READING: Ezekiel 24:15-25:17, Jeremiah 34:1-22, Jeremiah 21:1-14, Ezekiel 29:1-16, Ezekiel 30:20-31:18
We are a sinful, fickle people – and we are not the first ones. Mosaic Law provided for the freeing of slaves after six years of service, but the generally disobedient people had been ignoring that law, too. Now, they had covenanted under Zedekiah’s leadership to release the slaves, perhaps because it was economically or militarily wise to do so when their city was under siege. The people did so but then re-enslaved the very ones they had freed—again, in direct contradiction of God’s requirement in Deuteronomy 15:12.
They had first repented of their previous sin of not releasing the slaves (a repentance that pleased God), then changed their minds and profaned God’s name (Jer 34:16). God’s judgment on them would be severe. They would be “freed,” as one writer stated, from “his protecting hand.”*
Never is it wise to waver between right and wrong, obedience and disobedience, dependence and independence. Surrender and submission to God should be ongoing.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Are you wavering in any area of your life today?
DAILY PRAYER: “Help me, Father, to follow You completely and consistently.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Jeremiah 32:1-33:26, Ezekiel 26:1-14
* Feinberg, C. L. (1986). Jeremiah. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel (Vol. 6, p. 598). Zondervan Publishing House.
