Their Blame and God’s Name

16 The word of the Lord came to me: 17 “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. 18 So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. 19 I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. 20 But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, ‘These are the people of the Lord, and yet they had to go out of his land.’ 21 But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came.

22 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. 23 And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. 24 I will take you from the nations and gather you from all the countries and bring you into your own land.” – Ezekiel 36:16-24 ESV

The good news was that God was going to purge the land and prepare it for the return of His chosen people. That bit of information would have come as a huge relief in the wake of all the latest news concerning Judah’s fall and Jerusalem’s destruction. As Ezekiel’s audience processed all the details of the reports from home making their way to Babylon, a pall of depression and despondency would have settled over them. They were already in exile, waiting to be joined by more of their fellow citizens, the latest round of victims from Nebuchadnezzar’s relentless siege of Jerusalem. Now that the invasion was over, so were their hopes of ever returning home.

But with Ezekiel’s latest message, their hopes were restored by the news that God was going to allow them to return home one day.

“…the mountains of Israel will produce heavy crops of fruit for my people—for they will be coming home again soon! See, I care about you, and I will pay attention to you. Your ground will be plowed and your crops planted. I will greatly increase the population of Israel, and the ruined cities will be rebuilt and filled with people.” – Ezekiel 36:8-10 NLT

After all that had happened, they could rest in the knowledge that God cared for them. He had not abandoned or forgotten them. The very fact that He had sent a prophet to minister to them in the middle of Babylon should have clued them into the fact that He still had a keen interest in their welfare.

This chapter is replete with good news concerning the rebellious people of God, and it will only get better. But God knew it was vital that His unfaithful children understand the reason for their suffering. As they rejoiced over the news of their eventual return and God’s plans to prosper them once again, He wanted them to grasp the seriousness of their guilt and the true cause of His harsh judgment of them. And God is unsparing and quite graphic in His description of their crime.

“…when the people of Israel were living in their own land, they defiled it by the evil way they lived. To me their conduct was as unclean as a woman’s menstrual cloth.” – Ezekiel 36:17 NLT

He leaves little to the imagination and makes no attempt to sugarcoat or downplay the extent of their iniquity. This imagery would have hit Ezekiel’s Jewish audience quite hard because they were very familiar with the Mosaic Laws concerning this matter.

“Whenever a woman has her menstrual period, she will be ceremonially unclean for seven days. Anyone who touches her during that time will be unclean until evening. Anything on which the woman lies or sits during the time of her period will be unclean. If any of you touch her bed, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening. If you touch any object she has sat on, you must wash your clothes and bathe yourself in water, and you will remain unclean until evening. This includes her bed or any other object she has sat on; you will be unclean until evening if you touch it. If a man has sexual intercourse with her and her blood touches him, her menstrual impurity will be transmitted to him. He will remain unclean for seven days, and any bed on which he lies will be unclean.” – Leviticus 15:19-24 NLT

Their sin had become as natural and normal to them as a woman’s monthly menstrual cycle. They didn’t have to plan it or think about it; it just happened. And when it did, it contaminated everything and everyone around them. Their actions made everything they touched impure and unholy. But rather than seven days out of the month, their impurity had become a 365-day-a-year problem.

And God makes it clear that this problem was not the result of normal bodily functions or a pre-programmed function of human anatomy. No, they were making personal choices that resulted in the violation of God’s will and the defamation of His holy name.

“They polluted the land with murder and the worship of idols…” – Ezekiel 36:18 NLT

A woman’s menstrual cycle is inevitable and unavoidable, but that is not true of murder and idolatry. In fact, God had provided clear prohibitions against these things.

“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them…” – Exodus 20:3-4 ESV

“You shall not murder.” – Exodus 20:13 ESV

But they had repeatedly violated these two commands, along with all the others. It seems that God pointed out these two sins because they both involved the shedding and spreading of blood. Murder requires the taking of life and the spilling of blood. And the brand of idolatry that God’s people had begun to embrace often involved human sacrifice. Their downward spiritual spiral had led them to offer up their own children to false gods like Molech. And the blood of their victims cried out to God from the soil of the polluted land of promise.

And God wants them to understand that all they have suffered has been the result of God’s anger against their blatant and unrepentant wickedness.

