Bible Reader

Jeremiah 45

¹The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, saying,

²Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch;

³Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.

⁴Thus shalt thou say unto him, The LORD saith thus; Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land.

⁵And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not: for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the LORD: but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest.

on Jeremiah 45

After the fall of the city

ment to Ebed-Melech (39:15–18)—that he would be delivered when the city was taken and that God would spare his life.

“Hide nothing from me” (vv. 14–28). As far as the record is concerned, this was the fourth and last contact King Zedekiah had with Jeremiah before the city fell to the Babylonians. His request presented Jeremiah with a dilemma: If Jeremiah told him the truth, the king might kill him, and he wouldn’t obey the word of God anyway! God gave the king one last chance to repent, but he only made excuses. If he surrendered to Nebuchadnezzar, he might be accused and abused by the Jews who had gone over to the enemy, and what would happen to his family left in the city? Perhaps the men who wanted to kill Jeremiah would kill them.

Jeremiah assured the king that if he obeyed the word of the Lord, God would protect him and the city. But if he disobeyed, even the women in the palace would taunt him before the Babylonians (38:21–23). We can appreciate the king’s concern for his wives and children, but the best way to protect them was to obey the will of God.

Still afraid of his own officers, the king told Jeremiah to keep their conversation confidential. There’s no suggestion that Jeremiah lied to the officers who questioned him. To begin with, we may not have a transcript of the complete conversation between Jeremiah and Zedekiah, and Jeremiah may have asked not to be returned to the house of Jonathan. Certainly in their second conversation, Jeremiah had made such a request (37:17–21). He was under no obligation to report everything to the officers, and he didn’t have to lie in order to keep the conversation confidential.

Sometimes God judges a sinful nation by sending them weak leaders who are hesitant and vacillating and whose leadership (or lack of it) plunges the nation only deeper into trouble. “I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them” (Isa. 3: nkjv). The late John F. Kennedy put it this way: “We, the people, are the boss, and we get the kind of political leadership, be it good or bad, that we demand and deserve.” But Judah wasn’t a democracy; the people didn’t vote on their king. It was God who gave them what they deserved.

Tragedy Follows Tragedy

ILife only demands from you the strength you possess. Only one feat is possible— not to have run away. Dag Hammarskjold t’s been said by more than one scholar that the one thing we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history. This was certainly true of the destitute Jewish remnant in Judah after the fall of Jerusalem. Instead of seeking the Lord and making a new beginning, the remnant repeated the very sins that had led to the collapse of the nation and the destruction of the city: They wouldn’t listen to the Word; they turned to Egypt for help; and they worshipped idols.

The sinful behavior of the people must have broken Jeremiah’s heart, but he stayed with them and tried to get them to obey the Word of the Lord. God had punished the nation, but even this severe punishment didn’t change their hearts. They were still bent on doing evil.

The drama was a tragic one with a cast of characters that is seen in every age. The script of history may change a bit from time to time, but the characters are still the same.

Baruch: A Faithful Servant

Chronologically, this chapter belongs with Jeremiah 36, but it was placed here to perform several functions.

To begin with, this chapter introduces the prophecies in chapters 46—51, prophecies Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation in 605 BC. Note in Jeremiah 25 the emphasis on Jeremiah’s prophecies about the nations, and that this chapter was written at the same time as chapter 45, the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Most of the nations dealt with in chapters 46—51 are named in Jeremiah 25:15–26.

Second, Jeremiah 45 gives us insight into the man Baruch. As we noted earlier, he had a brother on the king’s official staff who probably could have secured a good job for him in the palace. Instead, Baruch chose to identify with Jeremiah and do the will of God. We thank God for all that Jeremiah did, but we should also thank God for the assistance Baruch gave Jeremiah so the prophet could do his work. Moses had his seventy elders; David had his mighty men; Jesus had His disciples; Paul had his helpers, such as Timothy, Titus, and Silas; and Jeremiah had his faithful secretary.

Not everybody is called to be a prophet or apostle, but all of us can do the will of God by helping others do their work. Baruch was what we’d today call a “layman.” Yet he helped a prophet write the Word of God. In my own ministry, I’ve appreciated the labors of faithful secretaries and assistants who have helped me in myriads of ways. I may have been on the platform, but without their assistance behind the scenes, I could never have gotten my work done. Baruch was willing to stay in the background and serve God by serving Jeremiah.

A third lesson emerges: Even the most devoted servants occasionally get discouraged. Baruch came to a point in his life where he was so depressed that he wanted to quit. “Woe is me now! For the Lord has added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest” (45: nkjv). Perhaps the persecution of Jeremiah recorded in chapter 26 was the cause of this anguish. Maybe Baruch was considering leaving Jeremiah and asking his brother for an easier job in the palace.

The Lord, however, had a word of encouragement for His servant. First, He cautioned him not to build his hopes on the future of Judah, because everything would be destroyed in the Babylonian siege. A “soft job” in the government would lead only to death or exile in Babylon. Then God gave him a word of assurance: his life would be spared, so he didn’t have to fear the enemy. God was proving to Baruch the reality of a promise that would be written centuries later: “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6: nkjv).

When we’re serving the Lord and His people, we never want to seek great things for ourselves. The only important thing is that God’s work is accomplished and God’s great name is glorified. John the Baptist put it succinctly: “He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

A crisis doesn’t “make a person”; a crisis reveals what a person is made of. The crisis that followed the destruction of Jerusalem was like a goldsmith’s furnace that revealed the dross as well as the pure gold. It’s too bad there wasn’t more gold.

How will you and I respond when “the fiery trial” comes (1 Peter 4:12–19)? I hope that, like Job, we’ll come forth pure gold (Job 23:10).

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