Jeremiah 32:18, commentary and pictures

Jeremiah 32:18 belongs to a prayer for further enlightenment about the divine purpose for mankind, offered immediately after completing the purchase of the ancestral field at Anathoth and arranging for preservation of the records. At that moment his faith, unshaken in obeying the command to buy, was sorely tried by the discouraging outlook for Judah and the imminent fall of Jerusalem to the Chaldeans. Perplexed in spirit and bowed with sorrow over the sufferings of those who refused to repent of sins, he questioned whether he had acted presumptuously in encouraging Judah and given ground for false hope. He wondered whether the promises to the chosen nation in covenant relationship, who had long scorned God's provisions, could ever meet complete fulfillment.

In the prayer God is addressed as the Maker of heaven and earth by great power and stretched-out arm, for whom nothing is too hard. He is the One who shows loving-kindness unto thousands and yet recompenses the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them, whose name is the Great, the Mighty God, the LORD of hosts. He is further described as great in counsel and mighty in work, with eyes open upon all the ways of the sons of men to give every one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his doings. He is thus abundant in lovingkindness while also holding people accountable for wrongdoing, with the consequences of fathers' iniquity reaching their descendants.

The prayer supports that description by recalling how He set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even unto this day, and in Israel and among other men, and made Himself a name as at this day. He brought forth Israel out of Egypt with signs and wonders and strong hand and stretched-out arm and great terror, and gave them the land sworn to their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey. They came in and possessed it but obeyed not His voice nor walked in His law and did nothing of all He commanded, therefore He caused all this evil to come upon them. That threatened calamity was then fulfilled as the city was given into the hand of the Chaldeans because of sword and famine and pestilence, with Nebuchadnezzar's armies about to take the walls of Zion by storm while besieging towers overlooked the walls and mounts came against the city to take it. Thousands were perishing in the last defense and many thousands more were dying of hunger and disease, even while God had commanded, Buy thee the field for money and take witnesses.

The prayer offered in that hour of distress when faith was tried as by fire over Judah's hopeless outlook was graciously answered when God declared He is the LORD, the God of all flesh, for whom nothing is too hard. He revealed that though the city would be burned and its people carried captive, His eternal purpose for Israel would yet be fulfilled. He would gather them from all countries and bring them back to dwell safely as His people, giving them one heart and making an everlasting covenant to do them good. Fields would be bought again in the restored land.