The 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, “Yahweh, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch: ‘You said, “Woe is me now! For Yahweh has added sorrow to my pain! I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.” ’
“You shall tell him, Yahweh 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. Do you seek great things for yourself? Don’t seek them; for, behold, I will bring evil on all flesh,’ says Yahweh; ‘but I will let you escape with your life wherever you go.’ ”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5 We have said that prophetic books were not written…
We have said that prophetic books were not written by their authors in the order in which they are now read. But when a Prophet had preached, and committed to writing a summary of his doctrine, he fixed it to the doors of the Temple. And there were scribes who collected the summaries, and the volumes now extant were made from these. I now repeat the same thing, because some one may wonder that the order of time was not observed by Jeremiah: for hereafter he will prophesy of heathen nations; and it is certain, that these prophecies were announced, in part, before the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim, some during his reign, and some in the time of Zedekiah. But the reason I have stated ought to be borne in mind, that this book we have now in our hands was not written by Jeremiah himself, but that it contains collected summaries, afterwards formed into one volume.
Here is told us a special prophecy concerning Baruch, who, as we know, was the Prophet’s scribe, and not only his scribe or amanuensis, but also his disciple. And here Jeremiah relates, that he was gravely and severely reproved, because he shewed not a mind sufficiently firm, when the book mentioned in chapter thirty-six was to be written. Some think that there was a just reason for his grief, because Jeremiah declared that the ruin of the city and the people was nigh at hand. They then think that Baruch was anxious, nay, oppressed with sorrow when he heard that so dreadful a judgment of God was near; for there is no doubt but that he regarded his country with becoming devotion, and that he was solicitous concerning the worship of God, and for the safety of the people whom God had chosen out of all nations, and adopted. But as we shall hereafter see, he looked rather to himself, and was led to grief and sorrow on his own account; and for this he was severely reproved by the Prophet. Others bring forward an explanation by no means satisfactory, that he coveted the gift of prophecy, when he saw that Jeremiah pronounced, as from on high, words so weighty, and was the instrument of the Holy Spirit, as though he exercised a celestial judgment. They hence think that Baruch was stimulated by a vain desire for the prophetic office, and that he was reproved because he assumed more than what was right. But this fiction, as I have already said, has nothing to support it.
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I do not doubt, therefore, but that he apprehended danger to himself, because the message which the Prophet had committed to him was greatly disliked. For we see in the chapter to which I have referred, that the Prophet did not go to the king, but dictated the contents of the book, and gave it to Baruch. When, therefore, he saw that he could not discharge his duty without danger, he began to complain and to murmur; and it was on this account that the Prophet, by God’s command, reproved his weakness. The meaning then is, that Baruch, as he feared for his life, was affected with too much grief, so that he wished to be freed from all trouble, and that God was offended with this extreme fear, and gave a command to his Prophet to reprove Baruch, as he deserved. Let us now come to the words.
The word which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah. We must notice, that the holy man did not spare his own disciple, whom yet he no doubt loved; for he had employed him, and Baruch had acted faithfully, not only as his scribe, but also as his fellow-helper. As then Jeremiah had proved the fidelity, care, and diligence of Baruch in many things, he wished, no doubt, to treat him with kindness; but as God would have this fault in Baruch to be corrected, the Prophet performed this duty that belonged to his office. We hence see that he forgot flesh and blood, when he had to do his work for God. The circumstance as to time is added: and hence we may infer what I have already stated, that Baruch, when in danger of his life, was anxious, and complained of his own case, as though God had laid on him a burden too heavy and hard to be borne; for the Prophet says that he received this command when Baruch wrote the words in the book, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim.
We have briefly related how this happened; but it must be added, that Baruch did not fear without reason, because the king was already displeased with Jeremiah. He was not indeed altogether cruel, but he had bad counselors, who were like fans, ready to kindle up his rage; and the issue proved, that this fear was not without cause; for the king took a penknife and cut the book in pieces, and then threw it into the fire: and if Jeremiah could then have been found, no doubt all would have been over with him, as to his life. But Baruch had been warned by kind men to conceal himself together with the Prophet. We hence see that Baruch was frightened, because his message was so disagreeable, and calculated to drive the king to extremities, as it happened. At the same time, he was too much given to care for himself, for he ought to have presented his life as a sacrifice to God. For all who are called to such an office, are in duty bound to undergo all dangers with courage, so as to disregard life when necessary, or at least to commit it to the care of God; and when they see dangers nigh, they ought still to proceed in the course of their office. Though, then, Baruch wished faithfully to serve God, yet in the conflict he was overcome by temptation, so that he was more anxious for his life than animated to proceed in his course. It is to this that the time mentioned by the Prophet refers, when he says, that Baruch was reproved when he wrote the words in a book
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5 Whereof read Jer. 36:9, 10.
Whereof read Jer. 36:9, 10.
Which was Jeremiah’s disciple, and wrote his prophecies under him.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–5 Jer 45:1 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake…
Jer 45:1 The 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,
Ver. 1. The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch.] It is thought that Jeremiah preached his last when he prophesied in the foregoing chapter the destruction of Pharaohhophra, and together with him of the Jews that were found in Egypt by Nebuchadnezzar. Lapides loquitur. He seemed to them to speaking stones, as the proverb hath it; and therefore they stoned him to death, as Epiphanius and others report. This word that he spoke to Baruch belongeth to Jer 36:32, and should have been annexed unto it in a natural order, as appeareth both by the date and by the matter. Baruch had, with much pains and patience, first written out Jeremiah’s prophecies, and then read them to the people, and afterwards to the princes. For this piece of work he expected belike some good piece of preferment, as the apostles also did for their forsaking all and following Christ. {Mat 18:1-4; Mat 19:27-30; Mat 20:21-29, &c.} Thus flesh will show itself in the best, and in many things we offend all. But instead of any such thing, Baruch, together with his master, Jeremiah, was sought for to be slaughtered; and besides, he meets with here a contrary prophecy, whereby, before he is comforted, he is sharply reproved, 1. For a dastardly despondency of mind, because his rising expectation, it seems, was frustrated; 2. For a vain, ambitious self-seeking, which was not hid from God.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 5 This chapter ought to have been annexed to the…
This chapter ought to have been annexed to the 36th chapter, or immediately to have followed it, for the writing of Jeremiah’s prophecies we read of there. It was eighteen years before this time that the prophet thus spake to Baruch upon the writing of those prophecies which, as we read there, brought both Jeremiah and Baruch into a great deal of danger, which probably gave Baruch the occasion of the complaint we shall read of, Jer 45:3.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v1 How Baruch was employed in writing Jeremiah's prophecies, and…
How Baruch was employed in writing Jeremiah's prophecies, and reading them, we had an account ch. 36, and how he was threatened for it by the king, warrants being out for him and he forced to abscond, and how narrowly he escaped under a divine protection, to which story this chapter should have been subjoined, but that, having reference to a private person, it is here thrown into the latter end of the book, as St. Paul's epistle to Philemon is put after his other epistles. Observe,
I. The consternation that poor Baruch was in when he was sought for by the king's messengers and obliged to hide his head, and the notice which God took of it. He cried out, Woe is me now! Jer 45:3. he was a young man setting out in the world; he was well affected to the things of God, and was willing to serve God and his prophet; but, when it came to suffering, he was desirous to be excused. Being an ingenious man, and a scholar, he stood fair for preferment, and now to be driven into a corner, and in danger of a prison, or worse, was a great disappointment to him. When he read the roll publicly he hoped to gain reputation by it, that it would make him to be taken notice of and employed; but when he found that, instead of that, it exposed him to contempt, and brought him into disgrace, he cried out, "I am undone; I shall fall into the pursuers' hands, and be imprisoned, and put to death, or banished: The Lord has added grief to my sorrow, has loaded me with one trouble after another. After the grief of writing and reading the prophecies of my country's ruin, I have the sorrow of being treated as a criminal; for so doing; and, though another might make nothing of this, yet for my part I cannot bear it; it is a burden too heavy for me. I fainted in my sighing (or I am faint with my sighing; it just kills me) and I find no rest, no satisfaction in my own mind. I cannot compose myself as I should and would to bear it, not have I any prospect of relief or comfort." Baruch was a good man, but, we must say, this was his infirmity. Note, 1. Young beginners in religion, like fresh-water soldiers, are apt to be discouraged with the little difficulties which they commonly meet with at first in the service of God. They do but run with the footmen, and it wearies them; they faint upon the very dawning of the day of adversity, and it is an evidence that their strength is small (Pro 24:10), that their faith is weak, and that they are yet but babes, who cry for every hurt and every fright. 2. Some of the best and dearest of God's saints and servants, when they have seen storms rising, have been in frights, and apt to make the worst of things, and to disquiet themselves with melancholy apprehensions more than there was cause for. 3. God takes notice of the frets and discontents of his people and is displeased with them. Baruch should have rejoiced that he was counted worthy to suffer in such a good cause and with such good company, but, instead of that, he is vexed at it, and blames his lot, nay, and reflects upon his God, as if he had dealt hardly with him; what he said was spoken in a heat and passion, but God was offended, as he was with Moses, who paid dearly for it, when, his spirit being provoked, he spoke unadvisedly with his lips. Thou didst say so and so, and it was not well said. God keeps account what we say, even when we speak in haste.
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II. The reproof that God gave him for talking at this rate. Jeremiah was troubled to see him in such an agitation, and knew not well what to say to him. He was loth to chide him, and yet thought he deserved it, was willing to comfort him, and yet knew not which way to go about it; but God tells him what he shall say to him, Jer 45:4. Jeremiah could not be certain what was at the bottom of these complaints and fear, but God sees it. They came from his corruptions. That the hurt might therefore not be healed slightly, he searches the wound, and shows him that he had raised his expectations too high in this world and had promised himself too much from it, and that made the distress and trouble he was in so very grievous to him and so hard to be borne. Note, The frowns of the world would not disquiet us as they do if we did not foolishly flatter ourselves with the hopes of its smiles and court and covet them too much. It is our over-fondness for the good things of this present time that makes us impatient under its evil things. Now God shows him that it was his fault and folly, at this time of day especially, either to desire or to look for an abundance of the wealth and honour of this world. For, 1. The ship was sinking. Ruin was coming upon the Jewish nation, an utter and universal ruin: "That which I have built, to be a house for myself, I am breaking down, and that which I have planted, to be a vineyard for myself, I am plucking up, even this whole land, the Jewish church and state; and dost thou now seek great things for thyself? Dost thou expect to be rich and honourable and to make a figure now? No." 2. "It is absurd for thee to be now painting thy own cabin. Canst thou expect to be high when all are brought low, to be full when all about thee are empty?" To seek ourselves more than the public welfare, especially to seek great things to ourselves when the public is in danger, is very unbecoming Israelites. We may apply it to this world, and our state in it; God in his providence is breaking down and pulling up; every thing is uncertain and perishing; we cannot expect any continuing city here. What folly is it then to seek great things for ourselves here, where every thing is little and nothing certain!
III. The encouragement that God gave him to hope that though he should not be great, yet he should be safe: "I will bring evil upon all flesh, all nations of men, all orders and degrees of men, but thy life will I give to thee for a prey" (thy soul, so the word is) "in all places whither thou goest. Thou must expect to be hurried from place to place, and, wherever thou goest, to be in danger, but thou shalt escape, though often very narrowly, shalt have thy life, but it shall be as a prey, which is got with much difficulty and danger; thou shalt be saved as by fire." Note, The preservation and continuance of life are very great mercies, and we are bound to account them such, as they are the prolonging of our opportunity to glorify God in this world and to get ready for a better; and at some times, especially when the arrows of death fly thickly about us, life is a signal favour, and what we ought to be very thankful for, and while we have it must not complain though we be disappointed of the great things we expected. Is not the life more than meat?
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–4 The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch…
The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah,.... Who was his amanuensis or scribe; and this word he spake not to him of himself, but in the name of the Lord, as coming from him; so the Targum calls it,
"the word of prophecy which Jeremiah the prophet prophesied concerning Baruch the son of Neriah:''
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when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah; not what immediately precede, concerning the destruction of the Jews in Egypt; which were delivered out many years after the writing of the roll by Baruch here referred to; and which was done, as here said,
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah; which was eighteen years before the destruction of Jerusalem; so that this prophecy does not stand in order, which would more properly have followed the thirty sixth chapter; where we have an account of what Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah in a roll, and read to the people, and after that to the princes; which exposed him to danger, and caused the grief expressed by him in this chapter; but it being written to a private person, is postponed to this place:
saying; as follows:
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 5 Jeremiah instructs and comforts Baruch, ver. 1-5.
