GEMS FROM JEREMIAH (47) Shopping by faith

 


     The opening verses of Jeremiah chapter 32 situate us in the court of the guard in the king’s palace of Jerusalem, as the city is besieged by Babylonian armies, in the tenth year of king Zedekiah’s reign, which places this passage about mid-way through the siege (32.1-3; cf. 39.1-2).  32.3-5 recalls a complaint of Zedekiah as to why Jeremiah has been prophesying defeat (cf. 38.14-23; 34.1-7).  Jeremiah then has a premonition that his cousin Hanamel is going to offer to sell him his field in Anathoth, since Jeremiah holds the right of redemption over the field (32.6-7; cf. Ruth 4.1-8).  Sure enough, Hanamel comes to the court of the guard and makes his offer to Jeremiah (32.8).  The incident reminds us of God’s commands to Jeremiah to buy a loincloth and hide it (cf. 13.1-11) and to buy an earthenware jug and break it (cf. chapter 19).  In each case, Jeremiah is told to “buy” something.  These are all symbolic actions announcing judgment – until we get to 32.15.  Then the meaning of the purchase changes radically.  This time the act symbolizes God’s intent to provide a future beyond the present judgment.[1]  Jeremiah spells out in great (repetitive) detail the transaction involving his purchase of Hanamel’s field (32.9-15).  Jeremiah paid his cousin 17 shekels of silver; he signed two copies of the deed – a sealed copy and an open copy – and gave them to his scribe Baruch, instructing him to place them in a clay jar (think of the Dead Sea Scrolls).  Reference is made 6 times to those who witnessed the signing of the deeds.  Jeremiah’s purchase of the field is a sign that “houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land” (32.15).

     What follows is a prayer addressed to God by Jeremiah (32.16-25).[2]  Walter Brueggemann calls it a prayer of “trustful incredulity” (cf. Mk. 9.24).[3]  He begins by invoking “the God who made the heavens and the earth by his outstretched arm!”  This is an image of God’s power (32.17, 21).  Jeremiah summarizes the entire Scriptural narrative (OT) in this prayer; he begins with creation (32.17); continues to the Exodus and conquest of the Promised Land (32.20-23); he then sums up the centuries of rebellion and idolatry from the time of the Judges to his own day in a single verse (32.23b).  Jeremiah then describes the siege of Jerusalem happening as he prays and ends by stating “Yet you have told me to ‘Buy the field…’, though the city has been given into the hands of the Babylonians” (32.25).  It’s as though Jeremiah is in shock – he can’t believe what he has just done – he has purchased real estate that he won’t ever have access to!  (“Those who plant trees knowing they will never sit in their shade have begun to understand the meaning of life”).[4]  The prayer is a hymn to God’s power; it makes reference to God’s “outstretched arm”, “strong hand” and “great power”; it addresses Yahweh as “mighty God”, who “showed signs and wonders in Egypt”, who “made a name for himself” and for whom “nothing is too hard”.  There remains a strain of helplessness in the prayer however, which is expressed in the twice-repeated “the city has been given into the hands of the Chaldeans” (32.24-25).  What is the mighty God going to do?

     God responds to Jeremiah’s prayer (32.26-44).  God begins with a question: “is anything too hard for me?” (32.27; cf. Gn. 18.14).  God then immediately reiterates that he is going “to give this city into the hands of the Chaldeans”.  Yahweh insists that disaster is going to befall Jerusalem because of the sins of his people “since their youth” (32.30-31).  God accuses his people of having turned their backs on him, and for failing to listen and to accept God’s correction (32.33).  Yahweh once again says that the city “is being given into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence” (32.36, 43; cf. 32.24).  And then the tone of the word of the Lord changes.  The Lord of Israel breaks out of expected consistencies, leaping beyond the real and terrible judgment to speak of a future as unbelievable as buying land in front of a burning, destroying army.[5]  God begins to make promises to bring his people back from exile; God repeats his intention to establish a new covenant with his people (cf. 31.31-34) and promises to “plant” his people in the (promised) Land (32.37-41).  God concludes by saying that “Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so I will bring upon them all the good fortune that I now promise them” (32.42).  In the final two verses of the chapter, God repeats twice that “fields shall be bought in this land” (32.43-44).  Jeremiah’s purchase of his cousin’s field is a sure and certain sign that God will indeed restore the Land to his people after the exile.  The mighty God, for whom nothing is too hard, will do this.


[1] Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: Vol. VI, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001, p. 820.

[2] I grew up singing a song inspired by this prayer:

“Ah, Lord God, Thou has made the heavens
And the earth by Thy great power
Ah, Lord God, Thou has made the heavens
And the earth by Thine outstretched arm

Nothing is too difficult for Thee
Nothing is too difficult for Thee
Great and mighty God
Great in counsel and mighty in deed
Nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing
Nothing is too difficult for Thee (ah, Lord God)”

[3] Quoted in Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: Vol. VI, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001, p. 820.

[4] Only the power of God to redeem the future will make it a meaningful act: Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: Vol. VI, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001, pp. 819-20.

[5] Miller, Patrick D. “The Book of Jeremiah” in The New Interpreter’s Bible: Vol. VI, Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2001, p. 821.

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