A Field of Dreams
Published 9:14 am Thursday, February 3, 2022
By Shannon Marshall
Ray Kinsella was facing some hard financial times as a farmer in Iowa. He was in danger of losing his farm, but instead of planting all his fields in crops that would have produced more money, he listens to a voice he couldn’t ignore to pursue a dream he couldn’t believe. He builds a major league size baseball field in the middle of his corn field. The dream he thought was to give Shoeless Joe Jackson another opportunity to play baseball. Turns out the real reason was to give him another opportunity to repair the broken relationship with his dad. Ultimately the “field of dreams” would end up saving the farm by the numerous fans coming to see the field. Ray Kinsella was not a real person, just a character in the movie “Field of Dreams.”
Jeremiah was a real person. Jeremiah had his own field of dreams. Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. He preached 40 plus years, but no one would listen to him.
He warned Judah of the coming invasion of the Babylonians. He told the nation the Babylonian’s would lead them away into seventy years of captivity.
Zedekiah the king of Judah was tired of hearing Jeremiah’s message, so he put Jeremiah in prison.
God told Jeremiah that his first cousin, Hanamel was coming to asked him to buy a field. God told Jeremiah to buy the field. The timing didn’t seem like the wisest thing to do because the future for Jerusalem wasn’t going to be a good one. Jeremiah listened to God and bought the field. Why would Jeremiah listen to God?
First, God sees what we don’t see. God said this about the future of that field, “For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards will again be bought in this land.” (Jeremiah 32: 15)
Second, God is bigger than we are. Jeremiah said to God, “Ah Lord God behold You have made the heavens and the earth by your great power by Your outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for You. (vs. 17).
The field bought in a day of uncertainty became the certainty for their tomorrow, the day the nation returned once the Babylonian captivity was over. Trust God today! He knows tomorrow.