Jer 34:12-22 You Brought My Servants into Subjection to You

[Study Aired April 3, 2022]

Jer 34:12  Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 34:13  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying,
Jer 34:14  At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.
Jer 34:15  And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:
Jer 34:16  But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.
Jer 34:17  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.
Jer 34:18  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,
Jer 34:19  The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;
Jer 34:20  I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.
Jer 34:21  And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which are gone up from you.
Jer 34:22  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.

In our last study we saw that Judah and Jerusalem had finally done the right thing and had set their Hebrew servants free while seeking the Lord’s mercy during the siege of the city by the king of Babylon. As we will see this week, the Lord sent the Egyptians to deliver the city and Judah, and once they were no longer under siege, Jerusalem immediately went back on their word to set their servants free.

Jer 34:11  But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids.
Jer 34:12  Therefore the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
Jer 34:13  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondmen, saying,

The Hebrew word translated ‘turned’ is H7725, ‘shub’. Judah had ‘turned’ away from the Lord by rebelling against His commandment to release their Hebrew slaves. It is the same word that is used whether it is ‘turning to the Lord’ or ‘turning away from the Lord.

H7725
שׁוּב
shûb
shoob

A primitive root; to turn back (hence, away) transitively or intransitively, literally or figuratively (not necessarily with the idea of return to the starting point); generally to retreat; often adverbially again: –  ([break, build, circumcise, dig, do anything, do evil, feed, lay down, lie down, lodge, make, rejoice, send, take, weep]) X again, (cause to) answer (+ again), X in any case (wise), X at all, averse, bring (again, back, home again), call [to mind], carry again (back), cease, X certainly, come again (back) X consider, + continually, convert, deliver (again), + deny, draw back, fetch home again, X fro, get [oneself] (back) again, X give (again), go again (back, home), [go] out, hinder, let, [see] more, X needs, be past, X pay, pervert, pull in again, put (again, up again), recall, recompense, recover, refresh, relieve, render (again), X repent, requite, rescue, restore, retrieve, (cause to, make to) return, reverse, reward, + say nay, send back, set again, slide back, still, X surely, take back (off), (cause to, make to) turn (again, self again, away, back, back again, backward, from, off), withdraw.

Being in Egypt signifies being enslaved to this sinful yet self-righteous world. Egypt here is called “the house of bondmen”, and that is where we all are when the Lord sends His Word and begins the process of bringing us out of this world and out of the bondage we are under by nature. We cannot serve the Lord if we remain in Egypt, and the Lord will plague the world within us and destroy the firstborn within us and make a way through the Red Sea to get us out of this world. The death of the firstborn of Egypt within us is the negative application of the death of the firstborn of God. The firstborn of Egypt signifies the man of sin who sits on the throne of our heart until Christ begins the process of destroying him with the brightness of His coming into our heart to take His rightful place sitting upon the throne of our heart.

Exo 4:22  And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn:
Exo 4:23  And I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve me: and if thou refuse to let him go, behold, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.

Hos 11:1  When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

Israel’s deliverance from Egypt signifies our being delivered from a life of self-righteous sins, and here in Jeremiah 34 the completion of our time in Egypt as bondsmen is signified by six years of bondage and being set free in the seventh year:

Jer 34:14  At the end of seven years let ye go every man his brother an Hebrew, which hath been sold unto thee; and when he hath served thee six years, thou shalt let him go free from thee: but your fathers hearkened not unto me, neither inclined their ear.
Jer 34:15  And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name:

The spiritual significance of “letting [our]… Hebrew servant… go free” is to let Christ be free in our lives. When Christ is free in our lives, we become His servant, and we become the servants and slaves to righteousness. When we enslave Him, we reject Him as our master, and we seek to make Him and His Word serve us according to the idols of our heart. We do so because we are deceived, and we are slaves to sin and unrighteousness. That is exactly what we all do in our own appointed time.

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Rom 6:16  Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Rom 6:17  But God be thanked, that ye were the servants [G1401: doulos, slave] of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants [G1402: douloo, slaves, same root word] of righteousness.
Rom 6:19  I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Rom 6:21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
Rom 6:22  But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

When we read, “The Lord hath made … even the wicked for the day of evil,” we must come to realize when the Lord tells us that He is not speaking of some particularly evil men, nor does it speak of a particular ‘day of evil’ which excludes the righteous man. The fact is:

Psa 53:3  Every one of them is gone back: they are altogether become filthy; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

Rom 3:9  What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin;
Rom 3:10  As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
Rom 3:11  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.
Rom 3:12  They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one.

That Truth is so all encompassing that even our Lord included His own corruptible clay vessel when He said:

Mar 10:18  And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.

