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Jeremiah
Chapter Thirty-four
Jeremiah 34
Chapter Contents
Zedekiah's death at Babylon foretold. (1-7) The Jews
reproved for compelling their poor brethren to return to unlawful bondage.
(8-22)
Commentary on Jeremiah 34:1-7
(Read Jeremiah 34:1-7)
Zedekiah is told that the city shall be taken
and that
he shall die a captive
but he shall die a natural death. It is better to live
and die penitent in a prison
than to live and die impenitent in a palace.
Commentary on Jeremiah 34:8-22
(Read Jeremiah 34:8-22)
A Jew should not be held in servitude above seven years.
This law they and their fathers had broken. And when there was some hope that
the siege was raised
they forced the servants they had released into their
services again. Those who think to cheat God by dissembled repentance and
partial reformation
put the greatest cheat upon their own souls. This shows
that liberty to sin
is really only liberty to have the sorest judgments. It is
just with God to disappoint expectations of mercy
when we disappoint the
expectations of duty. And when reformation springs only from terror
it is
seldom lasting. Solemn vows thus entered into
profane the ordinances of God;
and the most forward to bind themselves by appeals to God
are commonly most
ready to break them. Let us look to our hearts
that our repentance may be
real
and take care that the law of God regulates our conduct.
── Matthew Henry《Concise Commentary on Jeremiah》
Jeremiah 34
Verse 5
[5] But thou shalt die in peace: and with the burnings of
thy fathers
the former kings which were before thee
so shall they burn odours
for thee; and they will lament thee
saying
Ah lord! for I have pronounced the
word
saith the LORD.
Ah Lord — The Jews in their chronology
give us the form of the
lamentation thus. Alas! Zedekiah is dead
who drank the dregs of all ages: that
is
who was punished for the sins of all former ages.
Verse 17
[17] Therefore thus saith the LORD; Ye have not hearkened
unto me
in proclaiming liberty
every one to his brother
and every man to his
neighbour: behold
I proclaim a liberty for you
saith the LORD
to the sword
to the pestilence
and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into
all the kingdoms of the earth.
Behold — You shall perish by the sword
famine and pestilence
and those of you who escape them
shall be slaves
in many nations.
Verse 18
[18] And I will give the men that have transgressed my
covenant
which have not performed the words of the covenant which they had
made before me
when they cut the calf in twain
and passed between the parts
thereof
Cut the calf — It seems these Jews in their
making of the solemn covenant with God about releasing their servants used this
rite; they caused a calf
or heifer to be cut in pieces
and the parts to be
laid in the temple
right over-against one another; then they recited this
covenant
and passed between the parts of the heifer so cut; silently agreeing
that God should cut them in pieces like that beast if they did not make their
words good.
Verse 22
[22] Behold
I will command
saith the LORD
and cause them
to return to this city; and they shall fight against it
and take it
and burn
it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation without an
inhabitant.
Behold — I will put into their hearts to return.
── John Wesley《Explanatory Notes on Jeremiah》
34 Chapter 34
Verses 1-22
Verse 17
Ye have not hearkened unto Me
in proclaiming liberty.
The liberty of sin
The Word of the Lord came unto Jeremiah that all bondservants in
Israel should be forthwith emancipated. At first the princes obeyed
and the
enslaved were allowed to go free. But eventually the princes played falsely
and once more brought their old servants into bondage. Then comes the text with
its terrible irony.
I. The mutiny
against the law. In the first instance the governors felt the reasonableness of
the commandment
they agreed to it
but at length they resisted it
violated
it. And this spirit of revolt against the higher law is ever working in us and
displaying itself in some form of disobedience.
1. There is a theoretical repudiation of the law. Literary men are
ever urging upon us that the moral law as given in revelation is
unphilosophical
and the sooner it is renounced by all educated people the
better. One by one they ingeniously find us a way out of all the ten great
precepts. In our simplicity we thought the Saviour taught us that heaven and
earth might pass away
but that the moral commandments should persist in
absolute authority and force
but eloquent writers affect to show that the
commandments are mere bye-laws
ripe for repeal.