“I poured out my fury on them. I scattered them to many lands to punish them for the evil way they had lived.” – Ezekiel 36:18-19 NLT

They had no one to blame but themselves. While their deportation to Babylon had been God’s doing, it had been their own fault. He had simply given them what they rightly deserved. He had punished them in keeping with His own righteousness and according to His covenant commitment.

“…if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today…The Lord will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone! You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery among all the nations to which the Lord sends you.” – Deuteronomy 28:15, 36-37 NLT

It had all happened just as God promised, including His prediction of their continued unfaithfulness through further idolatry. His punishment of them had virtually no impact on their behavior. They were so addicted to idolatry that they couldn’t resist the temptation, even while undergoing divine judgment for that very sin.

But little did they know that their actions had been adding to their long list of crimes against the Almighty. And, worst of all, all the while they had been violating the will of God, they had been defaming the name of God.

“…they brought shame on my holy name.” – Ezekiel 36:20 NLT

It wasn’t just the fact that the people of God were living godless lives. There is no doubt that their behavior was a stain on God’s name because they were violating everything that He stood for. But God points out that their punishment had raised questions about Him among the pagan nations of the world.

“For the nations said, ‘These are the people of the Lord, but he couldn’t keep them safe in his own land!’” – Ezekiel 36:20 NLT

God doesn’t worry about public opinion. What people think about Him plays no part in His decision-making. But He does care about His name because it is a reflection of His character. Yet, He had been willing to risk the repudiation of His reputation in order to deal with the sins of His people. The very ones who bore His name and should have been declaring His greatness and goodness to the nations had become a drain on His personal reputation. And the prophet Jeremiah provides a glimpse into God’s rationale for allowing this to happen.

“Have you noticed what people are saying?—‘The Lord chose Judah and Israel and then abandoned them!’ They are sneering and saying that Israel is not worthy to be counted as a nation. But this is what the Lord says: I would no more reject my people than I would change my laws that govern night and day, earth and sky. I will never abandon the descendants of Jacob or David, my servant, or change the plan that David’s descendants will rule the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Instead, I will restore them to their land and have mercy on them.” – Jeremiah 33:24-26 NLT

And Ezekiel receives the very same message from the Lord concerning His rebellious people.

“I was concerned for my holy name, on which my people brought shame among the nations. Therefore, give the people of Israel this message from the Sovereign Lord: I am bringing you back, but not because you deserve it.” – Ezekiel 36:21-22 NLT

That last line is huge and should not be overlooked. None of what God was promising to do was deserved. They had done nothing to earn His affection or receive His forgiveness, and that had been true from the very beginning. His decision to make a nation called Israel and set it apart as His own had nothing to do with merit. As Moses told the people of Israel, they existed as a result of God’s love and faithfulness.

The LORD did not set His affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than the other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the LORD loved you and kept the oath He swore to your fathers… – Deuteronomy 7:7-8 BSB

And all that God was promising for the future would be based on His love and faithfulness as well. But even greater than His unwavering love for His people is His love for His own name. That is why God declared, “I will show how holy my great name is—the name on which you brought shame among the nations” (Ezekiel 36:23 NLT). And when He is done, rather than mock the God of Israel, the nations will know that He alone is the Lord.

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Repent and Rebuild

1 In the second year of Darius the king, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest: 2 “Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” 3 Then the word of the Lord came by the hand of Haggai the prophet, 4 “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this house lies in ruins? 5 Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. 6 You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes.” – Haggai 1:1-6 ESV

This relatively short prophetic book bears the name of Haggai, who was evidently its author. We are given scant details regarding Haggai’s life, other than a brief mention in the book of Ezra. According to the prophet Ezra, Haggai was a fellow prophet who served the Jews living in Judah and Jerusalem.

