Buy that Field!
“At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. … Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’” (Jeremiah 32:2, 6).
I bought my first home in 2007, a year before the housing market crash of 2008. It was a time of mass foreclosures and historic drops in home values. According to my “extensive” internet “research,” nearly 10 million Americans either lost their home or were displaced because countless properties dropped in value, leaving owners OWING more than their homes were WORTH.
Living in Columbus, NE meant that the housing “bubble” wasn’t that big, but I had friends from seminary who had just bought homes worth $300,000 and in the space of a year their home was now valued for HALF that! I don’t know if you knew this or not, but losing $150,000 is kind of a big deal for a new pastor? For many people the situation was bleak and scary.
And yet, it was a situation that pales in comparison to the situation that Jeremiah and the people of Jerusalem faced in our reading above. They weren’t simply facing “reduced home values.” They were facing invading armies who weren’t just going to take their homes but were going to burn them to the ground. They weren’t simply facing “turbulent financial markets.” They were facing very real armies with the very real possibility of death. And yet, what do we see happening in our reading today? JEREMIAH’S BUYING PROPERTY! More specifically, Jeremiah is buying property while he is jailed in the king’s palace, in a city surrounded by the strongest army in the world, for a plot of land that is miles away on the OTHER SIDE of that ferocious army. What in the world is Jeremiah doing? Well, to be more precise, what in the world is God doing? After all, God was the one who told him to buy it. According to the Lutheran Self-Study Bible (p. 1260), Jeremiah was told to buy that field as…
- “…a visual demonstration of what it means to act on faith’s conviction that nothing is too hard for the Lord”
- “…a visible promise that life would return to normal after the exile (which would last a long time)”
- “…God’s [way] to illustrate, louder than his words [ever could], how certain it was that the land would again be occupied by the people seemingly doomed to extinction.”
Which raises an interesting question for us to consider. Where is God inviting you to trust Him despite how things look? Where is God inviting you to act on faith’s conviction that nothing is too hard for the Lord? Where is He inviting you to invest yourself and your energies in serving Him and others? The life of faith is not an easy one. You will be challenged & stretched. You will face difficulties and doubts. And you will be asked to trust that what is not seen is so much greater than what is seen.
And yet, we know the one who goes with us in this life. We know that in Jesus Christ our eternal home is already certain and secure. Therefore, we don’t have to approach life afraid of what it might cost to follow him, for we already know what he was willing to pay to rescue us. Jesus has already paid the unlimited price with everything that He was and everything that He had, so “…that [we] may be His own and live under Him in His kingdom and serve Him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness…” May God bless you this month as you boldly trust Him each day.
God’s Peace,
Pastor Kurt Ebert
