32 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 2 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. 3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; 4 Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. 5 And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”
6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 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.’ 8 Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
9 “And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. 12 And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. 13 I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, 14 ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’
16 “After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying: 17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. 18 You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, 19 great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. 20 You have shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day. 21 You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror. 22 And you gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. 23 And they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them. 24 Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it. 25 Yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses”—though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.’”
26 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 27 “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? 28 Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. 29 The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger. 30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the Lord. 31 This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight 32 because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 33 They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction. 34 They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. 35 They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
36 “Now therefore thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence’: 37 Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath and in great indignation. I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell in safety. 38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 39 I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. 40 I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. 41 I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness, with all my heart and all my soul.
42 “For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good that I promise them. 43 Fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’ 44 Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be signed and sealed and witnessed, in the land of Benjamin, in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the hill country, in the cities of the Shephelah, and in the cities of the Negeb; for I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.”
Section Overview
This chapter in Jeremiah’s “Book of Consolation” (chs. 30–33) records the event and aftermath of a rather strange real-estate transaction. As Babylon’s siege of Jerusalem enters its late stages, the prophet Jeremiah is a reluctant buyer due to his imprisonment by King Zedekiah for advocating that Judah ought to surrender to Babylon (Jer. 32:1–5). The seller in question is Hanamel, a cousin of Jeremiah attempting to dump a plot of land in their hometown before Jerusalem’s walls are breached (vv. 6–8). Such a purchase is clearly foolish, given that the real-estate market is about to crash. Yet Yahweh directs Jeremiah to complete the transaction (vv. 9–14) as a sign that, after Judah’s exile, “houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land” (v. 15).
Jeremiah’s resolute obedience in buying the property belies an inner struggle. In a model prayer he proclaims Yahweh’s greatness in accomplishing both the exodus and the conquest for Israel (vv. 16–22). The response of Israel in disobeying Yahweh was deserving of judgment, as seen in Babylon’s siege (vv. 23–24). Yet, he wonders, why buy the field at this moment, when Judah is about to crumble? Jeremiah already knows Yahweh’s answer to this question and has shared it in public with others (cf. vv. 14–15), but he still has private doubts (v. 25).
Yahweh answers Jeremiah (v. 26) with a question of his own: “Is anything too hard for me?” (v. 27). This is a nearly verbatim repetition of the same confession that opened Jeremiah’s prayer: “Nothing is too hard for you” (v. 17). Indeed, Yahweh affirms that he is bringing a powerful enemy against Judah as punishment for its many sins (vv. 28–35). However, divine might will be demonstrated also in salvation, not merely in judgment. Yahweh will bring his people back from exile and plant them again in a fruitful land (vv. 36–43). In summary, Yahweh’s vow of certain judgment pervading this chapter will one day be overtaken by his greater vow: “I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord” (v. 44).
Section Outline
VII.C. A Strange Real Estate Transaction and Its Aftermath (32:1–44)
1. Yahweh’s Surprising Command to Purchase Land in Anathoth (32:1–15)
a. The Historical Background to the Transaction (32:1–5)
b. Yahweh’s Word to Jeremiah about Hanamel’s Coming (32:6–8)
c. Hanamel’s Coming and Jeremiah’s Completing of the Transaction (32:9–15)
2. Jeremiah’s Honest Prayer to Yahweh (32:16–25)
a. Yahweh is Creator of All and Savior of His People (32:16–22)
b. Israel’s Response of Disobedience Rightly Deserves Judgment (32:23–24)
c. So Why Buy a Soon-to-Be-Worthless Land? (32:25)
3. Yahweh’s Impassioned Response to Jeremiah (32:26–44)
a. Judgment upon Sinful Israel Is Indeed Deserved (32:26–35)
b. Following Exile, Israel Will Be Replanted in a Fruitful Land (32:36–44)
Response
Martin Luther is rightly hailed as a hero of the Christian church. Among many other feats, we know him as the writer of the great hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God.” What is lesser known, however, is that Luther’s confession of our God as a “bulwark never failing” came as a response to his own experiences of doubt and depression. It is easy to focus on Luther’s bold obedience in public, but it is essential also to know him as one with great struggles in private. He once said, “I dispute much with God with great impatience, and I hold him to his promises.” Even in the course of writing his great hymn, Luther was suffering through a time of personal crisis. After one such episode of despair, Luther wrote to his friend Melanchthon,
I spent more than a week in death and hell. My entire body was in pain, and I still tremble. Completely abandoned by Christ, I labored under the vacillations and storms of blasphemy against God. But through the prayers of his saints [referring to his friends], God began to have mercy on me and pulled my soul from the inferno below.116
This side of spiritual giants reveals that the relationship between obedience to God and honesty before God is often different from what we might expect. Luther’s crisis of doubt is not unique to him, for the prophet Jeremiah shows us how to obey God when we do not feel like it. This tension between head and heart in our life with God is the subject of this chapter’s narrative of Jeremiah and his struggle to live between promise and fulfillment.
