Jeremiah Buys a Field and Future Redemption

Jeremiah 32: "The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar. 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, 'Why do you prophesy and say, "Thus says the Lord, behold, I will give Babylon, and he shall take it. And Zedekiah, king of Judah, shall not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face, and see him eye to eye. Then he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall be until I visit him, says the Lord. Though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed."' And Jeremiah said, 'The word of the Lord came to me, saying, behold, Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your uncle, will come to you, saying, "Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy."' Then Hanamel, my uncle's son, came to me in the court of the prison, according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, 'Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin. The right of redemption and inheritance is yours. The redemption is yours to buy it for yourself, Jeremiah.' Then I knew that this was from the word of the Lord. So I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and weighed out to him the money, seventeen shekels of silver. And I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open. And I gave the purchase deed to Baruch, the son of Neriah, in the presence of Hanamel, my uncle's son, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison. Then I charged Baruch before them, saying, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, take these deeds, both the purchase deed which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.'"

So, Jeremiah is offered a piece to buy from the field, and that's what he bought in his land, the land of Benjamin, which is where he was from, and Anathoth, the right of redemption. We all know the story of Ruth with Boaz and Naomi. This was more of a prophetic act of showing the Jewish people that they were going to return to the land and they were going to inherit the land. This was another prophetic act that Jeremiah did, similar to when he broke the vessel to show them that judgment was coming, or the linen sash to show them that judgment was coming. This is another great example, but this was about restoration, not judgment. This was a prophetic act that they were going to be able to inherit the land again, which is very beautiful.

One thing I want to say here is 17 shekels of silver. That's what Jeremiah bought the field for. The numerical number is very important. Wherever God puts a number in the Holy Bible, the number 17 is very important. It is made up of the number 10 and the number 7. The number 7 is spiritual perfection, and the number 10 is appropriate divine order. So, it's about the order, and divine spiritual perfection. Once they are spiritually perfected, which they will be, they will inherit all of the promised land. That was the number 17, representing spiritual perfection in divine order, God's divine order at the end of the age. This goes into what we are seeing right now, what we are about to see with Yeshua returning.

"And now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord, saying, 'Ah, Lord God, behold, You have made the heavens and the earth by Your great power and Your outstretched arm. There is nothing too hard for You. You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them. The great, the mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts. You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for Your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt to this day, and in Israel and among other men. And You have made Yourself a name as it is to this day. You have brought Your people, Israel, out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand, with an outstretched arm, and with great terror. You have given them this land of which You swore to their fathers to give them, a land flowing with milk and honey, and they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law. They have done nothing of all that You have commanded them to do. Therefore, You have caused all this calamity to come upon them. Look, the siege mounds, they have come to the city to take it. The city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it because of the sword and the famine and the pestilence. What You have spoken has happened there. You see it, and You have said to me, O Lord God, "Buy the field for money and take witnesses." Yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.'"

God's assurance of the people's return. "Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying, 'Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me? Therefore, this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, and he shall take it. And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set fire to this city and burn it with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods to provoke Me to anger. Because the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil before Me from their youth. For the children of Israel have provoked Me only to anger with the work of their hands, says the Lord. For this city has been to Me a provocation of My anger and My fury from that day that they built it even to this day. So I will remove it from My face because of all the evil of 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, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they have turned to Me their back and not their face. They have taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive Torah instruction. But they have set their abominations in the house which is called by My name to defile it. 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 to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it enter My mind that they should do this abomination to cause Judah to sin. Now therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city with which you say, "It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence." Behold, I will gather them whom I have driven them in My anger, in My fury, and in great wrath. I will back this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely. They shall be My people, and I will be their God. Give them one heart, one way, that they may fear Me forever for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make them an everlasting covenant with them. (Jeremiah 31). That I will not turn away from doing them good. But I will put My fear in their hearts. Again, I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land with all of My heart and with all of My soul.' Amen. 'For thus says the Lord God, just as I brought all this great calamity on this people, I will also bring all the good that I promised them. And the fields will be bought in this land of which you say it is desolate without man or beast. It has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans. Men will buy fields for money, sign deeds and seal them, and take witnesses in the land of Benjamin, in the places all around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the lowland, in the cities of the south. For I will cause their captives to return, says the Lord.'"

So again, my friends, this whole understanding of this chapter is about a prophetic act that Jeremiah did, saying, "Hey, we're going to return to the land. We're going to have the allotments of the land given to the people according to the Lord, according to the tribes, etc." So, this is another prophetic act amongst the craziness that was going on. He was still trying to tell them they will return. They will return, and he did a prophetic act for that.

One thing I wanted to say here is look at what he says in verse 23: "They came in, they took possession of the land, but they have not obeyed Your voice or walked in Your law." So again, let's fast forward to today. The people are back in the land since 1948, 78 years. They have not walked in the Torah. They have not obeyed the voice of God, and they have not turned to the Jewish Messiah, Yeshua. And that's why we're about to see the same thing with the Antichrist or Nebuchadnezzar and the 10 kings and Turkey and all these things.

Second thing I want to mention here is "For the children of Israel have provoked Me only to anger with the work of their hands." What does that mean? If we're trying to do something that Yeshua is going to do, if we're trying to do something and we're in disobedience, or if we're gratifying ourselves because of the work of our hands and what we've created, then that's against the Lord. We've always got to put the Lord in front of the work of our own hands. So it's not the work of our own hands; it's the work of His hands through us. It's very beautiful. But he says that a lot in the book of Jeremiah, that the people brought Him to anger because of the work of their hands. Well, the work of their hands were doing a lot of evil things against the Torah, and they weren't obeying the voice of God. And again, if we're looking at it prophetically speaking, with the people in the land today, the Israelis, who I do stand with and I'll stand with forever, we're doing the same things. We're doing the same things that the ancestors were doing, and they were destroyed by the sword, the famine, and the pestilence. Everybody, we're doing the same things. But look at the beauty of the Lord. He tells the chastisement, and then He says the redemption, which is about what this chapter is all about. It's about the prophetic act of Jeremiah buying the field. And then that's why He says, "I will gather them from the countries that I've driven them in the anger, the fury, the wrath. I'll bring them back to the place. Cause them to dwell safely." They are not dwelling safely right now, everybody. This is a second coming events, millennial kingdom chapter. They're not dwelling safely. I think we can all agree with that. "They shall be My people, and I will be their God." That is not the case right now. That will be the case when they turn to Yeshua. "Then I will give them one heart and one way." That's Ezekiel 36 as well. That has not occurred yet, that they may fear Me forever. That has not occurred yet, for the good of them and for their children after them. "I will make an everlasting covenant with them." That has not been ordained yet, or fulfilled yet. It's been ordained in Jeremiah 31, Isaiah 59-60, Ezekiel 36, but it has not been fulfilled yet until they repent and call on Yeshua. And then look what He says: "I will not turn away from doing, excuse me, I'll make an everlasting covenant with them and I will not turn away from doing them good, but I will put My fear in their hearts." Because Torah will be in their hearts. The fear of God will be in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. And all of these beautiful things. So look at what He says in verse 42: "Just as I brought all this great calamity on the people, I will also bring on them all the good that I have promised them through the Abrahamic, through the Davidic, and through the new covenant." Amen.

The theme of this chapter is buying the field. Jerusalem is surrounded, and some of the people have been exiled. The city is about to be destroyed, and the temple burned. Jeremiah purchases land to show the future redemption in a prophetic act. The purchase becomes a prophetic sign. Fields will one day again be bought in Israel. You are seeing that today. Pretty amazing. And faith believes God's promises even when circumstances appear hopeless.