Jeremiah 32:1-44

Halley has, “This was the year before Jerusalem fell.  The burning of the city and desolation of Judah was almost at hand. Amid the gloom and despair of the hour Jeremiah was commanded by God to buy a field, in public ceremony, and put away the deed for safe keeping, to emphasize his prediction that the captives would return, and the land again be cultivated.”  J. Vernon McGee has, “In chapter 32 Jeremiah is in prison, and Jerusalem is under siege by Nebuchadnezzar; yet Jeremiah buys a piece of real estate in Anathoth!  Notice how Jeremiah pinpoints the time: it was ‘the tenth year of Zedekiah,’ the year Nebuchadnezzar breached the walls of Jerusalem and destroyed it.  It was a dark day indeed.  The LORD told Jeremiah that he would have the opportunity to buy a piece of land from his relative, Hanameel.  At the darkest hour of Judah’s history, Jeremiah buys real estate---this was the time to be selling real estate!...Why did Jeremiah buy this piece of land at this time?  It was to show the people he believed God when he said that they were going to return to the land…Jeremiah is no hypocrite.  He trusts the God who made heaven and earth, the God who so wonderfully cared for Israel.  But now the Chaldeans are right outside the city and are going to take it; yet God told Jeremiah to buy a field.  He obeyed, but it didn’t make good sense to him.  So he brings his question to the LORD.  My friend, there is nothing wrong with asking why.  If you have a doubt or a question, talk to the Lord about it.  That is what he wants us to do.  Just don’t put up this pious hypocritical front that we sometimes see.  While he says he trusts the LORD, he is crying and complaining and asking why.  Let’s be honest like Jeremiah.  He obeyed the LORD, but he admitted his doubts, taking them to the LORD in prayer.  God answers Jeremiah’s prayer in verses 26 through 44.”  [THRU THE BIBLE, Vol. III, p.405]  It appears Jeremiah 32 and Jeremiah 37 and 38 are all written within the same time period.

Verses 1-15, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD in the tenth year of Zedekiah king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar [587BC].  For then the king of Babylon’s army besieged Jerusalem, and Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the king of Judah’s house.  For Zedekiah king of Judah shut him up, saying, ‘Why do you prophesy and say, Thus says the LORD:  Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it; and Zedekiah king of Judah shall not escape from the hand of the Chaldeans, but shall surely be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon, and shall speak with him face to face, and see him eye to eye; then he shall lead Zedekiah to Babylon, and there he shall be until I visit him, says the LORD; though you fight with the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed’?  And Jeremiah said, ‘The word of the LORD came to me, saying, ‘Behold, Hanameel the son of Shallum your uncle will come to you, saying, Buy my field which is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.’  Then Hanameel my uncle’s son came to me in the court of the prison according to the word of the LORD, and said to me, ‘Please buy my  field that is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin; for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption yours; buy it for yourself.’  Then I knew that this was the word of the LORD.  So I bought the field from Hanameel, the son of my uncle who was in Anathoth, and weighed out to him the money---seventeen shekels of silver.  And I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses, and weighed the money on the scales.  So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed according to the law and custom, and that which was open; and I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, son of Mahseiah, in the presence of Hanameel my uncle’s son, and in the presence of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed, before all the Jews who sat in the court of the prison.  Then I charged Baruch before them, saying, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:  Take these deeds, both this purchase deed which is sealed and this deed which is open, and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may last many days.’  For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:  Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.’

