Jeremiah 32:1-15 The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah… I. THE REASONS FOR THIS PURCHASE. 1. We may perhaps suppose that kindness to a kinsman, as Matthew Henry suggests, had something to do with it; for kindness is kinnedness, and it is very hard if we cannot show kindness to our kith and kin when they are in need. If Jeremiah has no need of the land, we may still infer, under the circumstances of Jerusalem in a state of siege, that his cousin Hanameel has great need of money. Some of us, perhaps, who maintain that business is business, and should be conducted always on the strictest business principles, may think that as to this matter of kindness to a kinsman, about the most inexpedient way of showing it is by mixing it with matters of business. As nearest kinsman his was the right of redemption, and it was already his in reversion in case of the death of his cousin; this cousin being, as we assume, in straits for want of money, and Jeremiah being a considerate, reasonable, and kind-hearted man, concedes to his cousin's proposal, buying the land for what it is worth, and perhaps for something more. And if the opportunity should occur to us of helping a needy relative in some such way — if with anything like a reasonable prospect of success we can give him another chance, a new start in life, helping him to help himself — then, looking at the example of Jeremiah, I think we may all hear a voice speaking to us, and saying, "Go thou and do likewise." 2. We may suggest, as another reason for this purchase, Jeremiah's interest in future generations. Anathoth was one of the cities of the priests, and this field was ecclesiastical property. It might well be, therefore, that, unless Jeremiah bought it, it might in those confused times pass into other hands, by which it would become alienated from its sacred purposes, and so the law of Moses suffer violation. He was a Jew, and we know how the Jews looked on to the future and backward to the past, linking the past to the present and the present to the future, finding in the present a focus in which both past and future met, and so in the nation's unity finding its immortality. We know how that great national anthem, that prayer of Moses the man of God, begins, "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling-place in all generations"; and we know how it closes, "Let Thy work appear unto Thy servants, and Thy glory unto their children, and establish Thou the work of our hands upon us, yea, the work of our hands establish Thou it." We have a more sure word of prophecy, we anticipate a more glorious future, and we also know that even as to this life the best that we can do for those who are to come after us is not by making "purchases," not buying fields or houses, not saving fortunes for our children, but by living godly, devout, Christ-like lives, shall we leave to them the best inheritance. 3. Let us assume, again, that Jeremiah, magnifying his prophet's office, would have it made plain that he himself believed in his own predictions. The land was indeed to be desolate for seventy years, to have its Sabbaths, and to lie fallow; but after that time the people were to return from their captivity, take joyful possession once more of houses, and fields, and lands: and this particular piece of land, Jeremiah believed, would then revert to its rightful owners, the priests and Levites. For ourselves, making no pretension to the prophet's office — that is, in the sense of foretelling — yet let us take care that our practice shall not conflict with our theory, that we practise what we preach, and so adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. "Let your conversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ." 4. Lastly, as summing up all, we may say that Jeremiah evidently believed it to be the will of God. I marvel much how anyone calling himself a Christian, can ever hesitate as to doing what he believes to be the will of God, especially when the question is of something simple and easily done. I am asked sometimes, Is baptism necessary to salvation? and I answer, No, a thousand times, no. Salvation precedes baptism, and is in nowise a consequence of it; but surely, if we once admit that it is the will of God, that we have for it at once the example and precept of the Lord, that should be enough for us. II. JEREMIAH'S DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES AS TO THIS PURCHASE. No sooner was it completed than he seems to have been oppressed as with a burden, his brain clouded, and his nervous system rendered irritable by it. 1. Perhaps he is beginning to doubt whether after all he had rightly interpreted the vision, and the subsequent visits of Hanameel, as making it quite certain that he was to accept his kinsman's offer. He still thinks so, as it would seem, upon the whole, but yet his mind is opening to a doubt, and he is in sore perplexity of spirit. 2. It may be also that he is distressed at the thought that perhaps his very confidence in the promises of God, and his wish to show that he believed in his own predictions, may be turned against him. The sneering, who understand so well the motives of others, may be saying, "Don't tell me that this man is so unselfish as to part with his money for a piece of land that somebody else seventy years hence is to enjoy! He knows better than that, and fully expects before very long to take possession of it himself"; and possibly, hearing such things, he might be in the confused condition of Bunyan's Christian in the valley of the shadow of death, when the foul fiend whispered into his ear those terrible thoughts which he could hardly distinguish from his own. There is nothing at all unusual, moreover, in such an experience as this, that when a man, acting by such light as he has, has done what seems to him a wise thing and a good thing, there comes for a time a sort of morbid reaction, by which he sinks into despondency and gloom. And herein lies the difference between those who fall away and those who, enduring to the end, are saved: not that either is exempt from doubts, conflicts, and temptations; but that in the one case these are yielded to, and in the other, faith ultimately gains the victory over them. III. HOW JEREMIAH OVERCAME AND SOLVED HIS DOUBTS AND DIFFICULTIES. "I prayed unto the Lord." Whether or not he prayed to the Lord about his purchase before he made it we are not told. Perhaps he did not. There are some things that seem so plain to us as matters of duty and of daily habit, that there is no need to pray for Divine direction concerning them. As the Lord said to Moses when Israel's duty was so plain, "Wherefore criest thou unto Me? Speak unto the children of Israel, that they go forward." But in any case we are sure that the spirit of prayer, the continued lifting up of the heart to God, was in all that Jeremiah had done. But when we find him bringing this matter of the "purchase" specially before the Lord, seeking as he does for help and strength and grace, in weakness, perplexity, and trouble, we are encouraged by his example to bring all our affairs to the throne of the heavenly grace, however commonplace, mechanical, and routine they may be. (J. W. Lance.) Parallel Verses KJV: The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. |
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