Buy my field, I pray thee. Jeremiah 32:1-15 Jeremiah's faith W. A. Salter. I. FAITH IS HERE ILLUSTRATED AS RESTING EXCLUSIVELY UPON THE WORD OF GOD. All that Jeremiah did in this matter he did just because he had a command from the Lord. Whilst he was in prison, God told him that his cousin should come and offer him the redemption of a part at least of the family inheritance. The man came, and he "knew that this was the Word of the Lord"; therefore he bought the field. It is not to be supposed that he was rich. The probability is that he may have had to get the money for the purchase from his friend Baruch. Neither had he any expectation of himself obtaining any personal benefit from the purchase, for he believed that the city would be given into the hands of the Chaldeans, that the people would be taken for seventy years as exiles to Babylon. This is the very nature of true faith; it does the thing, or it receives the thing, it fears or it hopes, as the case may be wholly because God has spoken. If it embraces a promise, it rests its hope upon the Word of the Lord. If it is moved by fear, it is because God has denounced an impending punishment. If it acts in a particular way, it follows exactly the path which God has marked out. Resting as it does entirely upon the Word of God, it is altogether independent of reason, although it does not refuse to listen to its voice. Faith receives testimony; our faith in men leads us to receive the testimony of men. We often receive that testimony although we have no other evidence whatever of the facts we believe. Nay, we receive it although we have found the very persons whose testimony we are now relying upon to have been, in some instances, at least, mistaken. Faith in men goes thus far; it must go thus far; we are compelled to act in this way, or we should cut ourselves off from mankind and the activities of life. But if this be so, if we find it necessary and reasonable to act in this way, receiving the testimony of men, shall we not receive the testimony of God? When He speaks it is for us simply to listen. How wondrously has God. spoken! "In the beginning" "God created the heavens and the earth. Going on from that primary revelation, He has revealed more and more of His truth; and in proportion as our minds rise, in proportion as our moral sense is cultivated, in proportion as we get free from the degrading power of evil which perverts our moral judgment, we find the revelation to be in accordance with everything we might expect. He speaks to us of things which are far beyond the reach of human knowledge and experience, testimony or deduction. He sets before us His own dear Son incarnate in our nature, and tells us of the great purpose for which He came. II. This passage teaches us also that FAITH TAKES ACCOUNT OF DIFFICULTIES AND IMPROBABILITIES ONLY SO FAR AS TO REFER THEM TO HIM. We must pass on to a later portion of the chapter to illustrate this. When Jeremiah had purchased the field, and subscribed the deeds and sealed them, and they were deposited in the custody of Baruch in an earthen jar to be kept for a considerable time, he seems to have experienced what we all know, some kind of reaction Of feeling; and then, as if he almost felt that he had done something that he was hardly warranted in doing, he goes and lays the matter before God (vers. 17-25). This must certainly have seemed strange to any person who did not understand that it was God's Word. That a man who was in prison should buy an estate, believing as he did that before long the country would be in the hands of the Chaldeans, who would recognise no title-deeds whatever; that he should carefully go through the forms of Jewish law to acquire the estate, really appeared a most foolish thing. It seems as if those thoughts, so natural to us, came back upon Jeremiah's mind, and he began to think of the difficulties and the probabilities of the case. You see that this is not a prayer for a blessing upon what he had done; it is not a prayer that the matter in which he had been engaged should be successful; but it is an utterance of wavering and distracted feeling; and that wavering and distracted feeling is rightly uttered to God. We all know perfectly well that faith as it exists in us is not complete in its power. Sometimes we can look over, we might almost say, the boundaries of our earthly horizon and see the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem and the hills of the celestial city, but at other times the depths of the valley of the shadow of death seem to hide it all from our view. Sometimes we can hold firmly to the truth which God has been pleased to set before us with unequivocal assertion, and with demonstration of power to our believing heart; but at other times our grasp upon it seems to relax, and it appears almost as if it would slip through our hands. When there is anything of this, what will a person who really has faith do, although that faith may not be in the most perfect state and in the fullest exercise? He will take all his difficulty to God. Do we find any difficulties about the way of salvation? Let us go and ask God to throw light, as far as that light is necessary, upon the truths whereby we are to be saved. Is there any question about my own connection with, or interest in, the work of Christ? Let me go and spread it before God, and ask Him to make my salvation clear to me. God never said that there should be no difficulty in the Christian's path. God never told us that there should be nothing hard to understand in the truth that the Christian has to believe respecting Himself. III. Again, we have this ILLUSTRATION OF THE NATURE AND THE POWER OF TRUE FAITH: — it joins obedience prompt and full with reliance implicit and abiding. Why does the inspired writer tell us the little particulars of the transaction? Would it not have been enough to say, "I bought the field"? No, because the object was to show that, in the full confidence that what God had said would come to pass, Jeremiah had left nothing whatever undone. There was no flaw in the document; all legal forms were complied with exactly; the two kinds of deeds that were always used, the one sealed and the other open, were provided; the earthen jar was obtained; the deeds were put in it and intrusted to a man of rank and standing; the money was paid; and all was done in the presence of witnesses, just as if Jeremiah had hoped to take possession of the little estates the very next day. This shows that the obedience of faith will be prompt and full and will omit nothing. Jeremiah never expected to get possession of that estate personally. He himself spoke of seventy years as the period of the captivity, and he did not therefore expect that he should ever be put in possession of the little piece of land, the reversion to which he had purchased. Faith does not bind its expectations to the present; it does not limit them to a man's own life here; it looks beyond. And the faith of a Christian looks farther still than Jeremiah's. It does not look merely to a deliverance at the end of seventy years, and a possession by some of our descendants or representatives at that time of a little spot in the earthly Canaan. It looks to the close of this mortal life, to the day of resurrection, and to glory with the risen Saviour throughout eternity. ( W. A. Salter. ) Jeremiah's purchase J. W. Lance. 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. ) A patriot's faith in the future This was bravely done, to make a purchase at such a time, when the enemy was seizing upon all. That Roman is famous in history who adventured to purchase that field near Rome wherein Hannibal had pitched his camp. But the Romans were nothing near so low at that time as the Jews were at this. A striking parallel to this confidence of Jeremiah, in the midst of near and present troubles, as to the ultimate glory of his nation, is furnished in the recently published Memoir of Dante Gabriel Rossetti , whoso father, Gabriel Rossetti, an Italian patriot who sought asylum in this country, yet never lost faith in the future of his native land. His biographer says: "When he died in 1854, the outlook seemed exceedingly dark; yet heart and hope did not abate in him. The latest letter of his which I have seen published was written in September or October 1853, and contains this passage, equally strong-spirited and prophetic: 'The Arpa Evangelica... ought to find free circulation through all Italy. I do not say the like of three other unpublished volumes, which all seethe with love of country and hatred for tyrants. These await a better time — which will come, be very sure of it. The present fatal period will pass, and serves to whet the universal desire Let us look to the future. Our tribulations, dear Madam, will not finish very soon, but finish they will at last. Reason has awakened in all Europe, although her enemies are strong. We shall pass various years in this state of degradation; then we shall rouse up. I assuredly shall not see it, for day by day — nay, hour by hour, I expect the much-longed-for death; but you will see it.'" Into the ground to die F. B. Meyer, B. A. Whilst shut up in the court of the prison, perhaps fastened by a chain that restrained his liberty, Jeremiah received a Divine intimation that his uncle would shortly come to him with a request for him to purchase the family property at Anathoth. This greatly startled him; because he had so clear a conviction, which he cherished as divinely given, of the approaching overthrow of the kingdom, and the consequent desolation of the land. He gave, however, no outward sign of his perplexities; but when his uncle's son entered the courtyard with his request, the prophet at once assented to the proposal, and purchased the property for seventeen shekels (about £2). In addition to this, Jeremiah took care to have the purchase recorded and witnessed with the same elaborate pains as if he were at once to be entering on occupation. The two deeds of contract — the one sealed with the more private details of price; the other open, and bearing the signatures of witnesses — were deposited in the charge of Baruch, with the injunction to put them in an earthen vessel and preserve them. They were probably not opened again until the return from the captivity. But Jeremiah was not a sharer in that glad scene. He did as God bade him, though the shadow of a great darkness lay upon his soul, for which he could only find relief, as the Lord on the Cross, in recourse to the Father. He fell into the ground to die, as the seed does, which holds at its heart a principle of life, that can only express itself through death, and can only bless men when its sowing, amid the depression and decay of autumn, has been complete. I. HOURS OF MIDNIGHT DARKNESS. It is only in service that anything reaches its fullest life. A bit of iron is condemned to solitude and uselessness till it becomes part of a great machine. A man who lives a self-contained life, of which the gratification of his own ambition and selfhood is the supreme aim, never drinks the sweets of existence, nor attains his full development. It is only when we live for God, and, in doing so, for man, that we are able to appropriate the rarest blessedness of which our nature is capable, or to unfold into all the proportions of full growth in Christ. In the deepest sense, therefore, Jeremiah could never regret that he had given the strength and measure of his days to the service of others. But none can give themselves to the service of others except at bitter cost of much that this world holds dear. This will explain the privations and sorrows to which Jeremiah was subjected. Death wrought in him, that life might work in Israel, and in all who should read the Book of his prophecy. 