The Days Are Surely Coming - Jeremiah 32:2-9, 14-15

The Days Are Surely Coming

Jeremiah 32:2-9, 14-15

Lesson Setting

Jeremiah details the tense setting and fierce political and military circumstances surrounding this chapter.  From the reign of the tenth year of Zedekiah, King of Judah, and the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon, we infer the year was 586 BCE.  In the next year, the Babylonians would sack Jerusalem causing colossal damage and nearly obliterating the history, religion and literature of Israel and Judah.  In this year before the siege, Jeremiah pronounces a very hard prophecy which angers King Zedekiah and probably greatly disturbs many fellow countrymen.  Imagine the emotional intensity and social unrest as Israel and Judah live daily under a powerful and pervasive threat by Babylon.  Instead of comforting them with reassurance of God’s deliverance as He did in their past, Jeremiah actually tells them that their worst fears will materialize.

Lesson Outline

I.                 Jeremiah 32:1-5 – A Critical Test of Faith

II.            Jeremiah 32:6-15 – A Deposit on the Future

III.        Jeremiah 32:16-25 – A Prayer for Illumination

IV.         Jeremiah 32:26-35 – A Divine Indictment

V.              Jeremiah 32:36-44 – God Commits to a New Covenant

Unifying Principle

Even in dire circumstances, some people take hopeful actions.  What gives them the confidence to do so?  While Jerusalem as under siege, God instructed the prophet Jeremiah to purchase property as a sign that there was a future for the people and their land beyond defeat and exile.

Introduction

“No good deed goes unpunished.”  If you had the experience of helping someone without realizing you were participating in creating their dependency when you thought you were empowering them toward self-reliance?  In my early professional years as an admission counselor, I collaborated with a colleague to help a struggling student with discretionary scholarship funds at the beginning of a fall semester.  The student insisted she was in dire financial straits and would be able to continue her course of study.  Seeking to show compassion and enable this student to achieve her goals, my colleague and I secured the necessary funds to remove the bursar’s hold.  We thought we had done a good deed on this one necessary occasion. To our great chagrin, this student appeared in our offices at the start of the spring semester with a similar story.  Again, we helped her believing that she would resolve proactively her financial challenges by the start of the next semester.  Not surprisingly, the next fall, she came back to our offices with an even more embellished story.  At that point, I stopped ladling the gravy to her as I finally acknowledged that she had determined to use my colleague and me as a source of supplemental funding thus enabling her to utilize her own money as she pleased.  Essentially, we were punished for attempting to do a good deed and assist someone whom we thought was in genuine need.

Jeremiah experiences the very worst of the foregoing maxim as he commences a lengthy prison sentence for obeying the will of God.  The Lord directs Jeremiah to announce unequivocally the imminent consequences of His “fierce anger and uncontrollable wrath” toward a chosen people who turned their backs to Him.  As the prophet faithfully answers the call of God, Jeremiah receives a prison sentence from King Zedekiah of Judah who disdains the prophet’s message.  Instead of a reward Jeremiah obtains imprisonment.  Not surprisingly, a crisis of faith ensues for him as he struggles to understand God’s mysterious ways.  How does Jeremiah understand God’s order to announce judgment and doom while simultaneously permitting his unjust imprisonment?  Why would God allow Zedekiah to punish Jeremiah as the prophet willingly fulfills God’s directive? 

Adding insult to injury, God further instructs Jeremiah to buy a piece of land that will be devastated shortly as a deposit on His future promise to restore Israel and Judah after the Babylonian captivity.  It is extremely odd to purchase land that will soon contain piles of rubble and ruin while being told it will one day be a place of flourishing produce, livestock, houses and commerce.  Yet, this ironic act is God’s practical and mysterious was of demonstrating to Israel and Judah His heartfelt and unfailing intention to adhere to the covenant He made with their forbears.  As God’s servant and chosen instrument in these proceedings, Jeremiah faces an arduous challenge of obeying Almighty God as Jeremiah concurrently loses his freedom and prepares for a future without knowing the length of his imprisonment.  Assuredly, we can relate to Jeremiah’s bewilderment and dilemma.  Have you had an experience in which obeying God’s will for your life also resulted in a major crisis of faith?

