“Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now 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.”
– Jeremiah 34:17
Hi James and Ellen,
Ask your ma why she uses a recipe to make cookies. Ask your ma what would happen if she used the wrong amount of an ingredient in a cookie recipe. Ask your ma what would happen if she used the wrong ingredient in a cookie recipe. Your grandpaa decided to make cornbread this past Saturday morning. Your grandpaa found a recipe to use to fix the cornbread out of a cookbook that your grandmaa has had since your grandmaa and grandpaa were married over 46 years ago. The cornbread recipe in this cookbook called for four teaspoons of baking powder. As your grandpaa was adding all the ingredients together for this cornbread mix in a mixing bowl, your grandpaa added to the mix four teaspoons of baking soda instead of four teaspoons of baking powder. Ask your ma what happens when baking soda is used in a recipe in place of using baking powder. Your grandpaa could not eat one piece of the cornbread because it tasted so awful. The cornbread ended up under your grandpaa’s birdfeeders. The cornbread was gone the next morning. Using the same recipe this morning – this time making doubly sure that . . ., your grandpaa fixed another pan of cornbread. This time the cornbread tasted the way that it is supposed to taste when the right amounts of ingredients in a cornbread recipe are used to fix a pan of cornbread.
How often do you mess up when you try to do something or when you try to make something or when . . . your grandpaa too often has inadvertently overlooked something – like missing putting in an important ingredient that is in a recipe that he is using to fix something or using the wrong measuring spoon or . . . when your grandpaa last Saturday morning saw baking powder in the recipe that he was using to make cornbread, your grandpaa saw in his mind a small yellow box instead of a short red can. Once your grandpaa has something fixed in his mind . . . such as when he made a batch of spritz cookies this past Christmas, your grandpaa used a half a cup of butter – or one stick of butter, instead of a cup of butter – or two sticks of butter, which is what is called for in the spritz cookie recipe. Even though your grandpaa has used this spritz cookie recipe for years, your grandpaa should have realized that he had done something wrong when he found that the spritz cookie dough was not nearly as moist as it would have been if had been more careful in making sure that he was following the recipe. God – as God the Father, gave the Israelite people group guys and gals – who were His specially chosen guys and gals, specific recipes – or laws, to use to live by in the land that he was giving to them to always to have to live in as their very own land if . . . over the 860 or so years between their being given the laws – life living recipes, through Moses at Mount Sinai, and the day that Jeremiah is describing in Jeremiah 34, God’s specially chosen guys and gals had made up their own laws – life living recipes. When God’s specially chosen guys and gals pushed the ‘if’ that God – as God the Father, clearly, specifically warned them that ‘if’ they did not keep His laws – His life living recipes, that He gave them through Moses at Mount Sinai, that . . . God – as God the Father, sent King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army to do a number of them in order to . . . the year was 588 B.C. King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army had laid siege to the cities of Lachish, Azekah and Jerusalem – the three remaining fortressed cities in the land of Judah that King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army had not yet conquered. Zedekiah had been inserted as king over the guys and gals who were living in the land of Judah. When it became obvious that the remaining cities that were in the land of Judah were going to be overrun and probably razed by King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army, God – as God the Father, sent a message to Zedekiah using Jeremiah – who was one of His prophet spokesman, to tell Zedekiah that even though He was about to hand him over to King Nebuchadnezzar, that Zedekiah would die peacefully and that his people group of guys and gals would honor and lament his passing on when . . .
Between 588 B.C. and 586 B.C. – which is when King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army did their coup de gras on the city of Jerusalem, King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army meandered over to the country of Egypt to . . . during that time span, Zedekiah decided to rescind a law – a life living recipe, that had been mandated by God. Zedekiah had made sure that on the seventh year that all the Hebrew guys and gals who had been a slave for six years to someone in their own Hebrew/Israelite people group of guys and gals were freed. Zedekiah per God – as God the Father, – through Jeremiah, earned points from Him for doing what he had done to ensure that his fellow Hebrew/Israelite countrymen – who had been enslaved for six years, were given their full, unconditional release from their enslavement. Zedekiah per God – as God the Father, – through Jeremiah, lost points when he let the slave owners force their fellow Hebrew/Israelite guys and gals – who had recently been freed, back into their slave force. Jeremiah recorded God’s reaction to having had His name profaned in verse 17, “Therefore, this is what the LORD says: You have not obeyed me; you have not proclaimed freedom for your fellow countrymen. So I now 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.” God is never going to let someone mess with His life living recipes.
Jeremiah 34 (1096)