Salvation and Divine Favor Promised

1. Judgement Foretold

a. jeremiah in prison

Key Scripture (Jeremiah 32:1-2): 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. 2 For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.

b. an unwanted prophecy

Key Scripture (Jeremiah 32:3-5): For Zedekiah king of Judah had shut him up, saying, “Why do you prophesy and say, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; 4 and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him [a]face to face, and see him eye to eye; 5 then he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall be until I visit him,” says the Lord; “though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed” ’?”

response to the word

There is divine power in the Word of God. Jeremiah was inspired by the Holy Spirit to prophesy, and now we have the Bible as the basis for all prophecy. God, by His Holy Spirit, still speaks at times through people (prophesying, tongues-interpretations, word of knowledge or wisdom or discernment), and the Holy Spirit may speak secretly to our mind and heart, but all truly prophetic words will be consistent with the Holy Scripture, the Bible. The crucial issue for us is, do we love and obey God by hearing, believing, and obeying His Word? Obeying His Word is the only way to live with God's blessing upon us, instead of under His judgement.

2. Prophetic and Symbolic Action

a. informed by the lord

Key Scripture (Jeremiah 32:6-8): And Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me, saying, 7 ‘Behold, Hanamel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, “Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.” ’ 8 Then Hanamel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the Lord, and said to me, ‘Please buy my field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’ Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.

B. acting on faith

Key Scripture (Jeremiah 32:9-12): So I bought the field from Hanamel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and weighed out to him the money—seventeen shekels of silver. 10 And I signed the [a]deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales. 11 So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open; 12 and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanamel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison.

response to the word

Trusting God's direction regarding the future may not be easy, because we cannot see the future as God does. God is always at work towards His own goals, and He knows what the outcome will be. In contrast to that, we are called by God, many times, to walk by faith and not by sight, trusting the future to Him. The renowned Christian, Corrie Ten Boom, once said, "You can trust an unknown future in the hands of a known God." Knowing God is the key to trusting the future to Him. Knowing Him, we know He is trustworthy and will never lead us wrong. Whatever may be the troubling unknowns we are dealing with today, we need to put those things in the hands of the God we know and trust.

3. Salvation and Divine Favor Assured

a. god promised to gather his people

Key Scripture (Jeremiah 32:36-10): “Now therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, ‘It shall be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:

b. got promised to establish his people

Key Scripture (Jeremiah 32:41-44): Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good, and I will [a]assuredly plant them in this land, with all My heart and with all My soul.’

42 “For thus says the Lord: ‘Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them all the good that I have promised them. 43 And fields will be bought in this land of which you say, “It is desolate, without man or beast; it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.” 44 Men will buy fields for money, sign deeds and seal them, and take witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem, in the cities of Judah, in the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the [b]lowland, and in the cities of the [c]South; for I will cause their captives to return,’ says the Lord.”

response to the word

Sin leaves a trail of sorrows and destruction. The fleeting pleasures of sin bring heartache and personal brokenness. In sharp contrast to what sin does, the blessing of the gospel of Jesus Christ is that sins can be forgiven, and lives can be restored. Sin does not have to be the final word. When God, for Christ's sake, forgives. He cleanses away and forgets the sin. He gives a new life to those He forgives. As believers in Christ, this is the message we have to tell to people who need to hear it. Pray for and use opportunities to do this.

On Your Own...

Jeremiah had many enemies who hated him and wanted to murder him, but he had one trusted friend, a man named Baruch, first mentioned in Jeremiah 32:12. It seems Baruch, who is identified as "the son of Neriah," was a relative of the royal family of Israel. Therefore, Baruch had the political and social standing to befriend Jeremiah in spite of the prophet's many enemies.

Probably the best example of the relationship between Jeremiah and Baruch is in Jeremiah 36, which tells of something that happened early in the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah (608-597 BC).

God commanded Jeremiah to write all of his prophecies on a scroll (Jeremiah 36:1-2). Jeremiah dictated all of his prophecies to Baruch, and he wrote them on the scroll (v. 4). Because Jeremiah had been banned from preaching in the Temple, he asked Baruch to go to the Temple and read the scroll to the people (vv. 5-7). When Baruch read the prophecies of Jeremiah in the Temple, word soon reached the king of Judah, and the scroll was brought to him. He burned it (vv. 22-23), and ordered that Baruch and Jeremiah be arrested, "but the Lord hid them" (v. 26).

Soon after this, God commanded Jeremiah to write again on a scroll all his prophecies (Jeremiah 36:28), and again Jeremiah dictated to Baruch the prophecies in the first scroll, and Baruch wrote them, and "added besides unto them many like words" (v. 32). This is how what we call the Book of Jeremiah came into existence.

After the fall of Judah and Jerusalem to the Babylonians (586 BC), Baruch continued as the friend of Jeremiah. When Jewish rebels wanted to escape to Egypt, and Jeremiah opposed them, they blamed Baruch for Jeremiah's opposition to them (Jeremiah 43:1-3), and forced both Jeremiah and Baruch to go with them to Egypt. After Jeremiah's death in Egypt, it is believed Baruch migrated to Babylon with Jeremiah's writings in hand, and lived there 12 years until his death.