Baruch - A Subordinate Player

Mr. Shoemaker and... hang on... good morning! I was about to say good afternoon.

I'm a little disappointed because I was really looking forward to hearing Mr. Cornish give a sermonette. But the one advantage is that now I've got two glasses of water I can drink.

I'm just hoping that he's not absent because he wasn't looking forward to hearing me give a sermon, but knowing him I don't think so. It is really good to be back, and I'll speak on behalf of Sue and Connor. We're thrilled to be here. We haven't been away this long because we haven't wanted to come here. It's just life is so busy. It's amazing how I look at the calendar and say, can it really have been that long? I didn't intend for that. But I'll get... I don't know if this will make you feel better, but I don't think I've been back to Columbus in three or four years. So I'm thrilled to be here and visiting you all, and it's been a really busy time. I guess without the sermonette I could tell you a little bit about what's going on. Of course, you're familiar with ABC, and we've got a new class, and they've sort of come together, and things are going along very well. Most of them seem to like us so far, and I say so far because we're giving them a couple tests next week before the feast break. We've got some very familiar faces and some that you know. Of course, Hannah Shoemaker is in the class, and Audra and Craig Bledsoe both. And we've also got some from Columbus that I knew since they were little kids. So it's amazing to me. It makes me feel a little bit old, but it's kind of nice. There are several that I've worked with at summer camps over the years, so this was a class coming in that it wasn't hard to get to know people because I already knew probably quite a few of them.

I'm hesitating because there was something else I was going to say, and it left my mind. Oh, now I know what it was. One thing that's different about this class than any of the others that I've experienced so far is we don't have any senior citizens in the class. And normally there's been at least one that's my age or older. A couple years ago, we had five who were older than me. I felt a little intimidated. They all sat in the front row.

And they'd feel free to correct me when I got a scripture wrong or something like that. So I'll just mention that any of you who think you might like to come to ABC, and I'm speaking of those who are older, but those who are younger, can feel welcome as well. But we'd love to have you in the class if that's something you'd feel inclined to do. It's even that there was something else I was going to say about that, but I'll just comment. Maybe it's good for me to be in the role I'm in now.

I was thinking when Mr. Call came up and he said he wasn't quite prepared, I think he still did a much better job doing announcements than I did every time that I thought I was prepared. You know, we teach song leading to all the students as part of ABC, but I never thought of teaching them like how to do announcements at services. And I know that's the one thing I always felt like I didn't have quite together.

Anyways, I'm just reminiscing, as I said, it's really enjoyable to be here. And for those of you in Prestonsburg, I didn't mean to ignore you. I'm sorry I'm not there in person. We were down there just about a week and a half ago, you know, sadly for Raleigh's funeral. But it, well, it's sad, but we all know that Raleigh had run his race and I look forward to seeing him in the kingdom. Not least of which because then he'll be able to hear something I tell him and we can have a conversation that goes both ways for a change.

That'll be, that'll be really something. And I can tell all of you have talked to Raleigh, you know exactly what I mean. And I say that with the deepest love and affection. It's going to be a different kind of feast of tabernacles this year. Well, I'll stop reminiscing. I thought we might have a shorter service. You know, we do 90-minute services in Cincinnati and it's taken me a while to get used to that. It might be one of the reasons they don't schedule me quite so often, but I've tried to learn to be brief.

Looking back, you know, I'm not quite old enough to have experienced the golden age of radio. And even the oldest among you, it's sort of a, towards the edge, but you might remember that time before television. And even when television first came on the scene, radio was dominant. Back in those days, they didn't just play music or just news stations.

It was also the main source of entertainment. You know, there were serial dramas and comedies and action-adventure programs. And of course, one of the most memorable of those was the Lone Ranger. I feel like we should have the William Tell Orchestra come on. And, you know, I have heard the recordings of the announcer with a cloud of, what, thunder of hooves and a cloud of dust and a hearty, high-oh, silver. You know, the radio program ran from 1933 to 1954, which is pretty long run.

And after that, it inspired a television series, books, comic books, movies. And if you're not familiar, the Lone Ranger was the fictional adventures of a Texas ranger. And the origin was he was part of a group of rangers that was ambushed, and five others who were with him were killed. And they left him thinking he was dead. So he wanted to perpetuate the idea that he was dead, so he concealed his identity with a mask, you know. And going out there as an unknown, he fought for justice with help from a trusty Potawatomi Indian named Tonto.

As I said, the radio program was before my time, but, you know, as a kid, I was well aware of who the Lone Ranger was. And I'm guessing even those of you who are young know about the Lone Ranger. One of my earliest impressions was listening to a recording of a popular comedian back in the 70s, and he described listening to the radio as a kid.

And he described how he always wondered why Tonto would be willing to do these certain jobs for the Lone Ranger when he should have known he was going to get hurt. I remember the way he described it, he'd say, you know, he'd come in, the Lone Ranger would say, Tonto, yes, Kimo Sabe, I want you to go to town and get some information.

And the boy listening would say, Tonto, don't go to town! They're going to beat you up again! And sure enough, Tonto would ride into town and the bandits would jump on him and nice to have you in town, Tonto! Boom! And then he'd come back to the Lone Ranger.

Oh, Lone Ranger, Tonto got information. Oh, Tonto, what happened? You look terrible! And as I said, I didn't listen, so I'm guessing that was partly an exaggeration. Hopefully, Tonto didn't always get beat up. And I'm sure even when he did, it would lead to a happy ending. They would solve the crime, justice would prevail. But it made me think about Tonto. Tonto was never the main hero, never the center of attention. The end of the program, they would always ride off into the sunset or whatever and people would say, who was that masked man?

But it seems like they would never say, who was that cool Indian helping the masked man? Or to be politically correct, who was that cool American Indian or Native American? And I'm not saying this to say that we should feel sorry for Tonto because he was a fictional character. His feelings would only get hurt if the script writers wrote in that his feelings would get hurt. But, you know, there are always people in real life who are more like Tonto than the lone ranger.

And I imagine it's always been that way. We can certainly find examples in the Bible, and you might have guessed I'm leading up to wanting to do that today. But perhaps, how many of us? I shouldn't say perhaps how many, but many of us probably have felt that we've been in the role of Tonto rather than the lone ranger. Or if you want to use some other examples, you know, you're relegated to being Robin when you'd rather be Batman. Or John Adams instead of George Washington. Or Tenzing Norgay, and not Edmund Hillary.

