It is very interesting to sometimes stop on characters who are invisible in the Bible. My brother, my sister, every little detail in the Word of God is a great teaching for us. Today, let’s look at Baruch. This man had long been serving an unpopular prophet, Jeremiah. He was in fact a kind of secretary to Jeremiah (Jeremiah 36:4). And Baruch has so much to teach us through his own experience.
There was a time when Jeremiah was banned from the temple, after making the religious leaders angry with his prophecies, so, Jeremiah asked him to write what he wanted to say to the people of Israel: “I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the Lord’s temple. 6 So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated” (Jeremiah 36:5-6). And Baruch boldly did as he was advised (verse 8) despite knowing the dangers involved in this assignment. And after Baruch did this, he now found himself in trouble for obeying Jeremiah. But look at what happened. Instead of Baruch being punished, the people who could have sanctioned him told him they still need to report him to the king but “Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don’t let anyone know where you are” (Jeremiah 36:19). What does this teach us? Obedience is much better than sacrifice (1 Samuel 3:22 ). Baruch obeyed Jeremiah who was sending a message from God to a disobedient people, and God was going to allow these people to protect Baruch from the King’s anger despite the fact that they still had to obey the King by reporting Baruch and Jeremiah. Our problem sometimes is fear and the lack of courage. God does not recognize Himself in us when we choose to disobey Him for fear of what people would say or do, because He is able to turn what is supposed to harm us into something good so that many may be saved (Genesis 50:20).
My friend, Baruch was serving God through his service to Jeremiah. How are you serving God? People sometimes want to serve God directly without anyone in between. Serving God is serving others first. Jesus made Himself our servant by serving His disciples. Serving the Lord is making ourselves humble before the others. My friend, if you can’t serve man that you see every day wholeheartedly, how can you serve God? And we can serve wholeheartedly only when we love really: That is the reason why the Bible recalls us all that: “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16). Stay blessed in Jesus’ name.