Jeremiah instructs and comforts Baruch, ver. 1-5.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5 This chapter is evidently connected with the subject treated…
CHAPTER XLV
This chapter is evidently connected with the subject treated of
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in the thirty-sixth. Baruch, who had written the prophecies of
Jeremiah, and read them publicly in the temple, and afterwards
to many of the princes, is in great affliction because of the
awful judgments with which the land of Judah was about to be
visited; and also on account of the imminent danger to which
his own life was exposed, in publishing such unwelcome tidings,
1-3.
To remove Baruch's fear with respect to this latter
circumstance, the prophet assures him that though the total
destruction of Judea was determined because of the great
wickedness of the inhabitants, yet his life should be preserved
amidst the general desolation, 4, 5.
NOTES ON CHAP. XLV
Verse 1. The word that Jeremiah - spake unto Baruch] This is another instance of shameless transposition. This discourse was delivered in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, several years before Jerusalem was taken by the Chaldeans. It is a simple appendage to Jer 36:32, and there it should have been inserted.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 3 Jer 45:1. The word that Jeremiah spake unto Baruch…
Jer 45:1. The word that Jeremiah spake unto Baruch when he had written, &c. — “This seems to indicate that the exact time of the uttering of this prophecy was between the writing and the publication of the roll. And, perhaps, if Baruch had not received such special assurances of protection, he might not have had resolution enough to have followed the prophet’s further directions, and to have read first before all the people, and afterward before the princes, what he had written.” — Blaney.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4 These words - i. e., the words of Jehoiakim’s…
These words - i. e., the words of Jehoiakim’s scroll.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1, 5 Book, which Joakim burnt, and sought the life of…
Book, which Joakim burnt, and sought the life of the prophets, chap. xxxvi. (Calmet) --- Baruch apprised of the general distress, weeps for it, and his life is spared. (Worthington)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 Appendix to the Prophecies Relating to the Entire Theocracy
Appendix to the Prophecies Relating to the Entire Theocracy
The Promise Given To Baruch (chap. 45)
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While in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, according to Jeremiah 36., Jeremiah was dictating to his true friend and servant, Baruch, the revelations hitherto received, the latter appears to have been quite overpowered by a feeling of deep sorrow and anguish. Then Jeremiah receives a commission to address to him some words of consolation. This brief address doubtless formed the conclusion of the whole, of the original writing of which an account is given in Jeremiah 36. For it is incredible that Baruch was overcome with grief, when he had written the prophecies against the heathen, so far as these were extant in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, in their original position after Jeremiah 25. and before Jeremiah 27. (comp. rems, on Jer_25:12-14 and the Introd. to chh. 46–51.); these being of relatively consolatory import to the Israelites (comp. especially Jer_49:1 sqq.). But when he could survey at a glance the entirety of the threatening words pronounced against the theocracy, this may have been the moment when he broke out into the utterance recorded in Jer_45:3. The word בְּכָתְנוֹ, Jer_45:1, is not opposed to this. For it is not necessary to take the prefix in the sense of “whilst.” It merely expresses that Baruch received the revelation at a time when he was at work as an amanuensis, neither before nor after; but does not determine whether he received it at the beginning, in the midst, or at the end of this time. Even when the prophet had dictated to him his last words his work was not done: he had still to look over and revise what he had written. It is therefore not credible, that the great main work was interrupted by this personal communication. The present chapter is thus an appendix to the entire collection of Jeremiah’s prophecies. Its position at the close corresponds to the dignity and importance of Baruch, who as the faithful friend and amanuensis of the prophet was closely connected with the book as a whole, while Ebed-melech, for whom a similar word of promise is found in Jer_39:15-18, came into contact with Jeremiah only at a single epoch. The revelation concerning him was therefore inserted at the corresponding place in the narrative.
Jer_45:1-5
1The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written [was writing] 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, 3Thus saith the Lord [Jehovah], the God of Israel, unto thee,1 O Baruch: Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted4[am weary]2 in my sighing, and I find no rest Thus shalt thou say unto him, The Lord saith thus: Behold, that which I have built will I break down, and that 5which I have planted I will pluck up, even this whole land.3 And 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.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim, when Baruch, the son of Neriah, was writing out the prophecies of Jeremiah at his dictation (Jer_45:1-2), the proclamation is made to him, in answer to his expression of sorrow (Jer_45:3): that the Lord is intending to desolate the whole land (Jer_45:4), but he, Baruch, without laying claim to greater things, should accept, as a reward of distinguished grace, that whithersoever he might be cast, he should everywhere escape with his life (Jer_45:5).
Jer_45:1-3. The word … find no rest. After Baruch (comp. rems. on Jer_32:12) had finished writing what was dictated to him, Jeremiah receives the command to address a prophecy to him, concerning only his own person.—Baruch was evidently powerfully affected by the total impression made by the prophecies upon him (comp. rems. on Jer_36:1; Jer_36:16). In addition to the sorrow, which he must have felt with every other Israelite, at the present disturbed condition of his native land, was the anxiety for the future, which had been awakened by the minatory predictions he had heard.—Grief Comp. Jer_8:18; Jer_20:18; Jer_31:13.—I faint. The same thought as in Lam_5:5.
Jer_45:4-5. Thus shalt them … thou goest. Two things are involved in these words: 1. Although the theocracy is the Lord’s creation, it is yet His fixed determination to destroy His work. With respect to the expression, comp. Jer_1:10; Jer_18:7; Jer_18:9; Jer_31:28.—Even this whole land. If we compare Jer_25:15-26, we shall perceive that this determination to destroy is to be understood in a twofold degree, and accordingly ארץ is to be taken in the double sense of land and earth. The whole earth and the existence of all nations upon it is the Lord’s work, but the Lord will cause His judgment to issue on all this, His work. But Israel’s land and people is especially His sanctuary, the first fruits of His increase (Jer_2:3), His precious inheritance (Jer_3:19; Eze_20:6; Eze_20:15), and of course Baruch’s sorrow relates above all to the ruin threatening his own, the chosen nation. It is thus declared by the words, “this whole land,” that it is not a partial visitation, but a total devastation of the country, which is impending.—2. If now the whole (comp. Jer_12:12; Jer_25:31) is under sentence of total destruction, no single individual can claim a high degree of positive earthly prosperity. Even the best must be content, if only mere earthly existence, bare life, is guaranteed him. This is done herewith respect to Baruch. Thus a measure is given of the degree and extent of the calamity relating to the whole. Comp. Jer_21:9; Jer_38:2; Jer_38:17.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Baruch did not act as secretary for hire but for love. He esteemed it an honor and a happiness, that by his skill he could serve the Lord, to whom he owed it. Therefore a glorious reward is imparted to him unsought, so that his name and remembrance are immortalized in the sacred record by an oracle addressed specially to him. This honor is to be esteemed still higher than the assurance, that this wretched mortal life should not be taken by violence before its time.
2. On Jer_45:3. “Non Stoicos nos esse convenit, qui ἀπάθειανcommendare atque asserere soliti, qualis etiam fuit Münzerus ejusque progenies Anabaptistæ.” Förster.
3 On Jer_45:4. Compare the remarks on Jer_7:4. There is no delusion more ruinous than to suppose that the Lord cannot destroy His own work again. The destruction will certainly only come upon the bad. But it is the bad on the earth, among the chosen people, in the church and on the throne, who imagine themselves to be secure, in spite of their badness, by the fact of the divine appointment or choice, whereby they make God the servant of sin. God has created the earth. He will destroy it by fire. But a new earth and a new heaven will proceed from the conflagration. He has thrown down the holy city and temple and scattered the people of Israel. But the ’Ισραῆλ κατὰ πνεῦμα still lives and will one day permeate the ’Ισραὴλ κατὰ σάρκα with new life again (Romans 11.). The Christian Church in the East has been devastated by Islam, and what guarantee then have Rome, Geneva and Wittenberg that it will not be with them as with Jerusalem? Princes too are not to understand the divine right of legitimacy as that God can appoint princes but cannot depose them. Yet even if all present Christian churches were to be destroyed and all thrones overthrown, neither the Church of the Lord would cease to be nor the magistracy, which is ordained of God (Matthew 16.; Romans 13.).
4. On Jer_45:5. “Felices frustra nobis promittimus annos semper enim curæ tristitiæque premunt.” Quotation by Förster.
5. On Jer_45:5. Endeavor not after high things. Is it then not a great thing in this world, laden as it is with a curse (Gen_3:17-19), if one has sustenance and clothing? (1Ti_6:8). And is it not the greatest thing of all, if one knows that his soul is saved in heaven, even if he must take the place there, with which the prodigal son would have been content in his father’s house? (Luke 15.).
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
1. On Jer_45:2-5. A word of consolation and exhortation for all the tried children of God. 1. Let no one be surprised at the heat, which he encounters, as though something strange had happened to him. 2. Let every one be satisfied with the one thing needful: (a) for his body, (b) for his spirit.
2. On Jer_45:4. God’s own institutions. We must distinguish in these: 1. the temporary form (not secured against decay and outward ruin); 2. the everlasting kernel (this is indestructible and bears in itself the guarantee of eternal duration and ever more glorious development).
Footnotes:
[1]Jer_45:2.—On עַל in עָלֶיךָ comp. rems. on Jer_10:1.
[2]Jer_45:3.—The verb יָגַע found besides in Jeremiah only in Jer_51:58.
[3]Jer_45:4.—As to the construction here, many are of opinion that the article is wanting before הִיא, as ex. gr. Gen_32:23. But we should then have זֹאת. Others would take אֵת in the emasculated sense, in which it “approaches to” לְ=in respect to, as to (Ewald, § 277, d). But in the connection of this passage אֵת appears plainly as the sign of the accusative, governed by the preceding transitive verb. I therefore think that הִיא is used here simply with an emphatic significance, which we may express by inserting the word “even:” even the whole land, even this! Comp. Num_18:23; Isa_7:14. This is also the case with הוּא after a personal pronoun: אָנֹכִי אָנֹבִי הוּא, Isa_43:25; Jer_49:12, etc.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3–5 Thou didst say, &c.--Jeremiah does not spare his disciple,…
Thou didst say, &c.--Jeremiah does not spare his disciple, but unveils his fault, namely, fear for his life by reason of the suspicions which he incurred in the eyes of his countrymen (compare Jer 36:17), as if he was in sympathy with the Chaldeans (Jer 43:3), and instigator of Jeremiah; also ingratitude in speaking of his "grief," &c., whereas he ought to deem himself highly blessed in being employed by God to record Jeremiah's prophecies.
added--rescued from the peril of my first writing (Jer 36:26). I am again involved in a similar peril. He upbraids God as dealing harshly with him.
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I fainted--rather, "I am weary."
no rest--no quiet resting-place.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5 THE TIME AND OCCASION, Jer_45:1.
THE TIME AND OCCASION, Jer_45:1.
1. Unto Baruch — As Paul and John wrote letters to individuals concerning their personal relations and experiences, so Jeremiah receives the message for his bosom friend and amanuensis. And yet the message suited to him is fitly recorded as calculated to admonish and help many others of like trials and like faith.
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Had written — Rather, wrote, or was writing.
These words — The messages of Jeremiah which Baruch wrote down.
Fourth year of Jehoiakim — This is one of the time limits of these prophecies. There is no reason to doubt that the other is the beginning of Jeremiah’s work as a prophet. The time of writing down these addresses is the same as that of the writing related in chapter 36. Chronologically they both belong to the same period.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–5 1. unto Baruch] See on Jer_32:12.
1. unto Baruch] See on Jer_32:12.
these words] See introd. note for the difficulty in harmonizing this expression with the date given in the v. It is, however, not unnatural to suppose that this section stood in connexion with ch. 36 in some way. Perhaps we should read “the words,” referring to the Roll (ch. Jer_36:1 ff.).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On v1 (1) The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto…
XLV.
(1) The word that Jeremiah the prophet spake unto Baruch . . .—The chapter is obviously misplaced as far as chronological order is concerned. and ought to follow on Jeremiah 35, 36. It gives us a glimpse of singular interest into the character of the prophet’s helper. He was discouraged and desponding, and yet the very despondency was that of an ambitious temperament eager to take the lead. His master was in prison. Neither king nor nobles listened to him. He had, it may be, drawn for himself an ideal picture of a successful work, in which he himself should be a chief agent. (See Note on Jer_43:3.) “Grief was added to his sighing, and he found no rest.” And now all seemed failure. The prophet had passed through such moods himself (Jer_15:10-21; Jer_20:7-18), and knew, when they found utterance in words that were the very echo of his own, how to deal with them. The scribe must accept the doom that fell on him as on others. He must not hope to pass unscathed, still less to attain the “great things” which he had imagined for himself. It was enough that his life was given him “as a prey” (Jer_21:9; Jer_39:18), as spoil rescued from the spoiler. What his future was to be was not revealed unto him, but the closing words pointed to a life of wandering and exile; and Baruch was, we know, among those who went down to Egypt (Jer_43:6), and had probably been for some years at Babylon (Bar_1:1). According to one tradition he died in Egypt (Jerome, Comm. in Isaiah 30); another represents him as having returned to Babylon after his master’s death, and ending his life there. The apocryphal book that bears his name testifies to the reverence felt for him by a later generation. It is not without interest to note the general parallelism of the words in which Elisha rebuked the covetousness of Gehazi (2Ki_5:26) and those with which our Lord met the ambitious request of the sons of Zebedee (Mat_20:20-23).
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1, 3, 4, 5 These words; i.e. the revelations which Baruch had committed…
These words; i.e. the revelations which Baruch had committed (or was committing) to writing.
HOMILETICS, Vers. 1-5. The grief of one soul, and its consolation.
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This chapter is devoted to one man. Among the large prophecies concerning whole nations, room is found for a prophecy to a single individual. The Bible is at once universal and individualistic in character. Its narratives alternate history with biography. God cares for the whole world, and truth is largess the universe; yet God does not forget one soul in its private distress, and truth has special applications to special cases.
I THE GRIEF. Baruch had a double distress grief added to sorrow.
1. The first sorrow. Probably this arose from a consideration of the wretched condition of the nation in its vice and decay. It is right and natural that good men should feel deep concern at the state of their country. The Christian should have the spirit of him who "when he beheld the city, wept over it." Moreover, if we see much of the wickedness of the world, we should not be satisfied with steadily condemning it, nor with congratulating ourselves on our own superior goodness. The sight should fill us with sorrow. They who go thus astray are our own brethren. And is not there much of the same sin in all of us? Often the wickedness which shocks us in others is only the full development of the very sin that lurks in our own hearts.
2. The added grief.
(1) This came from the prophecy. Baruch was commissioned to write and read. His privileged position, so near to the fountain of inspiration, only deepened his distress. High spiritual privilege may bring only sadness in this world"s experience. Increase of knowledge may be increase of sorrow. Revelation is sometimes a cause of distress. In the present case the prophecy was a declaration of the approaching doom of Jerusalem. We should contemplate the punishment of the impenitent with profound grief. Revengeful, triumphant, or self-complacent feelings in regard to this terrible subject are quite unchristian.
(2) Baruch had personal grounds for his distress. In the approaching overthrow of his nation all his cherished hopes of personal ambition were shattered. The most sanguine too often suffer the bitterest disappointments.
(3) Jeremiah"s grief would add to that of Baruch. Sorrow is contagious. He who is much with "the Man of sorrows" will be likely to feel strange grief in contemplating the evil of the world. Baruch could find no rest in his grief. The greatest weariness is not the result of hard work; it comes from distress of heart. It is trouble, not work, that breaks down the strong life to premature old age. The blessedness of the heavenly rest is that it is rest from sorrow as well as from toil.
II THE CONSOLATION. Jeremiah has a prophecy for Baruch. God speaks to individual souls, The preacher must be preached to. Has not he who would save others a soul of his own to be saved. How sad that any preacher should declare the Divine message to the people, but hear no voice speaking peace to his own troubled soul! If he were as faithful as Baruch, he might expect, like Baruch, to receive a Divine consolation. Note the characteristics of this consolation. It did not deny the cause of grief. Much comfort is unreal and false in trying to do this. The consolation for Baruch consisted chiefly in furnishing him with advice regarding his views of God"s action and his own aims in life.
1. A lesson of acquiescence in the Divine will. God is acting within his rights. It is vain to rebel. Peace is found in submission.
2. A rebuke to ambition. Self-seeking brings distress. As we live out of self we gain Divine peace.
3. A promise of safety. After the lessons intended to lead Baruch into a right mood, God promises him his life only this, but this is much for a humble man who knows he does not deserve it, and a good man who will devote it to God"s service.
HOMILIES BY A.F. MUIR Vers. 1-5. Baruch"s message; or, God"s consideration for his servant.
It is not always well to know more than others. Future things are for the most part mercifully bidden from us. The prophecies of God"s kingdom in the world, as they awaken new hopes, also occasion new anxieties; and the latter will be the greater in proportion to our failure to comprehend and sympathize with the Divine purpose. Baruch was not in the same relation of spiritual sympathy and self-effacement with relation to the Word as Jeremiah was; he did not share the same moral elevation, and therefore his perplexities. In reward of his faithful, self-denying work as amanuensis to the prophet, a special communication is made to him with reference to his state of mind on hearing the threatenings of God against Israel and the nations.
I TO RECEIVE SUCH A COMMUNICATION WAS A DISTINGUISHED HONOUR. In identifying his name with the book he wrote it immortalized him. His work was a comparatively humble one, but it required its own virtues, and these are recognized. Nothing done for God in a right spirit is forgotten by him. Amidst imperial and world wide changes the interests of his servants are ever watched over with special care. When we see the Sovereign Disposer of events, when empires are as small dust in his balance, arranging for the welfare of a single individual, merely because of help given to one of his prophets, shall we not acknowledge how precious in his eyes is even the least of his servants? They are children of the great King.
II IT MINISTERED TO HIS PERSONAL COMFORT AND PEACE OF MIND. The anxiety and fear which weighed upon Baruch are thereby dissipated. God loves to see his children cheerful and in sympathy with his will. It is just from the "sorrow of the world that worketh death," he seeks to deliver us. The work of Baruch would be easier and less oppressive when he was assured that his own safety would be secured. But how poor is this promise compared with the" life and immortality brought to light in the gospel"! The children of promise are not only delivered from the sorrows and disappointments of this present evil world, but made sharers in the final triumphs of redemptive love.
III IT CORRECTED A SPIRITUAL FAULT.
1. The caution. "And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." Earthly ambition has often crept into the heart of God"s servants. It is not consistent with faithful, single-eyed service. They that would further the kingdom of God in the world must seek it first. Baruch was reminded that this is not our rest. And when the powers of the world were being shaken was no time for self-advancement. His sighs were not pure. He mourned over opportunities lost, not of laying up treasure in heaven, but of accumulating it on earth.
2. The promise. "Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey." It seems poor, compared with his hopes. He perhaps anticipated a slight rebuke and chastisement of Israel, a few changes and adjustments, and the carrying on of the Divine purposes to a speedy issue. This illusion is gently but firmly checked. The world has a severer ordeal to pass through ere the ancient offence can be expiated, and the arena cleared for the Divine future. His hopes are, therefore, not wholly destroyed, but transferred. He will be spared to see the things beyond, and meanwhile it will be his privilege to help on that better time. Happy for him if, thus corrected, he attains to a diviner calm of spirit and a more thorough acceptance of the Divine terms and conditions. He too was but a sinner, whose deliverance was in itself a great and undeserved mercy. (cf. Mt 24) M.
HOMILIES BY S. CONWAY Vers. 1-5. Baruch; or, the young recruit reheartened.
Baruch reminds of Mark. (Act_13:13) Both were good and faithful men; both became discouraged; both were reheartened; both found profitable to the ministry and true to the end. Now, as we look on this Divine reheartening of Baruch, we are taught much
I CONCERNING GOD.
1. We see his grace. He does not overlook or forget his servants. He notes their distresses and devises means for their relief. "Like as a father pitieth," etc.
2. We see his methods with those who are as Baruch was.
(1) Though animated by love, they were severe rather than soothing; stern rather than gentle and consolatory. We have many parallels to this. Cf. Jer 12, "If thou hast run with the footmen," etc. How stern the dealing of God with Moses! No entreaty could procure the alteration of the sentence of exclusion from Canaan that had gone out against him. See also our Lord"s message to John the Baptist in prison: "Go, tell John," etc. No gentle message of sympathy, but rather of rebuke for his failure of faith. So with Paul"s thorn in the flesh, the Lord would not remove it. In all these cases there is rather the sharp, bracing, rousing summons to duty than words of soothing pity and tenderness. Far more like Paul"s dealing with the recreant Mark he virtually cashiered him than that of Barnabas, who, Son of Consolation that he was, was all for comforting him and dealing gently with him.
(2) God tells him that he has heard his complainings. When we talk to ourselves, we often forget that every word is audible to God. The people about our Lord were often talking to themselves concerning him, and, though they said nothing out loud, we constantly read how "Jesus answered and said," showing that he had heard all they said.
(3) He gives him to understand that his purpose is not to be set aside because of his complainings. "The Lord saith thus." It we cannot bring our circumstances to our mind, our wisdom is to bring our mind to our circumstances. Baruch was shown that he must do this.
(4) He implies that a seeking after "high things" for himself had much to do with his complaining. He was of great ability, of noble lineage, (Jer_51:59; Josephus, "Ant.," 10. 6:2; 9:1) the grandson of Maasiah, (2Ch_34:8) and this may well have animated him with hopes of high office in the state, such as his brother had held; or his nearness to Jeremiah may have led him to believe that he should be the prophet"s successor.
(5) He promises him that his life shall be spared, though with much difficulty to him as a prey." We cannot tell what afterwards became of him. Tradition varies. There was not much comfort in all this, but rather a "What doest thou here, Elijah?". (1Ki 19)
1. His motives. The leaders of an army must not be weaklings. Those who have stern work to do must themselves be stern. Luther, not Erasmus, must head the Reformation movement. Hence God disciplines his most trusted servants by very severe methods. Even our Lord, "He learned obedience by the things that he suffered;" "He was made perfect through sufferings.
2. His success. That which he purposes is ever done. Baruch here, as Mark afterwards, was reheartened and did good service again.
II CONCERNING THE PROPHETIC WORK. Demands self-denial, involves much suffering, and has much sorrow in it. No wonder that in ancient days men shrank from the pastoral office. "Nolo episcopari" meant something then. Are any thinking of it? Count the cost. Are any in it? Let them, as they need, seek daily strength from God. Chief Shepherd of thy chosen sheep, From sin and death set free, May every under shepherd keep His eye intent on thee.
Let those not so charged of the Lord pray for those that are.
III CONCERNING YOUNG SOLDIERS OF JESUS CHRIST.
1. There is much that is delightful in them. Their ardour, their zeal, their affection. Elisha to Elijah, Timotheus to Paul, so here Baruch to Jeremiah.
2. But they are apt to be discouraged and desponding. They need enduring power. Melancthon thought he should soon convert men to the truth. But Luther tolls how the old Adam was soon found to be too hard for the young Melancthon.
3. Let them submit cheerfully to the methods of discipline God has appointed for them, and be on their guard against all self-seeking ambition.
4. And they are to remember that, though their life be given to them, it shall be "as a prey." They wilt have to watch, to toil, to contend, to struggle, even for that. "The Son of God goes forth to war... Who follows in his train? C.
HOMILIES BY D. YOUNG Vers. 1-5. Counsel and comfort for the man overcome with bad tidings.
