Baruch ben Neriah

And many scholars think that the same conflict may have left Jeremiah banned from the temple grounds by this point.

So, instead, what he did was he dictated the words to his scribe, Baruch, who writes them down and then he reads them aloud in his place.

And I think this part is really wild.

So, later in that same chapter, King Jehoakim, he gets a hold of the finished scroll.

He was trying to destroy God's actual words that he had spoken.

But that's not where the story ends.

God has Jeremiah dictate the entire thing to Baruch all over again.

And this time, Scripture says even more words get added to it.

And one suggestion as to why the perakim are not in chronological order is that Yirmiyahu wrote his sefer in a state of great distress after his prophecies of Churban and exile had been realized.

He recorded the nevuot as he remembered them, sifting through the material in his mind and writing them down or dictating them to his student, Baruch ben Neriah, as they came to him.

The first nine perakim that we've studied until now contain prophecies of destruction and exile, foreseeing the devastation of Yerushalayim and the Mikdash, and offering explanations as to why such drastic measures were necessary.

These are early prophecies of Yirmiyahu, relayed during the reign of Yoshiyahu.

We're reading today from Jeremiah chapter forty-five and forty-six.

Chapter forty-five is a little word of comfort to Baruch.

Remember, Baruch is the scribe, the one who's writing down the words of Jeremiah, and he's been discouraged.

He is disheartened.

And we also-- this is a flashback, in case you're wondering.

Remember, the Book of Jeremiah is not incredibly chronological, so this is going back to before even the, uh, complete destruction of Jerusalem and before he and Baruch and Jeremiah were carted off to Egypt.

Also, chapter forty-six begins this section of God's words of condemnation, God's words of judgment, essentially, on the nations surrounding Judah.

So that goes from forty-six to fifty-one, so that's gonna be what's happening today and the next couple days, as well as Lamentations chapter one.

Jeremiah 43 When Jeremiah had finished giving this message from the Lord their God to all the people, Azariah son of Heshiah and Johanan son of Kareah and all the other proud men said to Jeremiah, You lie! The Lord our God hasn't forbidden us to go to Egypt.

Baruch son of Noriah has convinced you to say this because he wants us to stay here and be killed by the Babylonians or be carried off into exile.

So Johanan and the other military leaders and all the people refused to obey the Lord's command to stay in Judah.

Johanan and the other leaders took with them all the people who had returned from the nearby countries to which they had fled.

In the crowd were men, women, and children, the king's daughters, and all those who Nebuchadnezzar, the captain of the guard, had left with Gedaliah.

The prophet Jeremiah and Baruch were also included.

The people refused to obey the voice of the Lord and went to Egypt, going as far as the city of Tephanes.

Then at Tephanas the Lord gave another message to Jeremiah.

Instead, Johanan, son of Korea, and all the army leaders took along the whole remnant of Judah that had been dispersed among the nations, and had returned thence to dwell again in the land of Judah.

Men, women, and children, the princesses, and everyone whom Nebuchadnezzar, captain of the bodyguard, had entrusted to Gedaliah, son of Ahikam, son of Shaphan, also Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch son of Neriah.

Against the Lord's command they went to Egypt, and arrived at Tephanies.

Pray to the Lord your God for us, and for all this remnant.

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: "Take a scroll, and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today.

It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I intend to do to them, so that everyone may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin." Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote upon a scroll, at the dictation of Jeremiah, all the words of the Lord which he had spoken to him.

And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, "I am debarred from going to the house of the Lord, so you are to go, and on a fast day, in the hearing of all the people in the Lord's house, you shall read the words of the Lord from the scroll which you have written at my dictation.

You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities.

It may be that their supplication will come before the Lord, and that everyone will turn from his evil way; for great is the anger and the wrath that the Lord has pronounced against this people." And Baruch the son of Neriah did all that Jeremiah the prophet ordered him about reading from the scroll the words of the Lord in the Lord's house.

In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, all the people in Jerusalem and all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem proclaimed a fast before the Lord.

Then, in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read the words of Jeremiah from the scroll in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord's house.

When Micaiah the son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, he went down to the king's house, into the secretary's chamber, and all the princes were sitting there.