1. He died to the dear ties of human love. "Thou shalt not take thee a wife, neither shalt thou have sons or daughters in this place," was early said to him. What he held in his heart belonged to the race, and might not be poured forth within the narrower circle of the home, of priestly temple-duty, or of the little village of Anathoth. 2. He died to the goodwill of his fellows. None can be indifferent to this. It is easy to do or suffer, when the bark of life is wafted on its way by favouring breezes, or the air thrills with expressions of love and adulation. Then a man is nerved to dare to do his best. It was his bitter lot to encounter from the first an incessant stream of vituperation and dislike. "Woe is me, my mother," he cried sadly, "that thou hast borne me a man of strife and contention to the whole earth. I have not lent on usury, neither have men lent to me on usury; yet every one of them doth curse me." 3. He died to the pride of national patriotism. No patriot allows himself to despair of his country. However dark the louring storm clouds and strong the adverse current, he believes that the ship of State will weather the storm. He chokes back words of despondency and depression, lest they should breed dismay. But Jeremiah was driven along an opposite course. A loftier patriotism than his never hazarded itself in the last breach. His belief in Israel was part of his belief in God. But he found himself compelled to speak in such a fashion that the princes proposed, not without show of reason, to put him to death, because he weakened the hands of the men of war. 4. He died to the sweets of personal liberty. A large portion of his ministry was exerted from the precincts of a prison. Repeatedly we read of his being shut up and not able to go forth. 5. He died, also, to the meaning he had been wont to place on his own prophecies. Up to the moment when Jehovah bade him purchase the property of Hanameel, he had never questioned the impending fate of Jerusalem. It was certainly and inevitably to be destroyed by sword, famine, pestilence, and fire. But now the Word of God, demanding an act of obedience, seemed to indicate that the land was to remain under the cultivation of the families that owned it. II. JEREMIAH'S BEHAVIOUR. But amid it all he derived solace and support in three main directions. 1. He prayed. Take this extract from his own diary: "Now, after I had delivered the deed of the purchase unto Baruch, the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the Lord, saying, Ah, Lord God!" There is no help to the troubled soul like that which comes through prayer. 2. He rested on the word of God. The soul of the prophet was nourished and fed by the Divine word. "Thy words were found," he cries, "and I did eat them: and Thy words were unto me the joy and the rejoicing of my heart." 3. He faithfully kept to the path of duty. "And I bought the field." It does not always happen that our service to men will be met by rebuff, ill-will, and hard treatment; but when it does there should be no swerving, or flinching, or drawing back. The fierce snow-laden blast, driving straight in your teeth, is not so pleasant as the breath of summer, laden with the scent of the heather; but if you can see the track, you must follow it. To be anywhere off it, either right or left, would be dangerous in the extreme. Such are the resorts of the soul in its seasons of anguish. III. COMPENSATIONS. To all valleys there are mountains, to all depths heights; for all midnight hours there are hours of sunrise; for Gethsemane, an Olivet. We can never give up aught for God or man, without discovering that at the moment of surrender He begins to repay as He foretold to the prophet; "For brass I will bring gold, and for iron I will Bring silver, and for wood brass, and for stones iron." Nor does God keep these compensations for the new world, "where light and darkness fuse." It were long to wait, if that were so. But here and now we learn that there are compensations. The first movement from the selfish life may strain and try us, the indifference of our fellows be hard to bear; hut God has such things to reveal and give, as pass the wildest imaginings of the self-centred soul. So Jeremiah found it. His compensations came. God became his Comforter, and wiped, away his tears; and opened to him the vista of the future, down whose long aisles he beheld his people planted again in their own land. He saw men buying fields for money, and subscribing deeds and sealing them, as he had done. There was compensation also in the confidence with which Nebuchadnezzar treated him, and in the evident reliance which his decimated people placed in his intercessions, as we shall see. So it will be with all who fall into the ground to die. God will not forget or forsake them. The grave may be dark and deep, the winter long, the frost keen and penetrating; but spring will come, and the stone be rolled away; and the golden stalk shall wave in the sunshine, bearing its crown of fruit; and men shall thrive on the bread of our experience, the product of our tears, and sufferings, and prayers. ( F. B. Meyer, B. A. ) Then I knew that this was the Word of the Lord. Jeremiah 32:8 Missed opportunities Bp. Boyd Carpenter. No person who understands, and still less he who values, life as a sacred opportunity of doing something for the world before he dies, but has often wished that he could overleap the bounds of the present and understand what the result of his action shall be, so that, with the larger experience of the future, he might go the better armed against the perplexing problems and conditions of duty which beset him in the present. If only we had the education which will come in the future, how we should be protected against the mistakes of the present! And thus we feel a certain impatience against time. Now, the incident recorded in this chapter suggests to us exactly that thought of the way in which time may rebuke our rashness and rebuke also our dulness. The incident which is recorded is a very simple one, but it is suggestive and significant. A certain sort of dream, as we might call it, passed through the mind of Jeremiah, then in close imprisonment because of the jealous anger of the king. Whatever else he was, he was a Jew at heart, and he had that capacity which was singularly, I suppose, possessed by the Jew — the tenacious love of the soil which gave him birth. It was a joy for him to think that the land which was given by God to his forefathers belonged in succession of family inheritance to his own kinsman of that day; and the dream crossed his mind that perchance that moment might come when he would have the opportunity of becoming the possessor of his ancestral heritage. That was his thought. It came to him as a dream; he describes it afterwards as the direction of the Word of the Lord coming to him. But it was not, I imagine, realised as the Word of God at the first moment of its approach: it was only a later circumstance — an actual incident which occurred in his life — which enabled him to see that the first suggested thought was, indeed, the Word of the Lord. Now, the first thought which naturally arises from a thing like that is this. We may act upon our first impressions, our impressions may be very strong, and they may be ready to link themselves with our natural ambitions, but it is not every impression that is the word of light, still less the Word of the Lord. Religion divides itself very often, if we were to classify it, into two families or types. It has often been made the subject of mere mental impressions. The presence of the Spirit, the consciousness of a spirit working within, that has been emphasised to such a degree that at last men, driven by their impulse or suggestion of some passing impression, have committed deeds of violence and wrong which the common conscience of humanity condemns. That is to say, early impressions, strong impressions, even impressions which jump with the spirit of what we believe to be right, impressions which wed themselves to our darling dreams, however much they may justify themselves by the exercise of our imaginative conscience, are not in themselves to be accepted as truly Divine suggestions. We must wait for the light of other circumstances. Authority in religion is never on the one side or the other; authority is never wholly within, nor yet wholly without. If it is wholly within, it is open to the declaration of being a mere subjective impression; if it is wholly without, it lays no weight upon the spiritual nature of man, and receives no response from his conscience. But, when there comes to us this which, on the one hand, links itself with our inner nature, and by its own commanding presence makes us feel that it is true, and brings to it also the verifying evidence of providential opportunity — then duty leaps up and can draw