In this week’s lesson, we continue our study of the “Book of Consolation” (chapters 30, 31 and 32) in Jeremiah.  First, we consider Jeremiah’s difficult and complex task of announcing simultaneously destruction and restoration while his life unravels.  Second, after his imprisonment, he obeys God by buying a field to demonstrate God’s faithfulness to the covenant.  Jeremiah executes a land purchase as he sits in jail and puts the deed in an ancient equivalent of a safe deposit box.  He additionally entrusts the deed to a nephew who will inherit the land were Jeremiah to die in prison.  This relational exchange between uncle and nephew symbolizes the new relationship and covenant to emerge between God and the next generation of His people, Israel and Judah.  They will bind themselves in a direct covenant; they will no longer relate to each other through the historical promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Third, Jeremiah prays for illumination as he sits in darkness of punishment following obedience.  He does not understand God’s irony and humor.  Likewise, the people of Israel and Judah do not understand how the Lord will permit their captivity while also assuring them of return and restoration.  Accordingly, Jeremiah asks God to open the eyes of their hearts and minds to enable them to understand His character and deeds.  Fourth, in response to his prayer, Jeremiah states a divine indictment against the people whereby the Lord recounts their lengthy history of rebellion, disobedience and indifference to Him. 

The chapter concludes with Almighty God being vulnerable and sharing His heartfelt desire and unwavering intention to adhere to the new covenant He will make with Israel and Judah.  Amazingly, God recommits Himself to the covenant before He asks the people to do so.  He pledges to empower the people with His Spirit to enable them to adhere to the covenant.  Demonstrating that He truly unfailingly loves His people, through the lips of Jeremiah, God expresses His personal wish to restore and renew Israel.

Exposition

Point I – Jeremiah 32:1-5 – A Critical Test of Faith

It is easy to romanticize prophetic ministry.  What an amazing spiritual gift to be able to pronounce forthcoming future actions as God speaks to you with meticulous accuracy!  This spiritual gift conceivably causes untold and limitless jealousy within church circles.  Yet, many disciples fail to understand the equally incredible burden of prophetic ministry.  Usually prophets do not gain many friends and positively influence countless people.  Contrary to popular belief, people do not want a moral, ethical and spiritual person detailing the inconsistencies between their words and deeds.  People prefer ignorance bliss of assuming they are moral and ethical because they are well-intentioned and occasionally perform minimal acts of kindness.  Self-avowed racists, sexists, classists and homophobes do not appreciate anyone demonstrating their hypocrisy.  Jeremiah experiences the disadvantages of declaring God’s truth as his prophetic pronouncements greatly anger Zedekiah, King of Judah, who imprisons Jeremiah.  As a result, the prophet undergoes possibly his most difficult test of faith as he begins a long-term prison sentence as he answer God’s call to warn Israel about her longstanding sin and the forthcoming consequences to her choices.  Jeremiah’s predicament cautions us against egotistically desires very public and seemingly glamorous positions in ministry.

Tests of faith emerge to ascertain the depth of our commitment and maturity of our faith.  Faithfulness is the cardinal qualification for a divine assignment.  Whereas the Lord utilizes our talents abilities which are gracious gifts from Him, He seeks persons in whose characters faithfulness is a foundational quality.  He uses people upon He can depend to complete any task He assigns regardless of the types or numbers of adversities.  Jeremiah’s willingness to declare steadfastly the Lord’s admonitions and judgment despite the threats to his physical safety and freedom demonstrates the type of faithfulness the Lord seeks in the human instruments He chooses. 

Nevertheless, Jeremiah’s personal crisis in faith in which he must trust unwaveringly in God’s goodness, correctness and will as he obeys God’s commands which results in his imprisonment.  Understandably, Jeremiah might question God.  His situation is more than ironic.  How does such a misfortune befall someone as he fulfills the will of God?  How could God allow this happen to His chosen servant?  On a collective scale, Israel asks very similar questions in response to Jeremiah assurances of the Lord’s future promises of return and renewal after a lengthy period of subjugation by their Gentile enemies.  Jeremiah has the dual burden of announcing these contradictory divine degrees of severe punishment and promises of greater blessings afterwards and trusting in Almighty God while Jeremiah’s personal situation deteriorates.  As a nation, Israel and Judah undergo the exact same test of their faith.

Point II – Jeremiah 32:6-15 – A Deposit on the Future

An even stranger irony occurs for Jeremiah; the Lord instructs the prophet to buy a field while he is imprisoned unjustly.  Imagine Jeremiah’s befuddlement as he lies in a cold clay jail cell during the middle of the night and the word of the Lord floods his mind with this instruction.  More startlingly, Jeremiah must buy a field in a land that has been devastated recently by enemy invasion.  The plot of land will soon contain infinite amounts of rubble; agriculturally, it will be arid and unproductive.  In obedience to the Lord’s instruction, Jeremiah acquires the silver, weighs it and purchases the land.  He signs the proper title deeds both sealed and unsealed.  Similar to a safe deposit box in a contemporary bank, a clay jar holds the deed as security of the sale should Jeremiah need documentation in the future. 

