Going Against Commonsense!

In the course of our spiritual pilgrimage, God may ask of us a thing or two that may not make a whole lot of sense—not initially at least. In Jeremiah 32, the prophet Jeremiah found himself in just such a situation. The army of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, an operation that would take two years before Jerusalem finally collapsed. Things were so bad and food so scarce that, as Lamentations 2:20 tells us, Jewish moms were cannibalizing their own kids (which itself was the likely outcome of God’s caveat against Israel’s rebellion; Leviticus 26:29)! Jeremiah had been imprisoned for preaching sermons that the king of Judah and his officials didn’t appreciate. 
 
Then, in the midst of all this, Jeremiah’s cousin Hanamel visits him in prison and offers him the deal of a lifetime: Cuz, how about you buy my field in Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin? (Jeremiah 32:6-8). Hanamel’s asking price was seventeen shekels of silver, which is probably about a couple of hundred American dollars today—not a small sum in those days but not terribly expensive either, likely a discounted price because the piece of land offered to Jeremiah was, at that point, in the hands of the Babylonian army. (It’s what realtors call a “fire sale”!) 
 
But it’s also a kind of raw deal, a bum rap, for Jeremiah! Worse, in Jeremiah 11 and 12, God had warned Jeremiah that folks in Anathoth, including his own relatives, have betrayed him and were seeking to destroy him—and Hanamel could well have been one of those malicious relatives. And yet God tells Jeremiah to seal the deal and buy the field! And Jeremiah is probably going, “Seriously??” As we see him praying, with a touch of incredulity, in Jeremiah 32:25: “And though the city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians, you, Sovereign LORD, say to me, ‘Buy the field with silver and have the transaction witnessed.’”
 
Jeremiah didn’t sound as if he were entirely convinced by God’s command, but he nonetheless obeyed! It’s kind of like Peter in Luke 5. When told by Jesus to head out into deep water, Peter, after a night of fruitless fishing, nonetheless relented: “But because you say so, I will let down the nets” (Luke 5:5b). And we know what happened! 
 
Will you and I obey God’s word even though it goes against all commonsense and worldly wisdom and logic? And how did God respond to Jeremiah’s act of obedience? The Lord assures Jeremiah in Jeremiah 32:15 that “Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land” because, as God declares several verses down: “I am the LORD, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?” (Jeremiah 32:27).
 
Is God asking you to trust in Him by committing to something, or investing in something, that goes against the grain of commonsense and perhaps even your professional judgment? Think of Peter in Luke 5: Here’s this carpenter dude advising you, an experienced professional fisherman, when and how to fish! Perhaps it’s not a big investment of time or of treasure (seventeen shekels) or of talent that God is inviting you to contribute, but it’s a test of faith—to which He responds: I am the LORD, is anything too hard for me??
 
Personally, I confess I don’t know what this means for ISI going forward. In Jeremiah’s case, God tells him to put the title deed of his purchase in a jar so that it would keep for a long time (Jeremiah 32:14). And we know what the duration of that “long time” was for Israel: seventy years until God brought the Jewish exiles back to Jerusalem and Judah. I sure hope it won’t take us seventy years to complete what God has told ISI to do! But may we have the courage, as and when God calls, to take those steps of faith, no matter how crazy they may sound!
 
* All Bible quotations are from the New International Version (NIV