Now the prophets, Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo, prophesied to the Jews who were in Judah and Jerusalem, in the name of the God of Israel who was over them. – Ezra 5:1 ESV

Context is important to understanding the content of Haggai’s book. He provides “the second year of Darius the king” as the time at which he received his message from God. That would date his letter sometime around 520 BC. This would have been about 66 years after the fall of Judah and Jerusalem to the Babylonians. In 538 BC, King Cyrus of Persia had issued a decree that allowed the Jews who had been taken captive in the fall of Judah, to return to their land. In 537 BC, the first wave of exiles made their way back to the land under the leadership of Sheshbazzar, who was later replaced by Zerubbabel. In 458 BC, a second wave of 42,000 Israelites left Babylon and returned to the land of promise under the leadership of Ezra. Then in 444 BC, Nehemiah led a third and final wave of exiles on the long and arduous journey home to Judah. It is believed that Haggai and Zechariah both returned with the first wave of refugees. That means that Haggai had been living back in the land of Judah for 17 years before he received his message from God. 

During that time, the people had begun an aggressive rebuilding program, attempting to restore the city of Jerusalem’s damaged walls and gates. Under Zerubbabel, the first group of returned exiles had rebuilt the brazen altar in Jerusalem and reinstituted the sacrificial system. But the temple remained in ruins. They would lay the foundation for the temple’s construction, but due to opposition, they would postpone its construction for 16 years. That means that Haggai had been an eye-witness to the apathy that had set in among the people. He had stood back and watched as the rebuilding program ground to a halt and the rubble of the temple would have been a constant reminder of the people's unwillingness to honor God. They had gone about the construction of their own homes but had failed to rebuild the house of God. Their priorities were misaligned and their neglect of God’s house was another sign of their continuing unfaithfulness. God had honored His promise to restore them to the land, and yet, in refusing to complete the temple, they were treating Him as a second-class citizen. Any gratitude they may have felt for their undeserved restoration to their homeland had been replaced by greed and selfishness. And God was going to use Haggai to call them out.

Like any other prophet, Haggai was a messenger. He spoke on behalf of God. And the first message God gave Haggai to deliver was addressed to Zerubbabel, the governor of Judah, and Joshua, the high priest. God was going to hold these two men responsible for the people’s failure to complete the construction of the temple. But it’s important to note that God was not angry because He needed a place to live. When King David had come up with the original idea of building a house for God, he had received a not-so-subtle message from God delivered through the prophet Nathan.

“Go and tell my servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”’ – 2 Samuel 7:5-7 ESV

God did not need a house to live in. Because He is transcendent and omnipresent, He cannot be contained in a single location. But God eventually allowed David’s son, Solomon, to build a magnificent temple and He graced it with His name and vowed to watch over it – as long as Solomon and the people remained faithful to follow Him. At the dedication of that original temple, God had sworn an oath to Solomon and the people of Israel.

“I have heard your prayer and your plea, which you have made before me. I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting my name there forever. My eyes and my heart will be there for all time. And as for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, with integrity of heart and uprightness, doing according to all that I have commanded you, and keeping my statutes and my rules, then I will establish your royal throne over Israel forever, as I promised David your father, saying, ‘You shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel.’ But if you turn aside from following me, you or your children, and do not keep my commandments and my statutes that I have set before you, but go and serve other gods and worship them, then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and the house that I have consecrated for my name I will cast out of my sight, and Israel will become a proverb and a byword among all peoples. And this house will become a heap of ruins.” – 1 Kings 9:3-8 ESV

Of course, history reveals that Solomon failed to keep his commitment to God. He ended his reign by erecting idols to the false gods of his many wives and concubines. He led the people of Israel into idolatry and apostasy, which led God to split his kingdom in two, resulting in the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. And the kings that followed Solomon would fare no better in keeping the covenant commitments to God. Their track records of unfaithfulness and disobedience would eventually result in the fall of the northern kingdom to the Assyrians and the destruction of the southern kingdom by the Babylonians.

God’s message to Zerubbabel about the delay in building the temple was not about a divine housing shortage. It was about a shortfall in the people’s faithfulness to God. God accused them of complacency and procrastination.

“Thus says the Lord of hosts: These people say the time has not yet come to rebuild the house of the Lord.” – Haggai 1:2 ESV

They had made a determination to disobey the will of God. The whole reason God had allowed them to return to the land was to rebuild, restore, and repopulate it. But when they had initially begun the process, they had encountered opposition.

Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers' houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers' houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”

Then the people of the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build and bribed counselors against them to frustrate their purpose, all the days of Cyrus king of Persia, even until the reign of Darius king of Persia. – Ezra 4:1-5 ESV

These “adversaries” were actually Jews who had been left in the land after the fall of the northern kingdom of Israel to the Assyrians. Over the years they had intermarried with foreigners from Cutha, Ava, and Sepharvaim, who had been relocated to the land of Israel by the King of Assyria. Many of these people had migrated into the southern kingdom of Judah after it fell to the Babylonians. So, when the exiled eventually returned, these interlopers were not keen on giving up their newly acquired land or seeing the southern kingdom of Judah restored to its former glory. As a result, they did everything in their power to delay any plans for rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.

But somehow, even in the face of opposition, the returned exiles had managed to build houses for themselves. And God points out the inconsistency of their behavior.

“Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins?” – Ezra 1:4 NLT

They had been disobedient to God’s command. Their neglect of God’s house revealed the true nature of their hearts. Perhaps they assumed that God would be with them whether He had a house or not. But their failure to honor Him by rebuilding the house that bore His name revealed the selfish and self-centered conditions of their hearts. And God revealed that their disobedience had already begun to have consequences. But they were completely oblivious to what was happening to them.

“Look at what’s happening to you! You have planted much but harvest little. You eat but are not satisfied. You drink but are still thirsty. You put on clothes but cannot keep warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes!” – Haggai 1:5-6 NLT

All their efforts were producing diminished results. Because they had chosen to neglect God, they were experiencing negligible returns on their investments. They were unable to produce enough food to meet their needs. Their clothes were insufficient to keep them warm. Their wells and cisterns proved incapable of satisfying their thirst. And they never seemed to have enough money to meet their needs.

Don’t miss the point that God is making. They had beautiful homes, bountiful fields and vineyards, reliable water sources, ample clothing, and a ready source of income. But they were missing the blessing of God. They had put all their hope and trust in material things, and now they were finding that their sources of significance and sustenance were insufficient to meet their needs. It was time to rebuild. Haggai was going to make sure they understood that obedience to God took precedence over everything. As Jesus would later teach in His Sermon on the Mount, God expects His children to seek His Kingdom above all else.

“Why do you have so little faith? So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.” – Matthew 6:30-33 NLT

English Standard Version (ESV) The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT) Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

New English Translation (NET)NET Bible® copyright ©1996-2017 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.

A Long-term Investment.

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. At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. For Zedekiah king of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall capture it; Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be given into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?”

Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you and say, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.’ Then Hanamel my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

“And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions and the open copy. And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard. I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.’” – Jeremiah 32:1-15 ESV

The year is 587 B.C.. The fall of Jerusalem is less than a year away and Jeremiah has persistently and consistently been delivering his prophetic warning about the coming destruction of Jerusalem for a long time. But he has also been telling the people that God is going to restore them one day. Yes, they would spend 70 years in captivity in Babylon, but then God would miraculously restore a remnant of them to the land. And while Jeremiah has proven to be faithful to speak the words of God, it seems that he harbored some personal doubts as to whether all he prophesied was going to come true. So, God provides Jeremiah with a small test. He instructs Jeremiah to buy a plot of land in Judah. Now, it’s important to note that when Jeremiah receives these instructions from God, he is sitting in jail, having been imprisoned by Zedekiah. His crime? He had been telling the king that Jerusalem was going to fall to the Babylonians and that Zedekiah himself would be taken captive. This was probably viewed by the king as an act of treason. Jeremiah was seen as seditious, stirring up unrest in the city during a time of national crisis. So, he was imprisoned to keep him from causing panic among the people. So, it is while he was locked up in the court of the guard that Jeremiah received his instructions from God.

“Your cousin Hanamel son of Shallum will come and say to you, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth. By law you have the right to buy it before it is offered to anyone else.’” – Jeremiah 32:7 NLT

God tells Jeremiah that his cousin is going to come and offer him the opportunity to buy a piece of land in Anathoth, his hometown. Land was extremely valuable in the Hebrew economy and it was important to keep land within the family. So, Hanamel was going to offer Jeremiah, as a family member, the first rights to buy the land. But think about the absurdity of this. Anathoth is just a few miles northeast of Jerusalem. For years now, Jeremiah has been prophesying the fall of Jerusalem and Judah. He has been warning about the coming of the Babylonians and even now, they are outside the walls of Jerusalem, laying siege to the city. It’s just a matter of time before the words of God come true and the destruction of the nation of Judah is fulfilled. And remember, Jeremiah is sitting in jail because he has been warning the people, “This is what the Lord says: ‘I am about to hand this city over to the king of Babylon, and he will take it’” (Jeremiah 32:7 NLT). 

