Jeremiah 5

I love it when I’m studying the Bible and a familiar concept “hits me” in an entirely new way. That happened to me today as I was contemplating this chapter of Jeremiah and the issue of freedom. And, while these may not be new thoughts to you, they were to me, so I decided to share!

It was verses 22 and 23 that caused me to start thinking about freedom: “‘Should you not fear me?’ declares the Lord. ‘Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it. But these people have stubborn and rebellious hearts; they have turned aside and gone away.’”

For me, the imagery of the waves was a powerful one. At once, I grasped what God was saying through Jeremiah—that He has the absolute power to control. He designed the sea in such a way that those waves can beat endlessly against the shore, but they will never “break free,” so to speak. They are constrained to remain right where they are.

God could have created us this way as well—brilliant, powerful, and mesmerizing, but not free. But verse 23 immediately reveals that the hearts of men are not like these bound-up waves. They are not constrained to act a certain way or choose a certain belief. They can be stubborn and rebellious. They can turn aside and go away.

And that’s what Jeremiah discovered about the leaders in Israel: “‘I will go to the leaders and speak to them; surely they know the way of the Lord, the requirements of their God.’ But with one accord they too had broken off the yoke and torn off the bonds.” (vs 5) What Jeremiah is saying is that these Israelite leaders had “freed themselves” of God’s way of living. Consequently, God lamented that there was not one person to be found in the whole city who was honest (vs 1).

How ironic, that in trying to “free” themselves, these leaders ended up becoming slaves to their wickedness. That reminded me of what Paul says: “So, since we’re out from under the old tyranny, does that mean we can live any old way we want? Since we’re free in the freedom of God, can we do anything that comes to mind? Hardly. You know well enough from your own experience that there are some acts of so-called freedom that destroy freedom. Offer yourselves to sin, for instance, and it’s your last free act. But offer yourselves to the ways of God and the freedom never quits. All your lives you’ve let sin tell you what to do. But thank God you’ve started listening to a new master, one whose commands set you free to live openly in his freedom!” (Rom 6:15-18)

So, here’s what struck me. We talk about God creating us with freedom as if freedom is now something we possess independently of Him. But with God, freedom works the same way as life. We are only alive and breathing every second of every day because we are somehow (invisibly, I guess) connected to the Source of Life. And freedom is not something we can have independent of God either. The closer we are to Him, the more freedom we have; the farther we run from Him, the less freedom we have.

The leaders in Israel cast off what they supposed were the “bonds” that were enslaving them to God. The thing they didn’t realize was that God is the only entity in the universe with the power to grant freedom. The moment they cast off God’s yoke, they also cast off freedom with it, and it wasn’t long until they were totally enslaved in their sin!

As Paul said, offering ourselves to sin (in other words, turning our backs on God) will be the last free choice we make. Only God can give freedom; thus, we are only truly free when we are “in bondage” to Him and His way of living. When we offer ourselves to Him, the freedom never ends!