Jeremiah’s struggle begins when Yahweh directs him to complete an absurd real estate transaction with his cousin Hanamel. The first two laws of real estate have always been “location, location, location” and “timing, timing, timing,” but Yahweh commands his prophet to buy high and sight unseen a property that will not only soon be low but will not even be his after Babylon breaks through the city walls. Jeremiah nonetheless shows unquestioning obedience, for he is a long-term stakeholder in God’s kingdom rather than a short-term flipper of real estate. He is willing to suffer financial ruin in his lifetime because Yahweh’s faithfulness is always a worthwhile investment. Yahweh has already promised that building and planting must come after uprooting and tearing down (1:10), so Judah’s return to the land is a certainty that just happens to lie in the future.
While Jeremiah’s steadfastness is impressive, it would be a mistake to stop here and merely admire him as a spiritual hero. This would lead to the misunderstanding that life with God is a matter of only two unpleasant options: to be obedient to God and pretend to like it or to be disobedient but true to ourselves. Thankfully, the rest of the passage shows how obedience and honesty work together in God’s purposes. The connection between them is to obey him unquestioningly—while also asking him honestly, “Why?” Jeremiah has obeyed God publicly for the sake of the witnesses present, but privately he offers an honest prayer that contains both praise and protest (32:17–25). In life with God, it is essential not only to obey God first but also to ask him questions later, if necessary. The magnitude of the national and personal crisis before Jeremiah demands both responses.
God meets the faithful believer who comes before him in both obedience and honesty. Yahweh rebukes Jeremiah slightly by rephrasing the prophet’s orthodox confession (“Nothing is too hard for you”; v. 17) into the Lord’s “Is anything too hard for me?” (v. 27). In the final analysis, God gets the last word and has the right to question us even though we are the first to question him. But it is better to voice our doubts and have God challenge us than to stay silent, only to discover that we no longer hear from God because we were the ones who already chose to end the conversation.
In showing us why obedience and honesty belong together, Jeremiah’s example points to Jesus, six hundred years later. Lest we think that Jeremiah and Martin Luther are extreme cases, it is important to consider one of the NT’s oft-neglected descriptions of Jesus in this regard. In the book of Hebrews we learn the following:
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to him who was able to save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverence. Although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him. (Heb. 5:7–9)
There has never been anyone more human than Jesus. He shows us that to be weak is to be human, and we are most human when we pray to God in our weakness. Christ’s honesty was part of his obedience, and his obedience came amid—and not despite—his honesty.
As children of God, we are also invited to cry out with loud cries and tears as Jesus did when he was feeling betrayed, lonely, and lost. We do not know our way through life any better than Jesus did, nor are we stronger than he was, but we tend to pray less than he did even though we are far weaker than him. So when we imitate Jeremiah and Jesus in crying out to God that we are weak rather than pretending to be strong, it becomes possible again to sing from the heart, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.”Jeremiah 32
Jeremiah 33