her sword, because she knows that she is not the victim of a passing impression alone, but that two things, the law without and the law within, have been combining within his life — then he may know that this also is the Word of the Lord. But if, on the one side, an accident like this may be taken to rebuke the rash impulsiveness of men who would act upon their own subjective impressions, it also, and I think still more strikingly, witnesses against our dulness, which fails to perceive the true significance of the incidents of life as they occur. It was an impression on Jeremiah's mind, and it was only afterwards, when the light of that later circumstance of Hanameel's visit occurred, that he perceived its full significance. "Then I knew that this was the Word of the Lord." Now mark that this experience is very true in our ordinary life. How often it happens that we have failed to realise the full value of our opportunities till later circumstances flash new light on their meaning! To take the simplest illustration which might come to our minds, you are in the midst of a crowd; you are anxiously looking out because it is a crowd where many of the celebrities of life are gathered; and after you have passed some one suddenly says to you, "Did you see him?" and immediately there flashes upon you the thought, you have been close to one whose name you have heard, whose works perchance you have read, of whom you have had the greatest desire to have some knowledge. Just then the after circumstance of the utterance of your friend flashes upon you the true meaning of this; you have been close to that greatness which you have worshipped, you have massed the opportunity. Or there are incidents in your own life. Have you never had some friend who in early life was your familiar companion? You played with him, studied the same tasks with him; and now life has diverged, and he has risen to greatness, and we remain where we were on the commonplace level of life. People meet us and say, "You knew him; tell me some incidents of his early life." But now the dimness of the past comes upon your memory, and all the anecdotes have dropped away; the multitude of other affairs has obscured your recollection. But then, by the light of this after greatness, you know you have been by the side of one who was possessed of conspicuous genius, one of whom you would say, "Would that I had husbanded those stories of the past; would that I had observed him, for his life would have a further meaning to me had I been one who had noted carefully the characteristics, the features of his talent, of his life." In other words, later circumstances are constantly forcing upon us the dulness with which we have confronted the incidents of life as they have occurred. And surely that is the common witness of history. What is the history of all human progress? What is the history of literary life? "Who killed John Keats?" has often been asked. To the men of his day he was but a raw youth, full of a kind of rude desire for poetic fame; but now we recognise the genius which lay there; we go back and say how true it is that the men of their day failed to recognise the glory of these men, have persecuted them, and let them starve, and afterwards have built their monuments. It is the same in the history of our Lord. You are not surprised that the same thing should be fulfilled in His life who was in all points as we are — tempted, yet without sin. We say, "If we had lived in those days our hand would not have been lifted up against that sacred life, we should have torn the crown of thorns from His brow, we should have welcomed His mission, we should have adored Him." But the men of that day did not see the beauty that they should desire Him. "Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil," were the words with which He was greeted. John the Baptist pointed out their dulness — "There standeth One among you Whom ye know not." But we forget that this may be true in us. Even in our midst Christ stands, and we fail to recognise Him. Why is it we are perpetually visiting with our severe criticism the dulness of the past, when we may be dull ourselves — dull to duty, dull to opportunity, dull to the meaning of the age in which we are living, dull to the very call of God, dull to the presence of Christ? Every duty, every opportunity of kindness, every incident of our life, if we are alive to see it in its brighter light, in its true significance, would never be deemed to be trivial and insignificant at all. When we begin to see light, when the light shall flash upon it, when the grave is opening upon us, this very flash of the circumstance which we call death may shine so back upon the trivial incidents of our life, that we shall realise for the first time that those commonplace things, those duties which I shirked, those things from which I turned away, thinking them of no moment at all — those also were the Word of the Lord. May I, then, ask you to observe

Benson Commentary Jeremiah 32:1 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. Jeremiah 32:1 . The word that came to Jeremiah — As the date of the following transaction and prophecy is here stated to have been in the tenth year of Zedekiah’s reign, while the Chaldeans invested the city, and Jeremiah was confined in the court of the prison, it must have been after the Egyptians had retreated back to their own land, and the Chaldeans had renewed the siege a second time. Jeremiah at the beginning, it seems, of the siege foretold to Zedekiah that the city should be taken, and the king sent captive to Babylon, Jeremiah 34:1 ; Jeremiah 34:7 . The king, or his princes rather, irritated at his freedom, put him in prison, or, at least, in the court of the prison, which was in the palace. And it was in this place that the transaction here recorded happened. As Nebuchadnezzar came to besiege Jerusalem in the ninth year of Zedekiah, it is probable Jeremiah had now been confined a year or more in prison. The siege, it may be observed, lasted from the tenth month of that year to the fourth month of the eleventh year of that king’s reign. Jeremiah 32:2 For then the king of Babylon's army besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah's house. Jeremiah 32:3 For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy, and say, Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; Jeremiah 32:3-5 . Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the prison — He was afterward put in the dungeon, Jeremiah 37:16 ; and Jeremiah 38:6 . But now he was not under so severe a restraint. Compare Jeremiah 32:26 ; Jeremiah 32:28 of that chapter. For Zedekiah had shut him up, saying, Wherefore dost thou prophesy and say, &c. — This refers to the prophecy recorded Jeremiah 34:2 , &c., the particulars there mentioned being, in order of time, before the passages related in this chapter. We nowhere read that Zedekiah himself immediately commanded Jeremiah to be imprisoned: he seems rather to have been favourable to him, and to have been averse to his confinement; but God accounts princes to do that which their ministers or subordinate magistrates do with their connivance, or without their prohibition. Behold, I will give this city, &c., and Zedekiah shall not escape — Jeremiah prophesies that both the city and the court should fall into the hands of the king of Babylon: for God, whose city it was, in a peculiar manner would put it out of his protection, and give it into their hands; that, though Zedekiah should attempt to make his escape, he should be overtaken, and brought as a prisoner into Nebuchadnezzar’s presence, to his great confusion and terror, he having made himself particularly obnoxious to him by breaking his faith with him; that he should hear the king of Babylon pronounce his doom, and see with what fury and indignation he should look upon him, his eyes, as it is expressed, beholding Nebuchadnezzar’s eyes. He further prophesies that Zedekiah should be carried to Babylon, and continue a miserable captive there until God should visit him — That is, till God should put an end to his life by a natural death, as Nebuchadnezzar had long before put an end to every comfort of his life by putting out his eyes. And, lastly, he foretels that all their attempts to force the besiegers from their trenches would be ineffectual; for though they should fight with the Chaldeans, they should not prosper. For prophesying thus, that is, for bearing testimony to the truth, and giving them faithful warning of impending judgments, he is imprisoned. Jeremiah 32:4 And Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes; Jeremiah 32:5 And he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there shall he be until I visit him, saith the LORD: though ye fight with the Chaldeans, ye shall not prosper? Jeremiah 32:6 And Jeremiah said, The word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah 32:6-8 . The word of the Lord came unto me — “Jeremiah, after having just informed us why he was put in prison, returns to his design, and tells us that God had advised him, probably in a dream or vision, that Hanameel, his cousin, should come to him with the offer of a field in Anathoth; the right of redeeming whereof was in him. Jeremiah might have given up this right, as not being in a situation to make the purchase; but, understanding from the revelation of the Lord, that this affair had a mystical reference, and that he ought to accept the offer of his cousin, he purchased the field, as is afterward related, with the full process and meaning of the affair.” — Dodd. The field, being in Anathoth, near Jerusalem, was consequently at this time actually in the possession of the Chaldean army. And the design of God in directing Jeremiah to purchase it was to signify, that though Jerusalem was now besieged, and the whole country was likely to be laid waste, yet the time should come when houses, and fields, and vineyards should be again possessed in that land, Jeremiah 32:15 . As God appointed Jeremiah to confirm his predictions of the approaching destruction of Jerusalem by his own practice in living unmarried, so he now appointed him to confirm his predictions of the future restoration of Jerusalem by his own practice in purchasing this field. The Roman historian, Florus, relates, as a great instance of the bravery of the Roman citizens, that in the time of the second Punic war, when Hannibal besieged Rome, and was very near making himself master of it, a field, on which part of his army lay, being offered for sale at that time, was presently purchased, in a firm belief that the Roman valour would raise the siege, lib. 2. cap. 6. And have not we much more reason to venture our all upon the word of God, and to embark in Zion’s interests, which will undoubtedly be the prevailing interests at last? Jeremiah 32:7 Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum thine uncle shall come unto thee, saying, Buy thee my field that is in Anathoth: for the right of redemption is thine to buy it . Jeremiah 32:8 So Hanameel mine uncle's son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said unto me, Buy my field, I pray thee, that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thine, and the redemption is thine; buy it for thyself. Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD. Jeremiah 32:9 And I bought the field of Hanameel my uncle's son, that was in Anathoth, and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver. Jeremiah 32:9 . I weighed him the money — In ancient times all money was paid by weight, a custom still used in several countries; even seventeen shekels of silver — A sum which, in our money, is not much above forty shillings; a small price for a field or piece of ground. It must be considered, however, “that the quantity of land is uncertain, and that the circumstances of the times must have greatly tended to lessen the value of land. The field in question was at the time of the purchase in the enemy’s possession; and the purchaser well knew that he or his heirs had no chance of entering upon it till after the expiration of the seventy years’ captivity. Besides, the seller, it is likely, was in the immediate want of the money, and could get no one else to purchase in the precarious situation things were in. He might therefore be glad to take what the prophet, who, doubtless, was not rich, was able to give, and who would not have thought of making the purchase at any rate had he not acted under the divine direction for a special purpose.” — Blaney. Jeremiah 32:10 And I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it , and took witnesses, and weighed him the money in the balances. Jeremiah 32:10-14 . I subscribed the evidence, and sealed it — I wrote down an account of the transaction in a book. The method it appears then in use among the Jews when any purchase was made was, that the purchaser, as well as those who sold, testified his consent by some writing signed before witnesses. I took the evidence, both that which was sealed and that which was open — The open, or unsealed writing, was either a copy of the sealed one, or else a certificate of the witnesses, in whose presence the deed of purchase was signed and sealed. I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch — “Baruch was a scribe by profession, and it may be concluded that the attendance of such a one, skilled in the forms of law, was necessary on those occasions, both to draw up the writings and to officiate in the character of a notary public. And to his custody, as being a public officer, the custody of the title-deeds was intrusted.” I charged Baruch, to put them in an earthen vessel — To preserve them from fire and moisture. It was common with the ancients to put their writings into earthen vessels. Origen found at Jericho a version of the Scriptures hid in an earthen pot. That they may continue many days — When hid under ground for greater security, to be produced when the land should be re-inhabited. Jeremiah 32:11 So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open: Jeremiah 32:12 And I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, the son of Maaseiah, in the sight of Hanameel mine uncle's son , and in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. Jeremiah 32:13 And I charged Baruch before them, saying, Jeremiah 32:14 Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Take these evidences, this evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed, and this evidence which is open; and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. Jeremiah 32:15 For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. Jeremiah 32:16 Now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the LORD, saying, Jeremiah 32:16-22 . When I had delivered the evidence, I prayed unto the Lord — What he prayed for we learn in the following verses: by which it appears that he was not without some doubts and perplexities in this business. And though he yielded a ready and absolute obedience to God’s command, yet he prays for a clearer revelation of his meaning in the matter. Saying, Ah Lord God! &c. — He begins his prayer with an acknowledgment of God’s infinite power, made manifest in his works, both of creation and providence, whereby he shows himself wonderful in his mercies, and terrible in his judgments. It is observable that God himself makes use of these instances to confirm his people’s faith in his ability to do whatever he pleases, Jeremiah 27:5 . And the servants of God are often represented in holy writ as giving God such names and titles, and ascribing to him such attributes, as were calculated to strengthen their faith in prayer. And there is nothing too hard for thee — Hebrew, ?? ????? ???? , too wonderful for thee, or, hidden from thee, as some render the clause: that is, out of the reach of thy wisdom and power to bring to pass. Thou showest loving-kindness unto thousands, and recompensed, &c. — This name God gave himself, Exodus 34:7 ; Deuteronomy 5:9-10 , where see the notes; and concerning the latter clause, the note on Jeremiah 31:29-30 . The great, the mighty God, the Lord of hosts — The God of infinite majesty, of boundless power, and of universal dominion, and therefore worthy of all adoration and praise, of all reverence and fear, of all subjection and obedience. Great in counsel, and mighty in work — Who art infinitely wise in ordering all events, and powerful in putting thy decrees in execution. Thine eyes are open upon all the ways, &c. — Beholding the evil and the good, and that not as an unconcerned spectator, but as an observing judge; to give every one according to his ways — To reward or punish men according to their actions, and the principles from which they proceed. Who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt — Who didst wonders of justice in the land of Egypt, which remain, if not in the marks, yet in the memorials of them, unto this day. And in Israel — And wroughtest wonders of mercy in Israel, bringing them out of Egypt through the Red sea, raining down manna upon them, and quails from heaven, and fetching water out of the rock for them; and among other men — And hast also done many wondrous works in other places, by which thou hast made thyself a glorious name. Jeremiah 32:17 Ah Lord GOD! behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is nothing too hard for thee: Jeremiah 32:18 Thou shewest lovingkindness unto thousands, and recompensest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts, is his name, Jeremiah 32:19 Great in counsel, and mighty in work: for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men: to give every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings: Jeremiah 32:20 Which hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, even unto this day, and in Israel, and among other men; and hast made thee a name, as at this day; Jeremiah 32:21 And hast brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror; Jeremiah 32:22 And hast given them this land, which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey; Jeremiah 32:23 And they came in, and possessed it; but they obeyed not thy voice, neither walked in thy law; they have done nothing of all that thou commandedst them to do: therefore thou hast caused all this evil to come upon them: Jeremiah 32:23-25 . And they came in and possessed it — In the former two verses he acknowledges God’s goodness to Israel, here he owns his truth and faithfulness in bringing them into the land which he had promised them. But they obeyed not thy voice — Having borne testimony to God’s power, wisdom, and faithfulness, he comes now to own his justice, confessing that this people for whom he had done so much, had very ill requited him. They have done nothing at all that thou commandedst them, &c. — They have not only broken some particular laws, but thy whole law. Therefore thou hast caused all this evil, &c. — Therefore thou art righteous in bringing these judgments upon them. Behold the mounts — The ramparts raised against the walls for placing battering engines on, and engines to cast weapons against the defenders, or for the purpose of making a general assault and taking the city. And the city is given — Is ready to be given; into the hand of the Chaldeans, because of the sword, &c. — Such is the havoc that the sword, the famine, and the pestilence make among the people, that they cannot make head against the besiegers, but must be overcome by them. And thou hast said unto me, Buy thee the field for money — In this posture of affairs, when the city, and the country round about it, are in the power of the enemy, thou hast commanded me to make this purchase, which I have no prospect of ever enjoying. As if he had said, Lord I expound thy meaning to me, why thou shouldest set me to make purchases for thine enemies to possess. Jeremiah 32:24 Behold the mounts, they are come unto the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans, that fight against it, because of the sword, and of the famine, and of the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken is come to pass; and, behold, thou seest it . Jeremiah 32:25 And thou hast said unto me, O Lord GOD, Buy thee the field for money, and take witnesses; for the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Jeremiah 32:26 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah, saying, Jeremiah 32:26-35 . Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah — To this difficulty of Jeremiah, between what was commanded him, and the prospect of its being, not only useless, but disadvantageous to him, the Lord answered, Behold, I am the God of all flesh — Of all men: is any thing too hard for me? — The difficulties which thou thinkest are not to be surmounted are not difficulties to me, who can do all things, and have the lives and actions of men wholly at my disposal. Therefore, thus saith the Lord — The Lord now proceeds to confirm again the predictions so frequently given, concerning both the destruction and the restoration of Jerusalem; and to explain more fully the reasons of his conduct toward the Jews and Israelites. The Chaldeans, that fight against this city shall burn it — Thou judgest right: this city shall be taken, and that by this very army of Chaldeans which now besieges it; who shall destroy it by fire; with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense, &c. — As if he had said, In the execution of my vengeance I shall not act by absolute power, but as a just and righteous judge, vindicating the honour of my violated laws. For they have polluted their houses by idolatrous worship upon the roofs of them, openly and publicly, in contempt of my authority, and defiance of my justice. For the children of Israel and Judah have only done evil before me, &c. — If they had offended me only by some particular acts of sin, or by omitting their duty in only some few instances, or but for a short time, I might have been thought to act with severity toward them; but from the time they first began to be a nation they have only provoked me to anger with the works of their hands — Passing from one course of sin, and from one species of idolatry, to another. For this city hath been a provocation of mine anger, &c. — The conduct of its inhabitants has been generally and long provoking: they began betimes, and have continued in the commission of the most daring wickedness from age to age. From the day that they built it — Or, that it was built, the verb personal being often used for the impersonal. Solomon completed the building of Jerusalem, having greatly enlarged and beautified it with the temple and other stately buildings, and he afterward greatly defiled it by idolatry, the sin here spoken of. See 1 Kings 11:7 , compared with 2 Kings 23:13 . And, except in David’s time, the worship of God could hardly be said to be preserved pure through the entire reign of any one king. That I should remove it from before my face — As if they had pursued these idolatrous practices on purpose to provoke me to destroy the city, and to cast its inhabitants out of it. As nothing can be more easy than for people to keep close to the divine rule, as to external acts of worship, so nothing is more provoking to God than their not doing so. And yet nothing has been more rarely done in any nation; as if men had set themselves to bid defiance to a jealous God. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel — Still God makes their destruction to be of themselves, provoking him to that wrath which he executed upon them. They, their kings, their princes, &c. — The whole head was sick, the whole heart faint. All orders of men were so corrupted that there was no hope of their reformation or amendment. They have turned unto me the back and not the face — They have behaved themselves contemptuously toward me, like men who, when they are admonished or instructed, instead of looking toward those who instruct or admonish them, turn their backs upon them: see note on Jeremiah 2:27 . Though I taught them, rising up early. &c. — Their sin would not have been so great and heinous if I, by my prophets, had not so continually instructed and reproved them; and they as stubbornly refused to hearken to the instruction, and to be amended by the reproofs. They set their abominations — Their idols, which, above all things, the jealous God abhors; in the house which is called by my name — That is, in the temple, which was ordinarily called the house of the Lord. This they did under some of the idolatrous kings. And they built the high places of Baal, &c. — See the notes on Jeremiah 19:5-6 , where all the clauses of this verse are explained. Jeremiah 32:27 Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me? Jeremiah 32:28 Therefore thus saith the LORD; Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it: Jeremiah 32:29 And the Chaldeans, that fight against this city, shall come and set fire on this city, and burn it with the houses, upon whose roofs they have offered incense unto Baal, and poured out drink offerings unto other gods, to provoke me to anger. Jeremiah 32:30 For the children of Israel and the children of Judah have only done evil before me from their youth: for the children of Israel have only provoked me to anger with the work of their hands, saith the LORD. Jeremiah 32:31 For this city hath been to me as a provocation of mine anger and of my fury from the day that they built it even unto this day; that I should remove it from before my face, Jeremiah 32:32 Because of all the evil of the children of Israel and of the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, and the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Jeremiah 32:33 And they have turned unto me the back, and not the face: though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them , yet they have not hearkened to receive instruction. Jeremiah 32:34 But they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name, to defile it. Jeremiah 32:35 And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. Jeremiah 32:36 And now therefore thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence; Jeremiah 32:36-39 . Now therefore, &c. — In this and the following verses God returns an answer to the prophet’s expostulation, Jeremiah 32:25 . Or the words may be thus translated, But now, notwithstanding, [all this,] thus saith the Lord; concerning this city, whereof ye say, It shall be delivered into the hand, &c. — Many of the Jews now began to see that the Chaldeans would certainly take the city, and they became as much dispirited as before they were full of courage. By the sword and by the famine, &c. — The famine and pestilence, as well as the sword, seemed to fight for the king of Babylon, by the great havoc they made of the besieged, which rendered the taking of the city so much easier. Behold I will gather them out of all countries, &c. — See notes on Jeremiah 23:3 ; Jeremiah 23:8 ; Jeremiah 29:14 . I will bring them again, &c., and cause them to dwell safely — Though the city shall be taken, and the people shall go into captivity, yet they shall not be utterly lost, for I will gather them again, and they shall dwell here in quietness and safety as formerly. It is justly observed, however, by St. Jerome, in his notes on the place, that this promise, taken in its full extent, was not made good to those that returned from captivity, because they were frequently infested with wars, as well by the kings of Syria and Egypt, as by the rest of their neighbours, as appears from the history of the Maccabees; and were finally subdued and destroyed by the Romans. And they shall be my people, &c. — See note on Jeremiah 24:7 ; Jeremiah 30:22 . And I will give them one heart and one way — When the ten tribes set up a distinct kingdom from that of Judah, they stood divided, not only in their civil interests, but also in respect to their religious worship. These distinctions, God here says, he would entirely abolish, so that Israel and Judah should be united, and become one nation and one church, living under the same civil government, and using the same forms of divine worship, equally acknowledging and serving the one living and true God. That they may fear me for ever — That they may worship and obey me in truth, as a people that have a real reverence for and fear of offending me; for the good of them and of their children — Which will be for the great advantage and happiness of them and their posterity as long as they shall continue so to do. This promise, in its full sense, will not be accomplished till the general conversion of Judah and Israel to Christianity, and their restoration and reunion in the latter days. See notes on Jeremiah 3:18 ; Jeremiah 30:3 . Jeremiah 32:37 Behold, I will gather them out of all countries, whither I have driven them in mine anger, and in my fury, and in great wrath; and I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely: Jeremiah 32:38 And they shall be my people, and I will be their God: Jeremiah 32:39 And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: Jeremiah 32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me. Jeremiah 32:40-44 . And I will make an everlasting covenant with them — The Jewish covenant, even with respect to the ceremonial ordinances contained in it, is sometimes called an everlasting covenant; see Genesis 17:13 ; Leviticus 24:8 ; Isaiah 24:5 ; because those ordinances were to continue for a long succession of ages; but when this expression is applied to the gospel covenant, there is a peculiar emphasis contained in it, implying that it should never be abolished, or give way to any other dispensation. That I will not turn away from them to do them good — This clause manifestly shows, that this promise relates to those Jews and Israelites that should embrace the gospel, and become Jews inwardly, and Israelites indeed; for, as to others, God did turn away from doing them good, when their city was taken by Titus, and so many myriads of them perished by the sword, famine, and pestilence. But I will put my fear into their hearts — My Spirit shall beget in them a true reverence for, and genuine, loving fear of me, producing obedience to my laws, subjection to my authority, and perseverance in my ways, so that they shall not depart from me. Some justly infer from this declaration, that when once the body of the Jews shall be converted, they shall never again apostatize from God. Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good — I will not only do them good, but will take pleasure therein. And I will plant them, &c., assuredly, with my whole heart — With a true and lasting affection. Like as I have brought all this great evil, &c. — They shall find me as true to my promises as to my threatenings. See Jeremiah 31:28 . And fields shall be bought in this land, &c. — So that it was not without good reason that I sent Hanameel unto thee, Jeremiah 32:8 . It was to assure thee that, though at present the Chaldeans shall prevail against Jerusalem, and the Jews shall be carried into captivity, and shall neither buy nor sell here, yet fields shall be bought here again. Men shall buy and sell, and seal evidences in all parts of this land, whereof you say, in despair, It is desolate without man or beast — Having no hope of the land being ever inhabited by your nation again. For I will cause their captivity to return, saith the Lord — The return of their captivity under Cyrus shall be an earnest of those greater blessings which I will bestow upon them at their general restoration. Jeremiah 32:41 Yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will plant them in this land assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. Jeremiah 32:42 For thus saith the LORD; Like as I have brought all this great evil upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I have promised them. Jeremiah 32:43 And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof ye say, It is desolate without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Jeremiah 32:44 Men shall buy fields for money, and subscribe evidences, and seal them , and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, and in the places about Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, and in the cities of the mountains, and in the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south: for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the LORD. Benson Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.

