Turn to chapter 32. I’ve passed over it three times. Chapter 32 in the book of Jeremiah. Let’s come to chapter 32. Jeremiah has been speaking and telling the people of Judah the judgment’s coming. He’s been telling that message for a long time.
They haven’t liked to hear it. They’ve got false prophets and false teachers that are going around telling the judgment isn’t coming. Well, it’s there.
As we come to chapter 32, I want to lay out the scenario of what’s happening physically. Jeremiah’s been put under arrest by the king of Judah. And the reason he’s been put under arrest is because of his messages.
The king’s tired of hearing them. The king’s tired of listening to them. So they figure he’ll silence Jeremiah and put him under arrest.
So he’s in prison. At the same time that Jeremiah’s in prison, he’s been telling them that Nebuchadnezzar is coming, and this time it’s not just going to be a small invasion. This will be the third time that Nebuchadnezzar will come and come against the city of Jerusalem.
The first two times, one time he took into captivity some of the young nobles or leaders. That’s the time that Daniel and his friends went into captivity, and many of the people, when they went into captivity, didn’t find that they were suffering greatly under the hands of the Babylonians. As a matter of fact, the Babylonians tried to keep them very well because they wanted to assimilate them into the Babylonians’ culture.
And so that was the first time. The second time, he came with a little more vengeance, but he still did not destroy the temple, nor did he destroy the walls, nor did he really seek to destroy Jerusalem. And so consequently, the king and the people were looking back to the time of Hezekiah, when Hezekiah was invaded, and he prayed and the Lord delivered him.
And so they think, well, it happened during Hezekiah’s time. Also, Jehoshaphat, same thing happened during the time of Jehoshaphat, which was prior to Hezekiah, where they were invaded and God delivered them. And so the temple had not been torn down in any of those prior invasions.
It hadn’t been torn down in this invasion. They still had the temple. The only problem is they had really come against everything that God stands for, and they had desecrated the temple and they had desecrated the worship of the Lord.
And even as we saw in this morning’s lesson, the people, when they come back from captivity, really didn’t have a deep understanding of God’s law because they’d been ignoring it and had ignored it for years. And that’s the case that we find. So that’s the background, and now Nebuchadnezzar’s invading for the third time.
He’s established his troops around Jerusalem, and he’s put a siege on the city. Jeremiah has told the king more than once that when the siege comes, there’s going to be death by many means. There’ll be death by pestilence, there’ll be death by famine, and there’ll be death by the sword.
And he told the people, if you give up and go willfully into captivity with Nebuchadnezzar, your life will be spared, but if you don’t, that’s what you are facing. And it’s really becoming destitute in Jerusalem because of the siege. If you’re not aware of a siege on a city, it’s where they do not allow things to come in or go out, and they really prevent the people from gaining access to food and water and any outside means of subsistence.
And so that was what was happening in Jerusalem, and things were becoming desperate. And the king blamed Jeremiah, that’s why he put him under arrest. Well, we’re going to see that God has something very interesting to ask of Jeremiah.
He says that, Jeremiah, you’ve got rights to some land, and your relative is going to come and offer to sell you this land, and I want you to buy it. Now the land is in a suburb of Jerusalem, it’s in the city that Jeremiah is from, which is really right outside a part of Jerusalem. Not a place you want to be buying land when the nation is under siege and it’s been being inundated for the third time by a hostile nation that is your enemy and wants to destroy you.
And yet God tells Jeremiah, I want you to buy this land. And that’s what we’re going to be looking at. Why would God tell Jeremiah to buy land at this particular time? It makes no sense.
But it makes all the sense in the world if you’re the Lord and want to reveal to people that your word is true. And when you say something is going to happen, it may not happen tomorrow, but it will happen. And that’s what he wants the people to understand in what Jeremiah is going to do.
Because remember, God often gives examples to the people by having his prophets do things that to them may seem strange, but it’s to teach them a lesson and to show them to have hope in the Lord and that the Lord’s word and promises are true. Let’s take a look at chapter 32.
And the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was in the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.
Jeremiah 32:1-2
So we see that’s the scenario I had laid out for you. Just one other side note before we continue on.
It’s interesting what’s happening in the Middle East. It’s a battle between Iran and Israel. Well, Nebuchadnezzar controlled Babylon.
