Jeremiah 32:1-33:26 "Hope in Hard Times"

1:11So rather than miss the good half of the movie, we stop it halfway through with plans to pick it up the next night. We stop in the middle of our story. But I think we all know that we're not supposed to stop in the middle of a story. Generally speaking, if you stop in the middle of a story, then you stop when your team loses. You stop just as the bad guys are winning. Family and I recently watched Trolls for the first time this past week. It is a cute movie. But if you stopped halfway through Trolls, the chef would still have the trolls, and Branch would still be sad.

1:55Another fun movie in the Morgan House: Super Mario Brothers. You stop halfway through Super Mario Bros., Bowser wins, Muigi would still be captured, and there would be no hope of Mario and Princess Peach saving him. And worst of all, if you stopped through the best Harry Potter book and movie, The Order of the Phoenix, then Professor Umbridge would still be in charge of Hogwarts. No one would believe that Voldemort, I mean, sorry, he who must not be named, has actually returned. We all know not to stop in the middle of a story, but all too often, we are tempted to do that with our own stories.

2:45We see our struggles, we see our hurts, we see our sin and our suffering, the circumstances of our life that just always seem to be the same, and we decide that this is the end of our. Story. This is how it ends. But if we do this, we're stopping too early. Because struggling, suffering, and sin aren't the end of our story. As we consider our passage this morning, it seems that God is concerned that Jeremiah and the people of Judah will be tempted, just like you and I are, to stop in the middle of their story. I mean, just think about all that we have seen and heard leading up to chapter 32. God's been outlining the judgment that he's going to bring upon the people for their sin and rebellion against him.

3:44And you can only imagine the people's response. They'd be afraid, discouraged, and hopeless. But God doesn't want them to stop there. He wants them to see that this is just the middle of their story. And just like Jeremiah and the people needed this vision of hope, God knows that you and I this morning need this vision of hope. Because even though you and me are not staring down Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian army, our lives are filled with hard and challenging things that tempt us to stop in the middle of our story.

4:28What is your hard time? This morning? What are you facing right now that is just tempting you and challenging you to just want to stop, to think that this is how your story ends? Maybe you feel like you're in a holding pattern with your life, with your job, or maybe your relational status. Maybe you are dealing with chronic health or mental health struggles, or you're caring for those with them, and you just don't know when it's going to end.

5:04This morning, are you processing very real faith struggles? Maybe wondering whether God truly loves you, or maybe you're questioning why your good and godly desires continue to go unmet by God and his people. Perhaps it's a relational struggle with your friends, your classmates, or your coworkers, or maybe just relational difficulties and challenges with your parents or your kids. Well, whatever it is for you this morning, God doesn't want you to stop in the middle of your story. No, he desperately wants to fill you with hope so that you can keep going in the hard times. Specifically, in our passage this morning, we're going to see that we can have hope in hard times because of our promise-making. And promise-keeping God.

6:03We can have hope in our hard times because of our promise-making and promise-keeping God. As we work through our text, we're going to see how hoping in our promise-making and promise-keeping God enables us to keep going in hard times. Now, before diving in, I just want to make two comments. First, I hope it just goes without saying that we are not going to be able to cover every verse of chapter 32 and chapter 33. There is just so much going on there, but we are going to be diving into a couple portions of the passage that I think accurately just reflect God's heart for you and for me this morning. And second, just structurally, chapters 32 and 33 contain two different messages from God to Jeremiah that roughly parallel each other in their structure. So, as we look at each point, we're going to be jumping back and forth between chapter 32 and 33, just seeing how both of God's messages to Jeremiah help us just see his heart for us.

