Call to Commitment

 

Charles Spurgeon

Chapter 45

 

A personal word, recorded for all to heed    

  1.      The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written these words in a book at the instruction of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 

2.      "Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: 

       3.      'You said, "Woe is me now! For the LORD has added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my                                 sighing, and I find no rest." ' 

4.      "Thus you shall say to him, 'Thus says the LORD: "Behold, what I have built I will break down, and what I have planted I will pluck up, that is, this whole land.      

5.    And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh," says the LORD. "But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go." ' "

This chapter goes back to the time, when wicked Jehoiakim reigned in Judah and the Lord instructed Jeremiah to write his prophecies in a book. To briefly review the account in chapter 36, we will recall that the prophet dictated to Baruch all that the Lord had given to him concerning the future of Judah. The work took at least nine months, and up to a year or more to finish, because it began in the fourth year of Jehoiakim and Baruch read from it in the fifth year and ninth month.  You may remember that the king burnt the first work, so Jeremiah and Baruch wrote it the second time. It has been preserved from that time to the present, and in 2023, we study and learn from it.

 This short chapter is a word specifically for Baruch, God showing concern for an individual. It is comforting to know that this is true and is proven throughout the Bible. The Lord, not only watches over the nation of Israel, but moves in the lives of each individual. Sometimes His word to them is written, more often it is simply a private benefit for each person. At the end of the Gospel of John, we have a written account of Jesus dealing with Peter. John follows, as Peter walks with Jesus, and Peter asks, “What about this man?” The Lord shows to him, that His work in the life of another person, is not anyone else’s concern, answering, “What is that to you? You follow Me” (Jn.21:21-22). The portion should be a great encouragement for the least of His followers, proving that God takes personal interest in him.

 God’s word to Baruch, on the other hand, is a lesson for the world of God’s people to know, because it is written in the Bible, so we will learn from it today. It gives us an idea of Baruch’s attitude in the difficult time of King Jehoiakim and God’s counsel to him (1 and 2). Baruch is a man with potential to achieve success in life.  

 

 The Lord sees Baruch’s grief.  The fact that God is not indifferent to the burden that the man was carrying is another reason for comfort to us. He knows our sorrows and the apostle Peter tells us to humble ourselves “under the mighty hand of God… casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (1 P.5:6,7). The tendency of proud human nature is to be self-sufficient, but it is far better to allow the mighty hand of God to care for our problems, because He is willing to do just that.

 We do not know all the causes of Baruch’s sorrow; perhaps they included personal ones, but certainly, Baruch shared Jeremiah’s deep concern for the spiritual state of his nation. His grief grows deeper, “adding grief to sorrow.”  The light-hearted will never understand Baruch’s state, which touched on depression, but the spiritually sensitive person knows the pain of sleepless nights and days of sighing (3). The prince of preachers, Charles Spurgeon, suffered from depression. He was referring to John Bunyan’s, Pilgrim’s Progress, when he said, “There are dungeons beneath the Castle of Despair, as dreary as the abodes of the lost, and some of us have been in them.” Telling of failures in his life, he said, “How often have some of us tossed to and fro upon our couch half the night because of conscious shortcomings in our testimony!”  The staff at ‘The Spurgeon Center’ at Midwestern Seminary wrote: Spurgeon’s depression didn’t hinder his ministry – in fact, it helped it. (It) gave the pastor a multi-faceted empathy for the problems facing his flock. That’s one reason Spurgeon was “the people’s preacher.”

 C. H. Spurgeon certainly did not allow his mental condition to modify God’s punishment for sin and the sinner. He thundered judgment upon the unrepentant, but when it came time to comfort the saint, his compassion and gentleness abounded. Even in the mood that Baruch is experiencing, he must face the fate in store for his country. We have learned in this book that God will build and plant, if there is repentance. However, a theology that claims that God will not destroy what He has built, and not uproot what He has planted, is not supported by verse 4. National disaster is imminent. Baruch must stand unwaveringly by the Lord’s clear declaration of judgment to come, and so must we.

 The concluding word to Baruch is God’s advice to all of us. “Do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them…” The future holds nothing upon which he can develop a successful plan. It is true, Baruch lives in a time of great adversity, but I raise a question: When did the saints of God ever live in a time without opposition?  Jesus promised, “In the world you will have tribulation” (Jn.16:33).

 We have the sure advice of Paul to Timothy: “We brought nothing into this world and it is certain that we can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with these we shall be content” (1 T.6:7,8). We have the wise statement of King Solomon: “As he came from his mother’s womb, naked shall he return, to go as he came” (Ecc.5:15). His conclusion to every work and success in the existence on this planet was: “The dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it. ‘Vanities of vanities,’… all is vanity” (Ecc.12:8).

 God promises protection, but not prosperity, to Baruch. Wherever he goes, and we have observed that he was taken down to Egypt against his will with Jeremiah, he will come out alive. He need not live in fear, for the Lord will keep him, even when death prevails all around him, but that is the only guarantee that he can expect (5).

 One word of counsel remains for the question, “If we should not look for success in the world, what is to be our goal?” That question is easily answered in the New Testament: “If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Col.3:1-2). Father Abraham set the example for all his spiritual sons: “He dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob… for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb.11:9,10).

 God’s special word to Baruch was recorded in the Holy Scriptures, reaching into every period of church history around the world, as good advice to all His people, saying in essence: “Do not fall into the trap that the world offers, for it lasts only for a short time! Seek the heavenly, eternal reward, for it will endure forever and will bring eternal joy and satisfaction!"

We return to Charles Spugeon and a little event, which happened early in his ministry.  Spurgeon said that his father arranged for him to meet with a college dignitary. They were to meet at a certain hour in a large house. Spurgeon came and waited for two hours, but thought that the man failed to keep the appointment. Actually, the dignitary was in another part of the house, waiting for him. They never met. Here are his words: I was ambitious; I was seeking to go to college, to leave my poor people in the wilderness that I might become something great. I suppose about forty pounds a year was the sum total of my income, and I was thinking how I should make both ends meet, and whether it would not be a great deal better for me to resign my charge and seek something for the bettering of myself. This text ran in my ears "Seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not." "Lord," said I, "I will follow thy counsel and not my own devices;" and I have never had cause to regret it.