As the last days of Israel wind down, there are many stories of the people, some of them are stories of trust and others are not. The story of freedom for the slaves is one of the latter. The people made a covenant with King Zedekiah to set the slaves free. This should not have been something difficult for Israel since, as part of their covenant with God, they were always to celebrate a Year of Jubilee every fifty years when the land returned to it's rightful owners and every seven years they were supposed to set any fellow Hebrew slaves free. But the people remaining in Jerusalem had long since stopped trusting in God and trusted only in their own power and position. So they reneged on their covenant with King Zedekiah and once more enslaved the ones who had been set free. God's message to them was if they would not proclaim freedom to their slaves, God would proclaim freedom to them. Sounds like they were getting a bargain, but the freedom God was giving them would last their lifetime.
"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." Jer. 34:17 NIV
They were going to be free. God was going to lift his hand from them and they would be free to suffer the consequences of their actions. Freedom, especially from God, has it's price.
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