Jeremiah Buys a Field, or
Location, Location, Location:
Where Real Estate and Prophecy Intersect
a sermon on Jeremiah 32.1-15
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama
Nothing is too difficult for God. … A soldier looked down from the walls of
Jerusalem. Below he saw the armies of Babylon, patient, waiting, biding their
time while hunger and disease wore down the city’s defenses from within. The
soldier was hungry. Food was strictly and carefully rationed. Looking out over
the mighty host before him, the soldier despaired. There was no hope. The city
could not hold out forever. Sooner or later it would fall, and when it did, he
would probably be killed. What would happen to his family? Maybe God would send
a miracle, but he didn’t expect one. For some reason God had been strangely
quiet in recent years.
Quiet, that is, unless you counted the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah who was now
under arrest in the court of the royal guard. If he spoke for God there truly
was no hope. For a long time he had been telling people not to oppose Babylon.
King Zedekiah had been put on the throne by the Babylonians after the last
disastrous rebellion. The people of Judah had gotten off easy that time. Then
Zedekiah himself fell prey to grand ambitions. The people said yes. The
aristocrats said yes. The prophets even said yes. Except one. Jeremiah opposed
him from the start. Jeremiah was a prophet of doom. He said God was angry with
his people for their sins. Angry because of the way justice was perverted. Angry
because of idolatry. Angry because they trusted to military alliances instead of
God. Angry because they did not act the way God’s people were supposed to act.
So, Jeremiah proclaimed, God was bringing judgment. It would take the form of a
Babylonian invasion. They would conquer the city, take the king away in chains,
destroy the temple, and exile God’s people from their land.
It was not a message with a lot of popular appeal, but once the Babylonians set
up camp outside the city, it had a certain force. The king became concerned that
Jeremiah’s preaching would undermine the people’s morale. How could they stand
strong with Jeremiah running around telling them God was on the side of the
Babylonians? The king wanted to shut Jeremiah up, but because he still had
respect for the prophet, he did not kill him. Instead he had him confined to the
royal guard. There he couldn’t do much harm. The soldier reflected, if Jeremiah
speaks for God … there is no hope.
Today’s scripture reading is one of my favorite passages in the Bible.
Christians are resurrection people. Our character is defined by hope and
resilience. No mater how hard we get hit, we do not stay down. Even in the face
of death, we have hope. The angel asked Sarah, when she laughed about having a
son, “Is anything too hard for God?” She named her boy “laughter.” Another angel
told an incredulous young virgin named Mary, “Nothing is impossible for God.”
She named her son Jesus. In the prayer that immediately follows our scripture
reading in the book of Jeremiah, Jeremiah praises God—even though he is under
arrest and Jerusalem is about to be destroyed, including the temple, and the
royal dynasty founded by King David is about to end, and God’s people are about
to lose their land, and Jeremiah has just made (under God’s instructions) the
worst real estate transaction recorded in ancient history—he praises God and
says, “Ah Lord GOD! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great
power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.”
That is the kind of hope and resilience we have as Christians. But … but, while
you may think this is great for us, don’t miss the bigger picture. We are
blessed to have such hope and resilience, but the blessing is not for us alone.
God has put us here, in the midst of a broken and hurting world—a world in which
hope is scarce—in order that we might give hope to others. Our lives are meant
to be prophetic signs, inspiring others to hope and to trust in God.
Notice, by the way, that this works because we suffer too. Do not imagine for a
minute that I am saying, “You are supposed to give others hope, so you had
better put on a cheerful face and pretend everything is great!” That’s crazy.
It’s blasphemous. Everything cannot be OK in a world that put Jesus on the
cross. What I am saying is this: You are going to suffer. Life is going to knock
you down and kick out some teeth. Be honest about that. Don’t revel in it, but
be honest. Also be hopeful. Live out your faith. You don’t have to pretend that
your faith is stronger than it is. You don’t have to act happy all the time.
Just take whatever comes your way—the good and the bad—with resilience and hope.
Never give up on God. Praise him no matter what, because he is bigger than your
problems and he holds the future. Just keep telling yourself, “If God can redeem
even this tragedy, what a mighty God he must be!”
What do I mean by a prophetic sign? Let me explain it with a story. Jeremiah
lived through the darkest days of God’s people. When things were almost at their
darkest, and the hammer was about to fall, crushing God’s people and their faith
and hope, Jeremiah did something incredibly stupid.
