Jeremiah 32:6-15
6 Jeremiah said, “The word of the Lord came to me: 7 Hanamel son of Shallum your uncle is going to come to you and say, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth, because as nearest relative it is your right and duty to buy it.’
8 “Then, just as the Lord had said, my cousin Hanamel came to me in the courtyard of the guard and said, ‘Buy my field at Anathoth in the territory of Benjamin. Since it is your right to redeem it and possess it, buy it for yourself.’
“I knew that this was the word of the Lord; 9 so I bought the field at Anathoth from my cousin Hanamel and weighed out for him seventeen shekels of silver. 10 I signed and sealed the deed, had it witnessed, and weighed out the silver on the scales. 11 I took the deed of purchase—the sealed copy containing the terms and conditions, as well as the unsealed copy— 12 and I gave this deed to Baruch son of Neriah, the son of Mahseiah, in the presence of my cousin Hanamel and of the witnesses who had signed the deed and of all the Jews sitting in the courtyard of the guard.
13 “In their presence I gave Baruch these instructions: 14 ‘This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: 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. 15 For this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.’
1 Timothy 6:6-19
6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 9 People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
11 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. 13 In the sight of God, who gives life to everything, and of Christ Jesus, who while testifying before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you 14 to keep this command without spot or blame until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, 15 which God will bring about in his own time—God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen.
17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. 18 Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. 19 In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
Luke 16:19-31
19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’
25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’
27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father’s house, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’
29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
Two people died on the same day.
One was rich and the other poor.
One was dressed in purple and fine linen, the other in pus-filled sores.
One lived in luxury, the other amongst the mongrel dogs in the street.
At their death, one went to the fire of Hades, the other to the comfort of Abraham’s bosom.
… Who was the most content?
Was it the rich man or the other one?
Jesus tells us that the rich man had good things in his lifetime while Lazarus had bad things. And He reveals to us in this parable that the roles are now reversed after their death and that they are separated by a great chasm which no-one can cross.
So who was the most content? What matters most? This life or the next one?
Logic tells us to say that the rich man was content in life while the poor man was content in death. But is this true?
What are true riches? And what is true contentment?
The amazing thing about this story is that Jesus knows the name of Lazarus but not the name of the rich man. I think that this tells us an awful lot about the situation of these two men, and I would venture to say that the point of the parable is not to say that life is best when we are dead, but that life is best when Jesus knows us.
Yes, Lazarus had a hard life. Things had been pretty tough for him, but he had something which the unnamed man did not have – He was known by Jesus and he knew God for he had Moses and the prophets to guide him.
He was a man who lived by faith not by circumstances.
This faith life was available also to the rich man but he chose instead to find his satisfaction in his riches. And unfortunately he couldn’t take that with him when he died.
The only thing anyone can take with them is their faith in God, and it is this faith, or lack of it, which creates the great divide between being with God in eternity or spending eternity in the agony of the fire.
So what is faith?
It is, according to the writer of Hebrews, the hope of things unseen and the certainty of that which we do not know.
Faith is trusting in God despite our situation or circumstances.
… Paul writes to Timothy and says, “Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.” 1 Tim 6:17
… We are, says Paul further, to “do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way way we will lay up treasure for ourselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that we may take hold of the life that is truly life.”
1 Tim 6:18,19
For me, the most important part of that text is this, “Life that is truly life!”
That’s the offer of God to us. Real life, in this world, and the next.
… It has nothing to do with our circumstances in this world, and everything to do with the hope in which we live in this world.
The rich man, with all his wealth, did not have real life. He had a plastic existence whereas Lazarus, being known by God, had real life despite his sores, his poverty and his pain; for he could live his life in hope.
The Bible calls us to be content with what we have, and to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
Sometimes this is really hard and I think that few people really discover this godly contentment – the rich constantly fall into temptation, the poor into discontent. We are easily swayed by our circumstances.
And yet, as Paul says to Timothy, godliness (having God’s intention in our intention), with contentment in our situation (rich or poor) brings great gain. The secret is godliness, the attitude is contentment.
You cannot have real contentment without godliness. Riches and the luxury life in a bizarre kind of way only bring envy, greed and discontent.
For in 1 Timothy 3 Paul says, that “There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.”
Without contentment, godliness is false – it makes us lovers of ourselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, treacherous, rash and so on.
And without godliness, poverty brings despair and hopelessness.
So what is godliness?
In 1 Timothy 4:8, we read that “it holds promise for us in both the present life and the life to come.”
In Titus 1:1, godliness is described as “truth, faith and knowledge which rests on the hope of eternal life.”
In 2 Peter 1, we see that godliness comes by divine power and that it is part of a process of building our life in Christ. The first step is faith, after which comes goodness, then knowledge, then self control …. isn’t this an interesting progression: goodness only comes after faith, knowledge after faith and goodness, self control after faith, goodness and knowledge.
After self control comes perseverance and then only godliness appears.
And once godliness has come, we discover brotherly kindness and then finally … what? who can tell me?
Its love!
Faith, Goodness, Knowledge, Self Control, Perseverance, Godliness, Brotherly Kindness and Love.
And then finally, in our list of Biblical definitions of godliness we have 2 Peter 14 – Godly lives are spotless, blameless and at peace with God.
It seems to me then that the godly life is one which begins with God, builds itself up in Him, rests its hope in God, finds its contentment and peace in Him and includes both our life in this world and in the world to come.
All things are good in the godly life.
Jeremiah is sometimes called the weeping prophet because his message was one of despair. He prophesied the downfall of Jerusalem, he prophesied the 70 year exile in Babylon. His message was mostly bad news. And no-one really appreciated what he had so say.
But they forgot one thing about his message. The destruction and the exile had a limit. Jerusalem would be destroyed but it would be restored. The exile would last 70 years but then the people would return. The temple would be be rebuilt. There was a limit to God’s discipline – and afterwards God would restore everything.
In our text this morning, God tells Jeremiah to buy a field in Anathoth – the village of the priests. It was a crazy thing to do – Jerusalem is about to fall to the siege of the Babylonians. All the people are about to be carried off into exile – why buy a field? Why pay good money for something that he was certain to lose in a few days?
But God’s intention was clear – there will be restoration! That field which you buy will be yours and when the exile is over you will be able to return to your own property. This was a concrete picture of God’s promise that “Houses, fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.”
All things are good in God’s hands. Whatever we may make of our present situation – God’s promise is of restoration. We can trust Him and we can place our hope fully in Him. We can be content with what we have because our hope is certain and secure. That which lies beyond the horizon of our seeing is the certainty of God’s promise – I will never leave you nor will I forsake you. Trust in me.