Journey Through Jeremiah, Part 37. And tonight we're taking our texts. We're going to look at all of Chapter 32, Lord willing. And I know that's 44 verses and that looks like it's going to be a whole lot. But I'm taking several of them together. And you'll need your Bibles handy tonight. Don't put them down because we'll be turning to several places in Jeremiah and, well, mainly in Jeremiah because you'll see as we go there. Let's go ahead and look at our first verse, Jeremiah chapter 32, starting with verse one. The Bible says, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the 10th year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar. Father, thank you for the reading of your word tonight. Lord, I'm asking you now, God, to help me for just a little bit. Be able to preach on this text. Lord, I'm praying that you preach through me. Help me, Father. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Well, we tonight begin the 21st prophecy. If you keep up with the Lord said to Jeremiah, or the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, this is the 21st prophecy for Jeremiah from the Lord that's dealt with in the book of Jeremiah. It says in our opening text that this happened during the 10th year of Zedekiah, king of Judah. We know Zedekiah was the last king of Judah, but it happened in the 10th year. the siege of Jerusalem actually began in the ninth year of Zedekiah's reign. Now, what happened between this time period, and it took almost three years before it was completed, the final siege of Jerusalem, but it happened there in the ninth year, but this happened in the tenth year, what Jeremiah's talking about, and the reason this happened was that during this time period, the Egyptians had came in and so the Chaldeans left for a period of time. They departed out of Jerusalem because of the Egyptians that came in. And then they returned later on. But during that time span, Jeremiah decided he was going to go home and he was going to visit this land that he had purchased, which we're going to be reading about tonight. He had purchased some land and he was going to Anathoth to check out this land. Well, he didn't get to make it there. He was caught before he got there and was taken and put in prison. And you can read about that if you want to turn there to the book of Jeremiah chapter 37. Jeremiah 37 starting with verse 11. When Jeremiah took advantage of this time period to leave Jerusalem, visiting Anathoth, he was charged with falling away, is what the Bible says, falling away to the Chaldeans. In other words, they thought that he was being a traitor. He was switching sides and going with them. He denied it, of course, and it wasn't true. He was just going over to his homeland. But let's read this, Jeremiah 37, 11. It says, and it came to pass that when the army of Chaldeans was broken up from Jerusalem for fear of Pharaoh's army, Then Jeremiah went forth out of Jerusalem to go into the land of Benjamin to separate himself, thence, in the midst of the people. And when he was in the gate of Benjamin, a captain of the ward was there, whose name was Arijah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Hanani. And he took Jeremiah, the prophet, saying, Thou fallest away to the Chaldeans. Then said Jeremiah, it is false, I fall not away to the Chaldeans. But he hearkened not to him. So Arijah took Jeremiah and brought him to the princes. Wherefore the princes were wroth with Jeremiah and smote him and put him in prison in the house of Jonathan, the scribe, for they had made that the prison. Okay, so what happened here then Jeremiah's going off to see his land that he purchased and during this time he has stopped and he's stopped there and he's put under arrest. And he's questioned, he's accused of falling away to the Chaldeans and going to their side. He denies it, flat out denies it, they don't believe him. And so they send him here to the house of Jonathan the scribe which they've set up now to be the prison. And so this is what's happened to this point. Now, go back to our opening text, Jeremiah 32 verse 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. 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. 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 his mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall behold his eyes. 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. And so now we find the real reason Jeremiah's been locked up. It wasn't because he was going to defect over to the enemy. He's locked up because the king is very mad at him for prophesying against him. All Jeremiah did was say, God said this was going to happen. You're going to get led into captivity. The Chaldeans are going to come and they're going to defeat Jerusalem and besiege it and take it. And this is another example of how the book of Jeremiah is not in chronological order. So you can't start at the beginning and work your way through and say this happened next and that's next. This we read about up in Jeremiah chapter 34. We've already actually talked about it early on in the book of Jeremiah because it was mentioned. But if you want to look at that, Jeremiah 34 verses 1 through 3. This was the prophecy that was given to Jeremiah concerning this. It says, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Go and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire. And thou shalt not escape out of his hand, but shalt surely be taken and delivered into his hand. And thine eye shall behold the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with thee mouth to mouth, and thou shalt go to Babylon. And so, just like Jeremiah told him, that's exactly what happened. But Zedekiah is so mad about it, of Jeremiah saying this, that he locks him up. Now, we continue back in our text, Jeremiah 32 verse 6. And this is where Jeremiah's prophecy picks back up as we started in verse 1. Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Behold, Hanumel, the son of Shalem, 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. So Hanumel, mine uncle's son, came to me in the court, of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said unto me, By 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." And so Jeremiah is now explaining here Why he bought the land? Because the Lord told him to. In fact, the Lord told him before Hannah Mill even asked him to buy it. The Lord said, listen, Hannah Mill's going to come to you and ask you to buy this land of his. And so what Hannah Mill is doing, first of all, he's Jeremiah's first cousin. And what's happened apparently is either having a meal is falling on hard times and he needs money, or he realizes that the Chaldeans now are in charge of the land. And so there's really nothing he can do. And so he's wanting to offload this land at this time. And the rightful person that could take it is Jeremiah. He would be the kinsman redeemer. And that is also considered the Goel, it's called, the kinsman or the Goel. And so that law concerning the land of these folks there, the children of Israel, had laws that God had gave them concerning the land. They were not to sell it to strangers or foreigners. It was to stay within their own family. Now, they could sell it to other people there in the land, but it had to return back to them. during the year of Jubilee. And so then all the things were forgiven and it was all given back and so you got your land back. So when Hannah Mill is asking Jeremiah to buy his land, Jeremiah can buy it. But within the year of Jubilee, it was to be turned back over to Hannah Mill and his family if they did it the right way by the law. And so the Book of Leviticus outlines that kinsman-redeemer law. You can write it in your notes, Leviticus 25, 23 through 28. And it simply says exactly what I just told you, that you don't give your land to foreigners and strangers and such. but it stays in your family. And so one thing you must realize is that it was God's plan that Jeremiah fill the role of the kinsman redeemer. God has a reason for it. Now, Jeremiah does not understand the reason right now. In fact, he's gonna question God in just a few minutes. He's gonna pray and ask God why. He don't understand why he's doing it, but he is gonna do it. And so Jeremiah is doing, actually doing Hannah Mill a favor here because Jeremiah himself will not get to use the land. Jeremiah does not have a wife, he does not have children, they can't use the land because he don't have any. He can't use the land, first of all, because the Chaldeans are now in control of it. And so he's not going to be able to go there and live or plant or build a home or anything like that. So actually he's not even going to get to use this land. However, God's told him to buy the land from his cousin here. So he would never get to go there or live on it. He's more or less losing money on the deal But nevertheless he states what we read there in verse verse 8 at the end of it He said then I knew that this was the word of the Lord and so Jeremiah knows he's doing what he's supposed to do now look at verse 9 of our text and I bought the field of hand Hamil my uncle's son that was in Anathoth and and weighed him the money, even seventeen shekels of silver, and I subscribed the evidence and sealed it, and took witnesses, and weighed him the money and the balances. So I took the evidence of the purchase, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open, and I gave the evidence of the purchase unto Barak, the son of Neriah, the son of Messiah, and the side of Hanumel, mine uncle's son, and in the presence of witnesses that subscribe the book of the purchase before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison. And I charged Barak before them, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Take these evidences, these evidence of the purchase, both which is sealed and this evidence which is open, and put them in the earthen vessel, an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days. For thus said the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land." Alright, so Jeremiah has done exactly what God's told him to do. It's all fair, it's all legal. He followed the letter of the law concerning the purchase of this property and he has the witnesses just like he was instructed to do. Now, there's these laws that he followed. Considering that Jeremiah was a prophet, he was a man of God, everybody would be scrutinizing every single thing that he did. He's already been accused of several things that he's not done throughout his ministry. If he does this the wrong way, then people are going to point fingers at him. They're going to accuse him of things. And let me tell you something, there is nothing worse than to hear about some preacher or some pastor that does shady deals. You ever heard that? I've heard of that. I've heard of pastors and preachers that swindle people purposely to get a better outcome. Now friends, I want to tell you something. They're going to answer for that. The man of God, I don't care who you are. If you're a Christian, you ought not to swindle anybody. But I know some, and I've heard of some that actually do that. Some that sell used cars and do things to just get them out of their yard to sell them, and knowing that there's a problem with them, but not telling anybody. Friends, that's wrong. And so the man of God needs to be held up on a higher standard anyway. And so anybody that would do that, friends, I wouldn't trust that man at all. I sure wouldn't go and trust his preaching. Verse 16, now when I had delivered the evidence of the purchase unto Barak the son of Neriah, I prayed unto the Lord, saying, now let's pause here for just a second. We just read a while ago that Jeremiah knew that it was God's will that he do this. He said it himself. He said, now I know that it's God's will. And since Jeremiah is faithful and obedient to God, then he does exactly what God says. He didn't question him. At this point, he did not question him. He didn't try to get out of it. He didn't try to convince God to do something else. He said, I knew it was God, and he purchased the land. That does not mean he understood why God asked him to, or that he would come to an understanding and weigh it out in his mind to understand why God did this. Many of the prophets, God gave them words to say, they had no clue what God was trying to tell the people. All they were doing was saying what God said. Thus saith the