Baruch's Lesson

While privately talking to the Lord this morning and making coffee, I lamented that my life was so insignificant and that I had wasted so many opportunities, both in worldly ventures and more importantly, Godly deeds.  I reminded myself that I had friends and relatives who had gone on mission trips, help build orphanages and preached all over the world.  Woe is me! It was a full blown pity party but the Lord wasn't going there with me.

As usual, I opened up my bible app to read some morning devotionals and continue on with my daily readings.  This morning, the book of Jeremiah was the subject.  As the scriptures unfolded, I found that Jeremiah the prophet had been somewhat of a thorn in the side of the king and his council resulting in him being beaten and put in stocks for a night by Pashur the priest.  Jeremiah was not shy about letting the king know how the Lord felt about the way the king of Judah was leading the people and prophesied against him often.  Judah and its kings had a long history of ignoring God and was often found burning incense in high places to other gods which greatly displeased the Lord.

After his release, Jeremiah went back to his place perhaps to sooth his wounds but more importantly, discuss the past event with God.

Jeremiah received a word from God and told his assistant (scribe), Baruch, to write down the words of the Lord and that they should be delivered to Jehoiakim, king of Judah. Jeremiah dictated to Baruch some disturbing news on a scroll which would be delivered to Jehoiakim's leaders.  As the leaders read the words, they asked, "where did you get this?"  Baruch told them, "these are the words from the Lord that were given to Jeremiah!"  Jeremiah 36:11-15  The leaders knew that the king should hear it and knew this would likely not be received well by the king and told Baruch, that he and Jeremiah should hide out for a while.  So, they gathered themselves up and headed straight to Jehoiakim, delivering the scroll.

After delivering the scroll, the leaders began reading the words and after a few columns, the king would angrily cut off a portion and throw it into the fire eventually burning the entire scroll.  When it became known that the original scroll was burned, Jeremiah dictated another with the same message with some other choice words added.  There was going to be a lot of destruction and lots of it.

Anyway, as the story goes, it seems that Baruch felt somewhat secondary to the whole event even though the Lord wasn't going to let Baruch be harmed in the upcoming mayhem.  So the Lord gave these words to Jeremiah, regarding Baruch.  Jeremiah 45:1) "Jeremiah said this to Baruch:  “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to you, Baruch:  You said, ‘Woe to me! The Lord has added sorrow to my pain; I am worn out with groaning and find no rest.’  But the Lord has told me to say to you, ‘This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth.  Should you then seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them. For I will bring disaster on all people, declares the Lord, but wherever you go I will let you escape with your life.’”

Now, what does this have to do with me feeling sorry for myself?  It think it means that I should get over myself and that my self imposed judgement of myself is not His plan for me.  

Matthew 6:1 tells us, "Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them.  If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven."  We should be carful as not to let our service to the Lord turn into its own self righteous reward.

So, in retrospect, the Lord knew that I would be reading these very passages and that was His message to me.  There has always been those who have been designed for worldly greatness and those who have not.  These conditions do not negate the love of Him for us and that we are all vessels of His goodness.  Learn to hear and discern what the Lord is saying to us for we are all spokes in the wheel that carries His will and purpose.

Should I cease thinking of the possibilities of being an effective witness to the faith?  Of course not but if checking off boxes and accumulating photos of mission trips is my reward, then I have accumulated nothing.