October 2025
‘I will rejoice in doing good to them’
Jeremiah 32.41 (NRSU)
In Jeremiah 32, this prophet is told by God to buy the field of his cousin at
Anathoth, as a sign of God’s love and re-assurance. He therefore prays (v16),
seeking to reassure himself that nothing is too hard for a God who is all loving
and powerful (v17-19). He reminds God of his steadfast faithfulness and
miraculous power which has saved his people in the past (v20-22). The people
have however at that time been thought disobedient and to have brought this punishment upon
themselves (v23). With the enemy siege machines battering the city walls,
Jeremiah fears that Jerusalem’s end has come. He wonders whether, in buying
the field, he has correctly understood God’s will (v24-25).
God replies that nothing is too hard for Him. Certainly, He will at this time destroy Jerusalem
(v26-29). Kings,
administrators, priests, prophets and common people alike had turned from
God and followed pagan religions (v32-35). After God has disciplined his people
in foreign lands however, He will bring them back to their own land. He will work within
them and they will know Him in a deeper and more profound way. They will
have a renewed devotion to God and a fresh experience of His blessings
(v38-41).
Jeremiah need have no doubt about the wisdom of buying the piece of land
from his relative. The day will come when this piece of land will be returned to
Jeremiah’s family. In fact throughout the country people will buy and sell land
as they did before (v42-44).
The Israelites had, Jeremiah suggests, to go through the judgement of the fall of Jerusalem because
of their disobedience. God loves us so much, now as of then, that His judgements of us can also begin to produce a new and deeper return to God’s ways in our own lives. Then,
and only then, does God reward us all with the rightful decisions. Like
Jeremiah’s new field, which was the way of a new start for the Israelites and
produced a new stability for them all at that time, a fresh start can only be achieved when we turn towards Him from our former ways.
As we take October's Saying into our hearts and
inner beings, we pray that we too can become more like the people God wants us to be and that He will certainly 'Rejoice in doing us good, with all his heart and soul’ (v41).