Investments a la Inside Information

“I am the Lord, the God of all mankind, is anything too hard for me?” —Jeremiah 32:27, NIV

Jerusalem is under siege. Its end is near, an end that the prophet had long known was coming. He had warned the nation repeatedly that judgment would come upon them at the hand of the Babylonians and here it was. Death, destruction, exile was all that was left.

Then God did a surprising thing. He instructed Jeremiah to buy a piece of land. Who in their right mind would buy property when the enemy who would claim it was sitting outside the walls of the city?

In verse 17, Jeremiah began a beautiful prayer that rose out of his astonishment at God’s instructions. He begins with praise: “Oh, Sovereign Lord, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. You show love to thousands but bring punishment for the father’s sins into the laps of their children after them. O great and powerful God, whose name is the Lord Almighty, great are your purposes and mighty are your deeds…”

Then he remembers how God rescued His people from Egypt and brought them into an abundant land—one they are about to lose. Jeremiah acknowledges that this loss is due to the rebellion and sin of the people. And, as if God wasn’t already aware of it, the prophet reminds the Lord that the Babylonians are at the gates of the city with their siege machines, “And though the city will be handed over to the Babylonians, you, O Sovereign Lord, say to me, ‘Buy the field with silver and have the transaction witnessed’” (vss. 24, 25).

It’s not a question. It’s almost like a statement of pure amazement, perhaps even of joy, of hope. He’s already said that nothing is too hard for God, he’s already remembered what God once did to bring His people out of bondage into the land He had chosen for them. And here was the physical, literal, substantial, I-can-reach-out-and-touch-it promise that history would repeat itself.

God goes on to give Jeremiah a little journey into the past with a side tour into the future. “I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them” (vss. 37-39).

Impossible? Twice Jeremiah has referred to God as sovereign. He has acknowledged that God is almighty, that all He has to do is speak and it is done. Nothing is too hard for God, absolutely nothing.

In the darkest of nights, in the center of every whirlwind, during the uncertainty of every unforeseen circumstance, arises the brilliant, blinding light of His statement: “I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?”

Now where did I put the phone number of that real estate agent?