Wednesday, September 2, 2026
‘Ah, Lord GOD! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.
Historical Context
These words were spoken from captivity in a besieged city around 588 BC. Babylon’s armies, under King Nebuchadnezzar, had surrounded Jerusalem. The prophet Jeremiah had spent decades warning that Babylon would conquer the city and that resisting it would fail. For speaking out, he was confined to the guard court of the royal palace. Despite the ongoing siege, the king would not change his mind about the prophet.
Amid these events, God instructs Jeremiah to buy a field. His cousin comes to the guard court to offer a family plot in Anathoth, a few miles away on the far side of the siege lines. No buyer could expect to reach that field, let alone farm it. Jeremiah pays seventeen shekels of silver, signs the deed before witnesses, seals it, and has the documents stored in a clay jar to keep them safe. This purchase is a legal promise that normal life, including land transactions, would eventually resume in the country.
Once the deed is handed over for safekeeping, Jeremiah prays. He has just committed real silver to a future no one in that city can foresee. He directly confronts this contradiction with God. His prayer begins with praise, then turns to questions about how any of this can make sense while the siege ramparts still encircle the walls.
Reflection
Observe the sequence of the prayer. Jeremiah begins with what he is confident in: that God created heaven and earth and that nothing is beyond his power. Only after affirming this does he raise the issue he cannot understand.
That order is a helpful pattern. Confusion often wants to go first, and a prayer that starts with the problem can get stuck there. Jeremiah starts with the character of God and then brings up the problem, so when he finally states it, it already sits next to something larger.
Nothing about his situation changed that day. The siege continued, and the prophet remained in custody. All he had was a deed in a jar and the confidence he had sought in prayer from the beginning. Sometimes, faith simply amounts to that: a point to stand on while you seek answers.