In For the Long Haul

I want to thank Jim for preaching and leading worship while I was away last weekend. He did a wonderful job and I loved the great context he gave to help you understand what was going on in the life of Jeremiah and Judah. And to get us started today we’re going to have a little more context because its important to know that we are in the midst of the seige of Jerusalem after the first exile and less than a year before Jerusalem and the temple are destroyed. Jeremiah is in prison or house arrest, because he isn’t officially behind bars but he is being held captive by King Zedekiah. So Jerusalem is surrounded by Babylon and the city and the whole area is quite literally being attacked and burning all around them.

It is in this setting that Hanamel, Jeremiah’s cousin, somehow makes it from their hometown of Anathoth to Jerusalem. I don’t know that I would dare travel to a city that was being besieged by Babylon but that is exactly what Hanamel does. The whole reason for this is because Hanamel wants to sell his land and he has to offer it to his closest relative per the law. So can you really picture what’s going on here? The capitol of Judah is about to fall and is literally being attacked and burning and Jeremiah is sitting there watching because he is under arrest by the king who wouldn’t listen to him and now blames him for what’s happening and his cousin comes into the city and wants him to buy his land.

Now I don’t want to sound insensitive but that would be like standing in front of a piece of land right now in Arizona that is near one of the fires and telling someone you want them to buy the land because it is in a great location and they won’t regret such a deal. Honestly, what person in their right mind would want to buy a piece of land that is likely to be burned up by a fire? Or in Jeremiah’s case, what person is going to buy land that, despite the deed that proves his ownership is going to buy land that is either going to be destroyed or simply confiscated by the Chaldeans? Plus if I did my math right Jeremiah is about 63 years old when his cousin comes to him with this proposal and he has no children to pass this land on to them. What is Jeremiah going to do with land that he can’t use and can’t pass on to a child?

Then on top of all of that Jeremiah knew that Hanamel was going to come because the LORD said that he would, and more than that he told Jeremiah that he had to buy the land from him. Jeremiah, the dedicated prophet that he was followed the word fo the LORD and indeed bought the land. And he did it by the strictest letter of the law. That ensured that there was no question that the land had been properly sold and purchased and that Jeremiah owned the land.

And of all the things that were important to include in the the prophecies and stories of Jeremiah, why include the purchase of land from cousin to cousin? Couldn’t there have been more important things to include? And why spend so much time on the details about the land being properly purchased?

I believe we have the last two verses, though not explicit, that help us to understand the importance of this story for the people of Judah at this time and for us as readers of this seemingly odd story. Jeremiah 32:14 tells us that Jeremiah directs Baruch to place both the sealed deed and the open deed in this jar. He says to do this so that it will last a long time. I don’t know about you but Bekkah and I keep our important documents in a fire-proof safe that has a lock on it. That’s how we keep our important documents safe, so to hear that they used a common everyday earthenware jar didn’t sound quite as secure.

However, it is actually inside clay jars that Biblical archeologists have found things like the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran and other ancient and Biblical texts in other digs. Despite this old and very commonplace earthenware, it has actually helped papyrus texts survive the generations for us to be able to find them, translate them, and preserve them so that we can see and learn even more about how God’s word was shared and preserved. So when Jeremiah says that they are going to be put in this jar so that they may last for a long time, he is actually quite right about it. And I want to dive into Jeremiah 32:15 before I explain why this is important because they do go hand in hand though from different perspectives.

In our final verse today we hear that the LORD declares that houses and fields and vineyards will one day, again, be bought in this land. And as I mentioned a minute or so ago, this is not explicit, but an implicit way of God telling Jeremiah the people will one day return. Even though I haven’t really mentioned King Zedekiah this whole conversation is between Jeremiah and Zedekiah. Now obviously neither Jeremiah nor Zedekiah would have ever wanted Jerusalem to fall and the temple to be destroyed, but the people didn’t turn and so God is letting it happen. But in this moment, God is looking, not at the present or the past, but toward the future.

God is hinting at a time, not when Babylon is occupying the land, but at a future time when the people of Judah will once again be in the land. A time when there will be peace. When there is peace then there will be a time when commonplace things like buying houses, fields and vineyards will once again happen. Even though they are in the midst of a siege, God is declaring a future where God and the Israelites will once again live together in the Promised Land.

Now, Jeremiah dies in 570 BCE in Egypt, so he doesn’t see that time happen with his own deed, but he is able to share the promise of a better future for those who are going to be in captivity and exile. So his earthenware jar preserves his deed, and is basically a physical representation of what is going to happen not for him but for those who come after him. We’ll see more of that promise in our final week of Jeremiah when we gather next week.

This story though about Jeremiah buying land is about God’s promise for a better tomorrow. Think of our own hardships and struggles throughout the last 15 months of the pandemic. Think about how much we have had to endure and how there were so many commonplace events that we had to put on hold because of the pandemic. Our ‘exile’ was not out of our own land but out of physical contact with one another. And now we are just beginning to come back together and experience those things that were once commonplace.

God is working toward a redemptive future. A future for all of us where we can look and see that God is our God and we are God’s people. A future where we all work together to bring back those things we have lost Most importantly, to bring back those things that were lost that are the most important. Those things that are most important are our relationship with God and one another. To help bring about God’s redemptive work in the world. To be loved by God and share God’s love. To be forgiven by God and to offer forgiveness to others. To receive salvation and to offer the same gift of salvation to others. To know there is hope for the future and to offer hope to those who are hopeless. That is what we strive for and what God is working for in and through each and every one of us. A future that speaks of God’s grace for you, for me, and for all. Amen.