The purchase of this land is an act of faith.  Nearly seventy years, an extended and extensive period of time in biblical terms, passes before Jeremiah or any of his descendants and relatives will live on this land.  First, they must experience the brutality of the Babylonian captivity and a very lengthy period of separation from their homeland.  In the interim, this land lies fallow and appears useless.  Considering the prophetic pronouncement for which Zedekiah imprisons Jeremiah, it is utterly futile for Jeremiah or any other person in Israel or Judah to buy land.  Yet, the purchase of the land is a demonstration of the Lord’s pledge to return the nation of His chosen people to their homeland after they undergo just punishment for their sin and rebellion against Him and the covenant.  Jeremiah makes a deposit on the future!

This passage ends with a promise.  “Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought on this land.”  Contrast the announcement of divine judgment upon Israel and Judah through the Babylonians with the prophecy relating to return, restoration and renewal.  These sayings reflect God’s unquestionable holiness which His people cannot trespass because of His grace and the Lord’s unwavering faithfulness which His unfailing love compels.  Rightly, Jeremiah offers consolation, comfort and compassion to Israel and Judah even as he declares condemnation.  God will punish His people but He will also simultaneously reform them.  He pledges to retrieve them from the bowels of their regrettable choices and restore them to a renewed life. 

Periodically, God requires strange acts of obedience as concrete demonstrations of faith.  He further tests Jeremiah’s by insisting that the prophet buy land while in jail and on the eve of the nation’s unparalleled destruction.  This divine directive simply does not make any sense.  Nevertheless, God insists His prophet live according to His Word by showing His trust and belief in the totality of his pronouncements.  As disciples of the Lord, we too must demonstrate practically and pragmatically our faith through daily living.  Elsewhere in the Bible, James records “Faith without works is dead.”  In order for Jeremiah to declare boldly and forthrightly that Israel and Judah must trust God for their return and renewal as he concurrently announces a harsh judgment, he needs to show his faith in God by purchasing this land as a sign that God will fulfill this distant future promise.

Point III – Jeremiah 32:16-25 – A Prayer for Illumination

Over the course of several years, I continually have discussed the plot twists, disappointments, heartaches and sufferings of an unfulfilling marriage with a close relative.  As of this writing, she remains in this horrible relationship which glacially yet steadfastly erodes her self-esteem and self-worth.  Entering into the second half of her life as she celebrates her fiftieth birthday this year, she must make an affirmative and fundamental decision.  God will guide her towards a choice that honors and glories Him in accordance with His Word.  To reach that existential space, she first needs to muster the courage to ask Almighty God for strength and perseverance to receive His divine empowerment and act fearlessly as He leads her toward the next chapter of her life.  I assure her that she rightly deserves love, respect and security inclusive of an emotional, mental, psychological, physical and spiritual space where she can mature into the best child of God of which she is capable.  To ask God for help is simply to pray genuinely and humbly.

Jeremiah now petitions Almighty God for divine encouragement and empowerment for himself as he lingers in jail doing the will of God and for Israel and Judah as the nation embarks upon an arduous spiritual journey.  After following the Lord’s directive relating to the land purchase, the prophet requests valid and divine aid as he daily lives in accordance with will of God.  His prayer, as most biblical prayers, offers insight and suggestions for a more vibrant and effectual prayer life.  Jeremiah addresses God as “Sovereign Lord;” thereby acknowledging His perfection in character, will, kindness and ability.  Jeremiah further recognizes that God created the heavens and the earth by His autonomous power; accordingly “Nothing is too hard for [Him].”  Note the statement of unwavering faith in the ability and power of Almighty God to fulfill His promise of return and restoration. 

Second, Jeremiah addresses God’s unfailing love and holiness.  The Lord shows love to thousands who reciprocate His lovingkindness but to those of a stiff-necked and reprobate disposition He brings punishment for the parents’ sin into the laps of their beloved children and grandchildren.  This part of Jeremiah’s petition balances God’s grace and mercy.  He freely bestows blessings upon His children who obey Him by rightly relating themselves to Him.  However, He grants mercy to the undeserving as their forbears’ sins result in their punishment.  The rebelliousness of Israel and polytheism of Judah eventuates in the Babylonian captivity.  Prosperity and success separate the nation from their faithful God from whom all of their blessings flow.  They begin to confuse with grandeur and glory of the Temple with God’s character.  Their religious traditions, ritual and practices supersedes a genuine relationship with Almighty God.  Thus, He permits the wholesale destruction of their symbols of self-reliance. 

