Day 157 · Part 9: Exile
Baruch’s Book (2 of 2)
In the Story
In context
Baruch 4–5, in Catholic and Orthodox Bibles, comfort the captives. Jerusalem speaks as a widow who has seen her sons and daughters carried away (Baruch 4:9–16), and then tells them, “Take courage, my children. Cry to God, and he will deliver you” (4:21).
At the end she is told to take off “the garment of your mourning” and look east to see her children coming home, with every high mountain made low and the valleys filled to make the ground level, much as Isaiah says, “every mountain and hill shall be made low” (4:36–5:7; Isaiah 40:4).
Chapter 6, the Letter of Jeremy (Jeremiah), warns those being led to Babylon about the gods they will see there, made of wood overlaid with gold and silver, which “can’t speak,” can’t save themselves from rust and moths, and are like “a scarecrow in a garden of cucumbers” (Baruch 6:4–12, 70). Again and again it says, “Don’t fear them,” as Jeremiah says of idols, “Don’t be afraid of them” (6:29; Jeremiah 10:5).
You have turned my mourning into dancing for me. You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness,
Psalms 30:11 · Jerusalem is told to take off “the garment of your mourning”; the psalm says, “You have removed my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness.”
For families
Baruch pictures Jerusalem as a mother: “For I sent you out with mourning and weeping, but God will give you to me again with joy and gladness forever” (Baruch 4:23). At the end she is told to look east and see her children gathered and coming home (5:5).
Who in your family lives far away, and what would you do together if they came home?
In the Bible
World English Bible, as published by eBible.org (public domain).
Baruch 4
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Baruch 5
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Baruch 6
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A hymn for today
It Is Well with My Soul · words by Horatio G. Spafford
- When peace, like a river, attendeth my way,When sorrows like sea billows roll;Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say,It is well, it is well with my soul.RefrainIt is well with my soul,It is well, it is well with my soul.
- Though Satan should buffet, though trials should come,Let this blest assurance control,That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate,And hath shed His own blood for my soul.RefrainIt is well with my soul,It is well, it is well with my soul.
- My sin—oh, the bliss of this glorious thought!—My sin, not in part but the whole,Is nailed to the cross, and I bear it no more;Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!RefrainIt is well with my soul,It is well, it is well with my soul.
- And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight,The clouds be rolled back as a scroll;The trump shall resound, and the Lord shall descend;Even so, it is well with my soul.RefrainIt is well with my soul,It is well, it is well with my soul.