7:12All right, so the first thing that we're going to see this morning is that we can have hope in hard times when we hope in our promise-making God. Our passage opens with another living illustration from Jeremiah's life. Where God is going to seek to teach his people a lesson through Jeremiah's actions. As chapter 32 opens, we see that Jeremiah finds himself in prison for faithfully preaching the word of God. In verse 2, we see that Jeremiah is imprisoned. And by this, we're not meant to think that he is in solitary confinement, but this would be more like house arrest. Jeremiah would have found himself in some kind of loose confinement within the palace, able to walk around, kind of have some freedom, and very importantly for our passage here, able to have visitors and guests coming in and out to see him and talk to him.

8:13Now look with me starting at verse 6 as Jeremiah receives a visitor. Verse 6 we read, Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me. Behold, Hannamel, the son of Shalom, your uncle, will come to you and say, Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption my purchase is yours. Then Hannamel, my cousin, came to me in the court of the guard in accordance with the word of the Lord and said to me, Buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself.

8:53And Jeremiah ends, Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. Now, on the face of it, There doesn't seem to be anything weird or wrong with this request. It seems like Hannamel is simply asking Jeremiah to honor the ancient custom of kinship redemption that required relatives to buy land from a family member who fell into debt or who fell into hard times and needed the money to survive. I think the story of Ruth and Boaz is like a perfect example of what's going on here. But when we realize the circumstances that Jeremiah finds himself in here, it turns out to be a very unexpected request by Hannamel.

9:39Because at the very moment that he's asking Jeremiah to buy his field, not only is Jeremiah in prison with no hope of getting out, but the very field that he is wanting to sell to Jeremiah has Babylonian soldiers encamped all over it, and they at this very time are making plans to enter into the city of Jerusalem, to take it by capture and to ship everyone off into exile. So here, Hannamel is actually asking Jeremiah to buy a field that he would never be able to plant a crop in, would never be able to build a house on. In fact, he's asking him to buy a field that he would, in law light, in all likelihood, never even see.

10:29I mean, this. This would be like me approaching you to buy some oceanfront property in Arizona. It just doesn't make sense. You wouldn't buy this land from me, and it doesn't make sense for Jeremiah to buy this land from Hannamel. But as the story continues, we see that Jeremiah does the unthinkable. As we read in verse 9, and I bought the field at Anathoth from Hannamel, my cousin, and weighed out the money to him, 17 shekels of silver. As we continue reading this story here, the reason why Jeremiah does this seemingly unthinkable thing becomes very clear. Look with me, starting in verse 14.

11:19We read, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. Take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses, and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land. Did you see that there in verse 15? Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land. So why does Jeremiah do this unthinkable act and buy this field? That he will never see? Well, he buys this field as a living illustration of God's promise to his people that they will be restored to the land. While God is clear that the people will face his just judgment on their sin at the hands of the Babylonians who are knocking at the city gates, he wants them to be even more aware of his promise of restoration. In fact, in these two chapters, God promises his people that he will restore their fortunes no less than four times.

12:42You see, brothers and sisters, God does not want the people to miss that he is going to bring about this great act of restoration. He will restore their fortunes. And what exactly will this restoration look like? Look with me beginning at verse 36. We see the Lord says, Now, therefore, thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning the city of which you say, it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger, in my wrath, and in great indignation. And I will bring them back to this place. And I will make them dwell in safety. Let's stop right there. This last sentence, in and of itself, would have been absolutely amazing as God is graciously making this promise to bring his people back to the land where they will dwell in safety, no longer afraid of Babylon or any other country that would want to do them harm. But as we keep reading, we see one of the most remarkable passages in all of Scripture. Starting in verse 38, we read: And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