I had to do some research to dig that one up. Hillary was the first man to climb Mount Everest, and Tenzing Norgay was his sherpa, I guess. You know, that could be okay unless you really wanted to be the lone ranger. Or many of us don't mind not being the main guy, but you think, okay, I get to be the sidekick the lesser role, but I still have to get beat up.

I still have to face the danger along with the hero without getting all the attention that he gets. Today I want to focus on looking at the life and the work of a real-life secondary character from the Bible, you know, a Tonto type. Because I see some lessons there for us, for me and for you, and including the happy ending that comes towards the end. So today I want to see what we know and can learn from the life and the work of a fellow named Baruch.

Now, if you're writing that down, it's B-A-R-U-C-H. And I've always wondered if he were here if he'd correct me on the pronunciation, but he's not here, so I'll say Baruch. And the first thing that crosses your mind could be, who in the world was Baruch? He lived in Jerusalem from the early 1600s until shortly after, about 1585, when Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonian armies that Nebuchadnezzar sent against them.

And Baruch's occupation was that of a scribe, which means, of course, he could read and write, but he could do so well enough to prepare legal documents. In fact, he might have been prepared for a career comparable to today would be done by an attorney. You know, he belonged to a notable family. His family, or his brother, was a fellow named Saraiya, and he held a pretty prominent position in the court of King Zedekiah. So there's indication Baruch might have thought, hey, I'm going to be like that.

I should get a cushy government job with an ice pension. It's fair to expect that not only Saraiya, but Baruch probably had a pretty good education. The family was probably well off and had a comfortable lifestyle, and Baruch had every reason to think it was only going to get better. Now, we have to speculate some there. We don't know for sure what his life and work was like before he first appears in Scripture, but once he does, all of what came before doesn't matter very much.

From that point on, his life would be inextricably linked to that of a man who we are very familiar with. That's Jeremiah the prophet. Baruch has been known through history as Jeremiah's amanuensis, which I'm throwing a little vocabulary out there. I remember I was in college the first time I heard that word. My question was, what does that mean? It means someone who writes down stuff for someone else, and that's exactly what Baruch did. He was a co-worker and perhaps a good friend.

I'm saying perhaps I actually checked Unger's Bible dictionary describes Baruch as Jeremiah's faithful friend. That term, faithful friend, makes me think, and Indian sidekick, Tonto.

Not exactly like that. He might have been close friends with Jeremiah. I'd like to think that they were, that they really got along well and enjoyed each other's company.

It's worth considering, though, that there is even a chance that Baruch was at first an unwilling collaborator. So I want to think that they were friends or developed into friends. But even good friends at times can experience strains on their relationship. And there were some pretty tough times for Jeremiah and Baruch that probably caused those strains. So let's begin looking at their story. You know, we've talked about who he was. Let's begin to look at what he did.

In honor of coming back to Portsmouth, I brought one of my old beat-up Bibles.

So that's one of the reasons we're going to stick mostly in the Old Testament, because the New Testament is falling apart. But we'll be turning to the book of Jeremiah. And I'll mention that Baruch first appears in Jeremiah chapter 32, but we don't want to start by turning to chapter 32.

Because we'll want to understand that parts of Jeremiah are not in chronological order. And I find that very frustrating. Sometimes as an instructor, I get to teach the major prophets class. It's like, why didn't they just put it in order? Well, the first story that we'll review might explain some of why. But I'll just mention where Baruch's name first appears, as you're reading through the book, occurs in the 10th year of Zedekiah's reign. Zedekiah was the last king who reigned in Jerusalem. But if you turn to Jeremiah 36, where I do want to begin, it says there in verse 1 that it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah.

Okay, the fourth year of King Jehoiakim's reign was about 20 years before the 10th year of Zedekiah.

So here in Jeremiah 36 is the real introduction of Baruch into the Bible story flow.

At this point, Jeremiah had already begun his career and had been working at the job quite a while. From our understanding, Jeremiah was called as perhaps even a teenager. That's always amazing to me, but what's not amazing, if he was called as a teenager, his first reaction was to tell God, I can't go do this job, I'm just a kid. And God told him, no, you are just a kid, but you're going to go do this job. And so Jeremiah had been traveling, preaching God's word. He stood up and spoke at the temple, a very powerful message. But here we're going to see that God wanted Jeremiah to get it down in writing. He'll tell him to create a written record. So I'll pick up, we basically started with verse 1, of course, the word came to Jeremiah from the eternal saying, take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I've spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations. From the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. So all the way back to the beginning, I want you to get this down in writing.

And at this point I'm thinking, boy, I sure hope that Jeremiah had a better memory than I do.

That might be one of the reasons some things are out of order. And the reason, of course, is says, it may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring down upon them, and that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.

Now, Jeremiah, as I said, hopefully he had a better memory than me. He may not have had any better penmanship than me, because he said, okay, God told me to get a scroll and write it down, but I'm calling it a professional. And so he calls Baruch, we see in verse 4. Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Noriah, and Baruch wrote on the scroll of the book, at the instruction of Jeremiah, all the words of the eternal which he'd spoken to him.

I've sometimes stopped and pondered. Did Jeremiah know Baruch before this? Perhaps they'd been friends and worked together before, but there's no mention of it. It's worth considering maybe he'd never even met. It might have been by reputation. You know, perhaps he just got out the yellow pages when looking through the list of advertisements for scribes.

Now, some of you are chuckling, and some of you or her younger are saying, what's yellow pages?

If you're serving at the senior dinner, you'll have a chance to ask someone who knows what the yellow pages are. So this is one of those things I wonder. Imagine if Baruch just...it's funny, I want to put it in contemporary terms. Like he's sitting in his office, he gets a phone call. Hey, can you come over? Of course, they didn't have telephones. Somebody would have somehow gotten in touch with him and said, hey, there's a professional job, a lot of writing involved.

And then it goes a little deeper. This is where I hope they were good friends because Jeremiah is going to ask Baruch to do a lot more than just write. In verse 5, it says, Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I'm confined. I cannot go to the house of the eternal. So some speculate that he might have been imprisoned, but more likely it seems that they basically made the temple off limits to Jeremiah. I mentioned that he'd got up and given a sermon that was pretty strong there, and they probably told him, you're not coming in here again. So he said, I can't go and take this message. Baruch, I need you to take it. Verse 6, you go therefore and read from the scroll, which you've written at my instruction. The words of the eternal and the hearing of the people in the Lord's house on the day of fasting. Now, that could make you think it was on the day of atonement, and it might have been, but the timing seems to imply that they might have called a special fast. And you should also read in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities. It may be that they will present their supplication before the eternal, and everyone will turn from his evil way.

