Investing in Hope
A God Who Weeps - Part 4
Sunday, September 25, 2022
Jeremiah 32:1-3, 6-15
“The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Take these documents—this sealed deed of purchase along with the unsealed one—and put them into a clay container so they will last a long time. The Lord of heavenly forces, the God of Israel, proclaims: Houses, fields, and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”
Jeremiah 32:14-15 (CEB)
Listen to this week’s sermon here:
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One of the biggest factors that separates those trapped in generations upon generations of poverty and those who seem to quickly climb to the top of the economic ladder is the difference in real-estate. Real estate offers what economists call “generational wealth” because unlike cash, property generally maintains and most often increases in value from generation to generation. Whether or not we personally have wealth invested in property, it is easy to see the significant role real estate plays in our economy, especially among the richest and most elite.
The three keys to good real estate investments, however, as any realtor will tell you, are “location, location, location.” Purchasing land in an up and coming development on the outskirts of a booming city or town is a smart move. Purchasing in a place with no prospect for growth, or even the strong possibility of decline or destruction, on the other hand, is not smart. How many times have we seen bad locations where restaurant after restaurant moves into a building and nobody can make a go of it? Some locations will simply never be successful without radical change in the larger community.
Such is the case in a war torn land, especially when the war is still in progress and the property will soon be taken over by the occupying government . This was the state in which Israel found herself in Jeremiah’s day, as the Babylonians continued moving in more and more troops and taking more and more Israelites into captivity and exile never to return.
Let’s just say that such a place is not a sellers market. Who wants to buy property that will be razed by an enemy army and evacuated within the year? Well, apparently there is one person. Jeremiah. That’s exactly what he does when he buys the field in Anathoth from his cousin. One wonders about the character of this cousin who appears to be trying to rip off Jeremiah and get out with as much as he can manage before Babylon moves in and ruins the neighborhood. Talk about decimating property values.
Jeremiah knows he may never see this property again. He may never build a home on it. He may never plant a vineyard or even a garden. His children and grandchildren may never even know the land existed. Nevertheless, Jeremiah buys a field in his war torn homeland right before the end. Why?
Because God said his people would one day return. This wasn’t just an investment in real estate. It was an investment in hope. It was a deed signed openly in public as a declaration that their exile would not last forever. Even if nobody from his generation ever saw their beloved homeland again, God would bring God’s children back, and that was a future worth investing in.
How are you investing in hope?