Jeremiah prays for understanding

Verses 16-25, “Now when I had delivered the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the LORD, saying:  ‘Ah, Lord GOD!  Behold, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm.  There is nothing too hard for you.  You show lovingkindness to thousands, and repay the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them---the Great, the Mighty God, whose name is the LORD of hosts.  You are great in counsel and mighty in work, for your eyes are open to all the ways of the sons of men, to give everyone according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings.  You have set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt, to this day, and in Israel and among other men; and you have made yourself a name, as it is this day.  You have brought your people Israel out of the land of Egypt with signs and wonders, with a strong hand and an outstretched arm, and with great terror; you have given them this land, of which you swore to their fathers to give them---a land flowing with milk and honey.  And they came in and took possession of it, but they have not obeyed your voice or walked in your law.  They have done nothing of all that you commanded them to do; therefore you have caused all this calamity to come upon them.  Look, the siege mounds!  They have come to the city to take it; and the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans who fight against it, because of the sword and famine and pestilence; there you see it!  And you have said to me, O Lord GOD, ‘Buy the field for money, and take witnesses’!---yet the city has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’” Jeremiah was focused on the physical reality that was around him.  He could see the large siege mounds being built up against Jerusalem’s walls.  People were starving to death within Jerusalem.  Jerusalem’s end was in sight.  So the LORD must reassure Jeremiah of the outcome, and that Jerusalem will indeed be rebuilt again, in spite of what he is witnessing before his very eyes. 

The LORD answers Jeremiah’s prayer, calms his doubts

Verses 26-44, “Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying, ‘Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh, is there anything too hard for me?’  Therefore thus says the LORD:  ‘Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the Chaldeans, into the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and he shall take it.  And the Chaldeans who fight against this city shall come and set fire to this city and burn it, with the houses on whose roofs they have offered incense to Baal and poured out drink offerings to other gods, to provoke me to anger; because the children of Israel and the children of Judah have done only evil before me from their youth.  For the children of Israel have provoked me only to anger with the work of their hands,’ says the LORD. For this city has been to me a provocation of my anger and my fury from the day that they built it, even to this day; so I will remove it from before my face because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah, which they have done to provoke me to anger---they, their kings, their princes, their priests, their prophets, the men of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.  And they have turned to me the back, and not the face; though I taught them, rising up early and teaching them, yet they have not listened to receive instruction.  But they set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it.  And they built the high places of Baal which are in the Valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Molech, which I did not command them, nor did it come into my mind that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.’”  Comment:  You can see the LORD continues to condemn the House of Judah for Baal worship, which entailed the sacrifice on innocent babies and toddler-age children as burnt offerings.  This is why Israel was taken captive in 721BC (see http://www.unityinchrist.com/kings/1.html and see also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Carthage).  The Valley of the Son of Hinnom had become like Carthage in their religion.  Be sure to look up the depravity in that last wiki link, “Religion_in_Carthage” and  what archaeologists found in its area of Tophet.  Jerusalem had become another area of Tophet at the Valley of Hinnom!  Our modern version of Baal worship is no less evil in the sight of God.  What is it?  It is abortion and the creation of sexual predators who prey on our young children.  How are these sexual predators created who prey on our precious little children?  Over 4 million pornographic websites exist as of 2005 on the Internet, and in the cause and effect manner, they are creating, just as efficiently as any production-line factory, sexual predators who prey on young children and teenage girls, who are abducted, raped and then  murdered to hide their hideous crimes.  On a tamer note, but evil nonetheless, just look at what follows our football Superbowls around now (see  http://liveshots.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/11/17/super-bowlmagnet-for-sex-trafficking/).  Now, as we see in Jeremiah, Judah is going down for the same reason the northern ten tribed House of Israel went down.  God is no respecter of persons, what’s good from one people is good for another.  Can our English speaking nations escape God’s judgment in matters as serious as this?  For some of you who may be thinking this Baal worship with its human sacrifices a bit far fetched, and that the idea of the Phoenician-Israelite merchant marine-navy couldn’t have possibly made it up as far as the northern European and English coastline, or into Ireland, think again.  There is an astronomical temple of Baal not far from where I live.  You’ll find the next ten pages fascinating.  One question I’ll pose, why were they called ‘high places’ in the Bible?  The answer can be found in the next few pages.

