Great Things Unsought
Scripture Reading: Jeremiah 45
Baruch was Jeremiah’s amanuensis. Jeremiah spoke and Baruch wrote. His work became more complicated when Jeremiah was restricted from being able to publicly speak the Word of the Lord. Baruch was then called upon to not only record Jeremiah’s prophecies but also publicly read his words before the people and the ruling class.
Jeremiah chapter 45 is brief. It is a word to Baruch, not from Jeremiah, but from the Lord through Jeremiah. Baruch felt the sting of suffering and sorrow. He was tired and couldn’t find rest. God points to the root of Baruch’s problem:
Do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not… (Verse 5)
We can misapply this if we think this means all personal ambitions or goals are off the table and that no Christian should ever pursue any profession that might potentially put them in the spotlight. What needs to be put in check is not what we do but why we do it.
We aren’t told exactly what “great things” means in Baruch’s case. We can intimate that it likely means he had an idea that he might receive the applause of and be smiled upon by the people and rulers of Judah. The danger of such thinking is that it creates a massive spiritual hurdle he’d have to jump over to live obediently to his calling. For, once he realized how unpopular the message he was to deliver would be, he would be tempted to alter it so that he could gain those great things.
It is the laying aside of such desires that allow us to faithfully fulfill our calling. When you see the compromises that many famous Christians make, you can almost always trace it back to their desire to not lose their status and fame and the financial fortunes that accompany that life. They aren’t willing, as the writer of Hebrews calls us to do, to go outside the camp to stand with the crucified Christ. They aren’t willing to take up their cross and die to themselves. Instead, they’d rather seek “great things.”
Ironically, we know of Baruch because he heeded this message and was willing to die to himself. He took up his cross to follow Christ. Therefore, we know his name and he is honored among the faithful in the pages of Scripture. Do we know the names of the people who chose the fleeting pleasures of sin?
Jesus said that when you lose your life, you find it. And when you seek to save your life you lose it. That is what the Lord is saying to Baruch here. It is said differently. Don’t seek great things for yourself. But that is the message. He listened. He didn’t seek great things for himself and, paradoxically, he becomes great.