2. And if there is a theoretical repudiation of the law on the part
of the literary few
is there not a personal
practical mutiny against it on
the part of us all? In manifold ways we criticise the law
fret at it
evade
it
violate it. We spurn the circumscriptions which deny us so much
and in
blind passion break into forbidden ground. And yet how gracious and beautiful
is the law! How generous is the law referred to in the text enjoining upon the
rich and great mercy and brotherliness! And the whole of the moral law as
expressed in revelation is equally rational and benign. The “commandments are
not grievous.” No
indeed
they are gracious. Every commandment is an
illumination
a light shining in a dark place to guide our feet in a dim and
perilous way. Every commandment is a salvation. The commandment enjoining love
is to save us from the damnation of selfishness; enjoining meekness to save us
from the devil of pride; enjoining purity to save us from the hell of lust.
Every commandment is a benediction. Scientists are always descanting on the
grandeur of natural law
the law which builds the sky
which transfigures the
flower
which rules the stars. The scientist
the mathematician
the musician
will tell you that law is good
that the secret of the world’s beauty is to be
found in the wonderful laws which God wrote in tables of stone long before
Moses came. And ii natural law
which rules things
is so sublime
how much
does that moral law
which rules spirits
excel in glory! And yet how blindly
do we mutiny against the great words of light and love! Some time ago it was
told in the paper that a herd of cows was being driven through a long
dark
wooden tubular bridge. Here and there in the woodwork were knotholes
which let in the
sun in bars of light. The animals were afraid of these sun-bars; they shied at
them
were terrified at them
and then
leaping over them
made a painful
hurdle-race of it
coming out at the other end palpitating and exhausted. We
are just like them. The laws of God are golden rays in a dark path
they are
for our guidance and infinite perfecting and consolation. But they irritate us
they enrage us
we count them despotic barriers to our liberty and happiness
and too often we put them under our feet. “So foolish was I
and ignorant
I
was as a beast before Thee.”
II. The liberty of
licence. “Behold
I proclaim a liberty for you
saith the Lord.” These nobles
wished to be free themselves in enslaving their brethren
but in doing this
they gave themselves away into servitude; they wished to enrich themselves
and
they lost everything; they sought personal indulgence at the expense of their neighbours
and they suffered sword and famine and pestilence. Disobedience always means
bondage
disgrace
suffering
death. A liberty to the sword
the famine
and
the pestilence! Most awful is the liberty of unrighteousness; who can express
the fulness of its woe! Some of you have visited the Castle of Chillon on the
Lake of Geneva. In that castle is a dungeon which contains a shaft
at the bottom of which you
see the waters of the lake; that shaft is called the way of liberty. Tradition
says that in the old days the jailor in the darkness of the dungeon would
whisper to the prisoner
“Three steps and liberty
” and the poor dupe
hastily
stepping forward
fell down this shaft
which was planted full of knives and
spikes
the mutilated
bloody corpse finally dropping into the depths. That is
precisely the liberty of sin. The dupe of sin takes a leap in the dark
he is
forthwith pierced through with many sorrows
and mangled and bleeding falls
into the gulf. “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man
but the end
thereof are the ways of death.”
1. I want you to feel the madness of contending with God
for that is
exactly what sin means.
2. I want you to believe that only through self-limitation can you
find the highest liberty and blessedness. All civilisation is the giving up of
liberty to find a nobler liberty.
3. If you are to keep the law
you must seek the strength of God in
Christ. Born of God
living in fellowship with Him
full of faith
of love
of
hope
we shall find the yoke of the law easy
and its burden light. The inner
force is equal to the outward duty. (W. L. Watkinson.)
──《The Biblical Illustrator》