Perhaps to your surprise, Jeremiah 32, in large measure, concerns the real estate purchase of a prophet. Now, to be clear, you wouldn’t expect this chapter to show up on a must read list of books for any beginning real estate investor. In fact, on the surface, this acquisition had just about all the makings of a bad deal. First, consider where Jeremiah was – in prison (Jer. 32:2-3). Not exactly the place from whence you’d expect such transactions to occur. Second, as many investors will tell you, a primary mark of a good piece of land is location. As the saying goes, ‘Location, location, location.’ Well, Jeremiah was about to buy a plot of land that was likely already invaded and overrun by the Babylonians. After all, if the Babylonians had already surrounded Jerusalem (vs.2) they likely already subdued Anathoth, which was only a few miles away from Jerusalem (vs.7). But Jeremiah didn’t make this purchase because he lacked the savvy foresight of a prudent investor or the sense to understand that captured land does not hold much value, he did it because the God who spoke through him also spoke to him. Yahweh predicted that he would have this opportunity, and Jeremiah knew that God wanted him to buy the land to make a point. But before we see the point first we ought to hear the word of LORD that came to Jeremiah (vs.6),
Tag: Prison
What we find in our passage today is the prelude to what might have been the lowest emotional valley that the prophet Jeremiah ever walked through. After Jeremiah had broken the bac-buc (remember that?), i.e. the flask symbolizing the coming judgment, word of his creative display of the forthcoming invasion had apparently gotten around and the religious establishment wasn’t exactly ready to commend it. In fact one man, Pashur the son of Immer, the priest who was also chief governor in the house of the LORD, heard that Jeremiah prophesied these things (vs.1) and he resolved to do something about it. Even though Jeremiah’s message was true, Pashur couldn’t stand to hear it. Who did Jeremiah think he was? What would become of the morale of the people if the incessant cries of judgment went unstopped? These were likely some of the thoughts that went through Pashur’s hard head.
