Karat berit
Zedekiah is warned by the Lord, and he enters into a covenant before Him with the people of Jerusalem. This covenant ceremony reminds us of Abram and the Lord's covenant in Gen. 15. There, animals were cut in two, but by the grace of God, Abram did not walk between the pieces. Instead, the Lord's presence, represented by the smoking oven and burning torch, passed between them.
In Jeremiah 34, however, the people making the covenant passed between the pieces of the calf.
"And I will give the men who have transgressed My covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before Me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between the parts of it- the princes of Judah, the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, the priests, and all the people of the land who passed between the parts of the calf-" Jeremiah 34:18-19
The Hebrew expression karat berit literally means "to cut a covenant." These people walked between the pieces of the cut animal, symbolizing the seriousness of their oath and the judgment associated with breaking it. They made a promise before the Lord, but they didn't keep it.
The consequences were devastating. Zedekiah had been warned by the Lord, yet he refused to obey. In 2 Kings 25, Jerusalem eventually fell, Zedekiah's sons were killed before his eyes, his eyes were then put out, and he was carried away captive to Babylon. God's Word proved true even when His people failed to keep theirs.
Now, as far as I know, none of us has been asked to cut a covenant and walk between the pieces! But what about simply being people of our word? Jesus taught to let our "Yes" be "Yes," and our "No," "No." Do we honor the words we speak? Can people trust what we say?
I'm thankful I haven't been asked to walk between the pieces of a cut animal, maybe you are too! But every day, we have an opportunity to point people to Jesus through simply keeping our word.
Let's be people of our word who point others to the God of the Word.
-To Know Jesus. To Live on Mission.