And I will give the men that have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they had made before me, -- the calf which they cut in twain, and passed between the parts thereof,
Under siege, the king and the people of Jerusalem swear before God to free their Hebrew servants. As soon as the army pulls back they take them again, so God turns the ceremony that sealed their oath into their sentence.
They kept the oath only while the danger lasted.
But afterwards the sight of danger passed for the moment, because Nebuchadnezzar raised the siege for a while. So "they turned around and made the servants and the female servants whom they had set free return, and brought them into subjection as servants and female servants." Then the word of the Lord comes by Jeremiah again... How disgraceful then, when God had brought them out of bondage, that they should forget the Lord's will about their brothers in bondage... Their guilt was much greater, because they had felt their sin and their fathers' sin. They had seen what the will of God was. They decided to do it under the pressure of danger, and as soon as the danger was gone they returned to their evil ways.
God answers the reversal in kind. They would not proclaim liberty to their brothers, so God proclaims a liberty of His own. One writer calls it "liberty" to destruction, desolation, famine and dispersion (H J Vine).
The strange picture in this verse was ordinary legal practice in that world. A death gave a covenant its force.
After they took this oath, a covenant confirmed it. In those days people sealed a covenant by cutting a victim in halves, and the two sides then passed between the parts. This shows how seriously they took the shedding of blood, or the taking of life, in that day. No testament, again, was in force as long as the person who made it was alive (Hebrews 9:17). In this case too the one who made it had to die. In our case the Lord Jesus died and rose again. On that basis God has made with His people an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure.
So the men of Jerusalem had done more than break a promise. By walking between the halves of the calf they had already said what should happen to them if they failed.
These men seem to have imitated this covenant with Abram in a way. But in them there was no faith counted for righteousness, though they solemnly acknowledged their obligation to the will of God. They passed between the calf. That was a sacrificial sign of confirmation before the Lord. It was also a way of calling down death on themselves if they were unfaithful to the covenant, like the children of Israel in Exodus 24.
God holds them to their own words. Two verses on, He says their dead bodies will be food for the birds and the beasts — the fate of the divided animal they had stepped over.
Commentators trace the rite back to God's covenant with Abram in Genesis 15. The key detail there is who walked between the pieces.
What sealed all this as a covenant came after dark. A smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between the divided pieces of the sacrifice. In this twofold way God showed His presence. There was no thought of Abram passing between the pieces, as though he were pledging himself to anything. It was God pledging Himself to do as He had just said, and in an unconditional way.
That is the whole difference. Abraham received a promise God bound Himself to keep. The men of Jerusalem bound themselves, and could not keep it.
One writer puts the two covenants side by side, and shows where each leaves a person.
The first covenant was not made without the sprinkling of blood, but it put man behind death. If you do not obey, all is lost; Jeremiah 34:16-20. If they did not obey, they must die. They had promised obedience and sealed that promise with the sprinkling of the blood. In Abraham's case, God made a promise to him and sealed it by passing between the pieces, by death... Now, under grace, we see sin entirely put away. If we had died, judgment must have come on us. Christ came into it and bore the judgment for us, so we are free from the whole thing.
- Promise. Under siege the people swore to free their Hebrew servants. They took them back the moment the army pulled away. Knowing sin makes the guilt heavier, not lighter.
- Pledge. In that day people sealed a covenant by cutting a victim in half and walking between the parts. Life was the price of the agreement.
- Curse. Walking between the parts confirmed the covenant before the Lord. It also called death down on the men if they broke it.
- Contrast. Abram never walked between the pieces in Genesis 15. God alone passed through, and He pledged Himself with no conditions.
- Gospel. A covenant that rests on man's obedience puts him behind death: disobey and all is lost. Christ bore that judgment, so those who are His are free from the whole thing.
-- the princes of Judah and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, that passed between the parts of the calf;
Jeremiah 34 falls during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. The king and people promised before God to free their Hebrew slaves, then took them back. Verse 19 names everyone who walked between the halves of the calf. Why does God list each group?
What made the reversal so serious was that they had already done the right thing once.
But afterwards, when the sight of danger had passed for the moment — Nebuchadnezzar lifted the siege for a while — they turned back. They made the male and female servants they had set free return, and forced them into service again. ... How disgraceful, then, that God had brought them out of bondage and they forgot the will of the Lord about their brothers in bondage! ... So their guilt was much greater. They had felt their sin and their fathers' sin. They had seen what the will of God was, and they had resolved to do it under the pressure of danger. But as soon as the pressure was gone, they returned to their evil ways.
Cutting a calf in two and walking between the halves meant something definite to the men who did it.
These men seem to have copied this covenant with Abram in a way. But in them there was no faith counted for righteousness. Still, they solemnly acknowledged their obligation to the will of God as they passed between the calf. That act was not only a sacrificial sign of confirmation before the Lord. It was also a calling down of death upon themselves if they were unfaithful to the covenant.
The sentence God passed matched the curse they had called down on themselves.
And so the Lord says to those who had passed between the parts of the calf that He will give them into the hand of their enemies, into the hand of those who seek their life; and their dead bodies will be food for the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth.
The same act appears in Abraham's life, with one decisive change. There God Himself passed between the pieces.
Next, the Lord encourages him by binding Himself now with a solemn act of His own. In it He could not deny Himself, or lie as a man would in a similar solemn covenant. He passes between the pieces of the victim.
The verse names every rank — officials of Judah and Jerusalem, court officials, priests and ordinary people. The same failure ran from the princes down through the nation.
And now we shall see that the people become like their princes. Like master, like man. ... Jeremiah 34 shows their state. The princes and the people make a covenant and break it soon after. So Jerusalem, the princes and the people will become "a desolation, an astonishment, a hissing, and a curse." And His word came true with startling exactness.
Kelly traces the same likeness up to the king:
If the king was a righteous man, the Lord always brought blessing to the people for his sake alone. If the king was godless, his evil drew down chastening on the people. Sadly, where there was a godless king, there was also a godless people. We may say, Like people, like king; and not only "Like people, like priest."
God's answer takes the very word they had used and turns it against them.
They made a covenant to free their servants who were Hebrews. This they did, but afterwards they turned from their covenant and brought the servants back. On this the Lord reminds them of His own covenant, which they had broken right up to that very day. So He proclaims "liberty" for them — to destruction, desolation, famine and dispersion!
Darby sets this broken covenant beside the first covenant, where obedience was the rule and blood sealed the promise. He then shows where it all ends.
If you do not obey, all is lost (Jeremiah 34:16-20). If they did not obey, they must die. They promised obedience, and the blood sprinkled on them sealed that promise. ... Many symbols showed that death had to come in, but obedience was the rule, and so all was failure. Yet the principle ran all through — there must be blood. Now, under grace, we see sin put away completely. If we had died, judgment must have come on us. Christ coming into it, and bearing the judgment for us, we are free from the whole thing.
- Promise. They pledged before God to free their Hebrew slaves. They did it — then took them back as soon as the siege lifted.
- Pledge. Walking between the halves of the calf was a self-curse. It called down the death of the animal on them if they broke faith.
- Contrast. With Abraham, God Himself passed between the pieces and bound Himself, because He cannot lie. These men bound themselves and broke faith.
- Spread. The verse names officials, priests and common people together — like master, like man; like people, like king. So the judgment falls on all.
- Payment. They would not proclaim liberty, so God proclaimed a liberty of destruction, famine and dispersion. The broken covenant demanded death — and Christ bore that judgment to set the guilty free.