Jeremiah 34:13-17. Through Jeremiah God reminds his people that he made a covenant with them when he brought them out of Egypt and they were supposed to release their slaves after 6 years of bondage. Their fathers did not obey this, but recently this people did. They renewed the covenant and proclaimed liberty, but then they profaned God by turning around and taking their sleeves back into bondage. Therefore God proclaims to them quote liberty to the sword, to pestilence, and to famine... I will make you a harder to all the kingdoms of the earth. " Why do we do this? We are so desperately happy when God redeems us and we see the merit in treating others similarly so we obey his commands and live by the covenant for a while. But then we get comfortable and forget his incredible mercy, which makes us forget to give it to others. This is bad enough, but then we often get to the point the Israelites did here - we think we can fool God. We promised to do what he wants, and we do it in his sight, but then we turn around and go back to our sin as soon as we think he has been placated. We are so foolish!