Expositor's Bible Commentary Jeremiah 32:1 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. CHAPTER XXX RESTORATION I THE SYMBOL Jeremiah 32:1-44 "And I bought the field of Hanameel."- Jeremiah 32:9 WHEN Jeremiah was first called to his prophetic mission, after the charge "to pluck up and to break down, and to destroy and to overthrow," there were added-almost as if they were an afterthought-the words "to build and to plant." { Jeremiah 1:10 } Throughout a large part of the book little or nothing is said about building and planting; but, at last, four consecutive chapters, 30-33, are almost entirely devoted to this subject. Jeremiah’s characteristic phrases are not all denunciatory; we owe to him the description of Jehovah as "the Hope of Israel." { Jeremiah 14:8 ; Jeremiah 17:13 } Sin and ruin, guilt and punishment, could not quench the hope that centred in Him. Though the day of Jehovah might be darkness and not light, { Amos 5:18 ; Amos 5:20 } yet, through the blackness of this day turned into night, the prophets beheld a radiant dawn. When all other building and planting were over for Jeremiah, when it might seem that much that he had planted was being rooted up again in the overthrow of Judah, he was yet permitted to plant shoots in the garden of the Lord, which have since become trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. The symbolic act dealt with in this chapter is a convenient introduction to the prophecies of restoration, especially as chapters 30 and 31 have no title and are of uncertain date. The incident of the purchase of Hanameel’s field is referred by the title to the year 587 B.C., when Jeremiah was in prison and the capture of the city was imminent. Jeremiah 32:2-6 are an introduction by some editor, who was anxious that his readers should fully understand the narrative that follows. They are compiled from the rest of the book, and contain nothing that need detain us. When Jeremiah was arrested and thrown into prison, he was on his way to Anathoth "to receive his portion there," { Jeremiah 37:12 (R.V.} i.e., as we gather from this chapter to take possession of an inheritance that devolved upon him. As he was now unable to attend to his business at Anathoth, his cousin Hanameel came to him in the prison, to give him the opportunity of observing the necessary formalities. In his enforced leisure Jeremiah would often recur to the matter on which he had been engaged when he was arrested. An interrupted piece of work is apt to intrude itself upon the mind with tiresome importunity; moreover his dismal surroundings would remind him of his business-it had been the cause of his imprisonment. The bond between an Israelite and the family inheritance was almost as close and sacred as that between Jehovah and the Land of Promise. Naboth had died a martyr to the duty he owed to the land. "Jehovah forbid that I should give thee the inheritance of my fathers," { 1 Kings 21:3 } said he to Ahab. And now, in the final crisis of the fortunes of Judah, the prophet whose heart was crushed by the awful task laid upon him had done what he could to secure the rights of his family in the "field" at Anathoth. Apparently he had failed. The oppression of his spirits would suggest that Jehovah had disapproved and frustrated his purpose. His failure was another sign of the utter ruin of the nation. The solemn grant of the Land of Promise to the Chosen People was finally revoked; and Jehovah no longer sanctioned the ancient ceremonies which bound the households and clans of Israel to the soil of their inheritance. In some such mood, Jeremiah received the intimation that his cousin Hanameel was on his way to see him about this very business. "The word of Jehovah came unto him: Behold, thine uncle Shallum’s son Hanameel is coming to thee, to say unto thee, Buy my field in Anathoth, for it is thy duty to buy it by way of redemption." The prophet was roused to fresh perplexity. The opportunity might be a Divine command to proceed with the redemption. And yet he was a childless man doomed to die in exile. What had he to do with a field at Anathoth in that great and terrible day of the Lord? Death or captivity was staring everyone in the face; land was worthless. The transaction would put money into Hanameel’s pocket. The eagerness of a Jew to make sure of a good bargain seemed no very safe indication of the will of Jehovah. In this uncertain frame of mind Hanameel found his cousin, when he came to demand that Jeremiah should buy his field. Perhaps the prisoner found his kinsman’s presence a temporary mitigation of his gloomy surroundings, and was inspired with more cheerful and kindly feelings. The solemn and formal appeal to fulfil a kinsman’s duty towards the family inheritance came to him as a Divine command: "I knew that this was the word of Jehovah." The cousins proceeded with their business, which was in no way hindered by the arrangements of the prison. We must be careful to dismiss from our minds all the associations of the routine and discipline of a modern English gaol. The "court of the guard" in which they were was not properly a prison; it was a place of detention, not of punishment. The prisoners may have been fettered, but they were together and could communicate with each other and with their friends. The conditions were not unlike those of a debtors’ prison such as the old Marshalsea, as described in "Little Dorrit." Our information as to this right or duty of the next of kin to buy or buy back land is of the scantiest. The leading case is that in the Book of Ruth, where, however, the purchase of land is altogether secondary to the levirate marriage. The land custom assumes that an Israelite will only part with his land in case of absolute necessity, and it was evidently supposed that some member of the clan would feel bound to purchase. On the other hand, in Ruth, the next of kin is readily allowed to transfer the obligation to Boaz. Why Hanameel sold his field we cannot tell; in these days of constant invasion, most of the small landowners must have been reduced to great distress, and would gladly have found purchasers for their property. The kinsman to whom land was offered would pretty generally refuse to pay anything but a nominal price. Formerly the demand that the next of kin should buy an inheritance was seldom made, but the exceptional feature in this case was Jeremiah’s willingness to conform to ancient custom. The price paid for the field was seventeen shekels of silver, but, however precise this information may seem, it really tells us very little. A curious illustration is furnished by modern currency difficulties. The shekel, in the time of the Maccabees, when we are first able to determine its value with some certainty, contained about half an ounce of silver, i.e., about the amount of metal in an English half crown. The commentaries accordingly continue to reckon the shekel as worth half a crown, whereas its value by weight according to the present price of silver would be about fourteenpence. Probably the purchasing power of silver was not more stable in ancient Palestine than it is now. Fifty shekels seemed to David and Araunah a liberal price for a threshing floor and its oxen, but the Chronicler thought it quite inadequate. We know neither the size of Hanameel’s field nor the quality of the land, nor yet the value of the shekels; but the symbolic use made of the incident implies that Jeremiah paid a fair and not a panic price. The silver was duly weighed in the presence of witnesses and of all the Jews that were in the court of the guard, apparently including the prisoners; their position as respectable members of society was not affected by their imprisonment. A deed or deeds were drawn up, signed by Jeremiah and the witnesses, and publicly delivered to Baruch to be kept safely in an earthen vessel. The legal formalities are described with some detail; possibly they were observed with exceptional punctiliousness; at any rate, great stress is laid upon the exact fulfilment of all that law and custom demanded. Unfortunately, in the course of so many centuries, much of the detail has become unintelligible. For instance, Jeremiah the purchaser signs the record of the purchase, but nothing is said about Hanameel signing. When Abraham bought the field of Machpelah of Ephron the Hittite there was no written deed, the land was simply transferred in public at the gate of the city. { Genesis 23:1-20 } Here the written record becomes valid by being publicly delivered to Baruch in the presence of Hanameel and the witnesses. The details with regard to the deeds are very obscure, and the text is doubtful. The Hebrew apparently refers to two deeds, but the Septauagint for the most part to one only. The R.V. of Jeremiah 32:11 runs: "So I took the deed of the purchase, both that which was sealed, according to the law