Scripture Daily

Context No. 4047 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 45:1-5: in context

1The message that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 2“The LORD, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: 3‘You said, “Woe is me now! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain! I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.”’ 4“You shall tell him, the LORD says: ‘Behold, that which I have built, I will break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up; and this in the whole land. 5Do you seek great things for yourself? Don’t seek them; for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh,’ says the LORD, ‘but I will let you escape with your life wherever you go.’”

Baruch, Jeremiah's faithful scribe, is worn down and discouraged: woe is me, he laments, for the LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and find no rest. Serving alongside a prophet of judgment in a collapsing nation has left him exhausted and, it seems, disappointed.

And God's word to him, through Jeremiah, is searching: do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. God does not rebuke Baruch's weariness harshly, but he gently redirects his heart. In a time when God was bringing down the whole nation, this was not the season for Baruch to be pursuing great things for himself, personal advancement, recognition, an easier or grander life. Instead God gives him a different and gracious promise: I will give you your life as a prize of war wherever you go. In hard and uncertain times, we can be tempted to grasp for great things for ourselves, to feel we deserve more, to chafe at our lot. God's word to Baruch reorders those desires: to lay down the grasping for greatness and to receive, with gratitude, the simpler gift of life and a place in God's work.

In hard and uncertain times, am I grasping for great things for myself, or can I hear God's gracious word to Baruch, to lay down that grasping and receive with gratitude the gift of life and a place in his work?

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