For an example of how many babies are dying each year log onto this link.  Regardless of whether it’s the number is declining or not, murder of innocents is murder nonetheless.   <http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/01/10/abortion-rate-stalls-years-decline/?cmpid=cmty_email_U.S._Abortion_Rate_Stalls_After_Years_of_Decline>

American temple of Baal Discovered

Recently I toured an archaeological site named America’s Stonehenge (105 Haverhill Road, Salem, New Hampshire), and based on what I observed as well as an engraved tablet which, translated by the late Dr. Barry Fell, reads “To Baal of the Canaanites (Phoenicians), this in dedication”, written in Iberian Punic, and came to the conclusion that this is the site of an ancient Phoenician-Israelite astronomical temple of Baal set up on a hill.  I took as many pictures as I could, but it really didn’t sink in as to what I was looking at until I read the Tour Guide pamphlet which explained the setup.  I found in the site that there was a sacrificial table, with a chiseled drain channel carved into it around the outside perimeter of this 4.5 ton slab of stone. Beneath this “sacrificial table” was a speaking tube.  Words spoken through this stone-lined tube would exit under the “Sacrificial Table.” This speaking tube leads to a secret chamber, which when someone spoke into it from the secret chamber would give the impression that the table was talking.  My guess, a priest of Baal was hidden in this secret chamber, where he could observe everything being done on the Sacrificial Table through a small opening.  He would then speak through this speaking tube, deceiving the other Baal worshippers into thinking Baal was actually speaking and calling the shots during the human sacrifice.  The blood would be caught in the circular channel running around the outside perimeter of this 4.5 ton stone slab of a sacrificial table.  During excavation of the site this small tunnel or speaking tube was found blocked at both ends with small stones.  The site carbon-dated to around 995BC give or take 180 years.  If it actually dated somewhat less that 995BC, anywhere from 180 years or less, this site could have been built anywhere from the time of kings David and Solomon down to king Ahab and queen Jezebel of the northern House of Israel, when the Phoenician-Israelite maritime navy was colonizing and mining distant lands wherever they could.  From the evidence below they had reached inland from our New England coast.  The setup of their astronomical Calendrical observatory was for religious purposes, a part of Baal worship, and as you’ll see, had to be set up on a hill.  A small Phoenician sea-anchor made of granite was found at the bottom of Canobie Lake in New Hampshire as well, about the size and weight that would successfully anchor a boat of about 30 feet in length (I’m a sailor, and observed its weight).  If the Phoenician-Israelite maritime merchant marine and navy had reached the American continent, they certainly had colonies for trade all over the European, English and Irish coastlines.  [see http://www.stonehengeusa.com for museum facts and driving directions.  For a deeper study of the Phoenician-Celtic presence in America, order America BC by Barry Fell, at http://www.amazon.com.]

Verses 37-41 Segue into the Millennial Kingdom of God

“Now therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, concerning this city of which you say, It shall not be delivered into the hand of the king of Babylon by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence:  ‘Behold, I will gather them out of the countries where I have driven them in my anger, in my fury, and in great wrath;  I will bring them back to this place, and I will cause them to dwell safely.  They shall be my people, and I will be their God; then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for the good of them and their children after them.  And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me. [Comment: that last statement is a further description of the New Covenant the LORD just expounded upon in Jeremiah 31:31-34.  One thing the Holy Spirit does within a believer is place the fear, a godly fear, of the LORD within a person.  It is another way of saying that God is writing his laws in our hearts and minds.]  Yes, I will rejoice over them to do good, and I will assuredly plant them in this land, with all my heart and with all my soul.’

Judah to return to the land from Babylon

Verses 42-44 have been fulfilled in the return of the Jews after the fall of the Babylonian Empire at the hands of the Persian Empire under the rule of Cyrus the Great, who sent the Jews back to Judea and Jerusalem to rebuild the city, its walls and the Temple.  This is what that little thing the LORD had Jeremiah do in buying that field and burying the deed in a jar in the field points to.  Verses 42-44, “For thus says the LORD:  ‘Just as I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will bring on them the good that I have promised them.  And fields will be bought in this land of which you say, It is desolate, without man or beast; it has been given into the hand of the Chaldeans.  Men will buy fields for money, sign deeds and seal them, and take witnesses, in the land of Benjamin, in the places around Jerusalem.  In the cites of Judah, in the cities of the mountains, in the cities of the lowland, and in the cities of the South; for I will cause their captivity to return,’ says the LORD.”

Continue to Next Page