OUR FATHER WHO DEFENDS THE WEAK

Jeremiah chapter 34 verses  2 - 3 reads this way;

“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.

The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, had undertaken war against the kingdom of Judah and had conquered most of the country and now surrounded Jerusalem where the king of Judah named Zedekiah, was fortified against the siege.

While in this tense stand-off with the Babylonians, the prophet Jeremiah was sent by the Lord to give a message to the king, Zedekiah.

The prophet  told Zedekiah that his resistance against Nebuchadnezzar was futile and that Jerusalem would be overrun and burned down. Furthermore, Zedekiah was informed that he himself would be captured and taken to Babylon.

The Lord's word of reassurance to king Zedekiah was that even though he was to be captured and taken to Babylon, he would still live in the dignity of his office as king and that he would be buried with honors in Babylon.

Now, King Zedekiah and the nobles of Jerusalem had made a covenant with each other  regarding their Hebrew slaves. They agreed to free them as the siege against them set in. They repented before the Lord for not keeping the law of God which stipulated that every person who held Hebrew slaves was to free them after six years. The nobles of Jerusalem had not done this up to that point but the Lord accepted their repentance and their freeing of the slaves.

Soon after however, those who made the covenant changed their minds and forced their freed slaves back into slavery.

The Lord was angered by this breaking of the  covenant that was made and the re-enslaving of the people who had already been freed to choose their own path.

Because of the treachery of Zedekiah and the nobles, the original judgement  against Jerusalem, which was difficult but tolerable, was changed to a brutal and ultimately fatal collision with the king of Babylon.

Treating  human beings of humble means treacherously will invite an escalation of judgement from the Lord that may not be survivable.

Let us be careful to treat others fairly no matter what their stations in life are.

Amen.