Thursday, December 20, 2012 – Jeremiah 32 – Purchasing the Field
Here is something I have read and understood before but have never fully felt. I am looking particularly at verses 24 to 27. What you threatened has happened, you see it yourself; and yet you tell me, O Lord God: Buy the field with money, go call in witnesses. But the city has already been handed over to the Chaldeans! Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: I am the Lord, the God of all mankind! Is anything impossible to me?
Jeremiah has predicted the fall of Jerusalem and the city is about to be handed over to Nebuchadnezzar; yet God has asked the prophet to buy a particular field for a particular amount of money with particular witnesses for a deed written under particular circumstances. Jeremiah knows he will obey this directive . . . yet it does not make sense to him. Why ought he to invest himself in a place which is in the process of falling to the enemy? In verses 37 to 43 explain more . . . and then we read verse 44. Fields shall be bought with money, deeds written and sealed, and witnesses shall be used in the land of Benjamin, in the suburbs of Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah and of the hill country, in the cities of the foothills and the Negeb, when I change their lot, says the Lord.
The faithful who live in exile . . . those who turn their faces to God and not their backs, those who follow the counsels of the Lord . . . these seekers of light and life . . . have shown their fidelity with the deeds they have drawn up and sealed under the eyes of witnesses. They make their commitment to the promise of Yahweh public, even at the expense of being mocked for the act of purchasing a field in a land from which they are about to be deported.
God asks us to invest ourselves . . . even when days are darkest . . . in the places and people through which we have known him . . . but from which we are about to be separated.
God asks us to make our commitment to these people and places official . . . before witnesses . . . even when it appears that this might be a fruitless expenditure of our spiritual resources.
God asks us to believe so much in the power of the impossible . . . in his power to call order out chaos, light out of darkness . . . restoration out of separation . . . that we purchase the particular field which he has designated for us . . . even in the face of mockery . . . even as we go into exile.
God promises to restore the dream we once had that we find him in and through others who are likewise faithful . . . and who honor him and worship him in constant, authentic praise.
God promises that the light will come again.
God promises that this restoration lies in our act of faith in his ability to keep this impossible promise.
God loves us so much that he wants to grants our heart’s desire. When we purchase the field . . . before witnesses . . . and keep that sealed deed in the earthen jar of our hearts . . . to be opened at the time of Restoration . . . we demonstrate to God our desire is to be with him. And so we pray . . .
God in heaven, God on earth, God in our hearts and minds, accompany us as we seek the witnesses you indicate, abide with us as we place our names upon the deeds for the fields you have asked us to purchase . . . and keep these covenants in our hearts. In this Advent time we wait for your coming in hope-filled joy. Amen.
Written on December 20, 2008 and posted today as a Favorite.
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