I CONSIDER THE EFFECT ON BARUCH"S OWN MIND OF WHAT HE HAD HAD TO WRITE. Baruch came in simply to be a scribe and transmitter. Seemingly a friend of Jeremiah, he must have been in considerable sympathy with the prophet in his purposes and predictions. Doubtless he had made himself acquainted with each prophetic utterance as it came forth from Jehovah. But he had never had them all before his mind at one time, as now became necessary, through his having to write them down. Hence we have here an illustration of how more is required than the mere utterance of a word of God in order to produce a deep effect from it. A man may think he understands and receives it, and yet the understanding and reception may be far from what they ought to be. Not till Jeremiah"s prophecies stand before Baruch in one mass does he fully discern the trouble coming on his people. Jehovah has spoken many times, and always in the same way, against the wicked and their wickedness. And so we see how important it is to get the impression, not only of successive parts of God"s words, but of that Word as a whole. Moreover, if Baruch was oppressed by the consistent mass of threatening, it is equally possible for us to be uplifted and strengthened by a consistent mass of promises and encouragements. We shall ever find in the Scriptures that which we look for and prepare ourselves to find.
II SOME INDICATION OF BARUCH"S OWN CHARACTER. Baruch seems to have been not exactly what we should call an ambitious man, but still one who wanted to get on in the world. Perhaps he had a position which made it reasonable for him to expect influence and authority. But what can a man of this sort look for in a state rapidly declining to its fall? Baruch had to learn all at once that he must seek for such things as God would have him seek for. Thus we see God combining a lesson for the individual with the message for the nation. Baruch could hardly have been the only man competent to act as a scribe, but God, in taking him, took one who needed correction, needed to have his purposes turned into a more submissive way and a less self-seeking one.
III TEMPORAL BLESSINGS MUST DEPEND UPON CIRCUMSTANCES. There had been times in the Jewish state when Baruch might have been a very useful man in some high position. But every man must accept the conditions of the time in which he lives. At one time the great temporal blessings may be those of attainment, at another those of escape. And so, to some extent, it is in spiritual things. There are times when what Christ does for us puts on the aspect of salvation; we are glad because of the great evils from which we are delivered. There arc other times when we are not contented with merely thinking of deliverance; we want something positive growth, fruitfulness, perfection. Then we are seeking great things spiritually things which are always to be sought. And we may add they are always to be found, however adverse temporal conditions may be. Y.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v5 Seekest thou great things for thyself?
Jer_45:5
Seekest thou great things for thyself?
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seek them not.
Seeking great things
Baruch, the companion of Jeremiah, to whom these words were addressed, was a young man of learning, who had probably formed large expectations of distinction, which were sadly disappointed by the calamities which befell his country. The prophet checks his aspirations in the strong language of our text: Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not. It is the selfish seeking of the great things of this world and the eager pursuits of them, as if they were of supreme importance, which is censured by the prophet.
1. They who thus seek them are least likely to attain them. It is said there is a fiery light which appears in marshy places, floating just above the surface of the earth, so volatile in its nature that the least breath moves it, and consequently those who rush towards it most eagerly, create a current of air which drives it from them, and it thus leads them on to miry places for their destruction; while, if they would quietly sit down it might float near them, or rest upon them when there was no agitation in the atmosphere to repel it. So is it with the great things of this world, they often fly from those who pant in the chase after them; they frequently rest upon those who reach after them more quietly. One of the wealthiest individuals in a distant city, who spends immense sums for benevolent purposes, was heard to say, that he hardly knew how his property came to him; it seemed to increase without effort on his part, and whether he would or no. The reason may have been because he was not selfishly eager in the pursuit of it, and because he consecrated it to good objects, and therefore God blessed him as He did Solomon.
2. They who selfishly and eagerly seek the great things of the world, are apt to have some sore trial coupled with success, if they are successful. Look at all history; when were its great men so wretched, as when they had attained the highest point of exaltation! He has gained everything, said a companion of Napoleon, when he was in the zenith of prosperity, and yet he is unhappy. So true is this, that one almost dreads entering upon a state of great worldly aggrandisement, or to see others entering upon it, lest something should happen to mar all. We feel as we do when one is on a lofty spire, admiring his elevation, but almost afraid to look at him lest he should fall God has wisely connected such checks with worldly greatness, to teach us not to set our hearts upon it, and to enforce the prophet s warning, Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.
3. The thought of death should teach the vanity of the selfish and eager pursuit of worldly greatness. How one severe fit of sickness will change the aspect of all the glitter of the world! In health it is like the panoramic view where splendid palaces and cities pass before our delighted eyes; in sickness the glass is taken away, and a little painted daub is seen, no bigger than ones hand. And death shuts out even that from our sight. Millions for an hour of life, was the dying exclamation of one of Englands proudest queens. It is further humiliating to all worldly aspirations to see how small, a vacancy one makes among the living by his death. Think of any person, however great he may have been, who has been two years dead, how little is he missed! how everything goes forward just as smoothly without him! What then, in conclusion, is the view of the great things of this life to which such reflections lead? The proper view seems to be, not to despise the things of this world, but to be sure that our supreme affections are on those of another and a better; not to reject the good gifts of this life, but neither to toil for them as if they were all in all to our happiness, nor to use them, when gained, for our own selfish gratification. (W. H. Lewis, D. D.)
Seeking for great things
We wish, so to speak, not to annihilate the passions of human nature, which sin disturbs and perverts; but, if possible, to convert them, and turn them into another direction. You love pleasure, and we wish you to have pleasure; only we would draw you off from the pleasures of sin for a season, to the joy of Gods salvation; we would draw you from the filthy puddle to the water of life, clear as crystal, which proceedeth from the throne of God and of the Lamb. You love wealth; we wish you to love it, and to obtain it; but not the deceitful riches, as the Scriptures call them, but the true riches, the unsearchable riches of Christ. You are ambitious, and we wish you to be so; you wish to rise, and we wish you to rise; you wish to be great, and we wish you to be great; and therefore we would open a career of glory and grandeur, in pursuing which you will be placed far above philosophers, and politicians, and heroes, and kings; dwelling on high, and being quickened together with Christ, raised up, and made to sit with Him in the heavenly places. There are four reasons why you should not seek great things for yourselves on earth, and four reasons why you should seek those things that are above.
I. The one is uncertain in acquisition--the other sure. A great deal of what is called earthly greatness is placed beyond the reach of many, whatever they may do. Many are poor, and they have not the opportunities and the means of becoming affluent. Many cannot fill the seats of learning and of science; they have not capacities to acquire the needful treasures. But here is a reason why you should seek those things which are above; for these are always sure in their attainment. In the work of the Lord the servant may become equally great with the master; for moral greatness does not consist in doing great things, but in doing little things with a great mind. And these are accessible to all.
II. The one is fleeting in possession--the other durable. What is all history, but a relation of the revolutions to which all worldly things are liable--of the rich despoiled of their wealth, of nobles stript of their honours, of princes dethroned, exiled, imprisoned, put to death--Pharaoh in the Red Sea, Nebuchadnezzar eating grass like an ox, Belshazzar the conqueror and the conquered, Napoleon the emperor and the captive! These instances, perhaps, are too peculiar, and too remote, and national, to impress many of you: look therefore nearer home; look at those things which will touch you. What is honour, but a noise of airy breath? What is popularity? It hangs on the wavering tongue of the multitude, who are like the waves of the sea, driven to and fro and tossed; now rolling towards one shore, and now towards another, according to the gale; now crying Hosannah, and now Crucify Him, crucify Him. Yes, wherever on earth you lay up treasure, you must lay it up where moth and rust do corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal. And here is another thing to be taken into the account too. Allowing that these things could be perpetuated in your possession to the end of life, they can be possessed no longer. You have only a life interest in any of them. Shall I set my heart on that which is not, and that from which I am so soon to be removed? But now this is a reason why you should seek those things that are above; for he that succeeds here (and we have shown that you will succeed if you seek them), has chosen, as our Saviour says, that good part, which shall never be taken away from him. He has seized a blessedness which is independent of external accidents, independent of the revolutions of states, independent of the vicissitudes of time, independent of the ravages of death, independent of the conflagration of the last day: so that when the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up, he can stand upon the ashes of the universe and say, I have lost nothing; I look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.
III. The one is unsatisfactory in enjoyment--the other satisfying. Take the great things you would here seek after for yourself; allowing that you attain them (and you have heard that the attainment is uncertain)--allowing that you could retain them (and you have heard that the retention is impossible)--yet there is no real contentment in them. Ahab was king of Israel Was he satisfied with his dominion? No; he covets Naboths little vineyard; and because he cannot obtain it, he is sick forsooth and takes to his bed and can eat nothing. Some of the Roman emperors, who strode over the world, were the most wretched of all beings; they were burdens to themselves. I was one day walking with rich individual over his estate; his mind was in a serious mood, and I endeavoured to avail myself of it; and he made this very wise remark, Sir, said he, those who have not succeeded in the world always impute their dissatisfaction to their want of success; they are not aware of the insufficiency of these things themselves. Oh! say they, could we obtain them, we should be happy. But those of us who have succeeded, and have obtained them, and find ourselves no nearer happiness than before, are the men who know that the fault lies in the things themselves. But this is a reason why you should seek those things which are above. They are satisfying.
IV. The one is dangerous and injurious in influence--the other safe and beneficial. Yes; the great things you seek here for yourselves, owing to our depravity, are full of peril. Who is the Lord, says Pharaoh, that I should obey Him? How, says our Saviour, can ye believe, who receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour which cometh from God only? Even good men, with regard to these great things, as they are called in our text, want peculiar grace, or they will not be proof against their evil influence. Hezekiah could not bear the notice taken of him by the ambassadors of Benhadad; his heart was lifted up; therefore was wrath upon him and all his people. I never yet saw a Christian improved by his rising in the world: I have seen many who have been injured by it: I have seen many who have been less constant and regular in their attendance on the means of grace, though they had more leisure, and could command a vehicle: I have seen those who have given less afterwards--not less comparatively, but less absolutely; some of them who gave gold, then gave silver, and some even copper. Wherefore, once more, Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not; but seek those things which are above. There safety is. These are not only blameless; but they are profitable--profitable unto all things; having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. These, instead of polluting the mind, will purify it; they will draw you off from earth, instead of allowing you to settle here. Instead of elevating you, they will clothe you with humility; instead of leading you away from your God, they will connect you with Him; they will prepare you for every condition in which you can be found. Therefore you cannot have too much of these. (W. Jay.)
The folly of ambition
I. The first reason for not seeking the great things of earth and time is, that they will not be attained. We do not deny that the energy and perseverance of an ambitious man will accomplish great results, but we affirm confidently that he will never attain what he desires. For his desires are continually running ahead of his attainments, so that the more he gets the more he wants. He never acquires the great thing which he is seeking in such a way as to sit down quietly and enjoy contentment of heart. Alexander, we are told, having conquered all the then known world, wept in disappointment because there were no more worlds for him to overrun and subdue. In this way, it is apparent that he who is seeking great things here upon earth will never obtain them. He is chasing his horizon. He is trying to jump off his own shadow. As fast as he advances, the horizon recedes from him; the further he leaps, the further his shadow falls. His estimate of what a great thing is continually changes, so that though relatively to other men he has accumulated wealth, or obtained earthly power and fame, yet absolutely, he is no nearer the desire of his heart--no nearer to a satisfying good--than he was at the beginning of his career. Nay, it is the testimony of many a man, that the first few gains that were made at the beginning of life came nearer to filling the desires of the mind, and were accompanied with more of actual contentment, than the thousands and millions that succeeded them.
II. If they could be attained they would ruin the soul. It is fearful to observe the rapidity with which a mans character deteriorates as he secures the object of his desire, when the object is a merely earthly one, and the desire is a purely selfish one. Take, for illustration, the career of Napoleon Bonaparte. He aimed at a universal empire in Europe. And just in proportion as he approached the object of his aspirations, did he recede from that state of mind and heart which ought to characterise a dependent creature of God. We always associate him with those pagan demi-gods, those heaven-storming Titans, who like the Lucifer of Scripture are the very impersonation of pride and ambition But such a spirit as this is the worst species of human character. It is the most intense form of idolatry--that of egotism and self-worship. It is the most arrogant and defiant form of pride. It would scale the heavens. It would dethrone the Eternal. The same effect of mere worldly success is seen also in the walks of everyday life. Cast your eye over the circle in which you move, and select out those who are the most greedy of earthly good, and are the most successful in obtaining it, and are they not the most selfish persons that you know? It is here that we see the moral benefit of failures and disappointments. Were men uniformly successful in their search after great things; did every man who seeks wealth obtain wealth, and every man who grasps after power obtain power, and every man who lusts after fame become renowned, the world would be a pandemonium, and human character and happiness would be ruined. Swollen by constant victory, and a sense of superiority, successful men would turn their hands against one another, as in the wars of the giants before the flood. There would be no self-restraint, no regard for the welfare of others, no moderate and just estimate of this world, and no attention to the future life.
