Theological Commentary: Click Here
This chapter
is by-and-large what is seems to be.
Jeremiah is told to buy a field by the Lord. He does buy it. He pays the full sum for it. It’s all done
proper and legal.
There’s just
one issue. Jerusalem is under siege and
the people are going to be led away. The
deal makes no sense whatsoever. God has
even told Jeremiah that the exile would last for approximately Jeremiah’s
lifetime, id not a bit longer. Jeremiah
will never benefit from the purchase of the land. He’ll never farm it. Jeremiah wonders why it is that the Lord had
him buy it.
The answer
is fairly simple, although not so much for Jeremiah. God is sending a message to the people. The land will once more be theirs. They will till the fields. They will reap its harvest. They will buy and sell and trade. Life will go back to normal. The exile will not last forever, there will
be a regathering of the people who were scattered. God’s point is that while the exile seems
like a bad thing, it will be temporary.
Unfortunately,
that doesn’t really help Jeremiah much. In
the end, he’s bought a useless field. His
city is besieged, and there won’t be much farming going on. But the message has been sent to the people. Sometimes following God is more about the
message we send and not the sense it the actions we take.
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