“But it’s not my fault!” Maybe that’s how you feel when you look at the economic and social problems swirling around us today. Maybe you really don’t care about anyone else’s skintone and you really try to make sure everyone gets a fair shake. Maybe you’ve been faithful to your marriage vows and tried to bring up your children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Maybe you’ve worked hard at your job or tried to treat your employees fairly. Maybe you’ve paid your taxes and paid your bills. Maybe you’ve abstained from street drugs and you’ve used alcohol in a responsible way.

So, maybe you aren’t to blame for the race hatred and violence that is all too common across our country. Maybe you aren’t to blame for the 60 million abortions that have taken place in this country since 1973. Maybe you aren’t to blame for the collapse of the family, and all the poverty, illiteracy, and violence that have followed in its wake. Maybe you aren’t to blame for the drug users stumbling through our streets or camping out in our parks or stealing from our houses and cars in order to get their next fix.

And that was Baruch’s situation in today’s passage. He had been a faithful servant of Jeremiah, even risking his life to write down all the unpopular words that God had told Jeremiah to say. Yes, Baruch was one of the good guys – and yet, he suffered just as much in the siege and the conquest of Jerusalem as all the unfaithful idolaters did. Why did Baruch have to go through all that pain and sorrow, all that groaning and weariness (45:3) when he had done nothing wrong?

Why? Because the Lord had determined that His people’s sin was so great that nothing short of “uprooting the whole land” would put an end to it (45:4). And there’s just no way to have that level of social upheaval without the faithful among God’s people sharing in the suffering of the sinners. After all, everyone in the American South didn’t own slaves or even approve of slavery in 1861, but all of them, black and white, suffered greatly from the devastation of the Civil War and its aftermath.

In the same way, it would be wrong for any of us American Christians to expect that we will somehow be immune from the serious consequences of our broader culture’s sins. We should not ambitiously “seek great things” (45:5) if God has instead called us to suffer along with our unfaithful neighbors.

But at the same time, we can be sure that the Lord will protect us, just as He promised to protect Baruch (45:5). For if we have placed our trust in Christ as our Savior and bowed the knee to Him as our Lord, what suffering can separate us from His great love (Romans 8:35)? And what worldly blessings that we might lose are worth anything when compared to the eternal life He has promised to us (Philippians 3:8)?

Jeremiah 45:1-5 (NASB)

This is the message which Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he had written down these words in a book at Jeremiah’s dictation, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying:
2 “Thus says the LORD the God of Israel to you, O Baruch:
3 ‘You said, “Ah, woe is me! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain; I am weary with my groaning and have found no rest.”‘
4 “Thus you are to say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD, “Behold, what I have built I am about to tear down, and what I have planted I am about to uproot, that is, the whole land.”
5 ‘But you, are you seeking great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I am going to bring disaster on all flesh,’ declares the LORD, ‘but I will give your life to you as booty in all the places where you may go.'”