TO DO OR NOT TO DO; THAT IS THE QUESTION

 KEY VERSES: And ye were now turned, and had done right in my sight, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbour; and ye had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: 16 But ye turned and polluted my name… Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ye have not hearkened unto me, in proclaiming liberty, every one to his brother, and every man to his neighbour: behold, I proclaim a liberty for you, saith the Lord, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. (Jer 34:15,16a,17)

  The scenario of which God spoke was freedom after seven years of servitude by Jewish slaves. The people of Judah at first obeyed God and released them, as a form of grace, but soon after the Jewish slaves were put in bondage again. In the key verses, God told them they had done right (for a change) and was sort of proud of His “children.” Then like children who give their toys to others, they soon regret it, and take their toys back. Just as a father would at first feel pleased, then ashamed, that’s how God felt about His rebellious children, the Jews.
  In scripture, liberty is freedom from the chains of bondage, and those Jews in bondage are one example of that. Jesus addressed spiritual bondage, which of course, was misunderstood as physical bondage:

And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him (Jesus), “We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free?” Jesus answered them, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.” (John 8:32-34).

  The Jewish man was thinking of slavery when he spoke and was even wrong about that! He said, “(We) were never in bondage to any man.” Indeed, as can be seen in the key verses, he was either lying or sadly mistaken. Ironically, the Jews were in spiritual slavery, whereas the slaves were in physical bondage. The man was confused what slavery even is! Jesus defined that for him when he said, “Whosoever committeth sin is a servant to sin.” Ironically, the Jewish slaves in Jeremiah’s day were more righteous than their masters. At least they were forced into slavery whereas sinners did so voluntarily!
  “Sin” is “an offense against God.” God’s doctrine is love. Is it loving to enslave a fellow human being – taking away their freedom? Jewish slaveholders offended God. In that they stole the liberty of their brethren, they stole their very livelihood. The Jewish masters played God. They did what Adam did. Adam, like the Jewish slaveholders, desired TO BE as God, but God IS God! Who became the slave with Adam’s encounter with the Serpent? Adam did. What was his penalty?

Cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground… (Gen 3:17b-19a), and Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims… (Gen 3:23-24a)

