THERE IS NOTHING TOO HARD FOR THEE

Sometimes the Lord’s servants have to do contradictory things.

For years Jeremiah had been predicting the downfall of Judah and Jerusalem because of its sin, Jer. 1. 13-16. Now, however, the Lord instructed him to make a property investment in the very land that was facing imminent judgement. The date is the tenth year of Zedekiah, v. 1; that is, just one year before the final conquest of the city and its destruction in 586 B.C., 39. 2, 8. The Babylonian army was already at the gates, subjecting Jerusalem to a cruel siege, 32. 1, 2. So the instruction to purchase a relative’s land in Anathoth, a few miles outside the doomed city, came as a bolt from the blue. Why invest in what is to be destroyed and seized by an enemy?

Whatever Jeremiah may have felt, he obeyed without question, vv. 6-10. Obedience often has to precede complete understanding.

When the Lord speaks to our souls through His word, may we have the courage of Jeremiah to obey despite all the difficulties.

But having obeyed, the prophet prayed. He honestly articulates his incomprehension of the ways of God at that moment, v. 25, while never slipping into irreverence. Rather, he clings on to all that he knows of God, using that as the ground of his approach.

This is a great lesson. We must never let local difficulties and misunderstandings obscure what we do know of our God. Jeremiah’s prayer is therefore a potted history of Israel, seeing in all the nation’s experiences, good and bad, the hand of God. To remind God, as it were, of His doings is neither presumption nor redundancy, but simple faith.

Such simple faith receives an answer, vv. 26-44. That problematic investment, so ludicrous in men’s eyes, was a parable of God’s purposes for Israel. Yes, Judah would fall, v. 29, but the people would later be restored to the very same land, vv. 37-44. Jeremiah’s purchase was a concrete pledge of Israel’s future return and revival, one ultimately tied up with the return of the Son of God Himself, vv. 39, 40; Zech. 14. 4-9. ‘Come, Lord Jesus’, Rev. 22. 20.