Promising deeds
Day 375, Thursday, Aug. 21
Jeremiah Chapter 32
A “deed” can be an action or a legal document. In this chapter, it’s both.
As Jerusalem is under siege and about to fall, God gives Jeremiah an unexpected and unusual command: Go buy a field. “And though the city will be given into the hands of the Babylonians, you, Sovereign Lord, said to me, ‘Buy the field with silver and have the transaction witnessed.’”
This is like getting insider information that a company is about to go bankrupt and being told to buy stock in it anyway.
This is a concrete expression of confidence that, while the city and government are on the edge of collapse, both will some day be restored.
It’s likely that the new Babylonian government will not recognize the property ownership that is in place when they take over—the deed will be worthless unless Israel returns to self-rule in the future. This action is an expression of confidence that that will happen.
Or, as verse 15 says, “Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”
Or, in the words of verse 37, “I will surely gather them [Israel] from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety.”

-Rev. Mark Fleming

Thursday meditation

Job 24:1-12
“Why does the Almighty not set times for judgment? Why must those who know him look in vain for such days? There are those who move boundary stones; they pasture flocks they have stolen. They drive away the orphan’s donkey and take the widow’s ox in pledge. They thrust the needy from the path and force all the poor of the land into hiding. Like wild donkeys in the desert, the poor go about their labor of foraging food; the wasteland provides food for their children. They gather fodder in the fields and glean in the vineyards of the wicked. Lacking clothes, they spend the night naked; they have nothing to cover themselves in the cold. They are drenched by mountain rains and hug the rocks for lack of shelter. The fatherless child is snatched from the breast; the infant of the poor is seized for a debt. Lacking clothes, they go about naked; they carry the sheaves, but still go hungry. They crush olives among the terraces; they tread the winepresses, yet suffer thirst. The groans of the dying rise from the city, and the souls of the wounded cry out for help. But God charges no one with wrongdoing.

Prayer focus
God, give us confidence that you will restore us even when we suffer loss.