Sermon Jeremiah 32:1-3a, 6-15 Private Property
Pittsgrove Presbyterian Church
September 15, 2019
This is my fourth sermon in my series entitled “Jeremiah - Prophet to the Nations”. Jeremiah was called to his important work by God before he was even born, predestined as the Prophet to the Nations. He warned the nations not to rely on false gods and material things, because in the long run, all these things would prove to be unreliable. He told the nations of the world that God created then and holds them in His hands just as potter holds a lump of clay.
Today we will look at the economic system God gave the nations of the world. We will get to this, but first, let’s pray.
“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)
The economic system that was developed by God and given to us is based on the principle of ownership of private property by families. The Promised Land was given to Israelite families. Each family was given its own inheritance. And a family could never lose its land. Land could be mortgaged, but all mortgages were forgiven every seven years. Land could be sold, but all sales contracts were voided every fifty years. The land was given to families generation to generation forever. This was God’s economic plan.
And this plan was part of a covenant between God and his people. God gave families land so that they would love and serve Him and be a blessing to others. This is the foundation of biblical law.
Deuteronomy 4:39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. 40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the Lord your God gives you for all time.
But the people in Jeremiah’s day had abandoned this covenant. They no longer kept their end of the contract. They didn’t use the land to love and serve the Lord. They worshiped other God. They didn’t use the land to bless others. And so now with the contract broken God was about to take the land away. Let’s pick up the story in Jeremiah 32.
1 The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord in the tenth year of King Zedekiah of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadrezzar. 2 At that time the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, and the prophet Jeremiah was confined in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah,
So, the Babylonians have arrived at the gates of Jerusalem. The people have fled from their homes and farms to receive protection from the wall of the city. The gates are closed. The Judean army is stationed at the top of the wall to keep the Babylonians from coming over. They hope there is enough water in the cistern, but as we know it is cracked and leaking. They started out with enough food, but with a whole growing season trampled under the boots of Babylonian soldiers shortages will start soon. The situation is bleak. Jeremiah is in jail.
With the Babylonian army surrounding the city, and the Judean homes and farms under their control, it appears that the God-given economic system of private property owned by families is coming to an end. God has taken the land away from the families and has given it to the Babylonians. The covenant between God and his people has been broken. God provided his people with land, but they did not use it to love and serve the Lord and bless others. And so God removed them from the land, sending them to exile in Babylon.
The covenant between God and his people seems to be finished. And if this is the case then what happens next could not have been expected.
6 Jeremiah said, The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Hanamel son of your uncle Shallum is going to come to you and say, “Buy my field that is at Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours.”
What did God just say? This is really odd. Jeremiah was just told by God that his uncle wants to sell his farm to him. He is selling the land to a member of his family thus keeping the land in the family. This is all part of the covenant between God and his people. But that covenant is over. What is going on?
With the Babylonians literally at the door that economic system is over. The King of Babylon now owns Hanamel farm. It is obvious why Hanamel wants to sell it. It is worthless, but if he can convince his cousin Jeremiah to buy it, then at least he will have some cash. But no one in his right mind would ever make a deal like this. Why would anyone purchase a farm that a powerful enemy now possesses? But that is exactly what Jeremiah does.
8 Then my cousin Hanamel 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.” Then I knew that this was the word of the Lord.
9 And I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out the money to him, seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. 11 Then I took the sealed deed of purchase, containing the terms and conditions, and the open copy; 12 and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel, in the presence of the witnesses who signed the deed of purchase, and in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard.
13 In their presence I charged Baruch, saying, 14 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Take these deeds, both this sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware jar, in order that they may last for a long time. 15 For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.
With that God’s Prophet to the Nations proclaimed some really good news. The biblical economic system of private property, land belonging to families, would not come to a permanent end. Yes, the Babylonians have taken the land. Yes, families will be removed from the land and taken into exile. This is because they have forgotten the covenant and their responsibility to love and serve God and to love and bless their neighbors. But after a generation in exile, the covenant between God and his people will be restored and families will return to their land.
Our nation was established by its founders on the biblical principle of private ownership of property. The philosopher John Locke said in his book, The Two Treatises of Civil Government:
“The state of nature has a law of nature to govern it, which obliges every one: and reason, which is that law, teaches all mankind, who will but consult it, that being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty, or possessions… (and) when his own preservation comes not in competition, ought he, as much as he can, to preserve the rest of mankind, and may not, unless it be to do justice on an offender, take away, or impair the life, or what tends to the preservation of the life, the liberty, health, limb, or goods of another.”
According to Locke, all people have a God-given right to life, liberty, and property. The purpose of Government is not to own, take away or use our property. The purpose of government is to preserve our biblical right to own personal property. Thomas Jefferson put it this way in the Declaration of Independence.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”
With that America was established on the biblical principle of privately owned property. And according to Jeremiah, the Prophet to the Nations, God has given us the right to private property. This right is permanent, but it is also conditional on us using our property to love and serve God and to bless others.
Today in our nation there are many people who want to hold onto private property but have forgotten the covenant with God. Like the people of Jeremiah’s day, they no longer love and serve the Lord. They are no longer a blessing to others. And so they run the risk of having their property taken away and given to others.
There are other people in our nation who believe in the communal ownership of property. They believe that the Government should own property and use it for its own purposes and our benefit. But this is the opposite of the biblical economic system that was instituted by our founders. The purpose of government is not to take our property but to preserve our God-given right to own personal property. So, like Jeremiah, I urge you to continue the covenant we have with God by using your property to love and serve the Lord and to bless all of God’s children. The good news is that if you do this, God will continue to bless you with private property. Let’s pray.
Lord God, we thank you for the blessing of private property. Help us to use our property to love and serve you by blessing others. Help us to always remember and obey the terms of this covenant. This we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment