Why does Jeremiah declare the Lord as the one who made the heavens and the earth and for whom nothing is too hard?

Jeremiah’s prayer that follows in Jeremiah 32:16–25 is linked to his purchase of the land in Jeremiah 1:1–15:21 by the introduction to the prayer, After I had given the deed to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord.

Many commentators note that this prayer seems out of place and may have been inserted into the narrative of Jeremiah 32:1–44 by an editor and was not prayed by Jeremiah while in prison. One reason for saying this is that the language of the prayer sounds more like a public, congregational prayer and not a private prayer. The themes of the prayer, especially in Jeremiah 32:17–22, also seem unrelated to Jeremiah’s immediate circumstances. However, when this prayer is seen as Jeremiah trying to wrestle with the fact that the Lord’s actions are beyond his understanding, then it is a profound prayer that suits his circumstances perfectly. In his prayer Jeremiah begins with who the Lord is and what the Lord has done to save his people. Jeremiah uses the words of Israel’s Scriptures to affirm what he knows to be true about the Lord before he expresses his confusion about what the Lord is doing. Even his words at the start of the prayer, Ah Lord God! express Jeremiah’s sense of turmoil and distress as he wrestles with a sovereign God who does what he wills¹. The God that Jeremiah speaks to is the one who made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! In Jeremiah 27 it is this same Creator God who has made nations and even animals subject to Nebuchadnezzar². This is a God for whom nothing is too hard. Jeremiah understands this and yet he cannot understand why the Lord would tell him to buy a piece of land as a sign that restoration is coming (Jeremiah 32:15) while the Babylonians are at the city gates about to destroy everything. The Hebrew word pala, translated as hard refers to someone being overawed and confused because something is too hard for them³. Even as Jeremiah recognizes that nothing is too hard for the Lord, Jeremiah is certainly feeling overwhelmed in his current circumstances.