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Saturday, November 23rd, 2024
the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33

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Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 45

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Verses 1-5

Baruch (1-5)
1. Baruch was Jeremiah’s secretary who also was taken to Egypt.
  1. This event occurred after he wrote a 2^nd copy of the prophecy, because Jehoiakim burned the original(36).
2. We praise God for what Jeremiah had done, but also for his assistant!
  1. Assistants help those for whom they work, so they can be freed to get their work done!
  2. Moses had 70 elders; David had his 600 men; Jesus had his disciples; Paul has Silas, Timothy, Titus, & others; & Jeremiah had Baruch (Lone Ranger had Taunto etc.)!
  3. Not everyone is called to be an Apostle or prophet etc. but we can all do God’s will by helping w/the work.
  4. Baruch stayed in the background & served God by serving Jeremiah!
    1. I could never get ½ the things done without Kelly, Becky, Mac, Ken, & really our whole staff, & our whole volunteer staff.
    2. “It's nice to know that when you help someone up a hill you're a little closer to the top yourself.”
  5. Baruch fulfilled Prov.13:20 “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.”
3. Even the most devoted servants occasionally get discouraged!
  1. “ A crisis doesn’t make a person; a crisis reveals what a person is made of.”
4. [3] Even Baruch wanted to quit!
  1. He had a tough job. He could have chosen an easier life. {His brother was on the kings official staff, who probably could have gotten him a good job in the palace.}
    1. Yet had he, look were that kingdom would have been now!
  2. Baruch chose to identify himself w/the most unpopular man in the land!
    1. Why? Because he believed in the Lord & relied on His Word!
5. [4] The Lord’s words of encouragement – “Don’t build your hopes on Judah’s future, everything will be destroyed soon.”
  1. God says “you think you have problems? Everything I had set up has to be pulled down & start over again!”
6. [5] The Lord’s words of assurance – He was alive because he associated w/Jeremiah. “I will give your life to you as a prize!”
7. “Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them!”
  1. How do you reconcile 1 Tim.3:1 “If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.”
  2. The difference is “self-centered ambition!”
  3. “Any ambition that centers on & terminates on oneself is wrong ambition!”
  4. Here is self-centered ambition biblically at its finest!
    1. When Mrs. Zebedee selfishly tried to get her sons the right & left side of Jesus(those places of prominence)! {boy the rest got mad at them mt.20:20-25}
  5. Here is self-centered ambition historically at its finest! {Take the four greatest rulers, perhaps, that ever sat upon a throne.}
    
    Alexander, when he had so completely subdued the nations that he wept because there were no more to conquer, at last set fire to a city, and died in a scene of debauch.
    
    Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold ring taken from the slaughtered knights, died at last by poison administered by his own hand, unwept and unknown, in a foreign land.
    
    Caesar, having conquered eight hundred cities, and dyed his garments with the blood of one million of his foes, was stabbed by his best friends in the very place which had been the scene of his greatest triumph.
    
    Napoleon, after being the scourge of Europe, and the desolator of his country, died in banishment, conquered and a captive.
    1. What did it profit these men to gain the whole world & yet loose their own soul?
  6. God was teaching Baruch a verse yet to be written, yet which holds an eternal truth, "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
  7. Q: Do you have ambitions for yourself…forget them!
  8. Phil. 2:3 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition”.
  9. Mark 8:35 “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.”
  10. Seek for God’s work to be accomplished & God to be Glorified!
8. Like Baruch - When you hear all your work just went up in smoke! When it seems that your witness is useless, remember for Whom you are doing them!
9. Q: Survey your ambitions & see if they are from God, or for Self?

