Jeremiah 32:6-12 - Buy my field

32:6-8

Jeremiah received a word from the Lord saying that his uncle was going to come to him telling Jeremiah to buy his field at Anathoth. And this is precisely what happened. We need to recognise that sometimes God gives words of knowledge like this. Now in charismatic churches “words of knowledge” are quite often given, and sometimes they will be complete rubbish. In the worst case they will be used by people to manipulate others, or to get money out of them. These things happen, but that does not mean we must reject the whole concept of “words of knowledge”, whether received direct from God or via  a preacher or prophet. For they happen in the Bible (though not that often, we do well to remember), and there is no Scriptural justification for saying God is never going to use such a means of communication again. So what are we to do? We are told to weigh all things, so we should definitely be discerning. Most importantly the truth of the gospel; the word of God must be our bedrock. All other things, gifts, talents, supernatural events are “extras”. God can act however He likes or chooses, and if we make the word of God our continual source of strength and guidance, then we will be more likely to be able to tell truth from falsehood. And if we do make a mistake we will fairly quickly get back on the right track.

32:9-12

So Jeremiah bought the field. In one sense this was a crazy thing to do, a bad time to buy! But Jeremiah knew that the present crisis was part of God’s plan, and was not the end of all God’s plans. He knew that salvation would come. In the case of the Babylonian captivity it would take seventy years for freedom to come. This was no simple salvation. We too must be invested in the future. This might involve actual investments, but I am thinking of this more in terms of being invested in people.