ came to be written in the ‘words of men’?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Jeremiah 34 is divided into two sets of questions as mentioned above.  Jeremiah 35 and 36 each has one set of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.