Buying a Field

When Jeremiah was told by the Lord to buy a field at Anathoth, it must have seemed rather strange to the prophet.  (Jeremiah 32:7)  It was a time when Jerusalem was under siege by the army of Nebuchadnezzar and Jeremiah was prophesying, "Thus says the Lord:  'I am going to give this city into the hands of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it.' "  (Jeremiah 32:3)  Why buy a field when the nation is on the edge of certain collapse?  Why plan for the future when there seems to be no future?  So, Jeremiah went and bought the field at Anathoth. (Jeremiah 32:9)       

The reason we find in a later verse, "For thus says the Lord of hosts,the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land."  (Jeremiah 32:15)  In a time of despair and in a time when the Word of the Lord spoke wrath and judgment, there was a word of hope.  It was a word not simply spoken, but one enacted through the visible purchase of a piece of land bought at such an unlikely time.  It was a move into the future when there seemed to be no future.  Despite the impending success of Babyon and the loss of everything, God spoke a word of hope about a future that was hidden in the moment, but which would unfold in time as surely as the sun would rise every morning.  From time to time we find ourselves standing in such moments.  

If we live long enough we are likely to come to one of those moments of darkness and hopelessness when it seems that there is no future for us.  In those moments we may find that God leads us out of the darkness of a broken and shattered past by calling us to act toward the future in a way that defies common sense and logic.  The leading of God is not always easy to discern for sometimes it seems as shrouded in the invisible as moutain tops do in the early morning mist.  The Scripture tells us in numerous ways that God always has a future for us.  We may not see it.  We may not believe it is possible.  But, if we look long enough with faith that He will not forsake us and that He is working to bring us to some good, we may begin to see the signs that life is not over.  The sign of hope for the future may be in something which makes no more sense than buying a field for the future when there is no future.