III. Great things, so far as they are attained at all in this world, are commonly attained indirectly. Saul, the son of Kish, was sent out by his father to find the asses that had strayed, but he found a kingdom instead. Look into literary history, and see how this is exemplified. The most successful creations of the human reason and imagination have rarely been the intentional and foreseen products of the person. The great authors have been surprised at their success; if, indeed, success came to them during their lifetime. But more commonly their fame has been posthumous, and their ears never heard a single note of the paean that went up from the subsequent generations that were enchanted with their genius. Shakespeare and Milton never read a single criticism upon their own works; and to-day they neither know anything of nor care for the fame that attends them upon this little planet. Look, again, into the circles of trade and commerce, and observe how often great and lasting success comes incidentally, rather than as the consequence of preconceived purposes and plans. The person simply endeavoured to provide for the present and prospective wants of those dependent upon him, with prudence and moderation. He obtained, however, far more than he calculated upon. Wealth came in upon him with rapidity, and that which he did not greedily seek, and which he never in the least gloated upon with a misers feeling, was the actual result of his career in the world. Seekest thou, then, great things for thyself? seek them not. They will not come by this method. Seek first of all the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and then all these minor things, which the world and the deluded will be likely to attain even by the most engrossing and violent efforts devoted to the sole purpose of obtaining them.
IV. Great sorrow springs from great aspirations, when those aspirations are unattained. There is only one species of aspiration that does not weary and wear the soul, and that is, the craving and cry of the soul after God. Humboldt, who had surveyed the cosmos, and who had devoted a long existence to placid contemplation of the processes of nature, and had kept aloof from the exciting and passionate provinces of human literature, said in his eightieth year, I live without hope, because so little of what I have undertaken yields a satisfactory result. This is the penalty which ambitious minds pay for seeking great things. There is an infinite aspiration, and an infinitesimal performance. The hour of death, and the failing shadows of an everlasting existence, and an everlasting destiny, bring the aspiration and the performance into terrible contrast. Go down, once more, into the sphere of active life, and see the same sorrow from the same cause. Look at that man of trade and commerce who has spent his life in gigantic, and, we will suppose, successful enterprises, and who now draws near the grave. Ask him how the aspiration compares with the performance. He has generally accomplished, we will assume, what he undertook. The results of his energy and capacity are known, and visible to all in his circle and way of life. His associates have praised him, and still praise him; for he has done well for himself, and for all connected with him. But he writes vanity upon it all. When he thinks of all the heat and fever of his life, all his anxious calculation and toil by day and night, all his sacrifice of physical comfort and of mental and moral improvement, and then thinks of the actual results of it all--the few millions of treasure, the few thousands of acres, or the few hundreds of houses--he bewails his infatuation, and curses his folly.
1. In the light of this subject and its discussion, we perceive the sinfulness of ambition.
2. We see in the light of this subject, the complete and perfect blessedness of those who are free from all ambitious aims and selfish purposes; who can say, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? &c. (G. T. Shedd, D. D.)
Seek not great things for yourself
I. Seek not great things for yourselves, for self ought never to be an ultimate object. The glory of God is the only legitimate aim. The glorification of God is not to be sought as a mean to the good of the creature, but the reverse--man would be exalted above God. Even great spiritual things arc not to be sought for our own purposes and exaltation--names sake. There is no hardship in this, for if we seek the glory of God, our own enjoyment will follow.
II. Seek not great things for yourselves, for you thereby render them the objects of idolatrous worship.
III. Seek not great things for yourselves, for to do so is to subordinate the discharge of duty to their acquisition and enjoyment.
IV. Seek not great things for yourselves, for by doing so you will involve yourselves and others in much positive suffering.
V. Seek not great things for yourselves, when the Church of Christ requires your sympathy and your efforts.
Baruch. (Jas. Stewart.)
A dissuasive from ambition
I. When we may be said to seek great things for ourselves.
1. When we seek a larger portion of worldly good than is necessary. But still the question returns, How much is necessary? If men were to answer this question, they would soon prove that few or none are guilty of violating the command in our text; for they all pretend that they seek no more than is necessary. But by this term they usually mean all that would be necessary to gratify their sinful inclinations and desires. Now mans chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy Him for ever; or, in other words, to obey Gods will and receive His everlasting favour. More than this no man needs; more than this no man ought to seek.
2. When we seek them for ourselves only, or seek them merely with a view to self-gratification or self-aggrandisement.
II. Some of the reasons why we should not seek great things for ourselves.
1. Because it is the sure way to multiply our disappointments and sorrows. In the lottery of life there are few prizes, and many blanks. He, then, who seeks great things for himself, engages in a pursuit in which it is exceedingly probable he will be disappointed; and the more ardent are his desires, the more eager his pursuit, the more keen will be the sufferings which his disappointment will occasion. But this is not all. The man whose pursuit is crowned with success, will be no less disappointed than his unsuccessful neighbour. After he has obtained great things, he will find himself as far from happiness, find his desires as unsatisfied, his mind as discontented as before. His desires will increase with his success. Nay, they will increase much faster than his success.
2. Another reason may be drawn from the nature and situation of the world in which we live. Might we not as easily employ our time and exertions in building upon a quicksand, or upon ice which the summers sun will melt away!
3. Another reason may be found in our own character and situation. We are ourselves sinful, dying, and accountable creatures. We have, therefore, a great work to do, no less a work than securing the favour of God, and obtaining the salvation of our immortal souls, a work which demands our time, our attention, our utmost exertions. And can we, in such a situation, find leisure or inclination to seek great things for ourselves here? to seek them while death is at the door; while the Judge is at hand; while eternity draws near; while our souls, unprepared, are in momentary danger of sinking beyond the reach of hope or mercy?
4. Another reason is, that seeking them is incompatible with the duties which we are required to perform; and of course incompatible with our best interests. Man has but one soul, but one heart, but a certain limited portion of time, strength, and energy. He cannot, then, give his heart to God and to the world at the same time. (E. Payson, D. D.)
Ambition
I. The evil denounced. It may be viewed under three aspects.
1. There are some who pursue worldly objects that are far above them.
2. There are some who pursue with undue eagerness worldly objects they might reasonably hope to attain.
3. There are some who pursue all classes of worldly objects in a selfish spirit.
II. The reasons why it is denounced.
1. Because it attaches excessive value to worldly objects.
2. Because it misapprehends the comparative advantages of the different ranks in the social scale.
3. Because it overlooks the duties which arise out of the relations we sustain to our race and our Maker.
4. Because it ignores all the facts, and objects, and interests, and blessings of the spiritual world. Address--
(1) Worldlings.
(2) Christians. (G. Brooks.)
A great missionarys self-effacement
When Stanley found Livingstone in the heart of Africa, he begged the old heroic missionary to go home. There seemed to be many reasons why he should go back to England. His wife was dead; his children lived in England; the weight of years was pressing upon him, and the shortest march wearied him. He was often compelled to halt many days to recover strength after his frequent attacks of prostrating illness. Moreover, he was destitute of men and means to enable him to make much practical progress. But like the great apostle to the Gentiles, none of these things moved him, nor counted he his life dear to himself. No, no, he said to Stanley; to be knighted, as you say, by the Queen, welcomed by thousands of missionary enthusiasts, yes--but impossible. It must not, cannot, will not be. I must finish my task, and do what I can to bring Africa to Christ.
Thought self mars the finest work
Every artist longs to have his work thought well of. But the higher artist seeks first truth and beauty, and hopes for praise as the meed due to them. The lower artist is so thirsty for praise, thinks so much more about himself than about his work, that he turns aside to make a display of his strength or skill. He is not wholly given to bringing forth truth and beauty, but he is hankering to strike the beholder s eye with his originality or power. This I take to be the secret of--s aberrations. His pictures show wonderful force of painting; but what spoils them is that, instead of calmly striving to raise his painting to the highest, he has itched to amaze you by his boldness. (Charles Buxton, M.P.)
The folly of self-seeking in Christs service
Spurgeon in a late sermon hits off a very common fault noticeable among Christian workers: The hen in the farmyard has laid an egg, and feels so proud of the achievement that she must cackle about it; everybody must know of that one poor egg till all the country round resounds with the news. It is so with some professors: their work must be published, or they can do no more. Here have I, said one, been teaching in the school for years, and nobody ever thanked me for it; I believe that some of us who do the most are the least noticed, and what a shame it is! But if you have done your service unto the Lord you should not talk so, or we shall suspect you of having other aims. The servant of Jesus will say, I do not want human notice; I did it for the Master; He noticed me, and I am content. I tried to please Him, and I did please Him, and therefore I ask no more, for I have gained my end. I seek no praise of men, for I fear lest the breath of human praise should tarnish the pure silver of my service.
