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Commentary on "Baruch: Building a Legacy in a Crumbling World"
Day 1: Sabbath Afternoon, December 18, 2010 - Introduction
Overview
Josiah, the last of the ‘good’ kings had recently died in an ill-advised attack on Pharaoh Neco. The Assyrian kingdom which had dominated the Near East for centuries was falling apart. The Babylonian Empire under the leadership of Nebuchadnezzar was soon to be Judah’s greatest political enemy.
With the death of their father, Johoahaz and then Johoiakim reigned in his place and returned Judah to idolatry. Babylon would soon invade the country and bring Jerusalem under siege.
The prophet Jeremiah received the word of the Lord and warned the king and the people of the danger coming upon them if they would not repent of their evil ways and return to the one true God.
The lesson for this week views these unfolding events through the eyes of Baruch, Jeremiah’s scribe.
Observations
Israel, the Northern Kingdom, had fallen 150 years earlier because they had turned away from ‘the one true God’. Judah was now facing the same certain fate for the very same reason. The words of Moses in one of his last speeches to the Hebrew people warned them to turn from their twin sins of a lack of faith and obedience to their God along with the companion sin of idolatry and self indulgence.
"See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them." (Deut. 30:15-20 ESV)
Summary
- Centuries before their present time, God took the Hebrew people out of slavery in Egypt, the most powerful kingdom at that time. This should have been enough evidence that the size and power of their enemies is not what or who they should fear.
- The Jewish people have totally forgotten why their ancestors spent years in the wilderness instead of entering the Promised Land. Clearly, it was a lack of faith in the one true God combined with gross idolatry.
- Judah and King Johoiakim were doing everything they could to defend against Babylon except confront the root cause of their problem which involved repenting of their idolatry and obey their God.
- It was God, not the power of the Babylonian Empire, they should have feared. Even though they ignored Jeremiah’s many warnings they should have heeded Moses’ conditional prophecy recorded in Deut. 30:15-20. Obey God and live richly in freedom, or, pursue idolatry and return to bondage.
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