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Verses 1-5

Baruch (1-5)
1. Baruch was Jeremiah’s secretary who also was taken to Egypt.
  1. This event occurred after he wrote a 2^nd copy of the prophecy, because Jehoiakim burned the original(36).
2. We praise God for what Jeremiah had done, but also for his assistant!
  1. Assistants help those for whom they work, so they can be freed to get their work done!
  2. Moses had 70 elders; David had his 600 men; Jesus had his disciples; Paul has Silas, Timothy, Titus, & others; & Jeremiah had Baruch (Lone Ranger had Taunto etc.)!
  3. Not everyone is called to be an Apostle or prophet etc. but we can all do God’s will by helping w/the work.
  4. Baruch stayed in the background & served God by serving Jeremiah!
    1. I could never get ½ the things done without Kelly, Becky, Mac, Ken, & really our whole staff, & our whole volunteer staff.
    2. “It's nice to know that when you help someone up a hill you're a little closer to the top yourself.”
  5. Baruch fulfilled Prov.13:20 “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise.”
3. Even the most devoted servants occasionally get discouraged!
  1. “ A crisis doesn’t make a person; a crisis reveals what a person is made of.”
4. [3] Even Baruch wanted to quit!
  1. He had a tough job. He could have chosen an easier life. {His brother was on the kings official staff, who probably could have gotten him a good job in the palace.}
    1. Yet had he, look were that kingdom would have been now!
  2. Baruch chose to identify himself w/the most unpopular man in the land!
    1. Why? Because he believed in the Lord & relied on His Word!
5. [4] The Lord’s words of encouragement – “Don’t build your hopes on Judah’s future, everything will be destroyed soon.”
  1. God says “you think you have problems? Everything I had set up has to be pulled down & start over again!”
6. [5] The Lord’s words of assurance – He was alive because he associated w/Jeremiah. “I will give your life to you as a prize!”
7. “Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them!”
  1. How do you reconcile 1 Tim.3:1 “If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.”
  2. The difference is “self-centered ambition!”
  3. “Any ambition that centers on & terminates on oneself is wrong ambition!”
  4. Here is self-centered ambition biblically at its finest!
    1. When Mrs. Zebedee selfishly tried to get her sons the right & left side of Jesus(those places of prominence)! {boy the rest got mad at them mt.20:20-25}
  5. Here is self-centered ambition historically at its finest! {Take the four greatest rulers, perhaps, that ever sat upon a throne.}
    
    Alexander, when he had so completely subdued the nations that he wept because there were no more to conquer, at last set fire to a city, and died in a scene of debauch.
    
    Hannibal, who filled three bushels with the gold ring taken from the slaughtered knights, died at last by poison administered by his own hand, unwept and unknown, in a foreign land.
    
    Caesar, having conquered eight hundred cities, and dyed his garments with the blood of one million of his foes, was stabbed by his best friends in the very place which had been the scene of his greatest triumph.
    
    Napoleon, after being the scourge of Europe, and the desolator of his country, died in banishment, conquered and a captive.
    1. What did it profit these men to gain the whole world & yet loose their own soul?
  6. God was teaching Baruch a verse yet to be written, yet which holds an eternal truth, "seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”
  7. Q: Do you have ambitions for yourself…forget them!
  8. Phil. 2:3 “Let nothing be done through selfish ambition”.
  9. Mark 8:35 “For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it.”
  10. Seek for God’s work to be accomplished & God to be Glorified!
8. Like Baruch - When you hear all your work just went up in smoke! When it seems that your witness is useless, remember for Whom you are doing them!
9. Q: Survey your ambitions & see if they are from God, or for Self?

return to 'Top of Page'

JeremiahJer 44 JeremiahJer JeremiahJer 46

Copyright Statement
These files are the property of Brian Bell.
Text Courtesy of Calvary Chapel of Murrieta. Used by Permission.

Bibliographical Information
Bell, Brian. "Commentary on Jeremiah 45". "Bell's Commentary". https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/cbb/jeremiah-45.html. 2017.

Bible CommentariesJeremiah 45

Bell's Commentary on the BibleBell's Commentary

Verses 1-5

Verses 1-5

Bible Commentaries
Jeremiah 45