How to lose thought of self
When a dog is not noticed, he doesnt like it. But when the dog is after a fox he dont care whether he is noticed or not. If a minister is seeking for souls he will not think of himself. Self is forgotten in a single aim to save others. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
Ambition true and false
It is related of the late Charles Haddon Spurgeon that at the commencement of his ministry, when he was beginning to feel conscious of the wonderful powers with which God had endowed him--like most young people, I suppose, for he was but a boy, or little more than a boy at the time--he was one day walking across a common and seemed to hear, as it were, a voice speaking to his innermost consciousness in the terms of my text, Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not. Mr. Spurgeon accepted the text which flashed into his mind as a Divine message and monition, and from that moment made a fuller consecration of himself, his life, his opportunity, his power to the service of the living God. We know the result, and looking back upon it we know, much better, I venture to think, than he did even on the day of his death, but not better than he knows it now, he chose the good part, which was not taken from him. He set his affections on things above, not on things of the earth. Mr. Spurgeon deliberately renounced worldly ambition. That is what I want you to do. But do not make any mistake and think that I mean you to renounce ambition in the truer sense, because Mr. Spurgeon certainly did not. I want you to see what is the difference between ambition false and ambition true, and to endeavour, if I can, to clear away some confusion of thought which clings around this particular subject. What is ambition, as commonly understood? You will gather it, I think, from such familiar phrases as that last infirmity of noble mind, or by this sin fell the angels. It takes many forms. If one wished to suggest a name or a life in which ambition had freest and most unrestricted reign, I think you would name Napoleon. He is the classical, outstanding instance; not that, I am quite sure, he is any more guilty than thousands of persons before him and since. But in Napoleon ambition, insatiate and unconcealed, had undisputed sway. He waded to his throne, as has been said, through the blood and tears of millions. I never care to be too hard on a conventional type of a particular failing for fear one should happen to be wrong, but Mr. Gladstone said of Napoleon that perhaps he had the mightiest intellect that was ever packed into a human skull. Judged by the facts as they appear to us, that intellect was prostituted. It never was exalted as it might have been, and, as I believe sincerely, God meant it to be. Yet another type is Cecil Rhodes. Here, again, I speak somewhat diffidently, because it is possible that very different opinions in regard to the worth and work of Cecil Rhodes obtain in this congregation. But this is my view of his life. He had a great idea as to the position and place of England in the world. More than that, he believed in the mission of the Anglo-Saxon race. But he was not too scrupulous in his attempts to realise his ideal, if we may judge by the facts as they appeared to us. It was a form of ambition not so despicable as Napoleons, because it was less self-centred, but I venture to think it was materialistic and mistaken, and now that the great man has gone there are thousands upon thousands of us who, looking upon his career, pronounce those saddest words of the tongue or pen, the saddest of all, it might have been. Cecil Rhodes was a great empire builder, we are told. He might have been more than that. He sought great things, and he saw himself associated with them. Do you feel, you young men, that his is the highest ideal and the type to which you would like to conform your character? I trust to he able to show before I close that it was not. You men of the world know perfectly well how you weigh each other up. You see a good thing done for which a man is receiving an amount of public credit, and you promptly ask, What is his aim? What axe has he to grind? You can scarcely bring yourself to believe in disinterestedness at all, because, so far as you have been able to see, people who were apparently disinterested, really had some ulterior motive that would not hear the light. You know among your associates, for example--in the business house, it may be--the difference between the man of modest ambition and the man of vaulting, unscrupulous ambition. You prefer the former, but you never believe that he has no axe to grind at all. In most cases you are right, but beware of general statements. I think the chief danger of to-day is not that men are too ambitious, but that they serve the wrong form of ambition. There are fellows in your business--perhaps a good many of those who are here present could be included in the category--who are at fault not because they have too much ambition, but because they have not enough of the right sort. The man who will not work, the man who will not aspire-and there are plenty of them in our country--the man who never wishes to be any better or more powerful, or to live his life more completely than now, is of no benefit to society, and his selfishness is as real as the selfishness of any Napoleon You owe something to God, you owe something to men. There is not one among you who is an isolated unit. I have with me here an extract from Carlyle, which I think can put more clearly than I can the distinction between the true ambition and the false. Let me say that there are two kinds of ambition, one wholly blameable, the other laudable and inevitable The selfish wish to shine over others, let it be accounted altogether poor and miserable. Seekest thou great things for thy, self? seek them not. This is most true. And yet I say, continues Carlyle, there is an irrepressible tendency in every man to develop himself according to the magnitude which Nature has made him of, to speak out and to act out what Nature has laid in him. This is proper, fit, inevitable; nay, it is duty, the duty of duties. For man the meaning of life here on earth might be defined as consisting in this--to unfold yourself, to work what thing you have the faculty for. It is a necessity for every human being, the first law of our existence. I am going to try and spiritualise, if I can, that wonderful principle set forth by Carlyle. True ambition is to live out what is in you for the sake of Him who gave you life. It is a wonderful, it is even an awful, thought that God Himself finds fulfilment through what you are. Gods work is being done, God s thoughts and purposes are being realised by these commonplace men and women that I see around me, and every one of you is the embodiment of the Divine. Would you shrink and shrivel that Divine which God has given you? It is to be manifested not only for your own sake, nor chiefly so, but for the sake of Him who gave it and to mankind. I want to warn you against misusing Gods great gift, your own soul. You are a unique product in the universe, and there are unmeasured possibilities before every man here. Each of us, all of us are citizens of eternity. The true ambition is that of a man who is not afraid to endure, not afraid to sacrifice, not afraid to spend his soul, for in giving he is gaining, and he shall have more abundantly. Now, young men, I want to warn you before I go on against possible disappointment even in your endeavour to live up to your ideal. It may be that while I have been speaking in these terms to you some old and wise man m this assembly may have been thinking to himself, That preacher will change his tone in a few years when he knows how sadly life can disillusion and can trample upon our ideals. Oh, the tragedies of life, the hopes blighted, the old men who are just doing their days work in patience that no longer one can expect. Well, you are only saying what has been said before. That poor, wayward genius, Percy Bysshe Shelley, saw a little farther than the disappointment when he told us in so many words that it is never possible for the soul to live itself out completely here. How should it be? Because here is not the close of our destiny. It will take all eternity for you to live out what God has put in. Never think that you are going to live out all, but I think you will save yourself from disappointment if you will only say, It is possible for me to get on the right track now and be living out in time that which I shall live out better when eternity comes. It is possible for you to give a whole-hearted, unselfish allegiance to a great ideal, and that not for your own sake. There is a Divine idea pervading the visible universe, the spirit of truth and beauty and good. We are called to service, every one of us is called to reveal and express it in some fashion. For us it is embodied in Jesus Christ. I cannot but halt there. The Christ contains for me all that humanity is able to aspire to or understand, the great Divine ideal. The life that is given to Christ is well invested. It has produced the best results in the history of human character. What a man was Paul! The Christ crossed his path, and this ambitious, zealous, burning soul changed to something else, Saul the persecutor became. Paul the apostle, lived a suffering life and died an obscure death in a Roman prison; and this was his verdict when the evening came--I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith . . . I am now ready to be offered. Paul knew that his life was hid with Christ in God. He knew that this is the shadow time, the other side is the reality. The Masters comment on the choice is this--I will show him how great things he must suffer for My names sake. Young men, I strongly urge you, choose the life wherein you can throw your best energies for God. Have a purpose therein. Do not fear to give it Him back. Beware of seeming to drift into a destiny. Let your choice be rational, let it be strong, let it be pure. By and by you shall do greater things than these. In time be faithful to the little that you can do, that in eternity you may do the more for God. Believe that you have a vocation, a vocation for God. You will not live out all that is within you here. You cannot. But if you live only for yourself here you will be a wretched man. Give the best to God. We have all read that psychological novel, John Inglesant, with its too self-conscious hero. One character drawn therein, that of a Jesuit, who for s time is spiritual adviser to John Inglesant, seems to me to be a remarkable one. I know not whether such a Jesuit ever existed, but you know this, the Jesuits by their system of training manage to squeeze out of every man upon whom they get their grip any thought of living for his own self-interest. He becomes the bond-slave of the society. They have great strength from the fact that they can thus obsess a man, as it were, de-self him, and make him work for the great organisation. Here is the Jesuits verdict to John Inglesant upon his own life, an exhortation for his pupil: Choose your side or your lot; when you have chosen it be true to it all the way. It matters comparatively little what a man chooses as his course of action provided it be a worthy one and his conscience tells him so, but when he has chosen, no looking back. Go straight on, be faithful to the uttermost, cost what it may. A grand and a glorious ideal for the twentieth century, as well as for the seventeenth. And there is a Divine principle within us which urges us to do our best to make the world better than we found it. I have often been struck with the fact that very ordinary people, who make very small profession of religion, somehow will do this at some part of their career, in some one of their interests. They feel they must even at a cost do a little to make the world gladder and to make the world better. I remember the utterance of the bishop in Victor Hugos Les Miserables. As the convict stands at the door of the house, proclaiming what he was by his dress and his demeanour, thus spoke the servant of God, This house is not my house, it is the house of Jesus Christ. This door does not demand of him that enters it whether he has a name, but whether he has a grief. Oh, I feel that if our bodies were made the temples of the Christ as the bishops house was made the tabernacle of his Lord; if our interests, our opportunities were consecrated to Him, oh, what a difference, majestic, far-reaching, redemptive it would make to the world to-morrow. And, if I could, I would like to fill every young soul before me to-night with that Divine ideal. What can we do, you and I, to bless the world? Just what these noble ones in times past have done, the Pauls and the Luthers and the Wesleys, not merely ambition, but the consecrating of everything they possessed to their Lord, and the counting all but loss if they might win Him. Let us do the same as these. Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not. Seekest thou great things for God? Go on. Live out all that God has given you as His trustee. Seekest thou joy and blessedness and victory and power in the highest sense of that word? Would you come to the full stature of your manhood? Then seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. (R. J. Campbell, M. A.)
Self-seeking vetoed
This short chapter embodies the history of Baruch, the secretary of Jeremiah.
I. The very excusable moan (verse 3), Woe is me now!
1. He was probably pained for his masters sake.
2. Probably grieved on account of the unhappy national outlook.
3. Was evidently distressed on his own account. Possibly weary of being secretary with dangerous duties attached.
II. The very decided veto on his ambitious design.
1. God interpreted his aspiration, whatever its nature.
2. Decidedly nipped the project in the bud.
3. Suggesting by implication that he seek great things for others--Jeremiah, to wit. To be identified with him was true greatness. Men are engrossed in themselves, their family, their party, their ism.
III. The compensating guarantee. Thy life will I give unto thee.
1. The nation at large would pass through great tribulation.
2. Baruch and his master would be hurried hither and thither.
3. But the secretarys life would be given him as a reward. Baruch lived through all the dire experiences that followed. Escaped from Egypt to Babylon, and wrote the Book of Baruch. Who has not enjoyed the compensations of selfishness? Every surrender of selfhood helps to enrich the soul. (W. J. Acomb.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 Jeremiah 45
CHAPTER V
BARUCH
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Jeremiah 45
"Thy life will I give unto thee for a prey."- Jer_45:5
THE editors of the versions and of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament have assigned a separate chapter to this short utterance concerning Baruch; thus paying an unconscious tribute to the worth and importance of Jeremiahs disciple and secretary, who was the first to bear the familiar Jewish name, which in its Latinised form of Benedict has been a favourite with saints and popes. Probably few who read of these great ascetics and ecclesiastics give a thought to the earliest recorded Baruch, nor can we suppose that Christian Benedicts have been named after him. One thing they may all have in common: either their own faith or that of their parents ventured to bestow upon a "man born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward" the epithet "Blessed." We can scarcely suppose that the life of any Baruch or Benedict has run so smoothly as to prevent him or his friends from feeling that such faith has not been outwardly justified and that the name suggested an unkind satire. Certainly Jeremiahs disciple, like his namesake Baruch Spinoza, had to recognise his blessings disguised as distress and persecution.
Baruch ben Neriah is said by Josephus to have belonged to a most distinguished family, and to have been exceedingly well educated in his native language. These statements are perhaps legitimate deductions from the information supplied by our book. His title "scribe" {Jer_36:26; Jer_36:32} and his position as Jeremiahs secretary imply that he possessed the best culture of his time; and we are told in Jer_51:59 that Seraiah ben Neriah, who must be Baruchs brother, was chief chamberlain (R.V.) to Zedekiah. According to the Old Latin Version of the Apocryphal Book of Baruch (1:1) he was of the tribe of Simeon, a statement by no means improbable in view of the close connection between Judah and Simeon, but needing the support of some better authority.
Baruchs relation to Jeremiah is not expressly defined, but it is clearly indicated in the various narratives in which he is referred to. We find him in constant attendance upon the prophet, acting both as his "scribe," or secretary, and as his mouthpiece. The relation was that of Joshua to Moses, of Elisha to Elijah, of Gehazi to Elisha, of Mark to Paul and Barnabas, and of Timothy to Paul. It is described in the case of Joshua and Mark by the term "minister," while Elisha is characterised as having "poured water on the hands of Elijah." The "minister" was at once personal attendant, disciple, representative, and possible successor of the prophet. The potion has its analogue in the service of the squire to the mediaeval knight, and in that of an unpaid private secretary to a modern cabinet minister. Squires expected to become knights, and private secretaries hope for a seat in future cabinets. Another less perfect parallel is the relation of the members of a German theological "seminar" to their professor.
Baruch is first (in order of time, chapter 36) introduced to us in the narrative concerning the roll. He appears as Jeremiahs amanuensis and representative, and is entrusted with the dangerous and honourable task of publishing his prophecies to the people in the Temple. Not long before, similar utterances had almost cost the master his life, so that the disciple showed high courage and devotion in undertaking such a commission. He was called to share with his master at once the same cup of persecution-and the same Divine protection.
We next hear of Baruch in connection with the symbolic purchase of the field at Anathoth. (chapter 32) He seems to have been attending on Jeremiah during his imprisonment in the court of the guard, and the documents containing the evidence of the purchase were entrusted to his care. Baruchs presence in the court of the guard does not necessarily imply that he was himself a prisoner. The whole incident shows that Jeremiahs friends had free access to him; and Baruch probably not only attended to his masters wants in prison, but also was his channel of communication with the outside world.
We are nowhere told that Baruch himself was either beaten or imprisoned, but it is not improbable that he shared Jeremiahs fortunes even to these extremities. We next hear of him as carried down to Egypt (chapter 43) with Jeremiah, when the Jewish refugees fled thither after the murder of Gedaliah. Apparently he had remained with Jeremiah throughout the whole interval, had continued to minister to him during his imprisonment, and had been among the crowd of Jewish captives whom Nebuchadnezzar found at Ramah. Josephus probably makes a similar conjecture in telling us that, when Jeremiah was released and placed under the protection of Gedaliah at Mizpah, he asked and obtained from Nebuzaradan the liberty of his disciple Baruch. At any rate Baruch shared with his master the transient hope and bitter disappointment of this period; he supported him in dissuading the remnant of Jews from fleeing into Egypt, and was also compelled to share their flight. According to a tradition recorded by Jerome, Baruch and Jeremiah died in Egypt. But the Apocryphal Book of Baruch places him at Babylon, whither another tradition takes him after the death of Jeremiah in Egypt. These legends are probably mere attempts of wistful imagination to supply unwelcome blanks in history.
