The Lord ends his response to Jeremiah’s prayer as he explains his command for the prophet to buy a piece of land that he cannot use or even visit because he is in prison and because the Babylonians are about to overrun Jerusalem and destroy it. For thus says the Lord: Just as I have brought all this great disaster upon this people, so will I bring upon them all the good that I promise them.
The Lord’s judgment is going to come, but that will not be the end of the story for the people of Judah. Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be signed and sealed and witnessed.
Jeremiah’s action of buying a field before judgment came presented the people with a promise that the Lord would return them to the land. Sin would indeed be punished, but that would not end his commitment to them. Beyond everything they will have to go through lay the hope of life back in the land one day and of a fresh start1. In this action Jeremiah is again living Israel's future in his present
2. This future is not just for Jerusalem, but for all the cities of Judah that will be destroyed by the invasion.
43 Fields shall be bought in this land of which you are saying, ‘It is a desolation, without man or beast; it is given into the hand of the Chaldeans.’