When Jeremiah was shut up in the court of the prison at Jerusalem,—when the Chaldeans were investing the doomed city which he knew must fall into their hands—then received he an intimation from God that he should purchase a field in his native place Anathoth, of which the right of redemption was his.
"What have I to do with buying land!" may have been the first thought of the wondering seer; "is this a time to receive olive-yards and vineyards? I am a prisoner and cannot get forth; Anathoth is now in the hands of the enemy, and soon will Jerusalem be so also. My people will be led into captivity; the Gentiles will rule in the land: what profit can there be in this field to me or to mine!"
But if such a thought arose, Jeremiah's faith suffered it not to influence his conduct. The purchase was to be made as a pledge and token that the captivity of Judah was not to last for ever; that the ransomed of the Lord should return to Zion; that Anathoth of Benjamin should again belong to the chosen race. Jeremiah would not live to see the return of his people, but he foresaw it by faith, and in faith bought the field as the Lord had appointed. We see the prisoner with calm thankfulness weighing out the seventeen shekels * of silver in the balances; a small sum, and yet probably deemed by many a desponding Jew too large to be thrown away upon what might seem to be a worthless claim. Mocking smiles may have been interchanged between the witnesses to so strange a transaction, when the prisoner subscribed and sealed the deed, and gave it to the faithful Baruch to be carefully preserved for a time yet remote. But Jeremiah had full assurance that such a time would arrive; for thus said the Lord of hosts to His prophet: "Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land . . . for I will cause their captivity to return."
* Not much above forty shillings. See note in D'Oyly and Mant's Bible.
We look upon Jeremiah's deed of purchase as a type of that claim which both Israel and Judah hold still on the land of their fathers. Jerusalem, with all the inheritance bestowed by God upon Abraham, is now in the possession of the followers of the false prophet; Judea, for the sins of her people is again in captivity, and her sons are scattered abroad amongst the Gentiles. The olive-yards and vineyards of Palestine are now—and for many ages have been the spoil of strangers. But it shall not be so for ever. Not by purchase but by promise is the whole land reserved for the sons of Abraham. The deed has been carefully preserved, not—as Jeremiah's—in an earthen vessel, but in God's own Book. The whole deed is too long for transference to these pages, but a portion may be transcribed, gathered from various books of the Old Testament Scriptures; each prophet, as it were, setting his seal to the precious document.
"I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn." *
"Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem. The Lord hath taken away thy judgments, He hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the Lord, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more." †
"At that time will I bring you again, even in the time that I gather you: for I will make you a name and a praise among all people of the earth." ‡
"All nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of Hosts." §
"For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, saith the Lord thy God." ¶
* Zech. xii. 10. † Zeph. iii. 14, 15. ‡ Zeph. iii.20
§ Mal. iii. 12. ¶ Amos ix. 9, 15.
"And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore." *
"At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it." †
"He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit." ‡
* Ezek. xxxvii. 28. † Jer. iii. 17. ‡ Isa. xxvii. 6.
St. Paul, himself a Hebrew of the Hebrews, looked with faith and hope on this deed, and thus subscribed himself as a witness: "Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins." §