Yahweh directly instructed Jeremiah to buy a field in Judah while Jerusalem was under siege (Jer. 32:24-25). The city was about to be burned, looted, with thousands of people killed. Those who were remaining would be marched off to Babylon on a long walk north of about 1700 miles. There they would stay for 70-years, but Jeremiah was to buy land back in Judah in the presence of witnesses. As if this transaction was a long-term property investment for shepherding, parceling, or immediate development for occupants. Jeremiah appeared puzzled by Yahweh’s instructions about the field he was to buy, so he brought it up to inquire about it.
“Behold, the siege ramps have reached the city to take it; and the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword, the famine and the pestilence; and what You have spoken has come to pass; and behold, You see it. ‘You have said to me, O Lord GOD, “Buy for yourself the field with money and call in witnesses”—although the city is given into the hand of the Chaldeans’” (Jer. 32:24-25).
As if through the violence and capture of the land by the Chaldeans (Babylonians) was a transfer of ownership, it was not a permanent situation. Jeremiah was to follow-through to demonstrate to others the hope and promise of one day returning to Israel: the land of their patriarchal fathers. As the Lord declared long before the Babylonian exile and even before Israel’s return, a new covenant is repeated with Yahweh’s words “They shall be My people, and I will be their God (Jer. 32:38).” It was here that God’s people under siege began to see the hope for restoration that was given before them.
Immediately following Jeremiah’s apparent confusion, Yahweh’s following words were spoken: “Behold, I am YHWH, the God of all flesh; is anything too difficult for Me?” (Jer. 32:27). With His declaration, the remaining context provides added details about the people’s condemnation, as they were both exiled and destroyed. In verses 37-44, it becomes clear what restoration specifically is. God promises an everlasting covenant where He will become permanently set within the hearts of His people. By His gracious and infinite mercy, He promises to place inside His people such a fear (profound reverence), that they will not turn away from Him.
It is strenuously vital to recognize the significance of this promise of restoration because it tells us who God is and what He is like. We see earlier written in Jeremiah the following: “They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more” (Jer. 31:34).” Catch the enormous significance of this promise as it concerns what Yahweh does to implement the new covenant. As cross-referenced in Isaiah 43:25, He wipes out our transgressions for His own sake, and He remembers them no more (cf Heb. 8:12).
To bring home Yahweh’s point, “is anything too difficult for me?” The new covenant’s far-view fulfillment is explicitly articulated in Scripture in numerous places. It was Jesus who informed His apostles, and new readers of Scripture, His death was the inauguration of the new covenant (Matt 26:28, Mark 14:24, Luke 22:20, 1 Cor. 11:23-26). Where through exceedingly dire circumstances, His people are given hope and a promise of restoration. To return to their land and inherit life beyond what they and their descendants have ever imagined possible.