And the reason is clear here, for great is the anger and the fury that the eternal is pronounced against this people. Now I'm pausing because when Jeremiah says, okay, now that you've written down, I want you to go to the temple. I'm not allowed to go. You go and read this.

To me, that sounds suspiciously like, Tonto, I want you to go to town and get some information.

And this could have been where Baruch does a double take. It doesn't describe his reaction, but I can imagine him looking up saying, you want me to do what?

Did Baruch have a fear of public speaking? Like some of us?

And that there's a lesson in this already for us whenever we have a chance to speak about God's truth and what we know from the Bible. You know, in times like that, it's good to step back and say, okay, it's not about me. You know, it's not about you. It's about this book. Uh-oh.

We'll see later if I have the scriptures I still need. I knew I should have brought my new Bible.

But, you know, the speaking is not about how well we're presented or liked. It doesn't matter if it were the Lone Ranger or Tonto. It's about presenting God's Word. I still remember the first time I was told I was going to be giving a sermon. It was in the Columbus congregation, and there was an elder there who did the speaking schedule for the pastor, which is probably why they always had services at the same time. That was supposed to bring a chuckle. I hadn't been paying attention to it moving around. But I remember one Sabbath, he came up to me and said, well, Frank, I've got good news and bad news. Good news is the pastor really liked the last couple of sermonettes you've given. The bad news is he told me to put you on the sermon-speaking schedule. And it was intimidating. You know, the first time, and it's the same when you start giving sermonettes, what really, I think, helped me to have the courage to say, okay, I can do it. I can write a sermon and stand up and deliver it, was that I knew it was going to be God's Word. It wasn't about me. And I think it was that way for Baruch. He did follow through.

And that's something we can do. You know, whether, you know, it's not necessarily standing up behind the lectern and speaking during a Sabbath services. It could be talking to a neighbor, someone waiting in line at the grocery store, you know, when they ask you, well, have you got your Christmas decorations up yet? No, a lot of times you just say, well, no. But sometimes they, you know, the question comes up, well, what do you think about this or that? And the subject of religion could come up. That's where, of course, you know, you're thinking, oh, I'm not qualified.

But God's Word is what matters. We don't have to start preaching.

But we also don't have to run and hide or shut up. We want to think of what it says in 1 Peter.

I wasn't planning on doing a comedy routine, I promise you.

This one we could probably recite from memory. 1 Peter 3 and verse 15, of course.

I'm going to, yes, be ready always to give a defense, or the old King James says, to give an answer to anyone, to everyone who asks you a reason of the hope that's in you with meekness and fear. That's us. We want to be ready to give an answer, realizing that the answer is not about us. It's about what we're convinced in our hearts is God's Word. And Baruch, in this case, would go on and he would pass on the words of the Eternal as written down, just in the same way that sometimes we're responsible for passing on an important lesson or the meaning of this way of life.

And I'll pause and mention, when I cover this story in classes now, I stop and say, there's another lesson that doesn't really have to do with the main story flow, but I think it's worth considering because, you know, most of the time, as within God's Church, we spend more time as listeners than we do as speakers. We want to be ready to be speakers and to present God's Word, but you know what it's like? All of us have had that. You know, you look, you wait for the announcements. Who's giving the sermon today? And you could say, oh, I hoped it was Jeremiah, but it's Baruch. Oh boy, here we go again. You know what Baruch is like?

Okay, we all have some speakers that we enjoy more than others, but I'd like to think we should know that it's about God's Word. And I've said this many times, well, not many times, I haven't done it that many, but, you know, opening the Feast of Tabernacles in Cincinnati, I remember being a little intimidated as I'd look out and see all the people that had been in God's Church longer than I had. And I thought, they've heard all these sermons before. And I would encourage them, okay, you know God's Word well enough to draw lessons out of what we're giving that we might not have put in there. And that's something for us all to consider, no matter who the presenters are in Sabbath services or some other place, that, you know, it's about God's Word. And our responsibility is not to critique the presenter, but to try to draw lessons from God's words out of that. And that's something I think we all can do, comes with practice. Anyways, that's a side issue, not my main point. Let's go back to Jeremiah 36 in verse 8. It says, Baruch the son of Noriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet had commanded him. He might have spent as much time thinking about all the ramifications as we've spent talking, maybe much more, but he went and did it. Reading from the book the words of the Eternal in the Lord's house. Let's skip ahead to verse 11, not very far, but says, when Micaiah the son of Gomeriah the son of Shaphan heard the words of the Eternal from the book, he went down to the king's house into the scribes chamber, and there all the princes were sitting. So it seems like he goes into a meeting where there's these high-level people, and there's a bunch of names that are hard to pronounce, so I'll skip to verse 13. Micaiah declared to them all the words which he had heard when Baruch read the book in the hearing of the people. So this word gets out and it starts spreading. It's interesting, Baruch didn't necessarily know that he was doing this, and Jeremiah probably certainly didn't. But as we go forward in verse 14, it says, therefore all the princes sent Jehudi the son of Nethaniah the son of Shelomiah the son of Cushi to Baruch. So let's get that Baruch fell back here and sent to him saying, taking your hand the scroll from which you've read in the hearing of the people and come. So Baruch the son of Neoriah took the scroll in hand and came to them. They said, sit down now and read it in our hearing. And Baruch read it in their hearing. So Baruch's now giving, you know, he's called on, you could say, to give a sermon like never before, and now it's like, come, we want to hear this too, and he does it again. Verse 16, now it happened when they heard all the words that they looked in fear from one another. And they said to Baruch, we're going to tell the king about this. It seems possible, perhaps, that they never really heard the true word of God before.

And that might seem funny. Really? You've never heard the word of God? Well, when I talk about the truth, what's really happening, we could say that about a lot of people in the world around us. They've heard of God, and they know something about religion, but so many of them haven't rejected the truth. They've never even heard it. And that, when we think of responsibility for us, or also when they do hear it, how surprising is it? And that's what's so exciting, I learned in the ministry, that when you get to meet with someone, counsel someone for baptism, when the truth is new and exciting, and you see that look on their face, it's so exciting now to know the truth. Although what happens next in the story is almost like, to me, it seems like a comedic sideline. I don't know that it was meant that way. If you read verse 17, it says, they asked Baruch, saying, tell us now, how did you write all these words at his instruction?

