Baruch Who?
Click below to listen to the reach:
One of the gifts of reading slowly through the Word, is the time it allows us to “be still” with each chapter. To pause with each event, think on it, allow time to visualize it. Look up details; read the reference verses. To let yourself learn enough about the cultural world at the time of the writing and still grasp the understanding it can give us now, in today’s culture, with today’s problems. No one ever said we should be in a hurry as we journey through the Word. (If they have, i firmly posit that we should not listen to them. :)
It’s not a race. It’s a walk.
A mental, spiritual, inferential, and sometimes factually-fed- emotional journey.
When we take time to read, not scan, but truly take-in the scriptures, we have the chance to accurately imagine the setting, the characters, the realness of it all. Let the moments come alive in our mind’s eye —— and then comes the most important part — give it time to start impacting our hearts.
That’s when it starts feeding our souls and affecting our todays.
I’m still reading in Jeremiah. I’ve been walking “with” Jeremiah for many days now. I invite you to walk with us for the next few minutes. Let’s take it slow, together.
In the midst of Judah (which was southern Israel in Jeremiah’s day), sin was rampant. False gods were worshipped. Children were sacrificed —— asherah poles were places of pagan ritualistic worship. The Temple of God remained in Jerusalem, but the worship of God had been adulterated. The Lord was angry. God warned the people through many prophets, Jeremiah being one. What courage the true prophets of God possessed. False prophets were a dime a dozen. But true Godly prophets were rare —— and persecuted, for the culture of that day did not want to hear the truth or obey God’s commands. (Sounds far too familiar…) Amazingly, God repeatedly sent His prophets to keep declaring His words. And with the prophets, he oftentimes sent someone to walk alongside them. Jeremiah had such a man; Baruch son of Neriah was his name.
Baruch’s name is found 23 times in the book of Jeremiah, spanning about 4 chapters. He was brave, intelligent, loyal, and obedient. Baruch loved God and remained loyal to the ways of Jehovah. He was not a main character with a widely known story, and yet there his name is, found in the folds of the Holy pages. How many sermons have you ever heard on “Baruch”? My answer… “none”. So reading about him, is like finding an award winning support role in a play not written or performed on today’s stages. Oh but what Baruch does beside Jeremiah matters so much. Most of all, Baruch’s willingness to do the mundane work, the behind-the-scenes obedience, and the dangerous assignments —— it is so worth shining a light on.
Baruch was a scribe. He was likely a type-A, choleric, detail-oriented kind of guy. Give him a job and call it done. He was solid enough in his esteem that he did not need the approval of men. He served God and he did so by serving Jeremiah.
According to God’s guidance to Jeremiah, when he buys a field, Jeremiah 32:6-14, it is Baruch that Jeremiah gives the deeds to and asks him to place them in clay jars “so they will last a long time.” Baruch does as he is instructed. I love verse 16, Jeremiah’s words, “After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch son of Neriah, I prayed…” Baruch did the work, Jeremiah prayed.
The study notes in my Bible say ——
“After Jeremiah bought the field, he began to wonder if such a move was wise. He sought relief in prayer from his nagging doubts.” There is gold in living that way! Do we do this? When we doubt…when nagging thoughts come….do we pray? Really pray. Not a sentence, but a paragraph or two…or more?
Jeremiah’s prayer is recorded (likely by Baruch, the scribe) in chapter 32:17-25.
In this prayer, Jeremiah begins by proclaiming who God is, what He has done, and how powerful He is. Solid beginning. Then Jeremiah remembers what God has done for Israel and how the people have responded. They have sinned. Committed idolatry. They have rejected God and chosen idols. Jeremiah’s prayer continues in verses 22-23,
“You gave them this land you had sworn to give their ancestors, a land flowing with milk and honey. They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey you and follow your law; they did not do what you commanded them to do. So you brought all this disaster on them."
Oh but then —— the goodness and mercy of God is on the horizon.
In a swift turn, God’s heart overflows beginning in v. 37,
“I, God, will surely gather them…I will bring them back….they will be my people, and I will be there God….I will make an everlasting covenant with them….I will never stop doing good to them….I will rejoice in doing them good.”
The goodness of God is immeasurable and unfathomable.
But before God could restore, discipline would come if the people refused to obey.
Jeremiah and his dedicated scribe Baruch are in the midst of all the messages from God. The judgement for sin. The promise of restoration after repentance. In Chapter 36 the Lord tells Jeremiah to,
“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you…Perhaps when the people hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.”
So Jeremiah called Baruch, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll.”
Scripture says that because Jeremiah was confined and was not allowed to go to the temple, he sent Baruch to the house of the Lord —— to read to the people from the scroll the Lord had spoken to them. We just have to pause long enough here to acknowledge….Baruch had to be brave to follow Jeremiah’s request of him. All this, because the Lord wanted the people to have every chance possible to turn from their wickedness and come back to Him.
It’s these moments when GOD REACHES FOR HIS PEOPLE — it takes my breath away.
Every week, the girls and i write….hoping to encourage all who read to “reach for more of Jesus, and less of everything else”. Oh but the astounding weight held in the Holy Pages of all the times, the many ways, the endless moments when GOD has reached for us people. He reached first….over and over again. He still reaches for us.
Jeremiah 36:8, “Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do…” He wrote, he went to the temple gate, he read the words the Lord wanted to be read.
Eventually, Baruch and Jeremiah had to go into hiding, for the reading of the message endangered their lives. The words of the scroll were read to the king who then burns the scroll in the fire, as he sits in his winter palace. He commands that Baruch and Jeremiah be arrested.
Are you letting yourself visualize it all.
Jeremiah and Baruch have obeyed every word of the Lord. Only to find themselves in grave danger, hiding from the king. Then comes verse 27 and 28,
“After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: ‘Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up."
This is no small task.
There is no “printer”…Baruch writes as Jeremiah dictates again.
Obedience.
Perseverance.
Loyalty to God.
Faithfulness to Jeremiah.
Baruch was not running with the popular people —— he was hiding with the prophet.
Baruch’s life was threatened, his security was in the Lord alone.
Baruch was not making plans for his future, dreaming of a home or family, preparing his vineyards or olive groves for productivity. He was obeying what the Lord said and sitting beside a hiding prophet.
Can you relate?
Is your life not going as you had hoped it would?
Are your plans not coming together with the outcome you anticipated?
Perhaps the most eternally important question is this one —— are you where God wants you, doing what God calls you to do?
Are you able to sit, like Baruch, “be still”, and wait on the Lord, doing what is in your hands to do?
Next week, we will finish this humbling, true, inspiring story. For now —— Baruch is in hiding with Jeremiah, obeying. With ink-stained fingers he re-writes what the pagan king burned.
Makes my week seem much-less-challenging…when I imagine Baruch’s.