and the custom, and that which was open." The Septuagint omits everything after "that which was sealed"; and, in any case, the words "the law and the custom"-better, as R.V. margin, "containing the terms and the conditions"-are a gloss. In Jeremiah 32:14 the R.V. has: "Take these deeds, this deed of the purchase, both that which is sealed, and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel." The Septuagint reads: "Take this book of the purchase and this book that has been read, and thou shalt put it in an earthen vessel." It is possible that, as has been suggested, the reference to two deeds has arisen out of a misunderstanding of the description of a single deed. Scribes may have altered or added to the text in order to make it state explicitly what they supposed to be implied. No reason is given for having two deeds. We could have understood the double record if each party had retained one of the documents, or if one had been buried in the earthen vessel and the other kept for reference, but both are put into the earthen vessel. The terms "that which is sealed" and "that which is open" may, however, be explained of either of one or two documents somewhat as follows: the record was written, signed, and witnessed; it was then folded up and sealed; part or the whole of the contents of this sealed up record was then written again on the outside or on a separate parchment, so that the purport of the deed could easily be ascertained without exposing the original record. The Assyrian and Chaldean contract tables were constructed on this principle; the contract was first written on a clay tablet, which was further enclosed in an envelope of clay, and on the outside was engraved an exact copy of the writing within. If the outer writing became indistinct or was tampered with, the envelope could be broken and the exact terms of the contract ascertained from the first tablet. Numerous examples of this method can be seen in the British Museum. The Jews had been vassals of Assyria and Babylon for about a century, and thus must have had ample opportunity to become acquainted with their legal procedure; and, in this instance, Jeremiah and his friends may have imitated the Chaldeans. Such an imitation would be specially significant in what was intended to symbolise the transitoriness of the Chaldean conquest. The earthen vessel would preserve the record from being spoilt by the damp; similarly bottles are used nowadays to preserve the documents that are built up into the memorial stones of public buildings. In both cases the object is that "they may continue many days." So far the prophet had proceeded in simple obedience to a Divine command to fulfil an obligation which otherwise might excusably have been neglected. He felt that his action was a parable which suggested that Judah might retain its ancient inheritance, but Jeremiah hesitated to accept an interpretation seemingly at variance with the judgments he had pronounced upon the guilty people. When he had handed over the deed to Baruch, and his mind was no longer occupied with legal minutiae, he could ponder at leisure on the significance of his purchase. The prophet’s meditations naturally shaped themselves into a prayer; he laid his perplexity before Jehovah. Possibly, even from the court of the guard, he could see something of the works of the besiegers; and certainly men would talk constantly of the progress of the siege. Outside the Chaldeans were pushing their mounds and engines nearer and nearer to the walls, within famine and pestilence decimated and enfeebled the defenders; the city was virtually in the enemy’s hands. All this was in accordance with the will of Jehovah and the mission entrusted to His prophet. "What thou hast spoken of is come to pass, and, behold, thou seest it." And yet, in spite of all this, "Thou hast said unto me, O Lord Jehovah, Buy the field for money and take witnesses-and the city is in the hands of the Chaldeans!" Jeremiah had already predicted the ruin of Babylon and the return of the captives at the end of seventy years. { Jeremiah 25:12 ; Jeremiah 29:10 } It is clear, therefore, that he did not at first understand the sign of the purchase as referring to restoration from the Captivity. His mind, at the moment, was preoccupied with the approaching capture of Jerusalem; apparently his first thought was that his prophecies of doom were to be set aside, and at the last moment some wonderful deliverance might be wrought out for Zion. In the Book of Jonah, Nineveh is spared in spite of the prophet’s unconditional and vehement declaration: "Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown." Was it possible, thought Jeremiah, that after all that had been said and done, buying and selling, building and planting, marrying and giving in marriage, were to go on as if nothing had happened? He was bewildered and confounded by the idea of such a revolution in the Divine purposes. Jehovah in His answer at once repudiates this idea. He asserts His universal sovereignty and omnipotence, these are to be manifested, first in judgment and then in mercy. He declares afresh that all the judgments predicted by Jeremiah shall speedily come to pass. Then He unfolds His gracious purpose of redemption and deliverance. He will gather the exiles from all lands and bring them back to Judah, and they shall dwell there securely. They shall be His people and He will be their God. Henceforth He will make an everlasting covenant with them, that He will never again abandon them to misery and destruction, but will always do them good. By Divine grace they shall be united in purpose and action to serve Jehovah; He Himself will put His fear in their hearts. And then returning to the symbol of the purchased field, Jehovah declares that fields shall be bought, with all the legal formalities usual in settled and orderly societies, deeds shall be signed, sealed, and delivered in the presence of witnesses. This restored social order shall extend throughout the territory of the Southern Kingdom, Benjamin, the environs of Jerusalem, the cities of Judah, of the hill country, of the Shephelah and the Negeb. The exhaustive enumeration partakes of the legal character of the purchase of Hanameel’s field. Thus the symbol is expounded: Israel’s tenure of the Promised Land will survive the Captivity; the Jews will return to resume their inheritance, and will again deal with the old fields and vineyards and oliveyards, according to the solemn forms of ancient custom. The familiar classical parallel to this incident is found in Livy, 26. II, where we are told that when Hannibal was encamped three miles from Rome, the ground he occupied was sold in the Forum by public auction, and fetched a good price. Both at Rome and at Jerusalem the sale of land was a symbol that the control of the land would remain with or return to its original inhabitants. The symbol recognised that access to land is essential to all industry, and that whoever controls this access can determine the conditions of national life. This obvious and often forgotten truth was constantly present to the minds of the inspired writers: to them the Holy Land was almost as sacred as the Chosen People; its right use was a matter of religious obligation, and the prophets and legislators always sought to secure for every Israelite family some rights in their native soil. The selection of a legal ceremony and the stress laid upon its forms emphasise the truth that social order is the necessary basis of morality and religion. The opportunity to live healthily, honestly, and purely is an antecedent condition of the spiritual life. This opportunity was denied to slaves in the great heathen empires, just as it is denied to the children in our slums. Both here and more fully in the sections we shall deal with in the following chapters, Jeremiah shows that he was chiefly interested in the restoration of the Jews because they could only fulfil the Divine purpose as a separate community in Judah. Moreover, to use a modern term, he was no anarchist; spiritual regeneration might come through material ruin, but the prophet did not look for salvation either in anarchy or through anarchy. While any fragment of the State held together, its laws were to be observed; as soon as the exiles were reestablished in Judah they would resume the forms and habits of an organised community. The discipline of society, like that of an army, is most necessary in times of difficulty and danger, and, above all, in the crisis of defeat. CHAPTER XXXIV RESTORATION V REVIEW Jeremiah 30:1-24 ; Jeremiah 31:1-40 ; Jeremiah 32:1-44 ; Jeremiah 33:1-26 IN reviewing these chapters we must be careful not to suppose that Jeremiah knew all that would ultimately result from his teaching. When he declared that the conditions of the New Covenant would be written, not in a few parchments, but on every heart, he laid down a principle which involved the most characteristic teaching of the New Testament and the Reformers, and which might seem to justify extreme mysticism. When we read these prophecies in the light of history, they seem to lead by a short and direct path to the Pauline doctrines of Faith and Grace. Constraining grace is described in the words: "I will put My fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from Me." { Jeremiah 32:40 } Justification by faith instead of works substitutes the response of the soul to the Spirit of God for conformity to a set of external regulations-the writing on the heart for the carving of ordinances on stone. Yet, as Newton’s discovery of the law of gravitation did not make him aware of all that later astronomers have discovered, so Jeremiah did not anticipate Paul and Augustine, Luther and Calvin: he was only their forerunner. Still less did he intend to affirm all that has been taught by the Brothers of the Common Life or the Society of Friends. We have followed the Epistle to the Hebrews in interpreting his prophecy of the New Covenant as abrogating the Mosaic code and inaugurating a new departure upon entirely different lines. This view is supported by his attitude towards the Temple, and especially the Ark. At the same time we must not suppose that Jeremiah contemplated the summary and entire abolition of the previous dispensation. He simply delivers his latest message from Jehovah, without