Bible Study: Jeremiah 45:1-5

Baruch feels discouraged by his circumstance, so God answers him with a promise of liberty.

---

Jeremiah Chapter 45

Companion Scripture:  Jeremiah 36:1-32

Lessons from the text

The Blessing of Being Faithful

The Blessing of Being Faithful

Because Baruch was willing to be obedient to God, God blessed him by promising him safety and liberty.  Even though Baruch had to go into hiding for fear of his life, God was with him.

In our lives, God may not always seem to be with His people.  There are dark days, days of hiding, where it seems that the entire world has turned against the Christian.  Christians have been and in some places currently are persecuted for their faith in Jesus.  Does this mean that God has left the believer?

God sees the future.  When He says that “evildoers…shall soon be cut down like grass” while the righteous will be fed and granted the desires of their heart (Ps. 37:1-4), He is looking at the big picture.  He sees that in generations to come, He will destroy the wicked.  Those who are faithful to Him, however, will have eternal life.

Baruch is an example of this.  For his obedience to God, King Jehoiakim wanted to kill him.  Baruch was forced into hiding.  Yet in the years that followed, Nebuchadnezzar came and took Jehoiakim captive to Babylon (II Chro. 36:5-6).  Jehoiakim was “cut down” from his home while Baruch was left alive to live as he pleased in Israel.  Although he had to endure hardship, once the hardship was over, Baruch was blessed with freedom.

Even so, the believer may have to endure difficult times.  Persecutions are merely one example; financial hardships, failed businesses, and wars just as easily befall believers as non-believers.  As Jesus says, God rains on the just and unjust alike (Mt. 5:45).  Nonetheless, when a believer stays true to God through the difficult time, then God will be faithful to reward that person for his faith.  Even if the trouble follows the believer all the days of his life, the believer has the promise of eternal life with God where there will be “no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain” (Rev. 21:4).

Verse by Verse Commentary

1-5  Baruch has been a faithful friend to Jeremiah.  He has been his scribe and has even spoken on Jeremiah’s behalf (Jer. 36:10).  Because he spoke God’s words as given to Jeremiah, both he and Jeremiah were sought after by King Jehoiakim to be put to death.  While in hiding, Baruch began to doubt the wisdom of his choices.  Similar to the grief Jeremiah felt earlier in his ministry (Jer. 12:1-4), Baruch thinks that evil has befallen him for good; he has obeyed the Lord only to be rewarded with affliction.  In response, God replies that the kingdom He has established, Israel, will be brought low.  This king that seeks Baruch’s life will be plucked up, but Baruch will be free to go as he pleases.  The thought on taking “thy life… for a prey” is the ability to take charge over one’s own life; instead of being led against one’s will like the Jews were led away to Babylon, Baruch is given the freedom to live where he pleases and how he pleases.  Most importantly, no matter where he goes, the Lord will give him this liberty.  When God makes one free, He makes one completely free.

___________________


Thank you for your faithfulness in studying God’s word.
Please comment below to share what you learned from today's lesson.

---