And I imagine Baruch is saying, how did I write them? Well, he proclaimed the words with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink on the book. For some reason, I envision this like in a movie, where it's like one of those duh moments. But they were so astounded, they wanted, where did this come from? Baruch might have done well to say, but before he spoke them with his mouth, he got them from God. These words came from God, and I've got them written down.

Let's read verse 19. Though it gets a lot more serious next. Then the princes said to Baruch, go and hide. You and Jeremiah, let no one know where you are. I don't know what crosses mine then, because wow, you know, Baruch has now gone from being called in to do a writing job, and now he's on the lam hiding out from the government.

Makes me wonder if there are times when Baruch might have wished Jeremiah had found someone else in the Yellow Pages. You know, couldn't you have called someone else to write this scroll? Now I'm hiding from my life. Now wondering, could you have called someone else? I see there's also a feeling that some of us might feel at times, or maybe have in the past. When we think about it, it's not easy to be a Christian. At least it's not always easy. You stand out from the norm, developing godly character in, you know, opposition to the society and the way everyone else is going. It's difficult. You know, we're looking forward to the kingdom of God. That's exciting and good.

But, you know, to do that, we have to forego some of the pleasures of today.

But you do it because God called you. You didn't choose Him. I think of Jesus Christ telling His disciples that at one point He said, you didn't choose Me, but I chose you. And so we have this role. Having been chosen by God and responding to His calling is something we need to keep in mind because of what it says in 2 Peter 2. I'm going to turn there, partly because now I can.

2 Peter 2 and verse 21 says, it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than having known it to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.

It would have been better not to have known than to know and turn away from it.

And as I said, Baruch might have sometimes said, I wish I'd never heard this word of God.

As we go through his story, though, we'll note that he will eventually have very good reason to be glad that he heard it. You know, he's going to be involved in a happy ending.

And that's true for us, too. And dealing with young people, you know, sometimes that crosses their mind. As a matter of fact, I'm sure it did mine when I was younger. You know, when you're thinking about baptism, you know, just, wow, maybe it would have been better if I hadn't been called.

But the point is not to think, well, I'd better not get baptized because then it'll be even worse if I turn back because I've had occasion to tell people it's kind of too late for that.

By the time you're able to think about that, that's when you should be saying, well, I better get baptized because I know too much now to stop and go back. And time then to focus on the happy ending, on the reward that's inevitable, that will come. But we remember in the meantime how much God holds us responsible for the things that we do know.

I think about Baruch. Whether he'd known Jeremiah for years or only a short time, by the time he and Jeremiah are in hiding, they told him, go hide! Don't let anyone know where you are. He must have realized, I'm in it deep now. There's no turning back.

I want to go back to Jeremiah 36 and verse 26. If he didn't know that before, it becomes clear and actually I'm skipping ahead in the writing because it describes how they did take the scroll to the king. He was not impressed. As a matter of fact, as you read it, say, he would let them read a few lines and then he'd take his penknife and cut off the piece that he'd written and throw it in the fire. And probably, if this were a movie, he'd be going, hahahahaha, you know, with that evil laugh. You'd see a scene cut over to Jeremiah and Baruch sort of in hiding somewhere.

In verse 26, then the king commanded Jeremiah and the king's son Saraiiah, the son of Ezreal and Shelemiah, I don't know why they list all these Arias guys, but commanded his men to seize Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. So go get them, arrest them. But the Lord hid them.

That's good because you think of what was in store. This is potentially a lot worse than it was for Tonto getting jumped and beat up. That's the nice thing about TV and radio. They never shot him. They just beat him up and sent him out. But the king's soldiers were looking for Baruch right alongside Jeremiah. Notice they list Baruch's name first. And they were probably planning to imprison them, perhaps torture, perhaps even execute. And Baruch might have been thinking, why are they looking for me? I'm not the prophet.

There's potentially another lesson for us in that. I was surprised as I went through this, thinking, how does this apply to us? But we can think. I started to say if, and I thought, no, it's more appropriate to say when the church comes under persecution. It's easy to imagine they're going to be looking for Darris McNeely, Steve Myers, and Gary Petty. They're the guys on television. Or if they come over here to West Portsmouth, they're going to be looking for Kevin Call. But I don't think it's only the writers and presenters of Beyond Today. It's not just ministers. There is reason to think that when the time comes, all of us are going to be targets, so to speak. Matter of fact, I do want to turn to the book of John. And I don't say this. I don't want us to be frightened about that. I just want us to realize that Jesus Christ had all of us in mind for these things. John 15, beginning in verse 20. He's there telling his disciples, and as we know, this is the night before Jesus Christ would be crucified. So in that particular case, they were looking for Him and willing to let the others go. And they would watch that happen, but He had a message for them to remember after that day. And Christ said, Remember the word that I said to you. A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. And if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they'll do to you for my namesake, because they don't know Him who sent me. That's where we say that persecution is something we can expect. It could come on us. And as He said, if they keep my word, they'll keep yours. So if there are people who have an attitude of wanting to serve God, they'll be willing to listen to His word. But that's not all that He told them. If you turn a page or so over to chapter 16, John 16 and verse 33 reminds us again that there's a happy ending beyond the difficult times. It says, Okay, we're promised tribulation in the world, but in Jesus Christ there's peace. And He said, Be of good cheer. I've overcome the world. I know I've said that from this lectern before, because I just love that scripture. I imagine Christ changing His face. In the world, you'll have persecution. But cheer up! I've overcome the world. That's just as sure as anything else we can look forward to. That was His message for the disciples in that day, in that era. But it's His message for us in this day, in this era, and in the future eras.

And we shouldn't be surprised, then, that the God who was later personified as Jesus Christ sent Baruch a similar message back in His day. Now, as I mentioned, Jeremiah has several chapters out of chronological order. It's amazing it's easier to write chronological order than it is to say it. But I want to turn to chapter 45 of Jeremiah. Jeremiah 45, it's one of the shortest chapters in the book. And we'll see early on that it follows immediately the story we've just read.

So, Jeremiah 45, beginning in verse 1, he said, The word that Jeremiah spoke to Baruch, the son of Noriah, when he'd written these words in a book at the instruction of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah. So, as I said, that's the story we just read. He was called in, wrote the words in a book, had to read them, you know. And by the way, I forgot to mention that at the end of chapter 36, God called Jeremiah, said, Get Baruch in here and have him write a brand new scroll.

