Buy the Field

Jeremiah 32:15 – “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”

This odd prophecy comes in the middle of an extremely stressful time for Jeremiah and the remaining kingdom of Judah. The most powerful army in the world is surrounding and besieging Jerusalem and the situation is getting desperate. Jeremiah himself is imprisoned in the guard house of the palace because he dared to tell the king and the people that their sins had brought all of this death and destruction on them, and that it was going to get worse.

In the middle of this apocalyptic scenario God sends word to Jeremiah in jail that his nephew is coming to the prison to ask Jeremiah to buy his field, which even if he could get out of jail, he couldn’t get past the Babylonian army to see the field much less plant anything in it. God’s stunning message to Jeremiah is that he is to actually buy the guys field—so he does!

It had to be a crazy scene, Through the bars of his jail cell Jeremiah is counting out the money and signing the deed to his nephew’s field in front of the guards and other prisoners who served as official witnesses. Then Jeremiah has his servant Baruch to store the deeds in a clay jar to preserve them to prove that the field belongs to him. Everybody had to think that this whole thing was insanity. The Babylonian army is about to break through the walls, overrun the defenders, and take all of them, who aren’t killed, into captivity, and here this guy is buying a field and preserving the deed.

God explains through the rest of this chapter that He is bringing this calamity on Israel because of their sins but he will eventually bring them back and restore them to the land. Jeremiah buying his nephew’s field was to show the besieged people of Jerusalem that Jeremiah, the prophet of God, believed the word of God that although Babylon would capture and destroy Jerusalem God would eventually restore them.

The main point for them and for us is that God is faithful even when his people are not.

This also shows us that God reigns over the events of the world…all the time.

You may be facing hardships and difficulties that you did not chose,

but our Almighty God reigns over all of them.

Remember, “God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God and for those who are called according to His purpose.”  Romans 8:28

 

Rewrite:     Buy the Field

Jeremiah 32:15 – “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.”

This has to be one of the strangest things God ever asked Jeremiah to do.

Jerusalem was under siege. The most powerful army in the world was surrounding the city, and things were getting desperate. Jeremiah wasn’t even a free man. He was sitting in prison because he had dared to tell the king and the people that their rebellion against God had brought this destruction upon them—and that things were going to get even worse.

Then, right in the middle of all this, God tells Jeremiah that his nephew is coming to the prison and wants him to buy a field.

A field?

Jerusalem is surrounded by the Babylonian army. The city is about to fall. People are facing death and captivity. Jeremiah can’t even get out of prison, much less get to this field. And God says, “Buy it.”

So Jeremiah does.

I can almost picture the scene. Jeremiah is behind prison bars, counting out the money and signing the deed while guards, prisoners, and witnesses look on. Then he tells Baruch to put the deeds in a clay jar and preserve them.

To everyone watching, it must have looked absolutely crazy.

Why buy a field when everything is falling apart?

But Jeremiah understood something the others didn’t.

God was telling him to invest in a future he could not yet see.

The field wasn’t really about the field. It was a message of hope.

Yes, Jerusalem was going to fall. Yes, the people would be carried into captivity. Yes, God was allowing them to experience the consequences of their rebellion.

But that wasn’t the end of their story.

God promised that one day He would bring His people back. Fields would once again be bought. Vineyards would once again be planted. Life would return to the land.

Jeremiah’s purchase was a visible declaration of faith: “I believe what God has said, even when everything around me looks like the exact opposite.”

That speaks to me.

Sometimes we look at our circumstances and wonder, “How can anything good possibly come out of this?”

Maybe you’re going through something you didn’t choose. Maybe the future looks uncertain. Maybe you’re standing in the middle of circumstances that seem completely out of control.

Jeremiah 32 reminds us that our circumstances never mean that God has lost control.

God was still God when Babylon surrounded Jerusalem.
God was still faithful when Jeremiah was sitting in prison.
God was still working when everything looked hopeless.

And He is still God when our lives don’t make sense.

We may not know what God is doing. We may not understand why He has allowed certain things to happen. We may not be able to see beyond today’s circumstances.

But we can trust the One who can.

God is faithful even when we are not. God is sovereign even when our world seems out of control. And God is working even when we cannot see what He is doing.

So don’t let what you see today convince you that God has forgotten tomorrow.

Remember the promise of Romans 8:28:

“God causes all things to work together for good for those who love God and for those who are called according to His purpose.”

You may not see the field yet.

But God already sees the future.