Jeremiah 32:6-15 – Faith in action

In Jeremiah 32:6-15, God revealed to the prophet Jeremiah that his cousin, Hanamel would offer to sell him a piece of land in Anathoth. And what was made known to him came to pass. His cousin came and offered him to buy his land. In those days property could only be sold to the nearest kin. They called it “the right of redemption.” An example of such a transaction could be seen in the book of Ruth. Boaz was offered to redeem the land belonging to the family of Ruth’s dead father-in-law because he was the nearest kinsman and had the right to redeem the property. Here in these verses, we are not told why Hanamel wanted to liquidate his asset. But in a time of turmoil, converting one’s assets to cash could be expected.

But why did God want Jeremiah to buy the land was also not made known. A good conclusion would be that He wanted Jeremiah this transaction as an object lesson. It was to authenticate his prophecy. Buying the land was a practical demonstration of his faith in what he was saying, that God was going to restore Judah’s future.   

Being confident of God’s promise he bought the land for seventeen shekels of silver. Verse 9 describes how the sale of the land was legally transacted, and verses 10-12 then show us that the transaction was carried out before witnesses in public. For safe-keeping verses 13-15 said that Jeremiah put the title deed into an earthenware. In doing, Jeremiah was signaling that the future would be restored and a future generation would have the right to inherit the land. What Jeremiah had done was God’s assurance to the people of Israel that their “Houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”

In what Jeremiah had done we see faith in action. Like him, our faith in God must result in obedience. We must take God at His Word even when what He had promised is not fully visible. Hebrews 11 had a list of such people of faith. They acted on the word of God even before the result was seen. Their faith in God leaves an example for us in our faith journey with God. So let us embrace this truth that “faith is the substance of things hope for and the conviction of things yet unseen.” We must have faith in God and put our hope in Him.