The Book of Jeremiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The timing could hardly be darker. It is "the tenth year of Zedekiah," the Babylonian army is besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah is "shut up in the court of the prison" for prophesying the city's fall. He had told the king plainly that Zedekiah would "not escape... but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon" and see Nebuchadnezzar "eye to eye." In this hopeless setting God gives Jeremiah a strange command. His cousin Hanameel will come offering to sell his field in Anathoth, and Jeremiah, as kinsman-redeemer, is to buy it, land already occupied by the enemy, in a country about to be depopulated. When Hanameel comes exactly as foretold, "Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD." So Jeremiah buys the field, "weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver," and carefully completes the legal transaction, signing and sealing the deed before witnesses. He gives the documents to Baruch to seal in "an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days." The whole strange act is a sermon in deeds, an investment in a future that looked impossible, for God had said, "Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land."

Gospel Focus

Jeremiah buying a field in a doomed land is one of Scripture's great pictures of faith. Faith is not blind optimism; it is confidence in God's word that acts on His promises even when circumstances scream the opposite. With the enemy at the gates, Jeremiah put down real money on land he could not use, because God had said it would be possessed again. "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen" (Hebrews 11:1). True faith invests in what God has promised, even at cost, even when the payoff lies beyond our sight. There is also a beautiful gospel picture in Jeremiah's role as "kinsman-redeemer." By right of family, he redeemed the field that would otherwise be lost. So Jesus, taking our flesh to become our Kinsman, redeemed the inheritance we had forfeited by sin, as the redeemed sing to the Lamb, "hast redeemed us to God by thy blood" (Revelation 5:9). He paid the price and holds the deed, and the redemption He purchased will surely be possessed, guaranteed, like Jeremiah's deed, by a seal that outlasts every judgment. When your situation looks hopeless, remember: God's promises are the surest investment in the universe. Act on His word, and store the evidence with the One who keeps it.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Having obeyed, Jeremiah prays, and the prayer is a model. He begins not with his problem but with worship of God's greatness: "Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee." He confesses God's covenant character, that He "shewest lovingkindness unto thousands" yet also judges sin, and that His name is "the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts." He recounts God's mighty acts in history, the signs in Egypt, the Exodus "with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm," the gift of "a land flowing with milk and honey." Then he acknowledges Israel's failure, "they obeyed not thy voice... therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them", and faces the grim present: "Behold the mounts", the siege ramps, "they are come unto the city to take it... and what thou hast spoken is come to pass." Finally he lays his puzzle before God honestly: "And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money... for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans." In effect: "Lord, You told me to buy a field in a land You are handing to the enemy, help me understand." It is faith wrestling honestly, worship first, then the honest question.

Gospel Focus

Jeremiah's prayer teaches us how to bring our confusion to God. Notice the order: he begins with who God is, "thou hast made the heaven and the earth... there is nothing too hard for thee," before he voices his perplexity. When we anchor first in God's greatness and goodness, our questions find their proper size. And the great confession at the heart of the prayer, "there is nothing too hard for thee," is one of the surest resting places in Scripture. The God who made heaven and earth, who split the sea and raised His people from Egypt, is not stumped by our impossibilities. The angel echoed this very truth to Mary at the conception of Jesus: "For with God nothing shall be impossible" (Luke 1:37). The God for whom nothing is too hard is the same God who came in flesh as "the Mighty God" (Isaiah 9:6), and who proved it by conquering death itself. Whatever besieges you, a ruined circumstance, an incurable wound, a promise that seems impossible, bring it to the God of all flesh in worship-shaped prayer, and rest in the truth Jeremiah confessed and the empty tomb confirmed: nothing is too hard for Him.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God answers Jeremiah's prayer by throwing his own words back as a promise: "Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?" First He confirms the judgment. The city will be given to the Chaldeans and burned, because of relentless idolatry, even the horror of child sacrifice, causing "their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech," an abomination so vile God says it "came [not] into my mind" to command. The judgment is fully deserved. But then God turns to pure grace, answering the meaning of the purchased field. "Behold, I will gather them out of all countries... and I will cause them to dwell safely." He renews the covenant bond, "they shall be my people, and I will be their God," and promises an inward transformation, "I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever." This is "an everlasting covenant," in which God pledges, "I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." And He adds the tenderest words: "I will rejoice over them to do them good... with my whole heart and with my whole soul." As surely as He brought "all this great evil," He will bring "all the good that I have promised." And the sign is confirmed: "fields shall be bought in this land" again.

Gospel Focus

"I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?" This is the anchor question of faith, and God ties it to His greatest promise, the everlasting covenant fulfilled in Christ. Look at what He pledges to do. He gives "one heart, and one way", the inward unity the Spirit works, the same grace that made the new-covenant church "of one heart and of one soul" (Acts 4:32). He makes "an everlasting covenant... I will not turn away from them, to do them good," and, crucially, He secures our faithfulness from His side: "I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me." This is the security of the gospel, God not only forgives His people but keeps them, working in them the very reverence that holds them fast, "it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do" (Philippians 2:13). And hear the astonishing joy of God over His redeemed: "I will rejoice over them to do them good... with my whole heart and with my whole soul." The God for whom nothing is too hard delights, with His whole being, to do good to His people. If He can gather exiles and restore a ruined land, He can save the worst sinner, give a divided heart a single devotion, and keep to the end all who come to Him through Jesus Christ. Nothing is too hard for the God who rejoices to save.