So, I don't know if he got paid by the word, but maybe he got double duty. But anyways, after all that happened, verse 2, it says, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch.

That's kind of astounding. God sent a message through his prophet with a personal prophecy for this one guy. That's something pretty rare. Chapter 45 is not a prophecy for a nation, not a prophecy for a clan or a family, but for one single person.

And even before I read it, I think that's worth reminding us that God notices each one of the people in his church, every one of us. That thing that Jesus said about the very hairs of our heads being numbered and not a swallow falls to the ground without God knowing it, that's all true.

It was true for Baruch. Even, I don't know how much Baruch prayed, but God knew exactly what was on Baruch's mind at the time. And so, he sent him some reassurance and a little bit of a straighten up your attitude message. Verse 2, he says, Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel to you, O Baruch. You said, so Baruch said, Woe is me now, for the LORD has added grief to my sorrow. I feigned into my sighing, and I find no rest. Thus you'll say to him, so God telling Jeremiah, Tell Baruch this, Thus says the LORD, Behold, what I have built I'll break down. What I've planted I'll pluck up. That is this whole land. And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them, for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh, says the Eternal. But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places wherever you go. God in some ways seems to be telling Baruch, Are you feeling sorry for yourself?

Look what I'm going through. I'm having to destroy this nation that I love, that I carefully built up, and now I'm going to have to destroy it. And there's other places where it shows God was not happy about that. It wasn't something that brought him pleasure. It never does. It reminds me of a story my sister shared with me after I was grown. It sort of helped me to think about how God feels when he punishes us. Because, and I don't remember if I've ever shared this here before or not, but it's been long enough ago I can repeat it. But my sister told me that my mother shared something with her that I never knew about. You know, because you knew that my parents were separated when I was fairly young, so she had the heavy job of being mother and father. And she says, at times when we were bad and we needed to be punished, she would spank us and send us to our rooms. But then what she would do is go to her room and close the door and cry. And you know, I can picture that now that I have to punish my son, but I don't usually go in my room and cry because I'm a very manly man. But it's not hard to imagine a parent feeling that way. And that tells us God the Father and Jesus Christ the Word could be so, look, Baruch, you're all upset. Look what I have to do. It's tearing me up inside that I've got to tear down this nation that I built.

Of course, there's the other aspect of this, where you're saying, do you seek great things for yourself? Look at what's going to happen. You want a nice, cushy office, a government job? Government's not going to be here much longer. Don't worry about building up and establish something in this world and in this life because it's going to turn inside out and it'll be for not. And that's something for us as well. We can think about where our focus is in this life. Are we looking at building a great, good life for ourselves? I could seek great things for myself, but all that's going to come to nothing when Jesus Christ comes. Of course, our relationship with Him, that comes to fruition then. Now, I wrote myself a note to remind us, I'm not at all implying that we shouldn't get an education and build a good career. I say that for the younger people. For some reason, they're all, no, they're not all over here, but not to call you out. But God does want us to build a life and provide for ourselves and our families. There's plenty in the Bible that shows that, but it's about priorities. Okay, seek first the kingdom of God, you know, in His righteousness. All these other things will be added. So, yeah, God wants us to get a good job, have kids, and raise them. Just keep it all in perspective. One more scripture from 2 Peter. I should have just brought Peter and Jeremiah up here.

2 Peter 3 and verse 11.

The principle, I think, is always good for us to keep in mind, especially when we think of the Holy Day we just celebrated a couple days ago. 2 Peter 3 verse 11 is where he wrote Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, and he's talking about the whole face of the planet and everything we know, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be? Well, what you ought to be is holy in conduct and godliness.

Knowing what's ahead, knowing what we know, how should we live our lives?

I think God was reminding Baruch of that, and there's times when he'll remind us of it.

And I'd say Baruch responded in a good way, a way that can be inspiring to us.

Because we'll see more of Baruch. The next time he appears is coincident, or oddly not later in the book, but earlier, as I already explained, in chapter 32. So I'd like to go to Jeremiah 32. And I said that what we covered as we go and begin in chapter 32, we're near the end of Judah as a country. Near to Jerusalem being overrun, and the temple destroyed, and the people taken away in slavery. This is about nearly 20 years after the story we read earlier. About 20 years after God had sent a personal prophecy to Baruch saying, don't get all upset about what's happening to you. Look at what's going to happen to the country. Look at what I'm having to do. I say, by this time Jeremiah has been put in prison.

Zedekiah put him there because Jeremiah was prophesying that the nation would be destroyed. And he was telling the people, if you want to live, defect. Go over to the Babylonians. Of course, the king didn't care for that. Now, some people were ignorant of what was going on.

And then with all this, like I said, Jeremiah had been warning of the fall of the nation, telling what's coming ahead. He'd been put in prison. And then God will direct Jeremiah to do something totally unexpected. Starts in chapter 32 in verse 6. And we'll just read some of the highlights of this. But Jeremiah said, The word of the eternal came to me, saying, Behold, Hanom El, the son of Shalom, your uncle will come to you. So this is Jeremiah's cousin. And God tells him, look, your cousin's going to show up. And he's going to say, Buy my field which is in Anathoth. Anathoth was Jeremiah's hometown, not Jerusalem. Said, Buy this field for the right of redemption is yours to buy it.

And then Hanom, my uncle's son, came to me. So it happens just the way God said. And the court of the prison, according to the word of the eternal, and said, Please buy my field which is in Anathoth, which is in the country of Benjamin, for the right of inheritance is yours, and the redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself. Well, then I knew that this was the word of the Lord. So Jeremiah's saying, Well, God said this would happen. He's doing it because God wanted it to. So I bought the field from Hanom, the son of my uncle, who was in Anathoth. I weighed out to him the money, seventeen shekels of silver.

Oh yeah, the thing I want to mention, he said the right of inheritance. And that was tied to the kinsmen redeemer law. So Jeremiah had what we could call the right of first refusal. So the cousin comes to him and says, You've got the first right to buy this land. So go ahead and I'll sell it to you.

And what I'm not going to read here is Jeremiah would later tell God, it's like, Hey, don't you remember the Babylonians are coming? They're going to overthrow the whole country?

You know, and Jeremiah can't even go to the land. He's in prison.

But the reason God would have him do this is to make a very prophetic point, a very real point.

So this action isn't just symbolic. So we'll get to that. But since it's not just symbolic, he really buys the land and goes through all the legal procedures. And that's where Baruch is going to come back into play in verse 10.

