Year 9, Day 87: Jeremiah 34

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Jeremiah 34 is a chapter that amuses me.  The Hebrew people owned slaves.  That’s not the amusing part.  Many ancient cultures had forced labor systems.  Whether the slaves came through conquest, economics, or government imposition it happened.  That certainly is not the amusing part at all.

What is amusing is to remember the context of the passage.  The Babylonians are assaulting Jerusalem.  The people are holed up in Jerusalem.  Their supplies are dwindling every day.  What need do they have of slaves?  It isn’t like they have grand wealth to put on display.  It isn’t like they have enough supplies to create unnecessary extravagance.  Here are a people who are literally hiding behind walls to avoid becoming slaves themselves, and they have their own slaves!  I find this utterly ridiculous.

It certainly speaks to humanity, though.  Nobody wants to be the bottom dog.  I genuinely believe that these Hebrew people under siege from Babylon have slaves so that they have someone upon whom they can take out their frustrations!  They have slaves so that when they are having the worst days imaginable, they still have someone to order around.

If this doesn’t speak to the very base nature of humanity, I don’t know what does.

Actually, maybe I do.

Continuing on in the passage gives another context to analyze.  The Hebrews seemingly give up their slaves.  They repent.  They let their slaves go free.  It seems like a great moment.

It’s actually not.

The Hebrew people give up their slaves because they are almost defeated by the Babylonians.  They give up their slaves because it is the last thing they can do to possibly appease God. 

For a second, it works.  Nebuchadnezzar’s force is threatened by the king of Egypt.  Nebuchadnezzar leaves the siege of Jerusalem to go fight off the Egyptian force.  As the Babylonian’s leave, though, the Hebrew people reclaim their slaves.  They illustrate that they didn’t let their slaves go free because they wanted to do so or because they were convicted morally.  They let their slaves go to buy God’s mercy.  Rather than genuinely repent, they reluctantly do the right thing just to spare themselves.

The Hebrew people show their true character.  They didn’t act righteously in letting their slaves go.  They were selfish and self-seeking.  Not only are these Hebrew people keeping slaves so that they have someone lower on the proverbial totem pole than themselves, but they only let go of the slaves to save their own skin!  This shows the true depravity of the human condition like few other chapters in the Bible can.

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