Babylon would also be Iraq and part of Iran. And so things haven’t changed much in the landscape of the Middle East, even from the time of Jeremiah. So we see, for Zedekiah, king of Judah, had shut him up, saying,
Therefore, thus shall I prophesy and thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And Zedekiah, king of Judah, shall not escape out of the land of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the land of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes.
And so that’s the prophecy Jeremiah has been continually giving, and Zedekiah doesn’t want to hear it anymore, so he locks him up. But it doesn’t change the prophecy.
It doesn’t change what’s going to happen. It doesn’t change what God has said is going to happen. But somehow Zedekiah thinks it will.
And he goes on and he says,
And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the Lord. Though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper. And Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold, Hamamil, the son of Shalom, thine uncle, shall come unto thee, saying, By thee my field that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is thine to buy it.
Now, the right of redemption, the land had to be passed to relatives, and you had to go in order of your responsibility to inherit this land or gain this land. Jeremiah held the right to regain this land or buy it back. And his cousin wants to get rid of it.
And so he’s saying, You have the right of redemption, you have the right to this land, and I’ve come here to sell it. And that’s what the Lord told Jeremiah was going to happen. So, Hamamil, my uncle’s son, came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, By my field I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is the country of Benjamin, where the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine, buy it for thyself.
Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. And so he said, Of course this is the word of the Lord, the Lord obviously is speaking to Jeremiah, but the thing is he made absolutely clear, because who in their right mind would go to a relative who’s imprisoned by the king because he’s giving all these prophecies of the destruction of Jerusalem, Babylonian army is there, who in their right mind would go into the prison to try and sell somebody a piece of land right outside of Jerusalem and expect to be able to sell it. But this cousin did, because the Lord laid on his heart to do it, because he had told Jeremiah it was going to be done.
And there’s a specific reason that he wants Jeremiah to do this. Now, he says, And I bought the field of Hanumil, my uncle’s son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even 17 shekels of silver. And this would be 6.8 ounces of silver that he gave him for this land.
And so it was not a cheap piece of land. And he bought this land that was in the eyes of all those that were in Jerusalem, going to be a pretty worthless piece of land if the king of Babylon did invade and destroy Jerusalem. Because who’s going to want to buy land that’s been destroyed and overtaken by the Babylonians? But Jeremiah buys it because the Lord tells him to.
And I subscribed the evidence and sealed it and took witnesses and weighed him the money in the balances. And I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open. And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Beruk, the son of Neriah, the son of Messiah, the son of Hanumil, my uncle’s son.
And in the presence of the witnesses and I subscribed the book of the purchase for all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. And so Jeremiah wants everyone to know he has bought this land. He registers it.
If there was a register of deeds, he’d go down to the courthouse and register the purchase. It would be done in front of a judge and it would be done in front of witnesses that were in the courtroom to show that the purchase was an actuality made and that it couldn’t be denied later on. So he wants to make sure that it is done legally according to the law that the law has established in transferring land from one relative to another and it’s done with all witnesses and everything is sealed and done perfectly.
I charge Beruk before them saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Take the evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed and this evidence which is open and put them in the earthen vessel that they may continue many days. Now, how many days can they continue in an earthen vessel? Well, I want to tell you they can continue a long time in an earthen vessel because what earthen vessels were found about around the late, I think it was in the late 1940s in, well, earlier than that, 1920s, was it? 1930s? They were found in the caves of Qumran. They found vessels that contained scriptures that had been placed there, they feel, by perhaps the Jewish people that were under the siege of the Romans and it could have been some of them that ended up being killed at Masada.
But there they found recorded scriptures, one of which was the scroll of Isaiah and it is just the same verbiage and even though it was much, much older as we see in today’s Jewish Bible in Hebrew. And they had been preserved in these earthen vessels. So that’s one of the ways that they preserved documents that were important.
And so this was an important document because it showed the transfer of this land. And so he put it in an earthen vessel lest it be destroyed. And then he goes on to verse 15.
For thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase onto Baruch, the son of Neri, I prayed unto the Lord saying, O Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and earth by thy great power and stretched out arm and there is nothing too hard for thee.
Now I just want to bring your attention to one of the things here.
People who say that God did not create do not believe in the Bible. And I don’t care if you say you’re a Christian or not because you find throughout Scripture reference to the fact that God is creator. Often times it’s verses like this where it’s showing the power of God, the authority of God that He created and nothing is too hard for Him because He created the heavens and the earth.