Lord. This is what God said. The Lord said. And they would say what God told them to say, not knowing exactly what it meant. Many of the Old Testament prophets, if you go back there in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and all these men, they saw all those wonders that even John the Revelator saw and described about the heaven and the end of times. They had no idea what all that meant. They were just saying what God said. And so, and by the way, a prophet is a person just like you and I, except God has chosen him to be the spokesman for him. He's chosen him to prophesy to the people. And so, Jeremiah is doing exactly what God said. Now, I'm sure he's much like we are. Our flesh would be saying, really God? I don't understand this. Why would I purchase land for my cousin that I'm not even going to get to live on? And by the way, you said that we were going to be taken captive for 70 years. If I buy this land right now, What about the year of Jubilee when it rolls around? Where's that land gonna go if the Chaldeans own it? So I can understand why Jeremiah would be puzzled here. And so he sits down and he does what every Christian should do when they're faced with a problem or a question, they pray about it. Jeremiah sits down and begins praying. Start in verse 17. He said, Ah, Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there's nothing too hard for thee. Thou showest loving kindness 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. Great in counsel and mighty in work, for thine eyes are open upon all the ways of the sons of men to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings, which has set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even unto this day and in Israel. and among other men, and has made thee a name as at this day, and has brought forth thy people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with strong hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with great terror, and has given them this land which thou didst swear to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey." Let's pause right here for a minute. So Jeremiah starts out his prayer recognizing God for his greatness. How many times do we come down and we start praying and we never even consider uttering how great God is. Instead, we immediately go into our problems. We start thinking about us. We start thinking about something we want to pray for. Instead of recognizing the one that we're praying for, He's the one that answers prayers. He's the one that gives us the freedoms that we have. He's the one that does everything. We ought to be recognizing God more. I notice all through the Bible, if you read prophets praying, you read the apostles praying, you read almost everybody praying in the Bible, the first thing they do, the Psalms, look through the Psalms, the first thing they do is they start praising God. They start exalting Him. And listen, God knows He's great already. But listen, we need to be praising Him and glorifying Him and lifting Him up in our prayers. And that's what Jeremiah does, the whole beginning of it there. He's describing to God how great He is and He knows He is. and how he brought these people out of Egypt's bondage, gave them all these things, this land to live in, and then Jeremiah starts getting into the nitty-gritty here. Look at verse 23. He's talking about what happened to what the children of Israel did. 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 commandest them to do. Therefore thou has caused all this evil to come upon them. Behold, the mounts there 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 of the pestilence. And what thou has spoken has come to pass, and behold, thou seest it. So now Jeremiah's prayer turns to how the children of Israel were disobedient. They disobeyed God in all their ways. And because of that, he even said, you have caused all this evil to come upon them. Not accusing God, but recognizing that God, I recognize that you are the one that's causing this to happen, to pay for the sins that they're committing. They are being punished for them. And so he's building up his case now to ask the question that he wants to ask. Look at verse 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. So Jeremiah here is confused at why the Lord would ask him to make such a deal. It just doesn't make sense to him. And he says here, he says, listen, you've asked me to buy this field with money. However, the city's been given over in the hand of the Chaldeans. And so that's Jeremiah's way of saying, what's up, God? What's going on? What's your plan here? Can you help me out? And so maybe he's thinking in his mind, if he's like me, and he's a lot greater than I am, I'm nothing, but I'm sure he's thinking with his mind and thinking, perhaps God has a different plan now. Perhaps maybe it's not gonna be 70 years. Maybe he's got something else in store. And so he's simply asking the question. Listen, it's not wrong to ask God questions. My kids, they ask me questions. I don't care at all. It doesn't make me angry. Sometimes we think, well, if we question God about something, he might get angry. Look, if it's against his will and you're asking him why, he might. But if it's something that we're just completely, we don't know about, and we say, Lord, can you help me? Can you give me an answer? He's not gonna get angry about that. And so Jeremiah's just questioning why, what's going on? And look at what verse 26, God answers him. And it's really not what he wants to hear, but he's gonna answer him. Then came the word of the Lord unto Jeremiah, saying, Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for me? Therefore, thus saith the Lord, behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans and into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall take it. 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've offered incense unto Baal and poured out drink offerings unto other gods to provoke me to anger. 