Buy Into Hope

There once was a man who had no reason to hope, yet hoped.  He was thrown into prison, falsely accused, ridiculed, and his country was under siege by a foreign empire. This man’s name was Jeremiah.  It was just a matter of time before the capital city would fall, the people would be taken captive, and the temple would be burned. So why did Jeremiah hope? And more curiously, how did he hope? 

Jeremiah demonstrated his hope by doing something that appeared foolish.  

He heard that his cousin was selling some property.  The land was outside the city gates and currently occupied by enemy forces.  So from prison, Jeremiah called his cousin, filled out the paperwork, signed the documents, and purchased the property.  Now who in their right mind would do such a thing? This was crazy because at the time he made the purchase, the enemy army was encamping around his city gates ready to invade.  Why would anyone bother to go through the hassle of buying property if the land was currently occupied by the enemy? Would he ever step foot on the land he purchased?

Shortly before this, Jeremiah had prophesied that even though the kingdom of Judah was going to be taken over and destroyed, that God had given them a hope and a future.  In Jeremiah 32:14-15 he says to his scribe, “Take these documents, both the sealed and unsealed copies of the deed of purchase, and put them in a clay jar so they will last a long time.  For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’” He believed that although the nation was being destroyed that one day God would rebuild the nation and one day fields would be bought and sold again.  He believed that though the people were being taken into exile that one day they would return.   It would just take a while for reality to catch up with his hope.

Jeremiah’s decision to buy a field shows two key features about the nature of hope. Christian hope involves risk and action. 

Jeremiah risked his reputation. This must’ve looked foolish.  Afterall the enemy army was pounding at their gates, but he bought the field anyway.  Why? Because he was more convinced of the promises of God than he was of his current circumstances and aligned his actions with these beliefs. He knew buying this field looked ridiculous to others, but Jeremiah wasn’t really concerned with what other people thought of him.  Instead, his thoughts were dominated by the future God was creating. In his book “Running with the Horses,” Eugene Peterson says, “All acts of hope expose themselves to ridicule because they seem impractical. Hope determined actions participate in the future God is bringing into being.  It’s not easy to hope because the immediate evidence is often against it.”  Jeremiah’s present reality was bleak, but Jeremiah was willing to buy into the hope of a better future.  He was treating the future as if it already existed. 

In my experience, most people are content to claim to have hope but often not do anything about it.  They’re content to just be all talk, and in doing so they reduce hope to nothing more than wishful thinking.  But for Jeremiah, hope was not a mere abstract quality. It wasn’t good enough to just ‘talk a big game’. True Christian hope requires action.  It is robust. It is tangible.  Hope is a muscle.  

And Jeremiah was exercising his hope.  Not only was he claiming God would restore them, he was acting as if it were true. Jeremiah’s talk wasn’t cheap. He was not the kind of person that would just say to a tightrope walker, “Bet you can walk across pushing a wheelbarrow”, no he was the kind of person who would carry a wheelbarrow up to the tightrope walker, climb in, and quietly wait to be pushed. Jeremiah put his money where his mouth was and lived his convictions.  He hoped in God when things seemed darkest.  G.K. Chesterton wrote, “As long as matters are really hopeful, hope is mere flattery or platitude; it is only when everything is hopeless that hope begins to be a strength.”  Jeremiah did give into despair, but he connected his actions to what he believed about God.  For him, hope was more than empty words and a feeling.  He concretized his hope through action.   

So, what does it look like to express hope through action?  Does it mean next time there is a national crisis go and buy the first piece of property you find?  Most of the time these actions are not dramatic.  Often, they are small acts of faithfulness, kindness, and integrity.  Hope invites us to treat situations differently.  Sometimes when we treat a hopeless situation as it appears we make it worse, but when we treat a hopeless situation as if it already has hope we give it hope. Hope doesn’t just look for exceptions, it becomes and creates exceptions. Hope invites us to buy into a better future.  For the Christian, this means living as though Christ is coming back.  Christians can have hope because they believe Christ will one day return to right every wrong, bring justice to every injustice, and wipe away every tear.  While this future hope is available, it can only be authenticated in the present through action.

Author: Gabriel Hartfield

Gabriel Hartfield is a resident-care and young adults pastor at Crossroads Bible Church.  He also has been a campus minister for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Davenport University, served at Journey Church, and graduated from Grand Rapids Theological Seminary with a Masters in Divinity.  His desire is to help young people experience hope in Jesus, take ownership over their faith, and become all they were created to be.