He Bought Land Under Siege
“Jeremiah said, “The word of the LORD came to me: Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth, because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it.’ “Then, just as the LORD had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.’ “I knew that this was the word of the LORD; so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver.”
— Jeremiah 32:6-9 (NIV)
Babylon's army had Jerusalem ringed, with earth ramps already heaped against the wall. The prophet was no longer a free man: on royal orders he sat under guard in a palace yard, punished for announcing aloud that his city would fall. Anathoth, his home village, stood about three miles north, a settlement full of priests. Its fields lay beyond the walls, where enemy troops were already moving. Earlier, men from that very village had threatened to kill him unless he stopped speaking. Israel's law never banned a land sale, only a permanent one, since every fiftieth year each holding returned to the family it began with. A close kinsman therefore held first claim whenever family ground changed hands. Judah used no coins yet, so a shekel meant weight, and a price meant silver set on a balance. He wrote two copies, sealed one, left one open, gathered witnesses, then had his scribe store both inside a clay jar, good for many years. Only afterward came the reason: here, houses and fields and vineyards would find buyers again. A promise can be firmer ground to stand on than anything you can see.
Some things you never start, because you cannot tell whether they will be worth anything. You have lived somewhere for years and still live out of boxes: pictures in the wardrobe, cartons never opened, a neighbour through the wall whose name you do not know. You work somewhere you are not sure you will stay, so you do not even learn names. You are waiting to settle into your own life until everything around you stops shaking. Not doing is a choice too, only made quietly. Buying a field with an army at the walls means paying today for a day nobody can see yet, because God has given his word.
One lasting thing where you are
- 1Do one lasting thing today in a place you treat as temporary: hang the picture that has been in the wardrobe, put up the shelf, unpack the last box, or introduce yourself by name to the neighbour through the wall. Do it as if you were staying.
- 2If everything around you already has its place, do one thing that only makes sense a year from now: sign up for a course that starts in spring, pay the first instalment on something you will use later, or fix a date with someone for next year.
God, everything around me looks unsteady, and I cannot see how it will end. You see further than I do. I am not asking you to show me the end. I am asking for enough trust to do one thing today as if I were here to stay. Amen.
I settle in today where I am with something that lasts, though I cannot see what comes next.
Why was buying this land such a strange move?
Babylon's army had Jerusalem ringed, with earth ramps already heaped against the wall, and the ground in question lay outside those walls, about three miles north, in country enemy troops were moving through. Jeremiah himself was not free either: he sat under guard in a palace yard, put there for announcing aloud that his city would fall.
Why did the offer come to him?
Israel's law did not stop a sale, it stopped a sale for good, since every fiftieth year a holding returned to the family it began with. A close kinsman therefore held the first claim whenever family ground changed hands, and here that claim was his. The text never says why his cousin wanted to sell.
What happened to the purchase document?
He wrote it out twice, sealed one copy, left the other open, and had witnesses sign. Judah used no coins yet, so the price was silver set on a balance. Then he handed both copies to his scribe Baruch to store inside a clay jar, so they would keep for many years, and the word that came with it was that houses and fields and vineyards in that country would find buyers again.