I signed the deed and sealed it, took witnesses and weighed the money on the scales. So I took the purchase deed, both that which was sealed among the law, according to the law and that which was open. So they'd have one deed sealed to put in the archives, one open to be read. And I gave the purchase deed to Baruch, the son of Noriah.

Oh, here's Baruch, still around, 20 years later. I suspect that Jeremiah and he have been working together in this time.

And the presence of the witnesses who signed the purchase deed before all the Jews in the court of the prison.

Baruch seems here to be serving in a legal capacity. As I said, he seems to have been the modern or the ancient equivalent of an attorney or perhaps serving as a clerk of the court who can file these legal documents.

But as I said, you know, you could say, well, is this the first time they've laid eyes on each other in 20 years?

Maybe, but it could be they've been involved.

Because what he's going to do goes beyond just filing the paperwork.

In the next verses, we're going to see that God formally charges him with this prophecy.

And that's what makes me to think they have been working together.

Verse 13, Jeremiah says, Then I charged Baruch before them. So Jeremiah speaks to Baruch, but everyone else there can hear it, and he wants them to.

Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Take these deeds, both the purchase deed which is sealed and the deed which is open, Put them in an earthen vessel that they may last for many days.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.

Okay. Things bad, things bad, bad things are happening.

But I can look beyond that to let you know what's going to happen.

And God will have to re-emphasize that to Jeremiah. I won't read it here today, but it's funny, a little bit later, Jeremiah, it's like he goes in private to have a talk with God and he says, What in the world are you having me do?

You want me to buy this land? Look at the Babylonian army! He says, Look at the siege engines! They're about to destroy the city! I'm never going to get to own that field!

And God says, Yeah, Jeremiah, I know.

But there's a point in this. You're right. The Babylonians are going to conquer and take away your people.

Yet, God says that he will still have mercy.

He promises he'll bring people back.

They're going to buy and sell and own land in Judah again.

There's a happy ending, even in the relatively short term for them.

God promised all the people that it would happen.

And he had Jeremiah take this concrete action to make sure that there's evidence of that.

As I said, this prophecy was given to Baruch in the hearing of everyone else, I think, to make sure that it's going to spread and everyone will know it.

And by this time, I would guess Baruch has probably gotten over the woe is me attitude that he had before. Baruch's probably fully engaged in God's work in spreading the word.

And by doing this, he gets to share a reminder that God's messages through his prophets aren't always bad news.

And that's nice for us to hear true, too, because of the message that we as the church of God proclaim.

We do have to be the bearers of bad news.

We have to sound aloud and tell Israel their sins, as it says in Isaiah 58.

So we have a warning in the short term that mankind is in for suffering.

And I appreciated that the Cincinnati congregations joined with Dayton yesterday. And one of the messages—not yesterday, the day before yesterday, time flies—one of the messages, and so many words pointed out that the Feast of Trumpets has seven trumpets, not just the seventh. And the first six aren't going to be all that pleasant. It's going to be a terrible, awful time for mankind.

But something good is going to come after that.

And in the long term, it's the best news. That's why we call it the gospel. It's good news.

And that's the meaning of all of the fall holy days when we think about it.

Yeah, mankind has been going astray, bringing on destruction, ignoring God, and is going to suffer for it. But there's redemption. There's forgiveness. There's going to be a kingdom of God on earth.

And that's why it gets exciting this time of year. How many of us are talking about, where are you going for the Feast?

You know, nobody talks about where you're going for atonement.

We pretty much know. And I was talking with the students recently in a class about fasting. And I said, yeah, I don't like fasting. I like what it does. I like the results of fasting. And it's kind of like, yeah, I don't like the bad news of the end-time message, but I like what comes after that.

God's plan is one of mercy and redemption for the peoples of Judah and Israel and the whole world.

And that's always been a major part of the message that we've broadcast, that we've printed in magazines and booklets.

And that makes it easier for us to carry on with good cheer when we're spreading that message.

So it makes it possible for us to carry on in our daily lives when we can see the news and think, you know, the leader of Korea might get us into a nuclear war.

I hope that doesn't happen, but if it does, it's not the end of humanity.

As a matter of fact, it brings to mind, how many of you remember, we used to have a booklet that had a picture of a mushroom cloud on the front, and the title was, The World Won't End This Way.

I don't know, I don't think we have that in print, but the message is still true.

The world's not going to end with that.

That makes it possible to carry on our daily lives, can steal us against persecution that might come.

We know that there's an eventual happy ending to our story.

And that same knowledge, I think, was useful, vital, perhaps, to Jeremiah and Baruch.

Because what happened to them next was they were there when the armies overran and did destroy Jerusalem, and were hauling people off in captivity.

As a matter of fact, well, I won't turn there and read the account, but Jeremiah was put in chains, and he was being led off to Babylon.

And Nebuchadnezzar sent a personal messenger, find that Jeremiah guy. I don't think he said guy, but he sent a messenger to find Jeremiah and free him.

And that's what happened. The point in the siege...

Sorry, I'm looking... Oh, I overlooked something I wanted to say before I move on to that part.

Simply that if we remember this whole story we went through, Jeremiah was in prison.

And at one point he was dropped down into a dungeon. You've probably read this, and he sinks in the mire. You know, and he's there thinking, okay, I'm going to die down here until someone gets some ropes and pulls him up.

And I'm sure he wasn't gloating, but I imagine Baruch was at some point saying, today I'm glad I'm not that prophet. You know, sometimes it's good to be tanto and not the lone ranger. And when the lone ranger is in a pit sunk up to his armpits in mud, that's a good day.

But that doesn't mean Baruch was out of touch, that he wasn't still in the game. I imagine he was, and he's active in helping. It's Jeremiah 40, as I said, I'm not going to read through it, but that describes the Babylonians conquering Jerusalem, which was a dark day and sad. And there were a lot of people, I'm sure, were killed in the battle with the Babylonians.