This story of the release and then the re-enslavement of our Hebrew servants is for our own personal admonition. It is a “Hebrew servant” because we are all ‘Hebrews’, and when we give our Hebrew slave his liberty, we are giving ourselves liberty. Therefore, it is each of us who releases our own Hebrew servant and then we bring him back into bondage. We do so when we repent of our rebellious, self-righteousness and then we “lose [our] first love” and go right back to our “own vomit… and… [our own] wallow in the mire”:

2Pe 2:20  For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning.
2Pe 2:21  For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them.
2Pe 2:22  But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.

Their “latter end is worse with them than the beginning” was certainly the case for King Zedekiah, who typifies our own doomed ‘man of sin’. It was also true for rebellious, self-righteous Judah, which typifies the loss of our first love for the kingdom of God within to be replaced with “the cares of this word and the deceitfulness of riches”

Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; [Gives his Hebrew slave liberty]
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. [‘Working out our own salvation’ (Php 2:12-13) is more than our old man can bear]

That is what happened to King Zedekiah and to Jerusalem and Judah when they released their Hebrew servants while under siege and then went back on their word when the siege was lifted:

Jer 34:16  But ye turned and polluted my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom ye had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection, to be unto you for servants and for handmaids.

The Hebrew word translated as “turned” here in Jeremiah 34:16 is the same Hebrew word translated as “turned and returned” in verse 11. It means we do a 180 degree turn whether it is turning toward or turning away from our Lord.

Jer 34:17  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.

This 17^th verse of Jeremiah 34 is exactly what Paul said in the verse quoted earlier:

Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.

Being “free from righteousness we are not at liberty to reap the fruits of that ‘liberty’… “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”.

We are “removed to all the kingdoms of the earth” because that is where our “trespasses and… iniquities” are common to all men. That is where we belong. When we are in rebellion against our Lord, we belong in ‘the kingdoms of the earth’ where we are ‘at liberty’ to reap the fruits of that ‘liberty’ – “liberty… to the word, to pestilence, and to famine”, or as the apostle Paul puts it in the very next verse of Romans 6:

Rom 6:20  For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
Rom 6:21  What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

The choice to serve sin is an obviously bad choice:

Rom 6:22  But now being made free [liberated] from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Rom 6:23  For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Like Israel we are “marred in the Potter’s hand”, and we simply cannot choose to do what we know we should do, as Paul explains in the next chapter of Romans:

Rom 7:14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
Rom 7:16  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

Twice we are told that “[we] do that [we] would not”, and twice we are told “It is not I that do it, but sin that dwells in me”, because we are “sold under sin” by “the law of sin which is in my members”.

How did that law get there? Did we choose to be sold to sin under the law of sin in our members? No, we had no choice in the matter because there is but “one lawgiver”, and that law is in our members by His design and not by our fabled ‘free will’. It is that “one lawgiver” alone who is able to save and is able to destroy, and who is in the process of utterly destroying the kingdom of our old man and all that pertains to him, including his false doctrine of ‘free moral agency’.

Jas 4:12  There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

It is only when we become aware of this Truth that we are brought to cry out to the Lord realizing that we simply cannot freely choose to be obedient to the Lord:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Only then, after the Lord has raised up a storm in our life that brings us to our wits’ end, will we be given to realize this Truth:

Rom 7:25  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

What a blessing it is to be free from the sin of believing that my salvation and your salvation hangs upon our ability to make the right choices and to do the right things. Indeed, we will by faith choose to do “good works”, but those ‘good works’ are “not of [our]selves, rather “[they are] the gift of God… which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.”

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

The truth cannot be stated any more clearly than this:

Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

That is the only way possible to “work out [our] own salvation with fear and trembling”, all the while crying out:

Rom 7:24  O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

As long as we cling to the damnable doctrine of man being given a will that is free from God, we will be denying that our faith is “not of [our]selves, [rather] it is the gift of God”, and we will remain in rebellion against the truth that our salvation is only “by the faith of the Son of God” and “not our yourselves”.

Gal 2:16  Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

This is exactly how Isaiah had already described this experience the Lord has given us. It is “an experience of evil”, and it is the Lord who “makes us to err from His ways” for the very purpose of giving us “liberty… to the sword… famine… [and] freedom from righteousness” so He can then humble us:

Ecc 1:13 I applied my heart to inquiring and exploring by wisdom concerning all that is done under the heavens: it is an experience of evil Elohim has given to the sons of humanity to humble them by it. (CLV)

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Any time we refuse to believe and obey the Lord and go our own self-righteous way and deny that it is He who works “both [what we] will and [what we] do” (Php 2:12-13), the Lord proclaims:

Jer 2:19  Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the LORD thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord GOD of hosts.
Jer 2:20  For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot.

