Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. – Jeremiah 34:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (March 22, 2014): Jeremiah 34

During the American Civil War, African American soldiers fought freely on the Union side of the war. Over 185,000 African American Soldiers fought in over 160 units. But on the Confederate side of the equation, the use of African American soldiers, whether free or slave, was a hotly debated topic. The role of the African American in the south during the civil war was as a strictly as a common laborer, not as a soldier. They were used for tasks that required manual labor, but they were not armed.  Near the end of the war the Confederate Congress approved a plan to arm the African Americans of the south, but fewer than 50 were ever enlisted into the Confederate Army. And in the end the Confederation fell to the Union Army.

Jeremiah sends word to the king instructing him to free the slaves. Scholars are split as to whether the original command indicated the freeing of all of the Hebrew slaves, or whether it was just the freeing of the Hebrew slaves that were being held illegally – against the instructions of God. Under Jewish Law, a Hebrew man or woman could be enslaved, but only for a limited period of time, and then they had to be released. But there is some question as to whether that ever actually happened. The result would have been a population of Hebrew people who were enslaved against the law of God. And these slaves needed to be freed if God law was to be taken seriously. So Jeremiah’s instruction started a debate in Jerusalem that would have been similar to the debate in the Confederation Congress. The question was what are we to do with the slaves?

The act of freeing the slaves could have possibly been simply an act attempting to appease God – a promise to God that the people of Judah were willing to do things differently, to do things God’s way. But another explanation might have been more about self-preservation. A slave might have been reticent to fight for the nation that was responsible for holding them as slaves, and with the gathering of the Babylonian forces around the city of Jerusalem, the king was going to need every available person to be ready and willing to enter the fight.    

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 37