14:14I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts, that they may not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness with all my heart and all my soul. Here, Jeremiah repeats the promises of the new covenant that we saw two weeks ago in Jeremiah 31, here calling it the everlasting covenant in verse 40. And at the heart of this new covenant is the promise that they will be his people, and he will be their God. See that there in verse 38? This was the greatest longing of God's people. But because of their sin, time and time again, they showed themselves to be not his people, going after and serving other gods rather than the one true God. And so, the question we're meant to ask as we read these great promises from God is: how? How is God going to be able to do this? Well, as we keep reading, we see the answer in verse 39, where God says, I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever. God will be their God because he promises to do for them what they could never do for themselves. He's going to give them a new heart, a heart that desires to obey his word. In chapter 33, we see that not only does God promise to give them a new heart, but he promises to forgive their sins. Look at 33, verse 8. We read, I will cleanse them from all their guilt of their sin against me, and I will forgive all of the guilt of their sin and rebellion against me. This is just the The tip of the iceberg of all that God is going to do. Because God not only promises that he is going to forgive their sins and cleanse them, but he promises that Jerusalem in verse 9 will be to him of joy, a praise, and a glory before all the nations of the earth who shall hear of all the good that I do for them. They, that is the nations, shall fear and tremble because of all the good and all the prosperity that I will provide for it. God is going to rejoice in doing so much good for his people that all of the surrounding nations are going to respond in fear and in wonder and in amazement of all that he has done, of all the good and prosperity that God provides for his people. These are truly remarkable promises that God makes to his people, promises that were meant to fill them with great hope. Hope, sisters and brothers, that would have been absolutely essential for them as they found themselves in exile.

17:42I mean, put yourself in their sandals. What would have been going through your mind as you found yourself in exile in a strange land under the rule of a foreign country? I'm sure that just like them, you would be afraid. Discouraged and hopeless. And it's into this hopeless situation that God makes these promises so that his people would put their hope in him, their promise-making God. I mean, just think about how these promises would have helped the people. Think more than anything else, these promises of restoration would have helped the people by giving them perspective so that they could keep going. God knew that the people would be tempted to give up, to think that exile was the end of their story, as they just threw up their hands saying, It is what it is. It's not going to change. But God doesn't want them to despair in this way. And so he promises them that exile isn't the end of their story, because their story will have a happily ever after when he restores their fortunes. And so, even when life doesn't make sense, like Jeremiah buying the field, they can keep going, knowing that this isn't the end of their story. And sisters and brothers, in the same way, God's promise of restoration, in the same way that God's promise of restoration gave them hope in hard times, it is meant to do the same for you and for me. And in fact, on this side of the cross, we know that this promise of restoration is actually much better than anything that the people have. Of Jeremiah's day could have imagined. Because while they were longing for a return to the land, you and me, we are looking forward to the never-ending future in the new heavens, in the new earth, where there will be no more struggling or suffering. We know that God's promise of forgiveness, that God's promise of restoration here, where he promises to restore the people's fortunes, we know that for you and for me, that is pointing forward to the day when everything sad will come untrue, as Samuel's Gamgee puts it. It points forward to that day where God will wipe away every tear from our eyes, where death will be no more, where there will be no more mourning or crying or pain, as it says in Revelation. In hard times, we are to hope in our promise-making God because He is holding out a future for you and for me that is better than anything we could imagine. A future that is greater than any difficulty we are facing right now.

20:39As I think about the different ways that this promise can help us, one of the primary ways I think it can do that is by equipping us to fight against that inner voice that tells us that things are never going to get better or that things are never going to change. Because when we are convinced that our circumstances are Our relationships, our struggling will never change or get better, then we will quickly become filled with hopelessness and despair.

21:12Where are you this morning tempted towards hopelessness and despair as you look at your life's circumstances? Perhaps for you, you're convinced that your relationship status will never change. Or maybe for you, it's you're convinced that you're never going to get that job or that promotion that you've been waiting for, or that you're never going to get into your dream school or your dream program. Maybe for you, it's that your financial prospects will never improve, and the life that you've always dreamed of just simply isn't going to be a reality.

21:50Maybe the dark clouds of hopelessness and despair settle down on you when you think about your relationships, whether it be your friendships, marriage, or parenting. I mean, how often have you thought to yourself, this person or this relationship will never change? I mean, we've had this argument so many times. Are things ever going to get better? Or maybe for you this morning, it's just a very clear awareness of the ways that your struggles with sin are negatively impacting your lives and the lives of other people. People where hopelessness begins to kick in. You give in to temptation once again and you say to yourself, I'm just never going to be able to stop this. I'm never going to be able to get past this.