Our own wickedness corrects us because the Lord “made us to err from [His] ways… to humble us”, and when we turn back again to Him, we do so only because He works that also “after the counsel of His own will”, not ours. What He is telling us is that when He says, “All things” what He means by that is “all things”.

Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

We say we will obey the Lord and we agree to His commandment to give His word, our Hebrew servant, freedom to help us to overcome our sinful, self-righteous nature, then by His design, we turn and twist the Lord’s words to make His Words cover the idols of our hearts. It is all “after the counsel of His own will”, nevertheless He also requires that we “give an accounting” of “His workmanship” in us:

Luk 16:2  And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

This is how our own wickedness and backsliding corrects and reproves us:

Jer 34:18  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,
Jer 34:19  The princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, which passed between the parts of the calf;

Cutting the calf in half and passing between the two parts of the calf, is witnessing to the fact that we have each participated in the sacrificing of our Lord for our sins. Yet we witness against ourselves that we will not, of ourselves, turn away from our sins and our iniquities, and turn again to Him and obey His Words.

Jer 34:20  I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life: and their dead bodies shall be for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, and to the beasts of the earth.
Jer 34:21  And Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of them that seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon’s army, which are gone up from you.

The army of the king of Babylon going up from besieging us and then us immediately reinstituting the slavery of our Hebrew servant, demonstrates that passing between the two parts of the calf means nothing to us at first. Our initial repentance is not a mature repentance. It is a carnal repentance because of the Lord bring trials into our lives to besiege us for a season.

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?

As soon as the Lord gives us a reprieve from those trials, we immediately forget that we witnessed against ourselves, and we go right back to our old ways without skipping a beat.

Jer 34:22  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.

The Chaldeans, also known as Babylonians, had “gone up from you” because the Lord had sent Pharaoh to come up against the Chaldeans and had distracted them and caused them to lift the siege of Jerusalem for a short time:

Jer 37:5  Then Pharaoh’s army was come forth out of Egypt: and when the Chaldeans that besieged Jerusalem heard tidings of them, they departed from Jerusalem.
Jer 37:6  Then came the word of the LORD unto the prophet Jeremiah, saying,
Jer 37:7  Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel; Thus shall ye say to the king of Judah, that sent you unto me to enquire of me; Behold, Pharaoh’s army, which is come forth to help you, shall return to Egypt into their own land.
Jer 37:8  And the Chaldeans shall come again, and fight against this city, and take it, and burn it with fire.
Jer 37:9  Thus saith the LORD; Deceive not yourselves, saying, The Chaldeans shall surely depart from us: for they shall not depart.
Jer 37:10  For though ye had smitten the whole army of the Chaldeans that fight against you, and there remained but wounded men among them, yet should they rise up every man in his tent, and burn this city with fire.

The message for us, if the Lord has given us to “know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”, is that we must go into Babylon and be chastened for our self-righteous iniquities. We must acknowledge that we have committed iniquity in going back on our word to set at liberty our Hebrew slave the moment the Lord showed His mercy and gave us a reprieve from our trials. The Lord forgave Judah and Jerusalem, and they immediately went out and grabbed their fellow Hebrews by the throat and demanded immediate payment. It is the same spirit against which the Lord Himself admonishes us in the parable of the servant who was forgiven an unpayable debt, only to demand immediate payment of a much smaller debt from a fellow servant.

Mat 18:23  Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
Mat 18:24  And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
Mat 18:25  But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.
Mat 18:26  The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:27  Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
Mat 18:28  But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.
Mat 18:29  And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.
Mat 18:30  And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
Mat 18:31  So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done.
Mat 18:32  Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33  Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34  And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35  So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

Only after we acknowledge our self-righteous trespasses against our Lord while in Babylon will we be dragged out of her:

Jer 3:13  Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD.

While we are refusing to acknowledge our iniquity we just naturally look to this world, to Egypt, to deliver us from our God-ordained chastening which we endure while we are in the bondage of Babylon. Isaiah prophesied of this inevitable part of our “experience of evil” (Ecc 1:13):

Isa 30:1  Woe to the rebellious children, saith the LORD, that take counsel, but not of me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin:
Isa 30:2  That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt!
Isa 30:3  Therefore shall the strength of Pharaoh be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion.

For over seven decades, from the time of Isaiah to the time of Jeremiah and the dissolution of the kingdom of Judah, the Kings of Judah made alliances with Pharaoh, king of Egypt, as they sought protection from the Assyrians of Nineveh and later, in the time of Jeremiah, the same people were dominated by Babylon.

The lesson for us is to depend only on the Lord and not on our own understanding and our own worldly strength.