  Although the Word had mercy on Adam, there was still a penalty. Like the Jewish slaveholders, Adam was exposed to the “sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine.” Judah (the Jews) was told by God, “And I will make you to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth.” He did that to Adam as well. As such, the Jews were cast out of Judah and Jerusalem just as Adam was cast out of the Garden into desolation.
  The Temple represents the Garden of Eden because the Spirit of God resided in both. Adam was displaced from the presence of God and cherubim were placed at the entrance to keep the undeserving out. As such, Adam was a prisoner, not within walls, but without them! The Jews found themselves in the same predicament. They became slaves outside the walls of God’s House and the Holy City. (This also provides some support for my hypothesis that the Garden of Eden was in Jerusalem and the Temple was in the midst of the Garden; Gen 2:9).
  On the seventh day, God rested, as the Creation was complete. (In my book, On the Origin of Man and the Universe, I contend that “processes” are broader than the one day “process” which the Hebrew reveals.) As God rested on the seventh “day” (process), Adam required regenerating. He did so when he covered Adam’s shame from his sin with a “coat” made from a living creature. In like, manner the Jewish slaves were required to be released in the seventh year of captivity, that they could “rest.” We learn from the Lord as spoken to Jeremiah that the seventh “day” of rest was to endure forever in that God intended the slaves to have perpetual freedom. (In my other book, On the Origin and Survival of Mankind, I call the extension of God’s rest as “the eighth day”). Like Adam, after the seventh day, the Jewish masters were covered by God’s grace, but when they immediately sinned, God withdrew that protection and destroyed their beautiful “garden” of Jerusalem along with the abode of God in its midst!
  The point is that the Jewish masters suffered the same fate as Adam in that both were locked out of their paradises and were prisoners in the world. Adam got reprieve. Likewise, the remnant of the Jews who escaped to Babylon received grace as well! They were in physical bondage to Nebuchadnezzar, but were in spiritual freedom since God brought them back and rebuilt the Temple and Jerusalem – places to keep them safe from the enemy without. The remnant was free because they were protected from evil within the walls of God’s great city!
  “Liberty” is freedom from regulation. The Law regulated the behavior of the Jews. Hence, the Law enslaved them, which was not its intent. The Law was meant to be done willingly without coercion. The Jewish masters did that with their slaves, but because it was the Law, then had second thoughts. It was themselves who the Devil had trapped in his cunning ploy! By enslaving their neighbors, they put themselves in bondage, and I repeat, outside the walls of safety. Paul wrote, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Gal 5:1). The trap that the Serpent set for Adam was that he was free to eat. He cunningly denied any punishment for them. That would come much later unless they wore the coats that God made!
  Adam’s and Eve’s coats protected them. They would still die, but it would be a physical death. However, they were at liberty to keep the coats on or off. If they were ever to take them off, there would be no reprieve (Heb 6:6) or that would “kill” God again – awake Him from His rest, remembering that it was Judas who was dead, and Jesus just asleep!
  Like the Jews before them, the Jews in Jesus’s time knew the Law but misused it by becoming slaves to the Law. Rather than the Law of Love metricized in the Ten Prescriptions for spiritual health, the Jews endeavored to do all 611 Mosaic Regulations. It would have been so easy to do only the Greatest ones (love), but instead the Jews enslaved themselves to sixty times that many. They still did not understand who are the slaves and who are not!
  People today still do not understand slavery. One group of people are at complete liberty, disregarding even the “Ten Prescriptions” which they regard as “commandments,” while others endeavor to work their way to the reward when it is a gift from God.
  Now back to the Jewish slaves; their freedom was a gift of God by grace, but they were enslaved again when the Jews ignored God’s Will. In essence, their will (the slavers) was out of synchronization with God’s Will just as was Adam’s!
  Although the Ten Words are God’s written Will, they are not “commandments,” but are still His Will. Think of the Ten Words as God’s last will and testament to His heirs; if you love Me, you will do these things to please Me, and for that, I will recognize you as My legitimate heirs. It seems the prodigal son was the father’s legitimate heir, and the law-abiding son little more than a servant. That’s the lesson from the story of the “prodigal son.” However, the Jewish slaveholders could not even do the Will of God nor His commandments. They were apathetic to God, and the prescription to honor their Father was arbitrary to them.
  Christians are to do God’s will, not because they must but because they are willing! The Jews should have released their brethren, not because they had to by Law, but because they were willing to out of love for them. As the image of God, they should have done God’s Will. Rather than that, they did their own will, and endeavored to diminish God. Their position as wavering and disobedient sons of God dismayed God, and guess what? He emancipated them from His Law. He was still their Father, but they were alone in the wilds again without God’s “coat” for protection.
  On the other hand, the Jews in bondage did not do wrong. Their “coats” were still intact. They seemed to be in bondage, but were free in that they had to do their masters laws, but still retain God’s whose Will they had not broken.
  This moment, if you’re a Christian, the Ten Words are your choice. God does not make you do them, but if you love him, you will do what he desires for you:

He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. (John 14:21)

  That not only applies to us, but it does to Jesus as well, and Jesus so much as said, let’s do this together in unison and of one accord: 

But that the world may know that I love the Father; and as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. (John 14:31)

  My hope is that this commentary would put to rest nominalism (law-abiders) and antinomialism (against law-abiding). It is by grace alone (sola gratia) that we are saved, but God’s prescriptions are for our safety until we endure to the end and are saved (Mat 10:22). The Ten Prescriptions are essentially wisely wearing the “coats” which God made until our glorified bodies no longer need His protection from the Evil One.