The Prophet in Prison
- 32:1 “18th year of Nebuchadnezzar” - Nabopolassar, father of Nebuchadnezzar,
died in battle leaving his son as next in line. His first naive attempt
to deal with Israel was to take hostages, including Daniel, and the puppet
king Jehoikim installed by Egypt back to Babylon for training in
administration of the new empire. He personally selected Zedekiah for
Judah’s second chance, hoping that the treaty would be upheld.
- 32:2 “the army .. was besieging Jerusalem, and Jeremiah .. was imprisoned” -
a prison within a prison. And yet, even now, the people were only
in prison by choice. Many escaped to surrender to the Chaldeans.
- 32:3 “Why are you prophesying like this?” - Jeremiah was in prison
for telling the truth.
- 32:4 “face to face and eye to eye” - this was terrifying to Zedekiah
because he had stood before Nebuchadnezzar face to face and eye to eye
and swore by the God of Israel (the “local god” from Neb’s POV) to
be faithful to the treaty. In the last few chapters, we saw Zedekiah
and surrounding nations rebel - and now the Chaldeans were surrounding
the city.
- 32:7 “Hanamel will say ‘Buy for yourself my field’” - an oddly specific
prophecy serving as a sign to Jeremiah. “Specified complexity”
- 32:8 “Then I knew this was the word of the Lord” - adding to the
complexity of the sign, the real estate was worthless at the time. Anathoth
was in the hands of the Chaldeans. Hanamel was just hoping crazy
old Jeremiah would be a sucker.
- 32:9 “bought the field” - Jeremiah obeys the sign and buys the currently
worthless property, with all the legal formalities. It would be 70
years before it was worth anything, and he had no descendents. So this
was an act of faith. Food was not supplied by prisons, and was
extremely expensive under the siege.
- 32:14 “clay jar to preserve them” - this is how the Dead Sea scrolls were
preserved for 1000s of years.
- 32:15 “.. will again be bought in this land.” - the exile will not be
forever. This was the object lesson of the transaction.
- 32:25 “.. the hands of the Chaldeans” - Jeremiah reminds God that he
spent his grocery money on worthless real estate.
- 32:28 “about to deliver this city to the Chaldeans” - God assures
Jeremiah that He controls the timing, and Jeremiah will not starve
before Jerusalem is destroyed.
- 32:30 “nothing but evil in My sight” - God summarizes the abominations
of Judah.
- 32:37 “return them to this place” - God reiterates His promise of
future restoration, both in 70 years in in the latter days.
- 32:42 “all the good I have promised” - God again promises future blessing
to exceed the current well deserved disaster.