But then, as Jeremiah was being led away and chained with the rest of them, a Babylonian captain of the guard came and freed him and handed him money and supplies. And he said, you are free to go wherever you want. And this was God's doing. He said, if you want, come to Babylon with us and you're going to have a nice, comfortable life. You don't want to go to Babylon, go anywhere you want. You know, he could have gone to Assyria, could have gone down to, well, actually, we'll address going down to Egypt a little bit later. And what's interesting is, well, we know Jeremiah's mission was not over yet. So he doesn't go to Babylon and have a comfortable life. He doesn't move over to Ammon or Persia. He decides to stay there near Jerusalem, living in the ruins with a small number of refugees. And he does something else. The Bible doesn't include this story, but I noticed it's in Josephus' writings where it says that one of the first things Jeremiah did after he was freed is he made a special request. Can you also free my friend Baruch here? And Josephus says they did. They freed him and led, told him you can go wherever you want with Jeremiah. And as I said, the Bible doesn't mention the freeing, but it does show that Baruch is with Jeremiah. A little bit later we'll see that. Now all these refugees, you know, the poor folks, they're already called the poor people of the land who have nothing. A reference for that is in chapter 39 verse 10. Actually, that's just back a page for me. Yeah, Nebuzadah and the captain of the guard left in the land of Judah the poor people who had nothing and gave them the vineyards and fields at the same time.

But being the poor and perhaps not so well educated or knowing what to do, they quickly became pawns. And there were warlords and various leaders of militia groups, I think, going back and forth. And one point they're captured and they're being led off to Ammon and then they're brought back. And they're upset. They're not showing what to do. The governor that Nebuchadnezzar appointed gets assassinated. And the people are thinking, oh no, what are the Babylonians going to do to us now when the guy they put in charge got killed? I want to turn ahead to chapter 42 because they start thinking, well, maybe the safest thing for us to do would be just let's get out of here and go to Egypt. Get away from this fighting beyond the reach of the Babylonians. But wait a minute. Jeremiah is here. Jeremiah knows God. Let's have him ask God if we should do that. At least that's the way they presented it. Let's read the first few verses that says of chapter 42, all the captains of the forces, Johann and the son of Kariya, Jez and I, the son of Hoshiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest came near. And they said to Jeremiah the prophet, please let our petition be acceptable to you. Pray for us to the Lord your God. It's sad at this point that they're not saying the Lord our God, but they're saying pray to the Lord your God for all this remnant since we are left but a few of many as you can see that the Lord your God may show us the way in which we should walk and the thing we should do. Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I've heard indeed I will pray to the Lord your God. And he corrects them. He's not just my God, he's all of our God. According to your words, and it shall be that whatever the Lord answers you I'll declare it to you. I'll keep nothing back from you. It doesn't tell us directly here that Baruch was there, but we're going to see that he was. He was right there along working with Jeremiah.

And there's where I speculate that they had a pretty close working relationship.

So much so that it seems that the people at times got confused over which one of them was the lone ranger and which was Tonto. They're not sure, you know, okay, we're sending Jeremiah to pray to God, but some people think Baruch's the head guy. God's going to send a message back beginning in verse seven. There's a little delay. It says, it happened after 10 days that the word of the eternal came to Jeremiah. He called Johan and the son of Korea and all the captains of the forces which were with him and all the people from the least even to the greatest and said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your petition before him. So this is God's message to them. If you will still remain in this land, then I'll build you and not pull you down. I will plant you, not pluck you up, for I relent concerning the disaster that I brought upon you. That's powerful. God's saying it's been enough. Remember, there's a story during David's reign where God sent a plague on Israel and there was an angel going and killed people, killing thousands of people, but before it got to Jerusalem, God relented and said, It's enough. Stop there. God seems to be saying something similar here. I relent.

And verse 11 says, Don't be afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Don't be afraid of him, says the eternal, for I am with you, to save you and deliver you from his hands, and I will show you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and cause you to return to your own land. So God specifically tells them, Stay here. Stay where you are and I'll take care of you.

And he specifically told them where he did not want them to go. It says in verse 19, to sum it up, The eternalist said concerning you, O remnant of Judah, do not go to Egypt.

No, certainly I've admonished you this day. Excuse me. And it seems that he's telling them that because he knows what's on their minds. It's going to seem that they maybe made a pretense out of asking Jeremiah to go pray to God and ask him what he should do. Because as soon as Jeremiah gives them this message, they reject it.

They're going to accuse Baruch of giving bad counsel. Jeremiah finishes his message.

And then in chapter 43, in the first verse, it says, When it happened, when Jeremiah had stopped speaking to all the people, all the words of the eternal of their God, for which the Lord their God had sent him to them all, these words, that Azariah, the son of Hoshiah, Jeohannan, the son of Korea, and all the proud men spoke, saying to Jeremiah, You speak falsely. The Lord your God has not sent you to say, Do not go to Egypt to dwell there. But Baruch, the son of Nariah, has set you against us to deliver us into the hands of the Chaldeans, that they may put us to death, or carry us away captive to Babylon. It's funny, I wish I had a musical, you know, a score or soundtrack. Because when they say, But Baruch, that's when they go, Dun-dun-dun! I've always found this amusing because I imagine Jeremiah and Baruch work together. But you know, Jeremiah is the spokesman. So I imagine maybe they plan this out. And Jeremiah is up there in front talking to these people. And once Baruch's got everything ready, he can take a break. He's not the one having to do the speaking.

So I'm sure this is probably not exactly how it happened. But in my mind, I always picture Baruch on break eating a sandwich. And they say, Baruch sent you against us. And he's like, What? What did I do? I didn't do anything. It might not have been like that. But we see Baruch's fate still tied with Jeremiah's. And the people refuse to listen. You know, so they're saying, No, we don't believe a word you said. We don't think God gave you this message. And they do exactly what God told them not to. Starting in verse five, Johann and the son of Korea and all the captains of the forces took all the remnant of Judah had who had returned to dwell in the land of Judah from the nations where they'd been driven men, women, children, the king's daughters, and every person who Nebuzarda and the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah, the son of Ahichom, the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah, the prophet and Baruch, the son of Niraiah. All these people are gathered up. And in verse seven, it says, So they went to the land of Egypt, for they did not obey the voice of the Lord, and they went as far as Tapanese. And actually, they'll go on beyond that. But in spite of God telling them specifically, stay here, don't go there. Typical Israelites, which most of us are, oh, I'm gonna go there. It doesn't say clearly whether they forced Jeremiah and Baruch to come with them or not. That's a possibility. But even if they didn't, we know, or we understand, there might have been a very clear reason that Baruch and Jeremiah went. Because we see in this list of all these other people a mention of the king's daughters. And the account earlier says that Zedekiah, you know, after he tried to escape as the city was falling, and they ran him down and caught him. And they brought King Zedekiah's sons, all of his sons before him, and killed him in his sight, which is a very sad, terrible thing. And to make sure that was the last memory of anything he would see, they put out his eyes. And Zedekiah was hauled off in chains, and that's the end of him and his line, it would seem. But evidently, they did not kill King Zedekiah's daughters.

