October 20, 2011 – Baruch 4

I always take heart when I read things about “not for destruction” in verse 6.  Things are not allowed to happen to us for our destruction, but to save us, to help us rely on God, to move us in the right direction.  We are to turn back to him “ten times the more to seek Him” verse 28. 

These nations that brought Israel into exile, they don’t benefit in the long run for doing so.  We may think that God was cruel to Israel for the exile, but it was a temporary thing.  The nations that did it are no longer around and were destroyed.  It is almost like the saying “to good to be true”.  These nations walked in and without much resistance, because God was allowing them, took over these lands.  But theirs was a temporary claim, even though they did not realize this.  They were going to pay for what they have received.  Much like a person who clicks on some link to get free millions later gets a virus that hurts their credit score.  What you gain in the long run is not worth the risk, yet people will go after it and that is what those nations were looking at, the present gain.