He was, as I have reported, confined in the courtyard of the royal guard. You
know why. One day his cousin showed up to make an offer anyone could refuse. It
seems this cousin owned a piece of property in Anathoth, Jeremiah’s hometown.
Scholars debate the precise location of Anathoth, but it was probably on a hill
about 4 or 5 miles north of Jerusalem. In any event, it was in the hands of the
Babylonians. In all likelihood, they had soldiers camping there. In all
certainty, Jerusalem would soon be in their hands. So basically, this property
was worthless. Jeremiah couldn’t go there. He couldn’t do anything with it. And
who knew how much longer he would be around anyway?
His cousin came and offered to sell him the field—for cash! Now cash was
something anyone could use in uncertain times. If Jeremiah had managed to get
away somehow, silver would be useful anywhere he went. He would have to be an
utter fool to give good silver for worthless land. But God thought otherwise.
God told him to go ahead and buy the land. At the time, even Jeremiah did not
know why. But he did as the Lord commanded.
His cousin came, and Jeremiah brought his money. They got witnesses and drew up
a proper deed. Everything was nice and legal, as if it mattered. Jeremiah
weighted out 17 shekels of silver, not a small sum.
Then, in the presence of his cousin, the witnesses, and all the people who were
sitting in the court of the guard, Jeremiah gave the deeds—one open copy and one
sealed copy—to his assistant Baruch. He told Baruch to seal the deeds in a clay
jar in order to preserve them. Why? The courtyard must have been abuzz at these
strange things. Actually they were normal, everyday things that had become
suddenly bizarre and alien in the face of disaster. Why was Jeremiah doing this?
Because he was acting out a message from the Lord.
The prophets often put their message into actions. When people don’t listen to
you, sometimes you have to find a way to make an impression. Hosea married a
prostitute and bought her back from the salve market as a sign that God would
redeem his people. Isaiah went around naked as a sign of judgment against Egypt.
Ezekiel made a model of Jerusalem out of a brick and laid siege to it; then he
had to lie on his side for 390 days to signify judgment against Israel and 40
more to signify judgment against Judah. Remember too how John baptized people in
the Jordan as a sign that God was renewing his people. And Jesus drove the
moneychangers from the temple and thereby stopped the whole temple system for a
short time, acting out his prophecy against the temple. Prophets often acted out
their message. Sometimes they did bizarre things. Jeremiah did something that
should have been normal but was bizarre under the circumstances. Why? In order
to make the point that things would be normal again someday: “Thus says the LORD
of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be
bought in this land.”
There it is. The darkest hour God’s people ever faced, and right in the middle
of it, just before the hammer falls, hope! Imagine how people must have felt.
Jeremiah had been right about the Babylonians. He had been right about the
judgment. But now he was preaching hope! He wasn’t just preaching it; he was
acting with hope. He was living his message. If Jeremiah paid good silver for
that field and then took trouble to preserve the deeds, there was hope after
all. God had not been silent. He had spoken, and that was enough. Through the
difficult days of the exile, God’s people found comfort in this message of hope.
They did not give up. They did not forget who they were. They lost their temple,
their king, and their land—any other people would have lost their faith as well,
but they didn’t. They had hope. It wasn’t easy, but they had hope. And in God’s
good time, when he made the way clear, they bounced back.
That’s what I mean by a prophetic sign. Jeremiah bought a field, and that simple
act brought hope. Sure, he looked crazy for doing it, but he had a good reason.
I believe the life of a Christian is meant to be just that sort of sign.
Let me give you a current example of one way this can be done. You remember the
crazed gunman who killed children at an Amish school? That Amish community
responded with forgiveness and by reaching out to the widow of the gunman. Why?
Because forgiving is the way of Jesus Christ. I am sure it wasn’t easy. I am
sure that for most of them it remains more an aspiration than an accomplished
fact. You can’t just say, “I forgive you” and get past your grief. When true
forgiveness comes, so does a measure of freedom from the hurt, pain, and anger.
Meanwhile the children who survived are dealing with all kinds of emotional
problems. God alone knows the suffering of the parents. The pain is real. It is
devastating. Yet they insist that forgiveness is the right way. And so they
forgive, as best they can. That’s a prophetic sign. From their pain, they follow
the way of Christ and thereby give hope to others.
Forgiving is always a prophetic sign. True forgiveness is, anyway. Some people
think forgiving means ignoring something bad someone did to you, but that’s not
so. Forgiving means looking squarely at evil, calling it what it is, and then
letting it go.
There are, of course, many other ways to act prophetically to give others hope.
