Flipping

Talk about a bad real estate buy!  Jeremiah had to buy a field.  The field may not have been that bad; the location was probably pretty good for the area.  Don’t really know.  But the timing was awful!  

So the Babylonian army had shown up and was camped outside the walls of Jerusalem.  Siege ramps were in place and the pressure of the siege was felt throughout the city.  And Jeremiah has to buy a field.  Why did he have to buy this field?  Well, before that question is answered let me give you a little background.

Jeremiah, in case you are not familiar with this prophet of the Old Testament, was called to bring the Word of God to the kingdom of Judah during some trying times.  He was called the weeping prophet because his love for his people and the city of Jerusalem often overwhelmed him.  Jeremiah was called to bring a message of pending doom.  For this reason he was generally ignored.  Seems people would rather cry about the doom when it comes rather than listen and make changes before it comes.  

God raised up a new kingdom in Babylon and He sent them to conquer Judah and take the people from their land.  Jerusalem was to become desolate and Jeremiah was responsible for informing the people of Judah about this pending desolation.  Of course, sorrow was a natural consequence of such a task, as well as being a hated man among those who had no desire to hear what you had to say.  People do not like being told they have done wrong or that there are consequences for their actions.  

Now, why did Jeremiah have to buy a field in a time when the city of Jerusalem, along with that field, was going to be overrun by a powerful enemy?  Well, God told him to buy it.  While it is very reassuring to know that God knows what He is doing, sometimes it is not a bad idea to ask God what He is doing.  That is exactly what Jeremiah did.  He wanted the lowdown on this miserably timed land purchase.  

God’s answer was, “I am about to let Babylon have the city.”  Hmm … and by the way, they are going to burn Jerusalem to the ground.  Well great.  Not sure how much this helped Jeremiah, but God went on to list out many of the ways the people of Judah and Israel had made God angry.  They even sacrificed their children!  They straight up killed their babies.  The people appear to have felt it was their right to do what they wanted with their children.  Wow.  Now this killing of their children was something that “Never even entered the mind of God.”  So the Almighty God was pissed off.  I mean God was MAD and ready to deal out some serious discipline on the people of Jerusalem.  

But God loved His people - even more than Jeremiah loved them.  God knew His love for the people was going to create some good future land trading.  God let Jeremiah in on this insider trading information - you know buy low, sell high (can’t get much lower prices on land than just before the Babylonians are going to burn it all down.)  God had a plan.  Even before the people of Judah were conquered and taken into exile, God had a plan to “bring them back.”  So He gave Jeremiah the buy tip on land prospecting - buy now because the people will return and they will buy and sell in Jerusalem once again.  God would restore the fortune of His people.  

Today that land is the most prosperous land in all the Middle East and those people, once exiled, are returned.  They are known to be some of the most blessed people on the face of the earth.  I wonder how much that field costs?

Jeremiah 32