©LaBelleLife.com
Chapter 32:16-35 (ESV) - “After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying: ‘Ah, LORD God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them, O great and mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man, rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. You have shown signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, and to this day in Israel and among all mankind, and have made a name for yourself, as at this day. You brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and outstretched arm, and with great terror. And you gave them this land, which you swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey. And they entered and took possession of it. But they did not obey your voice or walk in your law. They did nothing of all you commanded them to do. Therefore you have made all this disaster come upon them. Behold, the siege mounds have come up to the city to take it, and because of sword and famine and pestilence the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans who are fighting against it. What you spoke has come to pass, and behold, you see it. Yet you, O LORD God, have said to me, “Buy the field for money and get witnesses”—though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.’”
The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? Therefore, thus says the LORD: Behold, I am giving this city into the hands of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall capture it. The Chaldeans who are fighting against this city shall come and set this city on fire and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs offerings have been made to Baal and drink offerings have been poured out to other gods, to provoke me to anger. For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done nothing but evil in my sight from their youth. The children of Israel have done nothing but provoke me to anger by the work of their hands, declares the LORD. This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built to this day, so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger—their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets, the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. They have turned to me their back and not their face. And though I have taught them persistently, they have not listened to receive instruction. They set up their abominations in the house that is called by my name, to defile it. They built the high places of Baal in the Valley of the Son of Hinnom, to offer up their sons and daughters to Molech, though I did not command them, nor did it enter into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.
Question to consider: How can we tell that the land purchase was the LORD’s word of encouragement to Jeremiah?
In yesterday’s study, I ended with a comparison of Jeremiah with John the Baptist and wrote that I believed the LORD gave the sign of Jeremiah’s cousin coming to sell him his land as an encouragement in the midst of his suffering at the hands of Zedekiah.
It was a relatively small thing that the LORD had done for Jeremiah, but it produced in him a litany of praise and the realization that nothing was beyond the LORD’s control. Everything was going according to His plan.
I think it is interesting that all of Jeremiah’s references to Israel were in the third person (they, them) rather than the first person (we, ours). Even though he considered the people of Israel and Judah his brothers, he didn’t for a second associate himself with their idolatry or the judgment that was unfolding in Jerusalem. He was merely a bystander and an oracle of warning against them and was enduring their unjust judgment against him for proclaiming the LORD’s word against them.
Jeremiah then used the first person (me) in reference to the land purchase. This word from the LORD was a personal assurance that it was not His intention to wipe out His people. This was what Jeremiah needed in order to take to heart the reality that the LORD did indeed have a plan for His people to give them a hope and a future.
The LORD then reminded Jeremiah that He was not only the God of Israel but of all flesh. Since Israel had defiled His holy city, He would use His servant, Nebuchadnezzar, to burn away all of the corrupted parts of the land so it could refresh and renew for seventy years. The truth is that the LORD does not turn His back on His people (including the church). We are the ones who turn our backs on the LORD.
It was unthinkable that people who professed to worship the one true God would offer their children up to Molech, but there is plenty of evidence that it is happening even today. Like Jeremiah, we are to disassociate ourselves with this kind of sin and expose it for what it is. As Paul told the Ephesian church, “Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the LORD. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true), and try to discern what is pleasing to the LORD. Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is shameful even to speak of the things that they do in secret.” (Ephesians 5:7-12)
Dear heavenly Father, we praise You as the God of all flesh who has sovereignly brought about redemption in a world that has been entirely corrupted by sin. Help us to see Your work in the world and give us a desire to be Your instruments in carrying it out. Amen.