Now God wants him to invest in land. It sounds absurd. The property values had to be at an all-time low. But in less than a year, they were going to be even worse. God was commanding Jeremiah to invest in the future. God was telling the prophet to make a long-term investment based on nothing more than His word. The day would come when the land would once again increase in value. Not only that, the people who returned to the land under Ezra and Zerubbabel would naturally head to their former cities and villages, in order to rebuild and start over. The book of Ezra describes exactly what happened 70 years later:

Now these were the people of the province who came up out of the captivity of those exiles whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried captive to Babylonia. They returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his own town. They came with Zerubbabel, Jeshua, Nehemiah, Seraiah, Reelaiah, Mordecai, Bilshan, Mispar, Bigvai, Rehum, and Baanah. – Ezra 2:1-2 ESV

It goes on to say that 128 men of Anathoth returned from captivity. And where would they head as soon as they returned to Judah? Their hometown. The very place where Jeremiah was instructed to buy land. And Ezra describes how God miraculously provided for the financial needs of the returning remnant as King Cyrus decreed that all those who chose to remain behind in Babylon were to provide the capital necessary to fund their trip and the rebuilding process.

“Anyone who survives in any of those places where he is a resident foreigner must be helped by his neighbors with silver, gold, equipment, and animals, along with voluntary offerings for the temple of God which is in Jerusalem.” – Ezra 1:4 NLT

So those 128 men who returned to Anathoth with their families would have resources available to buy land should Jeremiah choose to sell. But Jeremiah would also have written proof that he owned land in Anathoth because he had instructed Baruch to place the deeds of sale in earthenware jars to protect them from the elements.

This entire episode was designed to be a test of Jeremiah’s faith. By the time Hanamel came to Jeremiah with the offer to purchase the plot of land, Anathoth was already under Babylonian control. In essence, Jeremiah was being made an offer to buy land that no longer belonged to Hanamel. It was the property of the conquering king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. But this fact, combined with Jeremiah’s imprisonment, made the whole affair even more unthinkable and absurd for the prophet. But that was God’s point. None of it made sense. He was asking Jeremiah to do the ridiculous: Invest in land that had no value. Buy a piece of property that really wasn’t Hanamel’s to sell. And all on the future hope that God’s word would come true and the land would one day be returned to the people of Judah.

And Jeremiah did exactly what the Lord commanded him to do. He bought the land. And Hanamel and the witnesses to the transaction must have smiled to themselves, laughing at the stupidity of Jeremiah for agreeing to such a bad deal. But Jeremiah’s actions were based on faith in God. He may have appeared ridiculous to those around him, but he was stepping out in faith, trusting that what God was telling him to do was wise and would be well worth it in the long run. The author of Hebrews describes faith as “the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see” (Hebrews 11:1 NLT). Jeremiah was putting his confidence in God, not his surrounding circumstances. He was in jail. He had just spent money on land that belonged to the Babylonians. He knew the entire land of Judah was soon to be under the control of King Nebuchadnezzar and would stay that way for 70 long years. But God was forcing Jeremiah to put his money where his mouth was. It was one thing to preach about future restoration. It was another thing to invest in it. Now, Jeremiah had some skin in the game. He had stepped out in faith and personally staked his hope of the promises of God. And that is the essence of faith. Abram had been promised a land by God, but he had to get up and move his family out of Ur. Noah had been promised salvation from the coming flood, but first he had to build an ark and suffer the ridicule of his neighbors. Sarah had to believe the promise of God that she would bear a son and become the mother of a multitude of nations, even though she was barren. David had to believe that his anointing as the next king of Israel was real, even though he had to suffer death threats and persecution at the hands of King Saul before it would ever happen. Faith requires hope. It demands patience. It takes a willingness to risk all by investing all in nothing more than the promises of God. Believing that He is faithful to do what He has said He will do.

English Standard Version (ESV)
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

New Living Translation (NLT)
Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

The Message (MSG)

Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson≠≠