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What Is in It for Me?
Read Jeremiah 45. What does this passage tell us about God? What does it tell us about Baruch?
Baruch is sad, in pain, restless, and worn out. Baruch sees all of his life work being uprooted, all of his dreams vanishing like a mist.
God’s heart is pained, too. He has tenderly planted and watched over Israel. Like a parent agonizing over a stubborn, rebellious child—the Lord has warned and pleaded with His people for over a thousand years. Baruch’s pain and sadness are but a faint reflection of God’s. Perhaps this is why God’s heart always is touched by our sorrows. We never weep alone. The God who knows the “number of hairs” on our heads takes the time to address a despondent scribe and gives him hope and encouragement. In the judgment that was soon to fall on Israel, Baruch would be saved. God would preserve his life. The expression found in verse 5 (“thy life will I give thee for a prey”) also can be found reflected in other parts of the book of Jeremiah (Jer. 21:9, 38:2, and 39:18). It evokes the figure of a soldier escaping with his life after a defeat in battle.
Paradoxically, salvation comes only through “defeat.” It was in the humiliation and apparent defeat at the cross that Jesus won the victory. It is only as we are willing to stop fighting and surrender our lives, plans, and future to God that we can find security. It’s when we are willing to totally surrender all that we become secure in the Lord.
What similarity can you note between Jeremiah 45:1–5 and Matthew 6:25–34?
In Jeremiah 45, God reminds Baruch of what really is important. In Matthew 6, Jesus reminds us that our lives are more important than our earthly possessions. For all his dreams of greatness, in the hour of disaster all that really mattered was Baruch’s life. Ironically, even though Baruch missed out on a great future in the Jerusalem political scene because of his loyalty to Jeremiah, this connection really saved his life and gave him a far bigger legacy than anything he could ever have dreamed of.
It is this legacy that we have searched for in the shadow figures of the Old Testament that we have studied over the past 13 weeks. Most of the people we have gotten to know a little better were not the major power brokers of their particular time, but their names or titles have been recorded in Scripture so that we can learn from them, from both their successes and their failures.
| THURSDAY | December 23 |
Read Jeremiah 45. What does this passage tell us about God? What does it tell us about Baruch?
Baruch is sad, in pain, restless, and worn out. Baruch sees all of his life work being uprooted, all of his dreams vanishing like a mist.
God’s heart is pained, too. He has tenderly planted and watched over Israel. Like a parent agonizing over a stubborn, rebellious child—the Lord has warned and pleaded with His people for over a thousand years. Baruch’s pain and sadness are but a faint reflection of God’s. Perhaps this is why God’s heart always is touched by our sorrows. We never weep alone. The God who knows the “number of hairs” on our heads takes the time to address a despondent scribe and gives him hope and encouragement. In the judgment that was soon to fall on Israel, Baruch would be saved. God would preserve his life. The expression found in verse 5 (“thy life will I give thee for a prey”) also can be found reflected in other parts of the book of Jeremiah (Jer. 21:9, 38:2, and 39:18). It evokes the figure of a soldier escaping with his life after a defeat in battle.
Paradoxically, salvation comes only through “defeat.” It was in the humiliation and apparent defeat at the cross that Jesus won the victory. It is only as we are willing to stop fighting and surrender our lives, plans, and future to God that we can find security. It’s when we are willing to totally surrender all that we become secure in the Lord.
What similarity can you note between Jeremiah 45:1–5 and Matthew 6:25–34?
In Jeremiah 45, God reminds Baruch of what really is important. In Matthew 6, Jesus reminds us that our lives are more important than our earthly possessions. For all his dreams of greatness, in the hour of disaster all that really mattered was Baruch’s life. Ironically, even though Baruch missed out on a great future in the Jerusalem political scene because of his loyalty to Jeremiah, this connection really saved his life and gave him a far bigger legacy than anything he could ever have dreamed of.
It is this legacy that we have searched for in the shadow figures of the Old Testament that we have studied over the past 13 weeks. Most of the people we have gotten to know a little better were not the major power brokers of their particular time, but their names or titles have been recorded in Scripture so that we can learn from them, from both their successes and their failures.
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