When What God Says Doesn’t Make Sense…

What do you do when what you SEE and what God SAYS doesn’t make sense?

We see the prophet Jeremiah standing face-to-face with this exact same struggle in Jeremiah 32. God has just given him instructions to do something that makes absolutely no sense. God tells Jeremiah to buy a field that belongs to his cousin, which on a normal day might sound like a good investment, except there’s a few other things going on here…

First, Jeremiah is currently in prison and he’s there because he was being obedient to God by prophesying to the King a word that the King didn’t want to hear. Don’t you love when everything seems to be going wrong because you’ve obeyed God? (Also, lesson for leaders here: Don’t punish someone just because they tell you something your ego doesn’t want to hear. If they are Spirit-filled and Spirit-led, you need to listen. Even if you don’t like what they are saying, God may be using them to warn you about something that you can’t see from where you’re standing).

Okay, back to Jeremiah. He’s in prison (so clearly not making a ton of money right now) AND on top of that, the property that his cousin is offering to sell to him is completely worthless. It’s about 3 miles outside of Jerusalem in an area that was already under Babylonian control (aka their enemies controlled it).

Check out what some commentators have noted:

“The land itself, at Anathoth, was utterly worthless, since it was already in the hands of the Babylonians, and Jerusalem’s days were numbered. Only a fool would buy, or expect another to buy, in such circumstances!” (Cundall)

 “Now, this was a strange purchase for a rational man to make. Prudence could not justify it; it was purchasing an estate which was utterly valueless.” (Spurgeon)

So, let’s recap: This doesn’t make sense. God tells Jeremiah to do something that in the natural, logically, does not make sense. BUT, God knows something that Jeremiah doesn’t know.

Friends, I want to encourage you with this - When God tells you to do something that you don’t understand or that doesn’t make sense, don’t discount that He knows something you don’t know. 

Maybe you feel in your heart that you need to forgive someone who deeply hurt you, but you don’t want to because you think they don’t deserve your forgiveness. Or maybe God is telling you to start a business but everyone around you says you can’t do it, it’s too much, you’re not qualified. If you are whole-heartedly committed to obeying not your feelings, but what you believe God is saying in your Spirit, you cannot fail because God’s Word never fails. 

I love what verses 8-9 say: “...I knew that this was the word of the Lord; so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel….” 

Jeremiah did something that did not make sense… Why? Because he knew it was what God had told him to do.

“We often have impressions which seem to be from the Lord. Let us rest assured that what He commands He will make possible. When the call is followed by the open door, we need have no hesitation.” (Morgan)

Friends, please hear me today - understanding is not a prerequisite for obedience. Often, obedience is the precursor to understanding. 

Jeremiah moved forward in FAITH, despite his FEELINGS. He obeyed what God SAID to him, despite what he SAW around him. 

If you keep reading you’ll find that the reason God tells him to buy the property is because God was going to bring the people back from captivity, which is what they are currently in. He was going to restore and redeem everything that had been lost, broken, and stolen.

“This is what the Lord says: As I have brought all this great calamity on this people, so I will give them all the prosperity I have promised them. Once more fields will be bought in this land of which you say, ‘It is a desolate waste, without people or animals, for it has been given into the hands of the Babylonians.’ Fields will be bought for silver, and deeds will be signed, sealed and witnessed in the territory of Benjamin, in the villages around Jerusalem, in the towns of Judah and in the towns of the hill country, of the western foothills and of the Negev, because I will restore their fortunes, declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 32:42-44)

Maybe as you’ve been reading this, the Holy Spirit has reminded you of something God has asked of you but you’ve been putting it off because it just hasn’t made sense to you. I want to encourage you, just like Jeremiah, to trust God even when you can’t track Him. Move forward in obedience, whether you understand everything or not. In time and as you keep moving forward in obedience, you will begin to see God’s hand at work in ways you were never even aware of, but you have to move forward in obedience first. In the Kingdom, obedience usually precedes understanding.

Let today be the day that you press on despite your understanding. God has great things ahead, but we have to trust what He says even though we can’t yet see what He sees.

Love you friends!!

XoXo, C