Greatness or Gratitude?
8/6/26 Bible Thought (Jeremiah 45-46)
Main Idea: Believers shouldn’t seek personal greatness or reward but be thankful for the life God has given to them.
A Look at the Text:
In today’s text, once again we see a flashback to an earlier time. Chronologically, Jeremiah 45 is connected to Jeremiah 36 with the prophet’s ministry before King Jehoiakim. With this, Baruch the scribe is back on stage again as a major character.
Baruch had complained about his plight.
He was upset that God had added sorrow to his pain (Jer. 45:3). It was hard being the scribe for the prophet Jeremiah. No one appreciated Jeremiah’s messages. No king heeded his calls. Certainly then, being the delivery man for these messages of doom and gloom wasn’t popular. Baruch was experiencing hardships he hadn’t signed up for.
To this, God responded with an unapologetic message of coming problems (Jer. 45:4). He was going to break down and pluck up the whole land of Judah.
Then, with upheaval in mind, the Lord admonished Baruch not to seek great things for himself. Instead, he should be glad that he would have his life through it all (Jer. 45:4-5).
In the following chapters, we’ll see God’s tearing down of not only Judah but the nations themselves, beginning with Egypt. Pharaoh Neco would face defeat at the hands of Nebuchadnezzar (Jer. 46:2). Although the Egyptians thought they could rise and cover the earth (Jer. 46:8), they would be cut down (Jer. 46:10-12).
Bringing it Home:
Life can often be harder than we expected. It is frustrating when we are experiencing hardships we didn’t necessarily sign up for. Baruch experienced this firsthand.
Being the scribe of a prophet sounds special and important, that is, until no one says “Amen!” to the message. But that didn’t mean that God wasn’t good. For Baruch to simply have his life during the Babylonian siege was a great gift that many didn’t enjoy.
For us, we might not have the same specific promise that Baruch was given of making it through the Babylonian siege with our lives intact; however, we can still rejoice at the present life God has given to us, even if it’s not always the life that we might have wanted. For, at the end of the day, life itself is a gift.
As the Teacher once observed in Ecclesiastes, “Light is sweet, and it is pleasant for the eyes to see the sun” (Ecc. 11:7). Being above ground is a blessing and reason for gratitude.
We might desire greatness, but we should be thankful if God simply grants us life.
Then, even more, we ought to be thankful for the hope of eternity found in Jesus Christ. God may not have promised us an easy life, but He has promised us eternal life (Titus 1:2).
With this in mind, we should avoid the temptation to complain about the life God has given us, as if we merited greatness.
If we are here, that is enough.
If one day we will be with Christ, we should be able to serve Him with a smile even if we wished things were different today.
Challenge:
Do I think I am entitled to a better life than I presently enjoy because I serve God?