22:45Well, wherever you're convinced that things are never going to change or get better, our promise-making God wants to speak a word of hope to you this morning. He wants to speak the hope of his promise of restoration, reminding you that the hard times you find yourself in the midst of right now are not the end of your story. Because Jeremiah 32 and 33 promises us that there is another chapter in our story titled, God Will Restore All Things.

23:20Sisters and brothers, isn't our God so kind? In the midst of our hard times, when our hearts are ready to break, when our faith is weak and worn out, when it feels like all of our prayers have gone to waste, in the midst of those moments, God invites us to look to Him, to look to Him, our promise-making God, and to rest in His promise that whatever we're walking through right now is not the end of our story.

23:56So, how can we have hope in hard times? The first thing we see is that we can have hope when we hope in our promise-making God. But secondly, Jeremiah shows us that we can have hope in hard times when we hope in our promise-keeping God. You see, in our passage here, God wants to show us that not only does he make promises to his people, but he keeps them. And this is good news because it doesn't really matter if God makes great promises to his people if he has no plans or intentions on keeping them. I mean, I'm sure we can all think of people in our life who are great at making grand promises to us, but it doesn't seem like they've quite figured out the keeping them part.

24:51And so, whenever we hear this person tell us that they're going to do this or they're going to do that, we kind of let it go in one ear and out the other because we really don't believe that they're going to keep their promise. We just hear it, but we're just like, those are just empty words. Well, while there might be people in our lives who make empty promises, God wants us to have absolute assurance that he doesn't just make promises, but he keeps them. We see this most clearly in Jeremiah 33, beginning in verse 23. Look there with me. We read the word. Of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Have you not observed that these people are saying, the Lord has rejected the two clans that he chose? Thus they have despised my people, so that they are no longer a nation in their sight. Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with day and night, and the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant, and will not choose one of his offspring to rule over the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. For I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them. It almost seems like God is aware that as the people found themselves in exile, that they would begin to question his promises to them. As they lay on their mats at night, looking up, unable to fall asleep in this strange land with strange sounds and smells, I can only imagine that the people would begin questioning God. Why should I believe these promises?