bringing its contents into relation with earlier truth, without indeed waiting to ascertain for himself how the old and the new were to be combined. But we may be sure that the Divine writing on the heart would have included much that was already written in Deuteronomy, and that both books and teachers would have had their place in helping men to recognise and interpret the inner leadings of the Spirit. In rising from the perusal of these chapters the reader is tempted to use the prophet’s words with a somewhat different meaning: "I awaked and looked about me, and felt that I had had a pleasant dream." { Jeremiah 31:26 } Renan, with cynical frankness, heads a chapter on such prophecies with the title "Pious Dreams." While Jeremiah’s glowing utterances rivet our attention, the gracious words fall like balm upon our aching hearts, and we seem, like the Apostle, caught up into Paradise. But as soon as we try to connect our visions with any realities, past, present, or in prospect, there comes a rude awakening. The restored community attained to no New Covenant, but was only found worthy of a fresh edition of the written code. Instead of being committed to the guidance of the ever-present Spirit of Jehovah, they were placed under a rigid and elaborate system of externals-"carnal ordinances, concerned with meats and drinks and divers washings, imposed until a time of reformation." { Hebrews 9:10 } They still remained under the covenant "from Mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children." { Galatians 4:24-25 } For these bondservants of the letter, there arose no David, no glorious Scion of the ancient stock. For a moment the hopes of Zechariah rested on Zerubbabel, but this Branch quickly withered away and was forgotten. We need not underrate the merits and services of Ezra and Nehemiah, of Simon the Just and Judas Maccabaeus; and yet we cannot find any one of them who answers to the Priestly King of Jeremiah’s visions. The new growth of Jewish royalty came to an ignominious end in Aristobulus, Hyrcanus, and the Herods, Antichrists rather than Messiahs. The Reunion of long-divided Israel is for the most part a misnomer; there was no healing of the wound, and the offending member was cut off. Even now, when the leaven of the Kingdom has been working in the lump of humanity for nearly two thousand years, any suggestion that these chapters are realised in Modern Christianity would seem cruel irony. Renan accuses Christianity of having quickly forgotten the programme which its Founder borrowed from the prophets, and of having become a religion like other religions, a religion of priests and sacrifices, of external observances and superstitions. It is sometimes asserted that "Protestants lack faith and courage to trust to any law written on the heart, and cling to a printed book, as if there were no Holy Spirit-as if the Branch of David had borne fruit once for all, and Christ were dead. The movement for Christian Reunion seems thus far chiefly to emphasise the feuds that make the Church a kingdom divided against itself." But we must not allow the obvious shortcomings of Christendom to blind us to brighter aspects of truth. Both in the Jews of the Restoration and in the Church of Christ we have a real fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecies. The fulfilment is no less real because it is utterly inadequate. Prophecy is a guide post and not a milestone; it shows the way to be trodden, not the duration of the journey. Jews and Christians have fulfilled Jeremiah’s prophecies because they have advanced by the road along which he pointed towards the spiritual city of his vision. The "pious dreams" of a little group of enthusiasts have become the ideals and hopes of humanity. Even Renan ranks himself among the disciples of Jeremiah: "The seed sown in religious tradition by inspired Israelites will not perish; all of us who seek a God without priests, a revelation without prophets, a covenant written in the heart are in many respects the disciples of these ancient fanatics" ( ces vieux egares ). The Judaism of the Return, with all its faults and shortcomings, was still an advance in the direction Jeremiah had indicated. However ritualistic the Pentateuch may seem to us, it was far removed from exclusive trust in ritual. Where the ancient Israelite had relied upon correct observance of the forms of his sanctuary, the Torah of Ezra introduced a large moral and spiritual element, which served to bring the soul into direct fellowship with Jehovah. "Pity and humanity are pushed to their utmost limits, always of course in the bosom of the family of Israel." The Torah moreover included the great commands to love God and man, which once for all placed the religion of Israel on a spiritual basis. If the Jews often attached more importance to the letter and form of Revelation than to its substance, and were more careful for ritual and external observances than for inner righteousness, we have no right to cast a stone at them. It is a curious phenomenon that after the time of Ezra the further developments of the Torah were written no longer on parchment, but, in a certain sense on the heart. The decisions of the rabbis interpreting the Pentateuch, "the fence which they made round the law," were not committed to writing, but learnt by heart and handed down by oral tradition. Possibly this custom was partly due to Jeremiah’s prophecy. It is a strange illustration of the way in which theology sometimes wrests the Scriptures to its own destruction, that the very prophecy of the triumph of the spirit over the letter was made of none effect by a literal interpretation. Nevertheless, though Judaism moved only a very little way towards Jeremiah’s ideal, yet it did move, its religion was distinctly more spiritual than that of ancient Israel. Although Judaism claimed finality and did its best to secure that no future generation should make further progress, yet in spite of, nay, even by means of, Pharisee and Sadducee, the Jews were prepared to receive and transmit that great resurrection of prophetic teaching which came through Christ. If even Judaism did not altogether fail to conform itself to Jeremiah’s picture of the New Israel, clearly Christianity must have shaped itself still more fully according to his pattern. In the Old Testament both the idea and the name of a "New Covenant," superseding that of Moses, are peculiar to Jeremiah, and the New Testament consistently represents the Christian dispensation as a fulfilment of Jeremiah’s prophecy. Besides the express and detailed application in the Epistle to the Hebrews, Christ instituted the Lord’s Supper as the Sacrament of His New Covenant-"This cup is the New Covenant in My Blood"; and St. Paul speaks of himself as "a minister of the New Covenant." { 2 Corinthians 3:6 } Christianity has not been unworthy of the claim made on its behalf by its Founder, but has realised, at any rate in some measure, the visible peace, prosperity, and unity of Jeremiah’s New Israel, as well as the spirituality of his New Covenant. Christendom has its hideous blots of misery and sin, but, on the whole, the standard of material comfort and intellectual culture has been raised to a high average throughout the bulk of a vast population. Internal order and international concord have made enormous strides since the time of Jeremiah. If an ancient Israelite could witness the happy security, of a large proportion of English workmen and French peasants, he would think that many of the predictions of his prophets had been fulfilled. But the advance of large classes to a prosperity once beyond the dreams of the most sanguine only brings out in darker relief the wretchedness of their less fortunate brethren. In view of the growing knowledge and enormous resources of modern society, any toleration of its cruel wrongs is an unpardonable sin. Social problems are doubtless urgent because a large minority are miserable, but they are rendered still more urgent by the luxury of many and the comfort of most. The high average of prosperity shows that we fail to right our social evils, not for want of power, but for want of devotion. Our civilisation is a Dives, at whose gate Lazarus often finds no crumbs. Again Christ’s Kingdom of the New Covenant has brought about a larger unity. We have said enough elsewhere on the divisions of the Church. Doubtless we are still far from realising the ideals of chapter 31, but, at any rate, they have been recognised as supreme, and have worked for harmony and fellowship in the world. Ephraim and Judah are forgotten, but the New Covenant has united into brotherhood a worldwide array of races and nations. There are still divisions in the Church, and a common religion will not always do away with national enmities; but in spite of all, the influence of our common Christianity has done much to knit the nations together and promote mutual amity and goodwill. The vanguard of the modern world has accepted Christ as its standard and ideal, and has thus attained an essential unity, which is not destroyed by minor differences and external divisions. And, finally, the promise that the New Covenant should be written on the heart is far on the way towards fulfilment. If Roman and Greek orthodoxy interposes the Church between the soul and Christ, yet the inspiration claimed for the Church today is, at any rate in some measure, that of the living Spirit of Christ speaking to the souls of living men. On the other hand, a predilection for Rabbinical methods of exegesis sometimes interferes with the influence and authority of the Bible. Yet in reality there is no serious attempt to take away the key of knowledge or to forbid the individual soul to receive the direct teaching of the Holy Ghost. The Reformers established the right of private judgment in the interpretation of the Scriptures; and the interpretation of the Library of Sacred Literature, the spiritual harvest of a thousand years, affords ample scope for reverent development of our knowledge of God. One group of Jeremiah’s prophecies has indeed been entirely fulfilled. In Christ God has raised up a Branch of Righteousness unto David, and through Him judgment and righteousness are wrought in the earth. { Jeremiah 33:15 } The Expositor's Bible Text Courtesy of BibleSupport.com . Used by Permission.