It has often been supposed that our present Book of Jeremiah, in some stage of its formation, was edited or compiled by Baruch, and that this book may be ranked with biographies-like Stanleys Life of Arnold-of great teachers by their old disciples. He was certainly the amanuensis of the roll, which must have been the most valuable authority for any editor of Jeremiahs prophecies. And the amanuensis might very easily become the editor. If an edition of the book was compiled in Jeremiahs lifetime, we should naturally expect him to use Baruchs assistance; if it first took shape after the prophets death, and if Baruch survived, no one would be better able to compile the "Life and Works of Jeremiah" than his favourite and faithful disciple. The personal prophecy about Baruch does not occur in its proper place in connection with the episode of the roll, but is appended at the end of the prophecies, possibly as a kind of subscription on the part of the editor. These data do not constitute absolute proof, but they afford strong probability that Baruch compiled a book, which was substantially our Jeremiah. The evidence is similar in character to, but much more conclusive than, that adduced for the authorship of the Epistle to the Hebrews by Apollos.
Almost the final reference to Baruch suggests another aspect of his relation to Jeremiah. The Jewish captains accused him of unduly influencing his master against Egypt and in favour of Chaldea. Whatever truth there may have been in this particular charge, we gather that popular opinion credited Baruch with considerable influence over Jeremiah, and probably popular opinion was not far wrong. Nothing said about Baruch suggests any vein of weakness in his character, such as Paul evidently recognised in Timothy. His few appearances upon the scene rather leave the impression of strength and self-reliance, perhaps even self-assertion. If we knew more about him, possibly indeed if any one else had compiled these "Memorabilia," we might discover that much in Jeremiahs policy and teaching was due to Baruch, and that the master leaned somewhat heavily upon the sympathy of the disciple. The qualities that make a successful man of action do not always exempt their possessor from being directed or even controlled by his followers. It would be interesting to discover how much of Luther is Melanchthon. Of many a great minister, his secretaries and subordinates might say safely, in private, Cujus pars magna fuimus.
The short prophecy which has furnished a text for this chapter shows that Jeremiah was not unaware of Baruchs tendency to self-assertion, and even felt that sometimes it required a check. Apparently chapter 45 once formed the immediate continuation of chapter 36, the narrative of the incident of the roll. It was "the word spoken by Jeremiah the prophet to Baruch ben Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim." The reference evidently is to Jer_36:32, where we are told that Baruch wrote at Jeremiahs dictation all the words of the book that had been burnt, and many like words.
Clearly Baruch had not received Jeremiahs message as to the sin and ruin of Judah without strong protest. It was as distasteful to him as to all patriotic Jews and even to Jeremiah himself. Baruch had not yet been able to accept this heavy burden or to look beyond to the brighter promise of the future. He broke out into bitter complaint: "Woe is me now! for Jehovah hath added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning, and find no rest." Strong as these words are, they are surpassed by many of Jeremiahs complaints to Jehovah, and doubtless even now they found an echo in the prophets heart. Human impatience of suffering revolts desperately against the conviction that calamity is inevitable; hope whispers that some unforeseen Providence will yet disperse the storm clouds, and the portents of ruin will dissolve like some evil dream. Jeremiah had, now as always, the harsh, unwelcome task of compelling himself and his fellows to face the sad and appalling reality. "Thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I am breaking down that which I built, I am plucking up that which I planted." This was his familiar message concerning Judah, but he had also a special word for Baruch: "And as for thee, dost thou seek great things for thyself?" What "great things" could a devout and patriotic Jew, a disciple of Jeremiah, seek for himself in those disastrous times? The answer is at once suggested by the renewed prediction of doom. Baruch, in spite of his masters teaching, had still ventured to look for better things, and had perhaps fancied that he might succeed where Jeremiah had failed and might become the mediator who should reconcile Israel to Jehovah. He may have thought that Jeremiahs threats and entreaties had prepared the way for some message of reconcilation. Gemariah ben Shaphan and other princes had been greatly moved when Baruch read the roll. Might not their emotion be an earnest of the repentance of the people? If he could carry on his masters work to a more blessed issue than the master himself had dared to hope, would not this be a "great thing" indeed? We gather from the tone of the chapter that Baruchs aspirations were unduly tinged with personal ambition. While kings, priests, and prophets were sinking into a common ruin from which even the most devoted servants of Jehovah would not escape, Baruch was indulging himself in visions of the honour to be obtained from a glorious mission, successfully accomplished. Jeremiah reminds him that he will have to take his share in the common misery. Instead of setting his heart upon "great things" which are not according to the Divine purpose, he must be prepared to endure with resignation the evil which Jehovah "is bringing upon all flesh." Yet there is a word of comfort and promise: "I will give thee thy life for a prey in all places whither thou goest." Baruch was to be protected from violent or premature death.
According to Renan, this boon was flung to Baruch half-contemptuously, in order to silence his unworthy and unseasonable importunity:-
"Dans une catastrophe qui va englober lhumanite tout entiere, il est beau de venir reclamer de petites faveurs dexception! Baruch aura la vie sauve partout ou il ira; quil sen contente!"
We prefer a more generous interpretation. To a selfish man, unless indeed he clung to bare life in craven terror or mere animal tenacity, such an existence as Baruch was promised would have seemed no boon at all. Imprisonment in a besieged and starving city, captivity and exile, his fellow countrymens ill will and resentment from first to last-these experiences would be hard to recognise as privileges bestowed by Jehovah. Had Baruch been wholly self-centred, he might well have craved death instead, like Job, nay, like Jeremiah himself. But life meant for him continued ministry to his master, the high privilege of supporting him in his witness to Jehovah. If, as seems almost certain, we owe to Baruch the preservation of Jeremiahs prophecies, then indeed the life that was given him for a prey must have been precious to him as the devoted servant of God. Humanly speaking, the future of revealed religion and of Christianity depended on the survival of Jeremiahs teaching, and this hung upon the frail thread of Baruchs life. After all, Baruch was destined to achieve "great things," even though not those which he sought after; and as no editors name is prefixed to our book, he cannot be accused of self-seeking. So too for every faithful disciple, his life, even if given for a prey, even if spent in sorrow, poverty, and pain, is still a Divine gift, because nothing can spoil its opportunity of ministering to men and glorifying God, even if only by patient endurance of suffering.
We may venture on a wider application of the promise, "Thy life shall be given thee for a prey." Life is not merely continued existence in the body: life has come to mean spirit and character, so that Christ could say, "He that loseth his life for My sake shall find it." In this sense the loyal servant of God wins as his prey, out of all painful experiences, a fuller and nobler life. Other rewards may come in due season, but this is the most certain and the most sufficient. For Baruch, constant devotion to a hated and persecuted master, uncompromising utterance of unpopular truth, had their chief issue in the redemption of his own inward life.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Chronology of the Chapter.—Immediately upon his…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES.—Chronology of the Chapter.—Immediately upon his having written the roll which was afterwards read to, and destroyed by, Jehoiakim (vide notes on chap. 36); eighteen years before Jerusalem was taken.
Literary Criticism.—Jer_45:4. “Even this whole land.” Perhaps ארץ here may wisely be rendered “earth,” rather than limited to the “land” of Israel; for Nebuchadnezzar’s invasions and conquests were at that time disturbing, not Judea alone, but the known world (see chap. Jer_25:26), Albeit the force of the statement here is emphatic respecting Judea, that as the whole country is under doom, no single individual should be selfishly craving his own aggrandisement, but accept a share in the common distress.
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SUBJECT OF CHAPTER 45
BARUCH CORRECTED AND COMFORTED
I. What can be gleaned respecting Baruch’s disposition and character?
(a.) A skilful scholar, and therefore selected by Jeremiah as his amanuensis (Joseph., Antiq. X. ix. 1).
(b.) Faithful in his attachment as a friend (chap. Jer_32:12; Jer_36:4 et seq.)
(c.) Possessed of an ambitious temperament (Jer_45:5); doubtless his noble lineage (Jer_51:59; Joseph., Antiq. X. vi. 2; ix. 1), as the grandson of Maasiah, in Josiah’s time (2Ch_34:8), animated him with hopes of high office in the state; or his close association with the prophet fostered the expectation of becoming Jeremiah’s successor in the prophetic calling.
(d.) These youthful aspirations (for he was young at this period, eighteen years before Jerusalem was captured), when wisely corrected (as in Jer_45:5), did not alienate his attachment to the prophet, nor render him less zealous in serving him.
(e.) Nevertheless he exhibits wounded self-concern, which shows a lack of devoted patriotism and abandonment of self for the nation’s spiritual good. His words (Jer_45:3) “Woe is me now!” indicate this self-concern as unduly prominent, especially at such a crisis.
Oriental tradition exhibits Baruch as offended at being denied the gift of prophecy; of disappointment over the destruction of Jerusalem, and, with it, his hopes of honourable position; that therefore he apostatised from Judaism and adopted the tenets of Zoroaster (Dr. Payne Smith). This is not credible.
II. What is the burden here of Baruch’s discontent and complaint?
(a.) An unpatriotic self-concern (comp. (e.) above). As he writes out the gloomy predictions of Jeremiah he is overpowered with a feeling of deep distress; but on what account? That his city and people were to experience such disaster? No but that he himself was to suffer. “Woe is me now, for the Lord hath added grief,” &c.
(b.) An undevout repining against God for His dealings with him (Jer_45:3). “The Lord hath added grief,” &c. Rescued from the perils of my first writing (chap. Jer_36:26), I am again involved in a similar peril. He lacks hardihood, and a spirit of glad obedience.
(c.) An inconsolable despondency. “I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.” Instead of realising his privilege of being allied with God’s prophet in God’s service, he murmurs. Instead of hiding in God’s love and care amid anticipated distresses, he despairs!
(d.) Impatience or distress over his nation’s sinfulness, which necessitates these gloomy prophecies of ruin. But it is not for him to be angry, but pitiful and prayerful.
III. What correction does God address to this complaining and aspiring youth?
(a.) Specific information of God’s absolute purpose of overthrow for Judah (Jer_45:4). So that for him to—
1. Fret over Judah’s overthrow, is to repine against God’s designs.
2. Deplore his own misfortunes, is to reflect on God’s justice and wisdom in allowing him to be involved in his nation’s distresses.
3. Abandon all comfort, is to forget that God, who punishes evil, can also care for those He cherishes.
We must recognise and accept God’s law of justice. It behoves us to check all repining at His judgments. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” “It is the Lord, let Him do what seemeth Him good.” “Just and true are Thy ways, O King of saints.” Far more wise is this trust in God’s righteousness than to repine against His laws as if He were severe.
We must submit to the Divine retributions of wrong. God punishes sin; shall we lament it? Surely He must not let “the wicked go unpunished.” And when we see Him smite the guilty, we, instead of exclaiming against it, should bow in awe, and say, “I was dumb, I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it.”
(b.) Positive prohibition of all ambitious self-seeking at such a crisis of the nation (Jer_45:5).
The “whole land” is under doom; no single individual should think to escape his share of misfortune; and certainly it is not seemly to be intent upon earthly prosperity amid prevailing calamities. At such a crisis, when even the elect can scarcely be saved (Mat_24:22), when the very flower and dignity of the nation’s youth (Daniel, Ezekiel, &c.) will be carried into captivity, no man ought to foster plans of private promotion and prosperity.
It is in cherishing ideas unduly lofty that men make reverses, when they come, the more painful for them to bear.
The world’s frowns would not so much disquiet us if we did not so eagerly covet its smiles.
How unseemly for God’s servants to be building their hopes on mere earthly success, when all is perishing and hastening to destruction!
IV. What word of consolation is conveyed to this affrighted and disconsolate soul?
(a.) Exemption from the slaughtering sword is guaranteed him. With death and destruction imminent, with evil coming “upon all flesh,” his “life” should be secured to him. “Life” is the utmost which the most fortunate and favoured can hope to have preserved to him amid the general conflagration and ruin.
(b.) Yet this shall only be secured by special clemency; as “a prey;” a thing snatched from danger, saved by prompt energy; as “a brand plucked from the burning.”
Is it not a great distinction in a world where “death hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” to be assured of salvation? Even though “saved with fear, pulling them out of the fire.” For this exemption from the common doom is ours whom God loves; “there is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.”