And legend and tradition tells us that at least one of them would play a prominent role in fulfilling a promise that God had made to King David, all the way back in 2 Samuel 7. I'm not going to turn there, but you can make a note of it.

That's the place where David wanted to build a temple, a house for God. And God sent an answer back by Nathan the prophet saying, well, it's good that you wanted to do that, but, David, you've got too much blood on your hands. You've been a warrior and been involved in a lot of warfare. Your son will build a house for me. But while we're talking about it, David, he makes a promise that I'll build you a house. And he uses that as an analogy of a dynasty.

And God would make a promise, and it would be repeated again and again, that at least one of David's descendants would rule over part of the house of Israel in perpetuity. Now, you might say, well, how can that happen? The nation, you know, Israel had been taken captive 120 or 150 years earlier. Now Judah's in captivity. The king's line is killed off. Well, we take it as a point of faith that God fulfilled his promise to David somehow. One strong possibility is the legend that some Israelites, even before the fall of the nation, had begun migrating. That they'd left the land of Israel before the captivity, and some of them had moved up across Europe and then settled in the British Isles. And of course, we focus on the island of Ireland where they were.

And the similar legends say that after the fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah the prophet brought Zedekiah's daughters away from Egypt where they'd been taken across northern Africa and into Spain. And boy, what a great movie that would be. You could see them on camels with a great soundtrack and adventures along the way. They didn't stop in Spain, although one version says one of the daughters there married into a royal family there. But eventually, at least one of the daughters made it, came to Ireland, and married into the royal family, and had a child who carried on the dynasty of David. Our understanding of that's true is that that dynasty ruled in Ireland for some time and eventually was transplanted to Scotland. And then in 1603, in the form of James VI of Scotland and James I of England, became what is now known as the House of Windsor.

Now, as a professional historian, at least trained as a professional historian, you know, I would say that academically we don't treat legends the same as historical documents, but we also don't dismiss them as mere fiction. Now, I personally believe not only this legend could be true, but I think it probably is. Now, I leave room to think God could have fulfilled his promise to David in another way that we don't understand, but there's a lot of reason to think this is true. And one of the reasons I bring this up in the story about Baruch is many versions of the legend say that the king's daughters were brought to Ireland by an aging prophet and his younger assistant. That had to be Baruch. And then he's just known in legend as some young guy that's with the prophet, just like who was that cool American Indian with the masked man. Maybe they didn't know his name, but think Baruch has come a long way from someone who was just brought in to take dictation. He goes from writing down the words of the prophet to being involved in delivering the message and then involved in a vital part of God's work. Baruch and Jeremiah have already had a somewhat happy ending in that God promised, I'll spare your life. And that's something I didn't emphasize as much at the end of chapter 45. God promised Baruch, you know, you're all upset about this, but I'll give you your life as a prize wherever you go. And he promised Jeremiah that earlier. He told Jeremiah, I'll make you like a brass wall. They can't hurt you. Wouldn't you love to have that promise? I think back when I was 16, I would have loved that promise. I'm going to get out my dirt bike and I'm going to build the highest ramp because nothing can hurt me. Well, there's more important ways for that to be fulfilled. And perhaps there were more important ways, you know, maybe even more of a happy ending. And here's where I get my own personal speculation.

And because in Jeremiah chapter 16, I won't turn there, but early on, basically, God gives Jeremiah a personal, specific restriction. He tells Jeremiah, you are not allowed to get married.

You can't get married and have a family, but it says, in this land. And the reason is very clear. There's going to come this destruction, the death. You know, I don't want you to have a family and then have to watch them be in danger and perhaps die. That was pretty rough, I bet. But I always wonder if the restriction was for in this land, what happened when Jeremiah went to Ireland?

You know, I would like to think, and again, this is just me, that perhaps now he's there and maybe he met a fair Irish lass who had a taste for older Jewish men. And he got married. If not Jeremiah, why not Baruch? Or both of them? You know, there's no record that Baruch had a wife for kids before this. So I'm indulging my love of romantic happy endings. But I kind of hope that's the way things might have ended for Baruch and Jeremiah. But even if that didn't happen, there's a better happy ending for them. You know, the day that we just celebrated, as I said, has those first six trumpets, but in the seventh trumpet, remember, the trumpet will sound and the dead in Christ will rise first.

That's almost certainly going to include Jeremiah and Baruch. And I hope all of us.

And then, you know, putting that together, I think we can appreciate the lessons, I hope we can, from the life of Baruch. You know, like him, many of us would like to have comfortable, prosperous lives here and now. And we find that instead God has called us to a different lifestyle.

You know, one where we're living in a time of what seems like the world coming apart at the seams, knowing that there's cataclysmic destruction ahead. Like Baruch, we've been called into the work of God. And like Baruch, most of us have a supporting role in that work. You know, we're not called to be the lone ranger of God's work. We're a lot of tontos. And I'll put myself in there. I have a wonderful position, but it's still, you know, so-so. Well, I don't mean so-so and how much I like it, but you know, I'm not speaking to kings and prime ministers. None of us, you know, like Mr. Armstrong did, we don't have a private jet to go around and preach the gospel to world leaders. And I'm okay with that. I'm happy to be right here, you know, and in my classroom, looking into God's Word with a few people. But we might also share Baruch's fate of drawing persecution for doing God's work, even if we're not the main guy. As I said, when the time comes, they're not just looking for Steve Myers. You know, I like to, well, I don't like to tease them, but since I get to see the Beyond Today presenters sometimes, it's like, yeah, you're the faces, you know, we're in the background. But we can share the promise that God made to Baruch. God promised him, don't worry about what's going to happen, I'll take care of you. Wherever you go, I'll take care of you. That applies to us. Even if physically things get bad, God is keeping our eternal lives safe. That's the destiny for us. And as I said, it's very exciting this time of year, knowing what's coming. We don't have to wonder about the ultimate happy ending. I wonder about Baruch, how his was in this life. But as I said, when that trumpet sounds, I'm looking forward to meeting him. I want to ask him, were you eating a sandwich at that particular time? And he'll probably say, what's a sandwich? But as I said, we don't have to worry about the happy ending that's coming. We can share with him a place in the family and in the kingdom of God. That we look forward to.