The fourth year of Jehoiakim” leads us back to chapter 36:1-8. It was then that God had bidden Jeremiah to put in writing all that He had told him, and the prophet had called upon Baruch, a scribe, to do the work at his dictation. The realization of the bitter cup which Judah would have to drink, with a deepening sense of the nation’s sins as viewed by a holy God, overcame Baruch with grief as he wrote down what Jeremiah told him. He could foresee the breaking up of his own home-ties and everything that a godly Israelite counted dear—a hard thing to bear, as anyone would agree, but we must remember, too, that not until the proclamation of the gospel of the grace of God, following the atoning death of Christ, was peace with God known, or the security of the believer. Baruch could hope for God’s mercy, but lacked the certainty of it; that was reserved until the death of Christ and His resurrection and exaltation as Man to the right hand of God (Acts 2). Well might he then be weary with his sighing, finding no rest.
Verse 5: “Seekest thou great things for thyself? Seek them not”, is a word as appropriate for the believer now as then. The world in which. Baruch lived was about to meet its judgment—not finally, of course, but enough to put an end to all that Judah meant as a kingdom; the world that now is, is 2500 years near the last and utterly unsparing judgment, which cannot now be far off. Ere the thunders of divine wrath begin to sound, all that are Christ’s will be gathered in the ‘Father’s house above, with their Lord; and His word, which we believe is just now speaking afresh to the hearts of His own, is, “Surely I come quickly!” May it be ours to look for Him with increasing desire, while faithfully performing our daily tasks.