Question… have you any hard question you want to ask God? Any challenging issues you have no answer for? Have you asked?
Jeremiah had. Or not… did he?
The weeping prophet grieved so much for his people and homeland because it was a time when their land was desolate and people were exiled in Babylon. God told them to go with their captors – not to insist on staying put in their own land. Read Jeremiah 29. God specifically instructed them to build houses, plant gardens and marry, have children and grandchildren and multiply in the land of their captivity.
It was also at such a time that God told Jeremiah to buy a piece of land in his home country (Jer. 32:6-15). If you were on house arrest by the king for prophesying his doom and predicting the captivity of your people by a foreign king – in the process of invading your country, when there is war going on in your place, would you buy real estate? Read 32:1-5. King Zedekiah was mad at Jeremiah and held him prisoner in his courtyard because Jeremiah said the king would be defeated and captured by the Babylonian king.
Yet God told Jeremiah to buy a land in Anatoth from his cousin. There were witnesses and deed of sale for the purchase. God instructed Jeremiah to keep the deed in an earthen jar to last a long time as a symbol that He will eventually restore them to their homeland and houses, fields and vineyards shall again be bought in their land. (32:15)
Jeremiah obeyed God in spite of the circumstances. He obeyed first then he prayed. How did he pray?
17 Ah Lord God! It is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you. 18 You show steadfast love to the thousandth generation, but repay the guilt of parents into the laps of their children after them, O great and mighty God whose name is the Lord of hosts, 19 great in counsel and mighty in deed; whose eyes are open to all the ways of mortals, rewarding all according to their ways and according to the fruit of their doings.
Jeremiah acknowledged God for who He is – his great power, his steadfast love, his wisdom, his justice. He prayed and remembered what God did for his people in the past, rescued them from Egypt to lead them into the Promised Land. Jeremiah recounted how his people rebelled and disobeyed God with their idolatry and so God punished them to giving them over to their enemies to be exiled in Babylon. Jeremiah’s prayer is about his thoughts, memories and knowledge of God and his people. Bottom line – Nothing is too hard for the Lord God! As He had rescued them before He will bring them back again to their land as He promised.
Jeremiah 33:1-3 The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah a second time, while he was still confined in the court of the guard: 2 Thus says the Lord who made the earth, the Lord who formed it to establish it—the Lord is his name: 3 Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.
Again while Jeremiah was still a prisoner, God spoke to him. Who is the Lord? The Lord who made the earth, the Lord who created the world and held the world – standing firm, The Lord is his name. The Lord said: Call to me and I will answer you.
What an invitation! Call and I will answer. Not only will I answer your call, I will tell you great and hidden things that you do not know, things you did not even know how to ask or what to ask for, things that are unknown to anyone…
Imagine yourself in the shoes of Jeremiah, in such a desolate time when war is raging, when your own king is mad at you and imprisoned you, when you are prisoner of your own king, and when he would eventually be prisoner of another king, when all seem lost, and perhaps you did not even know what to pray or how to pray… and God tells you, call me and I will answer. Call – not even ask… and I will tell amazingly great and hidden things you have not known.
How often have I missed knowing God’s great and hidden things because I did not call? Because life is so hard, I do not even know what to do, how to live, how to pray, how to ask…
Jeremiah 33:3 Call to me and I will answer you – tell you great and hidden things you have not known.
Nothing is too hard for you o Lord. Help me to obey first and by obeying, acknowledge that with you, nothing is impossible and you will surely show me great hidden things I have not known. Thank you, Lord for your promise is true.
