June 18, 1940. Winston Churchill stands in the British Parliament to address his country and its government. France had fallen to Hitler and the British expeditionary forces just narrowly escaped at Dunkirk. It was the darkest period of World War Two. He gave a famous speech in which he said the Battle of Britain was about to begin and concluded with these words that have gone down in history:

Jeremiah stood alone.
Both in the face of an ominous enemy, the Babylonian army, and alone against the anger of his own people.
Alone except for God, his friend Baruch, and possibly one or two others.

Jeremiah was a reluctant prophet, and no wonder! God told him to remain single, and then directed him to speak to his king and his people in a way that earned him constant hostility, and threatened his life. God had promised to protect his life, but not to keep him comfortable.

In the passage we read today, Jeremiah is imprisoned in the main courtyard of the palace. The Babylonians had Jerusalem under siege and Jeremiah kept telling the king it was pointless to resist. This was not a popular message.
The king was not pleased.

It's one thing to stand for God. It's quite another matter to take the same stand when that puts you at odds with everyone around you.

Midnight for Jeremiah
It may be darkest just before the dawn, but its pretty dark at midnight, many hours before dawn.
It was midnight for Jerusalem and it was midnight for Jeremiah.

In the middle of this scene of desperation, God once again speaks to Jeremiah, and its a most peculiar word at that.
If you were Jeremiah what you might be hoping for is a word from God that He will intervene and lift the siege.
Jeremiah might even hope that God would say, "Good job, Jeremiah!. You can go home to Anathoth and get back to life, and you will be well rewarded for your pain and suffering."
We gather every Wednesday morning to pray for needs in our church and beyond it. Our prayers are often
 that God will lift the suffering of someone or provide an answer in a difficult time.

That's not what happened for Jeremiah and we know from experience it is not always how our prayers are answered either.

What God did was to tell Jeremiah that his cousin, Hanamel, was going to approach him to buy his farm outside Anathoth. Normally, this would be an attractive offer, depending on the price. Anathoth was rich farmland and the center of almond farming. Apparently Hanamel was in debt and had mortgaged the land. The custom in those days was that in order to prevent family land being lost to the family, a close relative always had the first option when land was forfeit due to inability to pay.

Under normal circumstances, this would be a routine transaction, providing Jeremiah had the cash, which he apparently did. But these were not normal times.
There was one flaw in the deal. Just one detail.
They were in the middle of a war and the land Hanamel wanted to sell was under Babylonian occupation. But Jeremiah knew his duty to God and his family duty to Hanamel. He would never farm the land or reap its rewards. It was far from certain that if the Babylonians captured it, that it would ever return to his family's hands.

Just do your duty
I often pray for divine guidance, and I know that God guides us when we ask.
Often God's word is a simple... "just do your duty."

Jeremiah knew this too, though in his case, it led him into imprisonment...hardly the outcome he wished for.
God says, "your cousin Hanamel will come to sell you the field at Anathoth."
I suppose we might assume that divine guidance would automatically warn Jeremiah, "Don't touch it with a ten foot pole! It will be years before its worth anything."
But this is not the case.
God says to Jeremiah that he should buy it. Not only should he buy it, but he should place the deed in a sealed clay jar so that it will remain safe for many years. Jeremiah's investment is going to pay off. Jeremiah will not be around to profit from it personally, but the investment will not be lost.

God says, "Houses and vineyards shall again be possessed in this land."

It is a word of hope on the eve of their darkest night, a long while before any evidence of dawn.
Babylon would capture the city and totally destroy it and Solomon's temple. The ark of the covenant would disappear never to be seen again to this very day. It would be a disaster of colossal proportions.

But there is a word of hope, albeit a word that would not benefit that generation. Their descendants would return one day and life would resume in their land.

Jeremiah does as God asks and buys the land for about seven ounces of silver, and has Baruch witness the deed and seals it away for posterity.

How does hope come to us?

Hope comes first of all when we remember what Jeremiah says immediately following this incident.