From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. John 6:66.

We wait in hope for the Lord; He is our help and our shield. In Him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in His holy name. May your unfailing love rest upon us, O Lord, even as we put our hope in You. Psalm 33:20-22.

A faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time. Titus 1:2.

As you read Scripture, a whole body of understanding opens. Understanding we cannot grasp on our own. This chapter, Jeremiah 34, shows how even in the face of destruction, we prefer to cling to our own way to our hurt. Creator God – Father, Son, Spirit, had a message for Zedekiah king of Judah even as the army of the king of Babylon was fighting against Jerusalem and the other cities of Judah that were still holding out – Lachish and Azekah. These were the only fortified cities left in Judah. v. 7. Zedekiah was told, “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. Yet hear the Lord’s promise to you, Zedekiah king of Judah. This is what the Lord says concerning you: You will not die by the sword; you will die peacefully. As people made a funeral fire in honor of your predecessors, the kings who ruled before you, so they will make a fire in your honor and lament, “Alas, master!” I myself make this promise, declares the Lord.’” v. 2-5. And then, after this promise of mercy to Zedekiah, Zedekiah made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. v. 8-9. They agreed. They freed them. Then they turned back on their word. They enslaved them again. God reminded them that He was the one who brought them out of the land of slavery of Egypt. “Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to Me or pay attention to Me. Recently you repented and did what was right in My sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before Me in the house that bears My Name. But now you have turned around and profaned My name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again. Therefore this is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed Me; you have not proclaimed freedom to your own people. So now I proclaim ‘freedom’ for you, declares the Lord – ‘freedom’ to fall by the sword, plague and famine. I will make you abhorrent to all the kingdoms of the earth. Those who have violated My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces…I will deliver Zedekiah king of Judah and his officials into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them, to the army of the king of Babylon, which has withdrawn from you. I am going to give the order, declares the Lord, and I will bring them back to this city. They will fight against it, take it and burn it down. And I will lay waste the towns of Judah so no one can live there.” v. 14-22.

Cutting an animal in two and walking between the pieces was “a customary way to ratify a contract (Genesis 15:9, 10).” It struck me in reading this that they found that normal and acceptable; yet, when Jesus told His many disciples that unless they ate the bread symbolizing His body, and drank the wine, symbolizing His blood, they would have no life in them, John 6:48-69. That they could not accept; and many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more. Do we see the ongoing pattern of disbelief and disobedience? Why do we turn away? We want our own way. We want our own freedom and God allows us to then live the consequences of our choices…freedom to sin. Can we not see? Not the blood and bodies of animals! Why do we turn away? Because we can’t yet see. Creator God reminded our ancestors that He brought them out of the slavery of this world. Jesus the Son teaches us, “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.” John 6:51. Once you understand, how can you turn away? “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve. Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that You are the Holy One of God.” John 6:67-69. Do we truly want to turn away from God to this broken world’s systems of slavery? The covenant by the blood and bodies of animals will not save us. Jesus gave His very life for the life of the world and that Covenant stands because our Creator God is faithful! It’s time. To whom will you go?