Many Old Testament prayers appeal to God’s Name and character as the basis of the petitioner’s requests.  In interceding for Israel as they are nearly consumed by God’s wrath following their rebellious behavior, Moses asks God to consider what His annihilation of His chosen people will reveal about His character.  Other nations will conclude that He is a god who cannot keep His promises.  Furthermore, they will resolve that deceit and falsehood are His fundamental characteristics as He leads His people into wilderness after liberating them from Egyptian slavery only to destroy them with His own hands.  Equally, Jeremiah appeals to God’s character which is the basis of His enduring covenant with Israel and Judah.  Jeremiah describes God as the “Great and mighty God, whose Name is the Lord Almighty.”  He prays to the sovereign and all-powerful Creator of heaven and earth who possesses limitless abilities.  Further, Jeremiah acknowledges God’s purposes and deeds as being equally mighty as His character.  That statement implies Jeremiah’s trust in God’s perfection and everlasting faithfulness despite His forthcoming wrath and the imminent devastation of Israel and Judah.  Daily circumstances do not change nor do they negate God’s eternal nature. 

In response to this reality, Jeremiah additionally appeals to God’s justness and favor as God watches human affairs and intervenes according to His sovereign will by rewarding people in equal measure to their deeds.  As he details this divine attribute, Jeremiah recognizes Israel and Judah’s punishment as fair given God’s adherence to the covenant though they consistently disobeyed Him.  In another significant technique in praying, Jeremiah then recounts God’s past kindnesses to Israel by summarizing the events surrounding the Passover and Israel’s deliverance from Egypt.  Assuredly, that feat should garner the unwavering devotion of Israel and Judah; instead they take God for granted and become indifferent to His holiness and Law.  Cumulatively, their centuries of rebellion and defiance erode God’s favor and results in the Babylonian captivity which Jeremiah specifies in the next few verses.  However, Jeremiah concludes his prayer with an appeal to God’s mystery.  Though the siege has begun and it is now clear to any reasonable person that Jerusalem will fall into the hands of Gentiles, the Lord instructs the prophet to buy a piece of land.  Respecting God’s mysterious ways is as important as revering His sovereignty.  Jeremiah’s pray teaches us to articulate our confusion, perplexity and ambiguity while we assent to God’s absolute perfect will.

Point IV – Jeremiah 32:26-35 – A Divine Indictment

As the Lord responds to Jeremiah’s prayers of intercession and illumination, He fiercely and forthrightly indicts Israel and Judah for the totality of their rebellion and insults.  The nation’s behavior resembles the deeds of an arrogant and defiant adolescent who tramples upon his parents’ love and provision.  Teenagers want blessings and benefits of being in stable families and households but do not want the responsibility of contributing to the wellness of their family members.  Similarly, multiple generations in Israel and Judah reap the benefits of God’s covenant with their forbears but disregard His decrees and daily directives.  God accordingly judges them for the egregious way in which they insult His holiness and wildly trample upon His grace.  God characterizes their actions as turning their backs on Him which equates with the ultimate insult.

In the twenty-seventh verse, God makes yet another “I AM” statement.  He declares Himself as “the God of all mankind” and asks “Is anything that is too hard for Me?”  This question again reveals His omnipotence and other eternal attributes.  As the One True God, He is the One to whom Israel and Judah should appeal for protection, provision and lovingkindness.  Were they to survey the canvass of their history, religion and literature, it is God and God alone who constantly and consistently fulfills the covenant He made with their forbears.  He promises to deliver the people from Egyptian bondage; they leave on dry land.  He pledges to give them the land of their enemies as an inheritance for countless generations.  With His help, they cross the Jordan River also on dry land.  They settle first in the rough terrain and in time they capture the cities and develop a civilization that rivals any nation in the Ancient Near East.  Because of God’s goodness, they dig wells, plant vineyards, raise livestock and enjoy a land flowing with milk and honey.  They receive these divine rewards and bountiful blessings because God is able to fulfill His Word and perform any necessary natural and supernatural feats. 