Nothing should be too hard for God. When Jesus healed people, it wasn’t too hard for Him. As a matter of fact, this morning I forgot to bring out one of the points of the blinker in the building of the walls under Nehemiah.
Did God really need the Jewish people to rebuild the walls? Well, the answer is no. If God wanted to, He could have restored those walls Himself. If by His word, all of this that we see in the universe came into being, it was not too hard for God to rebuild the walls.
But there was lessons and object lessons that He needed the nation of Israel and needed to be conveyed to us by them coming back to rebuild the walls. And the thing is, nothing is beyond God’s ability. And that’s why Jeremiah says, you’re the God who created all things, so your power is there and I know that you can deliver on your word.
And that’s really what he’s saying. I believe that you can deliver on your word. Thou showest loving kindness unto thousands and recompenses the iniquity of the fathers unto the bosom of their children after them.
The great and the mighty God, the Lord of hosts, is His name. And so what he’s saying is, God is not only a powerful God, but He’s a merciful God, He’s a gracious God, and He is there from generation to generation. He’s an eternal God.
And He’s bringing all this out. Well, why would He bring all this out as He’s putting His deed into an earthen vessel and giving it to His secretary to go and bury? He says, Great is in counsel and mighty in work, for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. And again, here He’s showing God is judge.
God knows all the things that we do. And God knew what was going to transpire here and He told Jeremiah, It’s going to transpire and this is what I want you to do when you come. God knew it.
God knows the beginnings from the end. God knows all of our ways. He knows all of our doings.
Yet, we get to make choices. We get to choose whether to obey or disobey. And we get to choose and have consequences to choices, but God knows.
God knows all. And so, He sees all. He knows all.
He judges all, which has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even unto this day and in Israel and among other men and has made thee a name as at this day and has brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and with wonders and with a strong hand and with a stretched out arm and with a great terror. And so, again, He goes back and oftentimes what you see is the prophets go back and make reference to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt and how God delivered them. It wasn’t because the people, Egyptians, became afraid of the Israelites because they had grown in great numbers.
No, they controlled them. They were their slaves. It wasn’t because they had somehow gained weapons and power and overwhelmed the Egyptians.
No, they were really powerless. It was by the power and the hand of God that they were delivered. And people want to remember this.
Oftentimes the prophets will bring this before the people because people forget where the nation of Israel began. It went into Egypt as a family of 70 and it came out as a mighty nation. But the nation had grown by the power and authority and overseeing of the Lord.
And so Israel is the only nation on earth that was ever really created by God for God’s purpose and God’s doing. And so the nation is oftentimes reminded of that. Today, Israel should be reminded of that as well and reminded about the fact that even when they came into being in 1948, it wasn’t by their own strength.
I just watched a movie on the Six Day War. It wasn’t the War of Independence. It was the Six Day War.
There is no way Israel could have won the Six Day War. And that was in 1967. They were surrounded by five Egyptian nations which had more airplanes three Egyptian nations I guess it was three Arab nations that had more airplanes, more tanks, more soldiers, more guns, more weapons than they did.
And yet they were able to defeat them. And not only defeat them but they took over much of the land of which much of it they gave back. But they had control.
I remember after that war they had control of the Sinai Desert. They had control of the Temple Mount. They had control of Jerusalem.
They had control of Golan. They had control of the West Bank. And they gave much of it back.
But the thing is they did it in six days when they were supposed to be annihilated in less time than that. But it wasn’t by their own strength. It was by the power of God.
And even in this little recollection of it they said there was times when the soldiers of the invading armies literally turned around and ran. And in interviewing one of the men that was in that army later on he said, well, we saw these shining white soldiers and we became terrified. God does miraculous and powerful things beyond comprehension.
And He still does it today. And may Israel turn and acknowledge this. But that’s why one of the reasons they go back to their beginnings and origins is they were origins by God and His power.
And has given them this land which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them a land flowing with milk and honey. And so God holds the deed. God is the one that gave.
And Jeremiah reminds them that this is what it is. And they came in and possessed it. But they obeyed not the voice neither walked in thy law.
They have done nothing of all that thou commandest them to do. Therefore thou has caused all this evil to come upon them.
