Context No. 3364 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Jeremiah 32:6-12: in context

6Jeremiah said, “The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 7‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field that is in Anathoth; for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.”’” 8“So Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the guard according to the LORD’s word, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the land of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself.’ “Then I knew that this was the LORD’s word. 9I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. 10I signed the deed, sealed it, called witnesses, and weighed the money in the balances to him. 11So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, containing the terms and conditions, and that which was open; 12and I delivered the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of the purchase, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the guard.

With Jerusalem under siege and about to fall, and Jeremiah himself imprisoned in the court of the guard, God tells him to do something that looks absurd: buy a field. He purchases his cousin's land at Anathoth, weighs out the seventeen shekels of silver, signs and seals the deed before witnesses, all while the Babylonian army is at the gates and the whole country is about to be lost.

It is an act of pure hope, a bet on the future God had promised. For the LORD had said that houses and fields and vineyards would again be bought in this land. Jeremiah puts his money where his prophecy is; he acts on God's promise of restoration even when everything visible says the land is doomed. Faith sometimes looks exactly like this, buying a field during a siege, investing in a future only God has guaranteed, when reason says the investment is worthless. Jeremiah stakes his silver on the word of God against the evidence of his eyes.

Am I willing to act on God's promises of restoration, investing in a future he has guaranteed even when everything visible points the other way?

Sources

Jeremiah 32:9: "I bought the field that was in Anathoth of Hanamel my uncle's son, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver."
Jeremiah 32:15: "For the LORD of Armies... says: Houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land."
Jeremiah 32:8: "Then I knew that this was the LORD's word."