How to become people of hope (Jer 32:1-15)

When the Covid-19 pandemic started, many were anxious in the face of uncertainty. Then, as hundreds of thousands were dying under terrible conditions overseas, and the newspapers were reporting the personal tragedies behind the numbers, nervousness turned to despair. How will we cope? Who will be left standing at the end? Yet during our daily Covid briefings, Ashley Bloomfield, Director-General of Health, was calm, collected and well-informed as he gave daily numbers and answered questions. Teenagers began to rave about him. One said that Bloomfield made her feel like it was all going to be all right, that we were going to be OK. He did not offer false hope but there was something solid and reassuring about him. As Christians, we too have a hope that is more than positive thinking or false optimism but how can we truly grasp that hope so that it affects our daily lives?

Listening to God

Jeremiah and his contemporaries knew their situation to be hopeless. Zedekiah was Judah’s king for the eleven years before the exile, so this tenth year is almost the end (2 Kings 24:18; Jer 32:1). The Babylonians have been besieging Jerusalem since the previous year and Jeremiah was under arrest because he preached Judah’s defeat (2 Kings 25:1-2; Jer 32:2-4). Not a situation that hopes are made of. Yet God can bring hope into the darkest places. This one starts with a divine revelation to Jeremiah that his cousin, Hanamel, was going to visit him and ask him to buy his ancestral land (Jer 32:6-7). Keeping ancestral land within a clan was important in Israel and the Law made provisions so that if a family became impoverished and had to sell, the nearest relative had the right to redeem (i.e. buy) the land to keep it in the family (Lev 25:23-25). Jeremiah is attentive to God’s guidance, so when his cousin shows up, he knows what to do.

Costly obedience and the hope explained

Jeremiah’s simple obedience is extraordinary. In time of war, land is useless and Anathoth, less than 4km north-east of Jerusalem would have been already under Babylonian occupation. Who would want to buy land there? Jeremiah knew better than most that the city would fall and he would never benefit from the land, so redeeming it was a waste of money. Moreover, Jeremiah’s family have plotted to kill him earlier (Jer 11:18-23; 12:5-6), so why should he help such people? Resentment would have been an understandable response. Nevertheless, he recognises God’s hand and does His will (Jer 32:8). The lengthy details of the transaction underline its legitimacy (Jer 32:9-12).[1] Jeremiah’s obedience becomes a symbol of hope – but it needs God’s Word to interpret it. There is hope beyond exile because there will be a time when ‘houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land’ (Jer 32:15). Sometimes, the reason for hope needs to be explained (1 Pet 3:15).

How to become people of hope

Jeremiah’s act became a message of hope not only for him but for the people around him. This was possible because the prophet listened to God and acted on what he understood the Lord to be saying. He did not know ahead of time that his actions would communicate hope but through his obedience hope came unexpectedly. We, too, gain hope when we listen to God and live faithfully for Him even when we do not understand how this can make a difference. Ultimately hope comes because we serve a God of hope and when we are faithful to Him, we express something of His character. Just as Jeremiah made a costly sacrifice as kinsman redeemer to help a family member out of debt, so Jesus Christ became our brother, our kinsman redeemer who paid with His life to save us from the debt of sin. Billy Graham said, ‘the will of God will never take you where the grace of God cannot sustain you’. If the Lord could bring life out of death for us through the cross, then no situation is so hopeless that He cannot redeem it.

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[1] Shekel here is the weight of the silver, so it is not in coins. It is equivalent to about 195g or about 7 ounces. Even if we do not know exactly how much this would have been worth, the details suggest an emphasis on a proper and appropriate transaction, so there is no suggestion that the land was undervalued. The reference to an open and a sealed deed reflects ancient custom (Jer 32:11). The top of the parchment would be open and could be read by anyone, while the sealed document continued the same parchment and was the copy of the open section but was rolled up and sealed. If later doubts arose about the deed, the sealed copy could be opened to ascertain that the deed had not been tempered with.

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