Jeremiah 32:16-25.  In yesterday’s reading we saw Jeremiah in prison for predicting the downfall of Jerusalem and the exile of the then current king, Zedekiah.  We also saw Jerusalem under siege.  God had Jeremiah perform a symbolic act in response to the siege, he was to make a deal for a piece of land and seal up the paper work in a jar for “a long time”.  The symbolic act showed us two things.  Jerusalem would be captured (which it was) and after a long time the people would be restored to the land (which they were 70 years later). In today’s reading we see that Jeremiah followed through with the deal and we see his prayer in response to the whole situation.

It is interesting to keep in mind that Jeremiah would be one of the ones who never got to return to Jerusalem, he never got to unseal his jar.  I must have been very hard for him to believe that Jerusalem and Judah would ever be restored.  The people hadn’t believed that Jerusalem would fall to Nebuchadnezzar, now the siege ramps were almost built and Jerusalem was about to fall.  There was a brief break in the action in Jerusalem when Egypt sent an army to the region to fight with Nebuchadnezzar, Egypt was quickly beaten and Nebuchadnezzar then returned to complete his invasion of Jerusalem.  The symbolic message about the land was probably given at the time of the break in the invasion.

Verse 16 starts out with Jeremiah giving the jar full of paperwork for his purchase to Baruch, his secretary, for safekeeping.  Then we are told that Jeremiah “prayed to Yahweh (LORD)”.  The mention of the jar tells us that that was what he was thinking about as he prayed.  In verses 17-23 we see two things; God’s power and how he used it to benefit the Israelite people and the consistent disobedience by the Israelite people.  In verse 17 Jeremiah confirms to God that he knows that God created everything.  He concludes that nothing is to hard for God.  In verse 18 we see Jeremiah calling God the “great and mighty God, Yahweh of the armies.  In verse 19 Jeremiah recognizes or confesses to God that he knows that God sees all and gives each person what he deserves.  IN verses 20-21 Jeremiah remembers the miracles that God did when he brought the Israelite people out of Egypt back in Moses’ day (about 1450 BC), miracles that he was still doing in Jeremiah’s day (900 years later).

In verse 18 we have an interesting statement by Jeremiah.  First Jeremiah tells God that he knows that he (God) shows mercy, love, faithfulness, and kindness (lovingkindness, Hebrew “hesed”) “to thousands”.  Then Jeremiah says that God “repays the iniquity (a word that contains the idea of twisted or warped) of the fathers into the bosom of their children”.  In English it seems like Jeremiah is saying that God dumps all the evil of the fathers in the kid’s laps.  But in the next verse Jeremiah tells us that God sees all and “gives to each person  according the path that person has traveled”.  That seems like a contradiction.  The word repays is the Hebrew word “shalom”, it is often translated peace.  We often think of “peace” as tranquility (like sitting in a quiet place) or the lack of conflict (like when the fighting of war stops).  To a Jewish mind “peace” is more inner than outer.  It’s about being filled and satisfied in body, mind, and spirit.  It may contain some hint of justice too.  The main idea is one of being full.  If a person is evil though then the just or right thing is for that person to be filled with the consequences of their actions.  That is how translators come up with a word like “repay”; theses people have been evil and they are getting what they fully deserve.  The problem is it looks like the kids are getting what the parents deserve, but Jeremiah contradicts that idea in the next verse. The word translated “bosom” or “lap”.  The word means “very close”.  In fact it seems to be closer than close.  In many of it’s uses it seems to be indicating a deep inner connection.  In Job 19:25-27 a guy named Job, who loved God very much and was suffering a lot, in those verses he tells some friends that even if he dies he will see his redeemer in a restored body.  He himself will see this “redeemer”.  The though of it makes his “consumes the heart within him” (some translations say his heart yearns or is faint).  That word “within” is the same word translated “bosom” or “lap”.  If we put these words together a little differently verse 18 might say something like “the twisted lives of the fathers was filled to it’s maximum in the hearts of their children”.  In 1 Kings 12:11 a guy named Rehoboam told the people of Israel, My father put a heavy load on you all and kept you in line with whips.  I’m going to make your load even heavier and keep you in line with scorpions>”  Rehobaom was the son of Solomon, the last king of the united nation of Israel.  Rehoboam’s attitude led to the split of the kingdom.  In respect to our reading here, you might say Rehoboam filled his Dad’s example to the max.  In other words the kids aren’t getting dumped on for their parents bad actions they are suffering because they have exceeded their parents in doing bad.  Verse 23 (as well as verse 19) seems to support this idea when we see that God brought the Israelite people into a great land but they insisted on being disobedient.  They did “nothing” that God told them to do.  The result was the trouble they were facing.

In verses 24-25 Jeremiah tells God that he sees the fulfillment of all the predictions of doom that he has delivered for God.  The Babylonians have built their ramps and are taking the city.  Jeremiah says to God, “Your words have been fulfilled”.  He then quotes God’s instructions to him, instructions that he followed in verses 1-15, after that he tells God, “the city has given (delivered, bestowed, granted, entrusted to) into the hands of the Chaldeans (Babylonians)”.  Some experts think that Jeremiah might be bringing up the ‘go buy that land” thing as a way of saying, “Hey all the trouble you predicted is happening, but you also said the land would be restored some day.”  Others think that Jeremiah is saying something like, “You told me to go buy that land (which he did) even though the city (and the rest of Judah) has been taken over.”  They think he cant really believe what God asked him to do in light of the invasion.  “How could God ask him to spend hard earned money on land that was now destroyed and in the hands of foreigners?” is the way some see this.  It’s kind of hard to know what Jeremiah was thinking, he certainly had feelings, if he could feel sorrow and sadness over the events of his lifetime he certainly could be shocked too.  It is clear that Jeremiah recognized that God’s predictions were all 100% so I don’t think he doubted that the land would be restored to Israel.  It was still pretty shocking to go through it all and it would be difficult to see your land under the control of a hostile enemy.

I want to remember that God is fair, consistent, forgiving, good, strong, able to control, able to bring good out of evil situations, watching, and that he has a plan to bring the most good into the most lives as possible.  God has a new contract with us, one of love and forgiveness, one that will see us into his forever family.  But here and now we may go through trouble, trouble that we have brought on our selves and trouble that is just a part of the messed up world we have made.  Jeremiah was very upset at the mess his world was in but I’m sure he could say with Job, “I know my redeemer lives and am confident that even if I die I will live again with him forever”.

God thank you for buying me back from eternal destruction.  Thank you for giving me a hope and a future.  Let me face the trials of life with confidence that you will do what you have said.  You will bring your people into eternity with you forever.  Let me be faithful in the mean time and remind others of your faithfulness too.