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. For this city has 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. Because of all the evil the children of Israel and the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger, they, their kings, their princes, their priests, and their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, 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, but they set their abominations in the house, which is called by my name to defile it. Well, the Lord is definitely gonna carry out his plan. Definitely, no doubt about it. He says, oh yes, Nebuchadnezzar's coming in, he's invading this city. They're gonna burn it with fire. The Chaldeans are gonna be in control. Yes, sir, this is gonna happen. And he even goes into the description of the things the children of Israel have been doing to provoke him to anger. He said, from the time they built this city, all they've done is turn their back on me and turn their face away from me. And so, yes, sir, they're gonna pay for this. Now look at what he says in verse 35. And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the sons of Hinnom, to cause their sons and daughters to pass through the fire and of Molech, which I commanded them not. Neither came it into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin. Now, we've studied in depth already about that worship that they were doing. Back in chapter 7, we studied about Baal and Molech and Ashtoreth and Shemas and Milcom and the Queen of Heaven. We've already covered all that. I'm not gonna expound upon that again tonight. But if you wanna catch back up on that, just find it on Sermon Audio, it's chapter seven. Look at verse 36. And I will bring them again unto this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. So it's good news, bad news, or it's actually bad news, good news in this case. Lord told Jeremiah all the bad things, but then he gives him the reason now. This is the reason he's had Jeremiah do that. I'm not going to spoil it yet. So good news mixed with bad news. Although God's going to allow the enemy to invade and destroy, carry them in captivity, He's also going to return them back to their land and protect them. He says that they'll be there safely and a place of safety. Now keep reading there, verse 38. and they shall be my people and I'll be their God. And I'll give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever for the good of them and of their children after them. 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 and they shall not depart from me. 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. What wonderful words we read here of the Lord, what he's done. Now, if we think about all the bad things that the Lord listed, all the idol worship, the killing of their children, the fires there of Molech, turning their back on God, provoking him to anger. All the things that they did, but yet he says that they shall be my people and I will be their God. What wonderful words of love and grace and mercy. I'm telling you, friends, we find our Lord is a loving God. We know that the Jehovah, which is Lord here, the Jehovah of the Old Testament, is the Jesus of the New. These words that we're reading tonight sounds just like something that the Lord Jesus Christ would say. as he would speak to his children. These words that he speaks, these are the same type of words he would speak to us today, the church, that we're his people. He's our God. He rejoices over us. He does good for us. And while this scripture, no doubt, is referring to the Lord restoring Israel and Judah back to their homeland, no doubt it is, however, it's also speaking of a time in the future, a time when God will set everything right. He will defeat sin, he will defeat Satan, he will lift the curse off this land, and he will allow his people to live in utter harmony and love. And he will provide for us everything that we would ever, our hearts would ever desire because he loves us that much. He says there, he, uh, I will plant them in this land of surely with my whole heart and with my whole soul, everything he gives to us. Verse 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 promised them. And fields shall be bought in this land, whereof you say, It is desolate without man or beast. It is given into the hand of the Chaldeans. 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 the cities of the valley, and in the cities of the south, for I will cause their captivity to return, saith the Lord." So now we find that God has gave Jeremiah's answer. The purchase of the field that Jeremiah makes It was the role of the kinsman-redeemer. It's a type of Christ. It is Him showing him and revealing to him that even though that they're going to have to pay the penalty for all the sins they made, that God loves them and He will forgive them and He will take them back in. And the role of the kinsman-redeemer, it's a type of what the Lord does for His people. It is an assurance that things will return back to the way that they once were. They will not lose their inheritance. We can't lose our inheritance. We've got a place that we're going to that can't be taken away from us. It was also a way for the prophet to show the people that he is speaking for the Lord. He wasn't just prophesying just to have empty words, but that these words meant something. And that Jeremiah the prophet believed every single word. At a time such as this, that Jeremiah would actually do something which most people would consider a very foolish thing. Now they see and they say, hey, listen, that Jeremiah, he's a pretty good guy, isn't he? He did exactly what God said to do. Even in that awful time, you remember when those Chaldeans came in and invaded our land and set everything on fire? Jeremiah, he went and bought that land that God told him to do. I'd never have done that, but Jeremiah did it. And so it's just a testimony of the Lord, of what the Lord will do for people that are obedient to him. You know, listen, people have much more faith in your action than they do your words. I can stand up here and I can preach to you and I can tell you everything the Bible says, but if I don't live a life what the Bible says, then there's no reason to ever listen to me. And so we need to understand that people watch our actions more than they listen to our words and they see what you do. If you love somebody, you'll prove it in your actions. Let's go ahead and stop right there.