Jeremiah 34:12-17 - You have not obeyed me

34:12-16

God now condemns the people. The incident, sad as it is, shows that God was absolutely right in what He did. The Israelites had themselves been brought out of slavery, set free by the Lord. Under the Law any Hebrew who had sold themself as a slave had to be set free in the seventh year. But the Hebrews had never obeyed this law. At last the people seemed to have recognised the wrong that they had done and agreed to put it right. They even put this into action. Yet having done this they just went back on their covenant and made people slaves again.

34:17

They people had disobeyed God. They were supposed to proclaim freedom, but had not. They had for a short while, but only to quickly reenslave the people. This is a pattern that has repeated many times in history. One form of tyranny is overthrown and for a time things may be a little better, but then the new regime introduces its own tyrannies. Communism is perhaps the “best”, or worst, example. The Czars in Russia were evil and oppressive, but the communists who replaced them were even worse. Apartheid was inherently evil, but the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe soon proved to be even worse. It is in the nature of fallen mankind to oppress his fellow humans. So God would judge the people, and the freedom they would receive would be the freedom to die by the sword.