|
||||||||||||||
Commentary on "Baruch: Building a Legacy in a Crumbling World"
Day 2: Sunday, December 19, 2010 - Baruch's World
Overview
In II Kings 23:31-37 we see where Pharaoh Neco came up against Judah and removed King Johoahaz from power and replaced him with Jehoiakim. Then in II Kings Chapter 24, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up against Judah and made Jehoiakim his servant. When Jehoakim died his son Jehoiachin became king. Nebuchadnezzar returned and laid siege on Jerusalem. Jehoachin quickly surrendered and was replaced by Zedekiah. When Zedekiah rebelled, Nebuchadnezzar returned with his army and again laid siege on Jerusalem.
Jeremiah is now God’s prophet who is warning the king and the people of Judah to repent of their sins and return to their God. Baruch is the scribe who recorded the prophecies given to Jeremiah by God and on several occasions presented these messages directly to the people and the king of Judah.
All of Judah’s kings since the reign of Josiah did evil in the sight of the Lord.
Observations
The introduction to the lesson lists many of their peripheral problems along with the anger of God because of idolatry. This gives the impression that the danger of Nebuchadnezzar’s anger was just as or more important than God’s anger. With reference to Jer. 7:1-11 the lesson then asks, what were some of their moral and spiritual problems when there was really only one root cause that they should have been concerned about, the hardness of their hearts towards God and his truth.
In Acts 28:23-28, Paul confronts the same hardness of the heart by the Jewish people that Jeremiah faced and quotes from Isa. 6:9,10 when the gospel message he preaching is rejected by the Roman Jews. Isaiah’s warning was the very same as Jeremiah’s, only many years earlier when the Assyrians was the current military danger coming “out of the north”.
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump. (Isa. 6:8-13 ESV)
While the context of Romans Chapter Eight is centered on assuring us of our personal eternal salvation, it certainly includes the time of God’s protective providence when a nation that fears God is being invaded by a powerful and evil enemy. Or the reverse when we, as a nation, do evil.
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? (Rom. 8:31, 32 ESV)
Summary
Copyright 2010 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. November 24, 2010. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
The Sabbath School Bible Study Guide and the corresponding E.G. White Notes are published by Pacific Press Publishing Association, which is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The current quarter's editions are pictured above.
Official Adventist Resources
Standard Edition Study Guide Week 13
Teacher's Edition Study Guide Week 13
Easy Reading Edition Study Guide Wk 13
Search the Complete Published Ellen G. White Writings