Day 240: Jeremiah 31, 32 and 33

Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land (Jeremiah 32:15).

 

Times were bad in Jerusalem. The first (the best) and second (the brightest) waves of exiles had already been transported to Babylon. Nebuchadnezzar was besieging the city, Jeremiah was imprisoned by the palace guard, and things were looking bleak. Then Jeremiah’s cousin showed up and asked him to take a field off his hands in Anathoth (where Jeremiah was from – in the tribal holdings of Benjamin – probably to the north, but not far from Jerusalem).

While your city is being besieged and the country is being trampled underfoot by a vast army is probably not the best time to try and sell property – not exactly a seller’s market. On the other hand, Jeremiah was the one who prophesied Jerusalem would be defeated while other prophets were saying it would be spared. Jeremiah would hardly be the most likely candidate to buy a piece of property… but he did.

In spite of their hard times, Jeremiah knew things were going to improve. Not right away… in fact things were going to get much worse before they got better, but things were eventually going to start looking up. He bought the field from his cousin, sealed the deed away in the 6^th century BC equivalent of a safe deposit box, as a witness that one day things would once again be good in Jerusalem.

During hard times, how can you demonstrate your faith that things are going to improve?