26:46I mean, you made great promises to David, but it doesn't look like you're keeping those. Right? You said that David would never lack a son to sit on his throne, and now Zedekiah has been kicked off his throne. Is most likely dead now. There is no king on the throne. You made these great promises to David, and you clearly haven't kept them. How can I trust that you're going to keep these promises? And so here, David, or so here, God, aware that the people would be questioning his promises, he wants to reassure them that he is the promise-keeping God. Look with me again at verse 25, as he says, Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with day and night in the fixed order of heaven and earth, then I will reject the offspring of Jacob and David my servant. Here, God gives them an object lesson, a twice-a-day object lesson that is meant to strengthen their hearts as they were tempted to doubt God's promise, as he invites them to look up into the sky and to see that just as he faithfully keeps his covenant with creation, which he does every day as the sun and the moon rise at their appointed time, then he will also be faithful to keep his other covenants, the promises that he made to David, the promises that he made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And he wants them to be absolutely sure that he will keep the covenant, the promises that he has made to them in the new covenant. And so in those moments when everything in them and around them seems to be saying that God is not going to keep his promises, God wants them to look to him, their promise-keeping God, and to keep holding on and hoping in that promise, and so that their hearts will be reassured that none of his promises will fail. That surely, as the sun and the moon rise every day, as he's been faithful to his promise in his covenant with creation, he will be faithful to every single other one of his promises. Well, as the people of Judah could look to the sun and the moon as proof that God will keep his promises, brothers and sisters, you and I have something much better that we can look to to have confidence that God will keep his promises. Because you and me can look to Jesus. And we can see that in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension, we can look to Jesus and see that he is the ultimate proof that God keeps all of his promises. Because as we see throughout the New Testament, we know that Jesus is the promised son of David, the one who will sit on his throne forever. We see that Jesus is the faithful son that the nation of Israel could never be. We see that Jesus is the promised offspring of Abraham, Isaac, And Jacob, and we see that he is the true and better Adam. And it's through Jesus' perfect life and sacrificial death that all of the amazing promises of the new covenant, the promises of restoration and forgiveness, that they will come to pass. As Paul says in 2 Corinthians 1:20, all the promises of God find their yes in Christ. Church, it's important that we see this reality, that all of the promises of God find their yes in Christ because Jesus is the foundation of our hope. You see, oftentimes today when we use the word hope, we use it as simply nothing more than wishful thinking or optimism. We use it to express our desires, to express our desires, something that we hope or that we think might happen, but we have no guarantee of it happening. Preparing for this sermon reminded me of my previous life where I worked in aerospace before becoming a pastor. I was a buyer in an aerospace company, and each week we would have a meeting with the director of supply chain. This was my boss's boss's boss. And in this meeting, we would give updates on any of our suppliers that might be causing the assembly line to be at risk of stopping. So if you had a Supplier who was late on a certain part, and we were going to have to stop an assembly line because those parts weren't there. We would have to come before the director of supply chain to give a report on the status of what was going on, when were those parts going to get delivered. And in this meeting, we were forbidden from saying the word hope. In fact, there was a huge banner on the wall in this room that said, Hope is not a solution. We could hope all day long that our parts would ship out on time, but that didn't mean that they would. But this is not how hope is used in the Bible. For Jeremiah and for all of the other writers in Scripture, hope was the solution. In fact, hope was only the only solution in the midst of our hard times. Because hope wasn't just wishful thinking, but hope is a settled confidence in the promises of God. As J.I. Packer so helpfully has said, he writes, optimism hopes for the best without any guarantee of its arriving and is often no more than whistling in the dark. Christian hope, by contrast, is faith looking ahead to the fulfillment of the promises of God. Optimism is the faith of the faith of Is a wish without a warrant. Christian hope is a certainty guaranteed by God Himself. Optimism reflects ignorance as to whether good things will ever actually come. Hear this. Christian hope expresses knowledge that every day of His life and every moment beyond it, the believer can say with truth on the basis of God's own commitment that the best is yet to come. We can have hope in hard times because our promise-making and our promise-keeping God promises us that the best is yet to come. When the details and the circumstances of our lives have us shaking our heads, throwing up our hands, or simply crying into our pillows at night because we don't know what to do, God this morning is inviting us to look to Him, to see and to know that suffering and struggling aren't the end of our story, because He promises us that the best is yet to come. And our God, who makes these great promises of redemption and restoration, absolutely assures us that He will keep them, and we can have great confidence in that as we look to Christ hanging on the cross for you and For me, raised from the dead three days later to confirm in our hearts and assure us that God will keep his promises.

34:42So, brother and sister, where do you need hope this morning? What is your hard time? This morning, look to your promise-making and promise-keeping God and know that this isn't the end of your story, but the best is yet to come. For those of you who are here and who have yet to trust in Christ, know that this hope here that God is holding out is available to all who trust in Him, to all who look to Him believing. So, this morning, turn to Christ. Receive this hope that He promises all who trust in Him. There's simply no hope apart from Him. There's no assurance that the best is yet to come for those who are not trusting in Christ. So, look to Him and be assured of a future in the presence of God where we will be with Him forever in the new heavens and the new earth. Pray with me.

35:48O Father in heaven, we come before you this morning grateful for your love and care for us, your children, that in the midst of the world, Of the hard times that we experience, you desire to speak and to breathe a word of hope into our souls that we might be able to press on, that we might be able to keep going to get through today, knowing that the best is yet to come. O Spirit of God, we pray that you will give us the faith to believe all that we have heard in your word this morning and give us the grace that we need to live in the good of it.

36:38Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.