Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
The verse belongs late in Jeremiah's work in Judah, standing in chronological order after chapter 21 and before chapter 37. The prophecies are not placed in chronological order because the manuscript rolls were gathered together into one book, which makes no change in the teaching, and the chapter itself shows its own time. Its setting is a covenant to release servants and others who were oppressed, undertaken by Zedekiah to carry out the release commanded in Scripture. This was done after Jeremiah was taken out of prison, to observe a practice that had not been followed since the time of Moses.
The covenant of liberty was made through a sacrifice prepared in separated pieces, with the covenant parties passing between them. The verse introduces the Lord's message to Jeremiah about Zedekiah's proclamation of liberty. Proclaiming freedom was right, but failing to carry it out profaned the Lord's name.
Owning slaves was a practice God never approved but temporarily allowed for a people whose customs had become corrupt, and it violated God's moral law. The verse belongs to Jeremiah's denunciation of the Israelites for adopting slavery, in which God's wrath was pronounced against them. That warning was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the state and took the people captive. The ceremony shows that God's covenant with Abraham was a covenant of liberty from sin, a freedom found only in Christ, represented by the sacrifices as the great Sacrifice. The verse stands among readings that carry forward through the restoration from Babylon to the more glorious restoration under Christ Jesus our Lord.
The verse belongs late in Jeremiah's work in Judah, standing in chronological order after chapter 21 and before chapter 37. The prophecies are not placed in chronological order because the manuscript rolls were gathered together into one book, which makes no change in the teaching, and the chapter itself shows its own time. Its setting is a covenant to release servants and others who were oppressed, undertaken by Zedekiah to carry out the release commanded in Scripture. This was done after Jeremiah was taken out of prison, to observe a practice that had not been followed since the time of Moses.
The covenant of liberty was made through a sacrifice prepared in separated pieces, with the covenant parties passing between them. The verse introduces the Lord's message to Jeremiah about Zedekiah's proclamation of liberty. Proclaiming freedom was right, but failing to carry it out profaned the Lord's name.
Owning slaves was a practice God never approved but temporarily allowed for a people whose customs had become corrupt, and it violated God's moral law. The verse belongs to Jeremiah's denunciation of the Israelites for adopting slavery, in which God's wrath was pronounced against them. That warning was fulfilled when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the state and took the people captive. The ceremony shows that God's covenant with Abraham was a covenant of liberty from sin, a freedom found only in Christ, represented by the sacrifices as the great Sacrifice. The verse stands among readings that carry forward through the restoration from Babylon to the more glorious restoration under Christ Jesus our Lord.