“Are you seeking great things for yourself? Don’t do it! But don’t be discouraged. I will bring great disaster upon all these people, but I will protect you wherever you go. I, the LORD, have spoken!” - Jeremiah 45:5
Baruch was a respected scribe (a person who read, wrote, and taught). It may have been tempting to seek great things for himself, since scribes were highly honored in those days. Instead of playing it safe, Baruch continued to bring Jeremiah’s words to a nation intent on rejecting the God of those words.
After Baruch recorded God’s message, he was sent to read it to the people (Jeremiah 36:5). Baruch bravely read aloud to the public and the officials (Jeremiah 36:10, 13-20). Eventually King Jehoiakim heard the message. As each page was read to him he cut it up with a knife and burned it (Jeremiah 36:23). He wanted to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch, but the Lord hid them (Jeremiah 36:26).
There is a price to pay if we, like Jeremiah and Baruch, want to tell the truth to those who love the lie! The devil will try to distract us, tempt-ing us to seek the world’s honor and praise. Perhaps skeptics or persecutors will try to destroy God’s word, or maybe a religious scholar’s knife will cut it to pieces. But as in Jeremiah’s and Baruch’s case, God preserved his word (Jeremiah 36:32). Jeremiah and Baruch simply wrote it all over again.
At times we may have to stand and defend God’s word and principles to those who do not want to hear it. May we be found in the faithful company of Jeremiah and Baruch, reporting the Lord’s words faithfully, whatever the price or people’s reactions.
For Further Study: Jeremiah 36:1-32, 45:1-5
Excerpted from The One Year Devotions for Women, Copyright ©2000 by Jill Briscoe. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers. All rights reserved.
For more from Jill Briscoe, please visit TellingtheTruth.org.
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