How supremely satisfied and grateful should we be if, though all earthly hopes and honours perish, we are guaranteed safety of soul! “For I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.”
Comments.—“There is not a word here of praise for his steady attachment to his master. However great might be his personal services, God’s prophet had no honeyed words of flattery for his faithful minister, but only the bare and unseductive message of truth. It tells Baruch to give up his ambitious hopes, and be content with escaping with his life only.”—Dr. Payne Smith.
“Baruch did not act as secretary for hire but for love. He esteemed it an honour and a happiness that by his skill he could serve the Lord, to whom he owed it. Therefore a glorious reward is imparted to him unsought, so that his name and remembrance are immortalised in the sacred record by an oracle addressed specially to him. This honour is to be esteemed still higher than the assurance, that this wretched mortal life should not be taken by violence before its time.”—Naegelsbach.
Jer_45:3. Theme: WORLDLY PROSPECTS SACRIFICED IN GOD’S SERVICE.
I. Born to high social status, he shrank from the disfavour which identification with God’s prophet brought upon him. This association with Jeremiah incurred the wrath of the king, the princes, and the priests of Jerusalem; and thus he was shut out from all court favours and honours.
II. An unpopular career, of fidelity to God and His prophet, was certain to entail great worldly losses. All the avenues to the promotion and preferment of which he had a reasonable expectation, and to which he aspired, he saw closed by his call to the service of God.
III. His faithful service of God placed his life in jeopardy, and entailed obloquy and persecution (chap. Jer_36:26). Here was a severe trial of faith, courage, and self-devotion to God.
IV. His clinging to mere worldly honour was, however, a mistake, for God’s purpose was to destroy all national dignity (Jer_45:4). What would it then have advantaged him to have kept a secular goal in sight? And “what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” “He that will save his life shall lose it; but he that will lose his life for My sake shall keep it to life eternal.”
Note.—i. It requires both courage and self-devotion to witness for truth in evil days.
ii. Love of the world is inconsonant with a fearless and faithful service of God.
iii. Earthly hopes must be surrendered by those who join the open witnesses for Christ.
iv. Every true follower of Jesus must “take up his cross,” and accept suffering and sacrifice as the earthly price of the eternal gain.
Jer_45:3-4. Theme: MAN’S VOICE MET BY GOD’S VOICE. “Thou didst say;” “The Lord saith thus.”
Here we have two persons, Baruch and God, presented in a manner highly characteristic of each—Baruch absorbed only about himself; God terrible and tender.
The chapter shows that the affairs of individual children of God are of consequence in His eyes; deems them worthy of a revelation, of a personal contact with the afflicted spirit, and of special provision for it.
I. As to Baruch: God would show him the evil in himself, before He showed him the goodness there was in God. “Thou didst say.” It is God’s voice to man saying, “I know what is in thee, as well as what is in Myself.” God had “heard” what Baruch had been saying, as He “heard” the groanings of the Israelites, the affliction of Hagar, &c. (Psa_106:44).
1. God’s hearing a reason for our humility.
2. There are heart-voices as well as lip-voices. As in Deu_7:17; Deu_8:17. God’s ear is listening.
3. The murmuring and selfishness of heart-talk (Jer_45:3). All comes out when a heart fearlessly talks itself into words. And God often hears such talk from us—murmuring and impatient words.
4. The prominence given to “self” in this talk. Not a word about the woes coming on his country, or concerning God’s honour; “I” is omnivorous. Self-love will always discolour and distort our views of God and everything.
5. The discontented thoughts of self love. They make us think we have not been dealt with as liberally as we ought to have been; have been disciplined too much. We think only of the afflictions God has “added,” not of His sustaining and beneficial care, and of God’s purpose and aim.
II. As to God: His heart does not contract because He hears our hearts repining. He is listening; lets us talk on; not check us at once.
1. God taking notice of a sorrowful heart.
2. His manifestation of the one-sidedness of our thoughts.
3. God addressing man in his personality.
4. The decisiveness of God’s correcting word.
5. Let us expect the actings of sovereignty in mercy. We must listen for His “thus;” all must be His way as regards the boon He confers.
6. His way may be strange, but will surely be the right way.
7. He will save us, but not by a weak change in His determination. He will do as He says; perhaps exercising us by vicissitudes, but watching over us with personal care, that we may come forth from our troubles taught of God, taught about ourselves; what there is in ourselves: “Thou didst say;” and what there is in God: “THE LORD SAITH THUS.”—Arranged and condensed from “Breviates,” by Rev. P. B. Power, M.A.
Jer_45:5. Theme: WORLDLY ASPIRATIONS: “SEEKING GREAT THINGS.”
I. Great things have been secured without seeking. And that indicates—
1. That God can confer great things on whom He will. “It is in Thy hand to make great” (1Ch_29:12). Comp. David’s confession (2Sa_22:36).
2. That the pathway to greatness is through lowliness to honour. Observe Scripture instances: Moses left the palace, yet became leader of Israel! Solomon craved wisdom only, yet became rich and exalted! David kept his father’s sheep while his brothers hung about Saul, yet was called up to be Israel’s poet and king! Mary crept behind Christ and anointed His feet, yet her name and deed are published “throughout the whole world.” Martyrs, who became “the offscouring of the world,” have become the glory of the Church! Christians, despised by the mighty, are to be sharers of Christ’s throne!
Hence, when we, for Christ’s sake, surrender the “great things” which others seek, we are in the way of gaining “greater things than these.” “Before honour is humility.”
II. “Great things” may be sought worthily and even nobly. For it is to be remembered—
1. That Scripture encourages a spirit of aspiration. “Not slothful in business.” “Seest thou a man diligent in his business, he shall stand before kings.” To aspire is not a proof of impiety, nor of worldly-mindedness.
2. God bestows great worldly power and prosperity upon godly men. For “all things are yours, whether the world,” &c. The high places of life are to be coveted for the sway and power for good they procure.
3. It is only when they are sought for “self” and self-aggrandisement that they are prohibited. For then they ensnare and surfeit and debase the soul.
III. “Great things,” though they allure, do not enrich, the soul.
1. They are not happiest who are highest. “Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown.” King compared with boy swinging on a gate—“Happier than a king!”
2. Great things are not essential to happiness.
3. They are always associated with subtle and ceaseless temptations.
4. Often close the heart to higher influences and purer attractions.
5. Always prove transient and unsatisfactory. “The fashion of this world passeth away.” The heart is not rested, comforted, satisfied by them while they are possessed; and when they “take wings and fly away,” they leave “vexation of spirit.”
IV. Greatest things are assured to Christ’s servants.
1. Greater honours; higher and more lasting titles than earth can yield. “Heir of God,” &c.; “Kings and priests to God.”
2. Greater treasures; more satisfying and elevating.
3. Greater privileges and blessings.
4. Greatest glory in the life to come. “Sit with Me on My throne.”
Yet the Divine principle is this: Through shame to glory. As Jesus, through the Cross to the Throne: “Ought not Christ to have suffered and entered His glory?” As His followers; “If we suffer with Him, we shall also be glorified together.” Hence, seek right things for ourselves. God shall give the “great things” to us!
See Addenda to chap. 41: AMBITION.
Theme: WHY GREAT THINGS SHOULD NOT BE SOUGHT FOR SELF.
i. Because self ought never to be our ultimate object.
ii. Because great things thereby become objects of idolatrous worship.
iii. Because to do so is to subordinate the discharge of duty to their acquisition and enjoyment.
iv. Because in doing so you will involve yourselves and others in much positive suffering.—Rev. James Stewart.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Baritch's Appendix to the Roll of Jeremiah 36
Baritch's Appendix to the Roll of Jeremiah 36
Baruch, a man of social position (see Intro.), seems to have expected either important office in the state or more probably the gift of prophecy. On the occasion of his writing of the roll at Jeremiah's dictation, the prophet warns him that his ambition is not to be gratified.
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3. Sorrow] RV 'pain 'at the sins of his countrymen. The added 'grief was caused by the predictions of punishment.'
5. But thy life, etc.] Baruch's life should be preserved amidst all perils.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 This is the shortest chapter and contains a special…
CHAPTER 45
This is the shortest chapter and contains a special message to Baruch, the companion and secretary of the prophet Jeremiah. It must be noticed that this did not take place in Egypt, where now the prophet and his friend sojourned, but it was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim. Baruch had just finished writing the words which Jeremiah dictated. It was no doubt a strenuous task, and when Baruch laid down his pen, the work having been finished, the Lord sent him a special message, showing that He had not forgotten the faithful scribe. He, too, was deeply exercised over the existing conditions; he shared the grief and sorrow of the prophet. But there must have been a measure of disappointment in Baruch’s heart. Had he expected some special recognition? Was he seeking something for himself, expecting great things? Had he planned and was he lifted up with some high ambition? It would seem that such was the case, for He who knows the thoughts of His creatures from afar said to him: “And seeketh thou great things for thyself? Seek them not.” It is the very heart of the old nature to seek great things, to be ambitious for earthly possessions and honors, to please oneself. God’s people need to watch against this more than against anything else. It is the very crime of the devil, pride 1 Timothy 3:66). Every high ambition must be dethroned; the only ambition worthy of a child of God is to please Him, who lived on earth, never pleasing Himself, who made of Himself no reputation. How it ought to ring in our hearts daily: “Seeketh thou great things? Seek them not.” Seek not recognition in this poor age; wait for His day. And Baruch is assured of God’s protection and care.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On v1 Jeremiah Comforts Baruch.
Jeremiah Comforts Baruch.
v. 1. The word that Jeremiah, the prophet, spake unto Baruch, the son of Neriah, his secretary and, in a sense, his fellow-worker, when he had written these words in a book at the mouth of Jeremiah, as the latter dictated his prophecies from the thirteenth year of Josiah to the fourth of Jehoiakim, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying,
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v. 2. Thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, unto thee, O Baruch, for even the disciple of the prophet was not spared by the Lord as far as reproving the faults of those whose welfare He sought was concerned,
v. 3. Thou didst say, Woe is me now! namely, on account of the hatred of his enemies, for the Lord hath added grief to my sorrow, that which he felt on account of the depravity of his people. I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest. The grief which Baruch felt was intensified by fear for his own life on account of the suspicions of his own countrymen, 43:3. All of this seemed to him to amount to a very harsh treatment on the part of God.
v. 4. Thus 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. Cf. Jer 31:28; Isa 5:5.
v. 5. And seekest thou great things for thyself? as the one solitary human being that thought to find himself an exception in the general destruction. Seek them not; for, behold, I will bring evil upon all flesh, saith the Lord, in a universal punishment; but thy life will I give unto thee for a prey in all places whither thou goest. Baruch was not to claim exemption in the general overthrow, but he had the consolation of knowing that his life would be spared, no matter what else he might have to endure. "This is part of God’s design in suffering His servants to be tempted, that their temptations may adapt them for ministering to their fellow-servants when tempted. "
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 4 at Jeremiah's dictation
at Jeremiah's dictation
"that Jeremiah told him to write"
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this was in the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah
This information can be placed at the beginning of Jer 45:1 as in the UDB.
in the fourth year of Jehoiakim
The words "of the rule" are understood. AT: "in the fourth year of the rule of Jehoiakim" (See: Ellipsis)
fourth year
The word "fourth" is the ordinal form of the number four. (See: Ordinal Numbers)
he said
"Jeremiah said to Baruch"
for Yahweh has added agony to my pain
"for I was already suffering and now Yahweh causes me to be sad as well"
My groaning has wearied me
The abstract noun "groaning" can be stated as "cry." AT: "I am tired because I cry so much" (See: Abstract Nouns)
translationWords
word
Jeremiah
prophet
Baruch
scroll
year
Jehoiakim
Josiah
king
kingdom of Judah
Yahweh
God
Israel
woe
rest
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 5 45:1-5 This chapter is dated 605 BC, more than…
45:1-5 This chapter is dated 605 BC, more than two decades prior to the preceding chapters. Jeremiah’s secretary, Baruch, was overwhelmed with trouble, and the Lord promised him safety.
45:1 This event occurred during the same year that Baruch spent long hours in a hiding place, where he wrote down the messages the Lord had given to Jeremiah (36:1-4).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.