Notwithstanding these and other incredible miracles, Israel and Judah commit adultery as they serve Baal and other gods.  In His diatribe, Almighty God expresses His unmitigated disgust as His chosen people burn incense to Baal and offer sacrifices to other deities.  Their ingratitude is indescribable!  Arousing the Lord’s anger to immeasurable heights, the people of Israel and Judah have only done evil in the sight of God.  Despite its prosperity and pleasantness, the city of Jerusalem has only ignited God’s furor from the day it was built.  The collective evil of kings, officials, priests, prophets and average people provoked God’s wrath to the superlative degree of His allowing the Babylonian captivity.  Interestingly, in the thirty-third verse, the Lord expresses heartfelt pain in response to Israel and Judah turning their backs on Him and not their faces.  Jeremiah use of this term alludes to a superlative insult.  Contemporarily, it equates with “speak to the hand,” “whatever” and “totally dissing” (dismissing) someone.  How reprehensible that the creatures would treat their Creator in such a vile manner.  Still, the Lord enduringly taught them instead of punishing them and they would not listen to His instruction and discipline.  An intractable polytheism is the greatest of their offenses considering that the first commandment forbids them from worshipping any god but God Almighty who is a jealous God and will not compete with any other deities.  In utter indifference to the Law, the people of Israel and Judah defile the Temple by placing monuments to their other gods in the house of worship that bears His holy and sacred Name.  Despicably, they built altars of worship to Baal on holy ground that they inherited because of the Lord’s faithfulness to the covenant.  More detestably, they sacrificed their children to Molek although Almighty God never requires such a reprehensible ritual from them.

These verses read as if they were a criminal indictment filed against Israel and Judah for atrocious offenses against the holy character and unfailing love of Yahweh, the One True God.  On the lips of Jeremiah, the Lord proffers His justification for the punishment He extracts upon His people for their perpetual rebellion and disobedience.

Point V – Jeremiah 32:36-44 – God Commits to a New Covenant

The Book of Consolation ends with a final reassurance of return and renewal after the Babylonian captivity.  In these verses, Jeremiah’s understanding of divine punishment and mercy parallels the Psalter’s depiction of these attributes.  The   Psalmist triumphantly says the Lord’s anger only last a moment but His favor last a lifetime.  As they embark upon the treacherous decades of captivity, Israel and Judah can rely genuinely upon Almighty God’s continual faithfulness and mercy toward the nation.  After reiterating the punishment that the people have wrought during the generations of rebellion, Jeremiah also repeats the Lord’s promise of return and restoration.  Although He will banish His people in “fierce anger and great wrath,” God will gather all scattered remnants of Israel and Judah to return them to the land they will lose.  Upon their return after seventy years of completion, they will live in safety, peace and prosperity.  Their ultimate security will be a new covenant with God whom they will know directly instead of the knowledge they previously gleaned from their forbears.  In a sense, God and the nation will renew their commitment to their historical and eternal covenant.  “They will be my people and I will be their God.”  In the era of return and renewal, they will begin a fresh relationship established on the foundation of experiential and relational knowledge of God who will fulfill the promise of return. 

With an opaque reference to the Spirit of God, He moreover pledges to grant Israel and Judah a singleness of heart and action to prevent any further polytheism, idolatry and infidelity which materialize into acts of sin, rebellion and disobedience.  God will empower His people with His Spirit to enable them to worship Him with unwavering devotion.  As they adhere to the covenant He makes with them, their posterity will reap incalculable blessings and benefits.  Amazingly, in the fortieth verse, God Himself renews His commitment to the covenant and declares that He will not cease doing good toward His people.  Imagine the bounty of that promise!  Consider the provision, protection and peace that befall those persons who rightly relate to God who binds Himself to caring ceaselessly for them.  The splendor of the new life in a restored and resurrected nation will exceed greatly the “good old days” prior to captivity.  Moreover, God says He rejoices in doing good for His people and will adhere to the covenant with all of His heart and soul.  If that were not enough, God pledges to provide prosperity equal to the punishment that the captivity inflicts upon Israel and Judah.  Once again, real estate values will rise.  Property will be bought and sold; deeds will change hands.  Jeremiah’s strange and ironic action of buying a field is an act of good faith on God’s behalf to accomplish His promise to return His people upon the completion of their chastisement.

The Lesson Applied

Let’s Talk About It

1.     Has gone ever instructed you to do something strange and ironic as an act of faith similar to Jeremiah’s purchase of the field?  Discuss the details with the class.

2.   Have you had an experience similar to Jeremiah’s in which you felt punished as you were doing the work of God?  Share your experience with the class.

3.   Was the punishment of Israel and Judah just?  If yes, offer reasons to justify the colossal lost of their civilization.  If no, what alternatives did God have?

4.   If were living in Israel and Judah at the time, how would you respond to Jeremiah’s prophecy?

5.    If you were Jeremiah’s friend, how would you advise him to handle his crisis of faith as he is imprisoned for proclaiming the Word of God?