Often our everyday lives require a lot of hope. The world being what it is
today, you need hope just to bring children into the world and launch them out
into it. You need hope to be a leader in the church. These are not golden years
for Christianity in America, in terms of people, commitment, or influence in
society. Jeremiah often felt alone, and we might think we know how he felt. You
need hope to invest yourself in other people’s lives. Everyday life requires a
lot of hope, which unfortunately usually goes unnoticed.
Your hope gets noticed more when you deal with tragedy. For one reason, hope
cannot be faked in the face of despair. You can pretend things are OK when they
are not. You can even fool yourself. But most of the time people know the
difference between denial and genuine hope. Jeremiah didn’t deny the reality of
destruction and exile. How could he? He was the one preaching it. But he knew
there was more to the story. Hope means living through the pain and confusion
confident that God is going to write more of your story, and that in the end he
will bring you to a good place.
I believe the Bible is the Word of God in part because of its ingenious
structure. It does not list out truths in a list, saying believe a, b, and
c—although it contains truth to be believed. And it is not a textbook of
philosophy or theology—although it tells us what we need to know about God, our
world, and ourselves. Instead it tells a story, a story with a missing chapter
just before the last one. It tells us all that God has done. Then it tells us
how the whole thing ends. On the basis of that, we know how to live, and our
lives become the missing chapter. We know where the whole creation is heading.
We know God’s character and plan. Because of that, and because we know his love
for each of us, we can live with purpose and hope even as the world crumbles and
tumbles and churns around us … even within us.
The other reason your hope stands out from your tragedy is that tragedy tends to
destroy people. They come through whatever bad experience it was poisoned by
bitterness and hatred. Or they turn to alcohol or drugs or find some other way
to check out. When you experience a crushing blow, and you struggle on, and you
can still feel joy, and you can still love, then you have experience the grace
of God.
Let me explain this statement because it is crucial to my beliefs about
suffering. I am not sure that any of us has the strength and moral fiber to pick
ourselves up after significant tragedy—I’m thinking of the death of a child,
becoming disabled, the loss of everything you own, being abandoned by a spouse,
being abused or assaulted—things like that. I suspect that resilience in those
circumstances demands something from outside our selves. We just don’t have it
in us. We need grace.
I believe we are hopeful and resilient because of God’s power working in us.
Like Corrie Ten Boom, who survived the Nazi concentration camps, you discover
(to your surprise) forgiveness in your heart that you did not put there. You
couldn’t put it there. You go through heartbreak, or you face death, with a hope
not of your own design.
It is all very much like faith. Sometimes you look inside yourself and realize
you believe. Who knew? God knew. He is at work in you. The same power that
raised Jesus from the dead is at work in you. That’s the source of our strength
and resilience. The resurrection of Jesus is not just something we believe. It
is something we experience and live.
For this reason, I am not trying with this sermon to prescribe a way that you
ought to respond to the trials and tragedies of your life. You are not going to
say, “Well, Jeremiah bought a field, so being positive is the way to go. I’ll
approach my problems from that standpoint. Look on the bright side. Be happy.”
If that works for you, it may be all right. I can’t seem to manage it. Thus, I
am not telling you to be hopeful because it provides a needed witness to the
world. I am telling you that God works in you to bless both you and others. All
you need to do is look to him, and he will take care of the rest.
Remember, God told Jeremiah to buy the field. His action had prophetic power
because God promised a future for his people. Without God’s promise and power,
Jeremiah would have been wasting his money. I want you to live your life on the
basis of God’s presence and his promises. When you do that, you find in him the
strength to go on, and as a by-product, you give a much-needed witness to the
rest of us.
One last thing and I will close. I admire defiance of evil, and I like stories
of how people defy evil. I like “The Star Spangled Banner” because it tells the
story of a fort that got bombed to smithereens but refused to surrender. I like
Winston Churchill because the Nazis conquered Europe then bombed London on a
nightly basis, and he said, “We will never surrender.” I like Jeremiah buying
that field because he looked at the end of God’s people and said, “This is not
the end.” I like David standing up to Goliath, saying, “You come against me with
sword and spear, but I come in the name of the Lord.” I like the temptation of
Jesus, when he refused to dishonor God. I like the garden of Gethsemane, when
Jesus faced his fiercest trial, and said, “Not my will but your be done.” And of
course, the greatest instance of defiance ever, is the cross and resurrection of
Jesus. Jesus died on the cross with words of forgiveness on his lips. On the
cross, God defied and defeated sin and evil. Then, on the third day, he defied
death itself.