It was a bittersweet word. Baruch, Jeremiah’s assistant, was overcome with grief. He felt like the Lord added sorrow on top of sorrow and he was warn out with groaning.
Jeremiah said the LORD had a Word for him. You tell me, is it encouraging or discouraging?
‘This is what the Lord says: I will overthrow what I have built and uproot what I have planted, throughout the earth. 5 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.’”
It is the promise of impending destruction for all of Jerusalem and Judah, all that Baruch loved. It was the promise of disaster. It was the admonition to not seek great things for himself, because God was decreeing disaster. But he was to know this.
He would escape with his life.
It was such a bittersweet word.
Sometimes God honors people by letting them not face the same destruction that will come upon others. At the same time, they are witnesses to it all. Perhaps when we get a word like that, it’s also our admonition to pray that God will use us to serve those who are suffering.
I also think of Baruch as an assistant. We tend to focus on Jeremiah as the one who suffered. But Baruch suffered too. He put his life on the line as well. And he needed strength to fulfill his duty to the LORD and to Jeremiah. When he got to a place beyond low, the LORD both rebuked and encouraged him.