And just a note.God is not the author of evil. The word evil here does not mean wickedness or satanic evil. That’s not what it’s talking about.
The word evil here means a set of circumstances that are brought about to bring discomfort and problems upon a person with the full intent of drawing them back to the Lord. So this isn’t evil. God is not the author of evil.
But God will bring circumstances into our life for our good and His glory that will cause us to turn back to Him. And that’s what He did with Israel. And they came in and possessed it.
But they obeyed not the voice neither walked in thy law. They have done nothing of all that thou commandest them to do. Therefore thou has caused all this evil to come upon them.
And behold, the mounts, they come unto the city to take it. And the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans that fight against it because of the sword and of the famine and of the pestilence. And what thou hast spoken is to come to pass.
And behold, thou seest it. And so He said, Everything I’ve said is true. And this is why.
And thou hast said unto me, O Lord God, buy thee the field for money and take witnesses for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. That’s why I want you to buy this field because the city is going to be given into the hand of the Chaldeans. A strange request from God, but there’s going to be a purpose.
Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? And the answer is, it’s a rhetorical question, the answer is no. There’s nothing too hard for God.
So what seems like a totally strange and obscure request to buy land when it’s going to be overtaken by a foreign government and everything around it destroyed. He says, Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And the Chaldeans that fight against this city shall come and set fire on this city and burn it with houses upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal and poured out drink offerings unto other gods to provoke me to anger.
This is one of the reasons it’s going to allow the city to be destroyed. It wasn’t just the temple that they were using, it was their own houses they were using to worship. And they were worshiping, later on he talks about they worshiped and baked cakes to the Queen of Heaven.
They worshiped all these false gods and they did it right in their homes, in the temple, in the high places, all over Israel. It was being done. This is going to allow it to be destroyed.
For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth. And their evil means evil. It means wickedness.
For the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the Lord. For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day that I should remove it from before my face. Now, why would he say that? Well, David started the building of the city of David and he’s the one that enabled the temple to be built on the Temple Mount.
He’s the one that laid out everything. He bought a bunch of the materials for the temple to be built for Solomon and his son to build. But, if you look back in what we studied in Nehemiah this morning, we didn’t read the verse, but if you read the verse in the chapter that we’re looking at, it refers to all these same events.
But one of the things it says in there is Solomon was the greatest king, one of the greatest kings Israel ever had. And yet, he did that which was wicked, and we’re going to study it next week, and he did that which was wicked in the eyes of the Lord when he allowed his wives to come in and really influenced him to bring in false gods and destroy all that God had given him. And so, from the time of Solomon where Jerusalem really became the seat of the leadership of Israel, and after Solomon took over from David, from that time on, wickedness had been there to one degree or another.
And God says, enough is enough. I’m going to destroy it. I’m going to remove it.
But, it’s not going to be the end of Jerusalem, nor is it going to be the end of the throne of David. He goes on and he says, because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah, which have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings and their princes and their priests and their prophets and the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and they have turned unto me the back and not the face, though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, and yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. And what does it mean with the turning of the back? They didn’t stand and face him. It was a sign of disrespect, and they were dishonoring him because they didn’t agree w
ith him. Well, it says here that Israel turned their backs on God.
They’re basically saying, we don’t respect you, we don’t honor you, we’re not going to serve you. And that’s exactly what they did. But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name to defile it.
And they built high places of Baal which are in the valley of the son of Hinnomim and to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire onto Molech, which I commanded them not. Neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. And now therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city, wherever you say it shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence, behold, I will gather them out of all the countries hither I have driven them in mine anger and in my fury and in my great wrath and I will bring them again onto this place and I will cause them to dwell safely.
I want you to see what God is saying is, simply because judgment came because of all the wickedness they did, it doesn’t mean I’m done with them. And I’m going to bring them back. I’m going to drive them out into all these nations.
I’m going to destroy this city, but it’s going to bring them back. He brought them back during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah. They rebuilt the city.
And then he drove them out again during the time of Titus and the Romans. And guess what? He brought them back in 1948 just as he said he would. He drove them out as two nations, Judah and Israel.
They came back as one, Israel. And that’s exactly what he said would happen. And here he’s telling this.
And now we’re going to see why he’s having Jeremiah buy a piece of land that seems absolutely stupid for anybody to do from a human perspective.