Untitled Sermon (2)

first some background.

Investing in your future Self.

Jeremiah’s message to Judah was one like so many other prophets before him; which was repentance towards God because of their sins. And like so many other prophets before him; his message as well was unwanted.

So the nation persisted in their sins. But there was a line drawn by God and Judah as nation crossed over that line; and Jeremiah’s changed from repentance to that of submission to your punishment. God was going to use the Babylonians as their punishment for their sins.

So Jerusalem was under siege by the Babylonians. Jeremiah preached that the only way to get through this ordeal was to submit to the Babylonians as God’s judgment for the nation’s sins, and then at least you would live through this. King Zedekiah said no way, that’s not patriotic enough. So they fortified their defenses and shut up Jeremiah in prison, for preaching submission to the Babylonians as God’s punishment; which is (ch.30-33). By the way, that’s why Jeremiah’s ministry was so misunderstood; because the nation had gone pass the point of God’s patience and no amount of “trying to do better” would stop God from chastening his people. Whoever was alive was going to be taken captive to Babylon for their sins. God left the choice up to them, stay and fight and die; but surrender, submit and at least you’ll live to see the next day! Preaching like that was unpopular but it was what a dying nation needed to hear!

However as Jeremiah was shut up in prison God gives his people a glimmer of hope; that this land which will be taken from them will be restored to them after 70 years of captivity. That glimmer of hope for Judah is seen in this unlikely to buying of real estate.

Jeremiah’s nephew comes to him in prison and sells him his land in the country. They go through all the formalities, writing the transaction down, sealing one copy in a clay jar, and having another copy open for public record. But God is all in this! Because God using this purchase of land to spark faith in the hearts of his people, that they still had future; if they were willing and obedient like his servant Jeremiah. We can even sense that Jeremiah was a little awkward about buying land on the eve of an invasion, but he confessed later on, “Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD”.[1] Jeremiah was investing in the future of his people! According to God’s instructions, Jeremiah told Baruch, his secretary, to deposit the deeds in an earthen jar, for God had said that “houses and fields and vineyards shall yet again be bought in this land” (32:11–15).[2]

[1] The Holy Bible: King James Version., electronic ed. of the 1769 edition of the 1611 Authorized Version. (Bellingham WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1995), .

[2] Irving L. Jensen, Jeremiah and Lamentations, Everyman’s Bible Commentary (Chicago, IL: Moody Press, 1974), 91.

Investing in the future of others.

Investing in the future of others.

Investing in the future of your church.