investing in the future

Good morning friends,
First, I'd like to invite us to pray hard for the peace negotiations in the Middle East; let's pray that all parties would be open to truly listen to each other and to work for the stability and peace. Today's passage is a reminder that God's great purposes play out in simple, everyday actions. We've heard Jeremiah prophesying doom for Judah because of idolatry and injustice. Finally fed up with this message, the King of Judah has Jeremiah locked up. Jeremiah's imprisonment comes in the midst of a Babylonian attack on Jerusalem, an attack that will end in Jerusalem's capture.

Jeremiah hears a message from God that his cousin is going to come and ask him to purchase a field from him. In Israel and Judah land is never just land. God told Joshua how to divide the land among the Twelve Tribes of Israel when they first conquered and occupied the land centuries earlier. Inherited land was not only important for a family, it was an inheritance decreed by God. For that reason there were biblical laws about how land could be transferred. If a family got into debt and had to sell their land their close family were supposed to buy the land to keep it in the family. That's what Hanamel means when he tells Jeremiah that the right by purchase and redemption is his. In the middle of a siege, that land would be basically worthless, but Jeremiah buys it. He buys it as a message from God that this defeat is not the end of the road for Judah. God has a future for them, even if it seems unlikely at the moment. God has a future for us too; we can trust and invest in that future with our everyday lives.

God bless,
Sam

Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15

1The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. 2At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah, 3awhere King Zedekiah of Judah had confined him. 6Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came to me: 7Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, "Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours." 8Then my cousin Hanamel came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the LORD, and said to me, "Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself." Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.


9And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; 12and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. 13In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, 14Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. 15For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.