Pro 3:1  My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
Pro 3:2  For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.
Pro 3:3  Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:
Pro 3:4  So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.
Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
Pro 3:7  Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.
Pro 3:8  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones.

If we have “favor with God and with man” we will never need to fear the king of Egypt or the king of Babylon. The Lord will give us favor with our very enemies:

Pro 16:4  The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.
Pro 16:5  Every one that is proud in heart [self-righteous] is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.
Pro 16:6  By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
Pro 16:7  When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.

What that means inwardly is that all the energy we wasted in our self-righteous sinful ways will now be channeled into the Lord’s service and against our old man.

As a type of this process of making our enemies to live at peace with us, the Lord made the king of Babylon aware of the prophecies of Jeremiah, and the king of Babylon was solicitous of Jeremiah when Jerusalem was taken:

Jer 40:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon.
Jer 40:2  And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, The LORD thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place.
Jer 40:3  Now the LORD hath brought it, and done according as he hath said: because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you.
Jer 40:4  And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee: but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before thee: whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go.
Jer 40:5  Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go.

Jeremiah had not gone back on his word just because the Chaldeans had lifted the siege. Jeremiah had no Hebrew servants because he typifies those who love God and keep His commandments:

1Jn 5:2  By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.
1Jn 5:3  For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

If we keep the Lord’s commandments and we have a Hebrew servant, then we will give that servant His liberty, and we will “change not“, even when we come to see how much we had depended upon our enslaved Hebrew servant… our twisting of the word to fit it around our heart’s idols.

Psa 15:4  In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

Being rooted deeply in Christ is required to keep us from going back to our own vomit and to our own wallow in the mire of all the false doctrines of the churches of this world. “Come out of her My people” is not a popular doctrine, and it is given to very few to endure the “persecution…because of the Word.”

Mat 13:18  Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.
Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
Mat 13:20  But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;
Mat 13:21  Yet hath he not root [Christ, (Isa 11:10 and Rom 15:12)] in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended.
Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.
Mat 13:23  But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

Jeremiah typifies and foreshadows those who are deeply rooted in Christ. He typifies the Lord’s elect who are faithful to His Words even as those words proclaim that we must all be carried away as captives to Babylon where some few will be granted to “acknowledge [their] iniquities” (Jer 3:13) and be dragged out of Babylon to return to the Lord and become rulers over the kingdoms of this world for a thousand years:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.
Rev 11:16  And the four and twenty elders, which sat before God on their seats, fell upon their faces, and worshipped God,
Rev 11:17  Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.
Rev 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

“The earth [must be] destroyed”, because “the earth” symbolizes our corruptible clay vessel which cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and which the Lord destroys “at His coming”:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

If the Lord destroys our “man of sin” in “this present time” and we are given to “endure to the end (Mat 10:22), then we will be given the greatest of all blessings, the blessing which we have now only in “earnest”:

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13  In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14  Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.

This is “the redemption of the purchased possession”:

Rev 20:4  And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.
Rev 20:5  But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.
Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

What we are learning is that when Christ said:

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, [“whosoever readeth” (vs 15)] when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation [Reading these words] shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. [“All these things” includes “Till the seven plagues… were fulfilled” (Rev 15:8)]
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

We are learning that “My words” includes this prophecy of Jeremiah and all the prophets and all of scripture, which is all “given by inspiration of the holy spirit…” and is applicable to the Lord’s elect in every generation since Christ.

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) [that these words are spiritual and are being fulfilled in the lives of the Lord’s elect of each and every generation]

2Ti 3:16  All scripture [Old Testament prophets included] is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
2Ti 3:17  That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

In conclusion, the Lord uses our trials to demonstrate to each of us just how shallow our repentance is to begin with. We say we will be obedient to Him, and we even set our Hebrew slaves free. The Lord reveals to us that we are quick to make liars of ourselves when the going gets tough. If the Lord has given us to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven in this present time, then He comes into us and performs what He has appointed for us:

Job 23:13  But he is in one mind, and who can turn him? and what his soul desireth, even that he doeth.
Job 23:14  For he performeth the thing that is appointed for me: and many such things are with him.

We are all “His workmanship, created…unto good works…”

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

We are required to endure afflictions in this present time, but even in those afflictions we are being cured and made whole spiritually.

Jer 33:6  Behold, I will bring it [vs 4: “this city”, Jerusalem] health and cure, and I will cure them, and will reveal unto them the abundance of peace and truth.
Jer 33:7  And I will cause the captivity of Judah and the captivity of Israel to return, and will build them, as at the first.
Jer 33:8  And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me; and I will pardon all their iniquities, whereby they have sinned, and whereby they have transgressed against me.