Here let us read Jeremiah 45:1-3:

⁶ “The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah when he wrote in a book these words from the mouth of Jeremiah in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, the king of Judah, saying: ‘This is what Jehovah the God of Israel has said concerning you, O Baruch, “You have said: ‘Woe, now, to me, for Jehovah has added grief to my pain! I have grown weary because of my sighing, and no resting-place have I found.’”’”

8. To Baruch, what did Jehovah now disclose to be his purpose, but what was Baruch seeking for himself?

⁸ Baruch had no prospect of a “resting-place” for himself. Jehovah noted the inward inclination of Baruch and told Jeremiah to say to him: “This is what Jehovah has said: ‘Look! What I have built up I am tearing down, and what I have planted I am uprooting, even all the land itself. But as for you, you keep seeking great things for yourself. Do not keep on seeking.’”​—Jer. 45:4, 5.

9, 10. Why did Jehovah have reason to disapprove of Baruch’s seeking “great things” for himself at that time?

⁹ Baruch knew what “great things” he was seeking for himself, although Jehovah did not state them to him. Evidently Jehovah did not approve of them, and so he should stop seeking them. Why?

¹⁰ It was because of Jehovah’s immediate purpose. In that very year he had raised up Nebuchadnezzar as king of Babylon, and this was the one whom he purposed to use as his executioner against Baruch’s people. Particularly from the days of King David (1077-1037 B.C.E.), Jehovah had built up the kingdom of Israel, but now, by means of Nebuchadnezzar, he was about to tear down that royal government, to continue out of action for 2,520 years, or until 1914 of our own century. Back in 1473 B.C.E., Jehovah had planted the nation of Israel in the Promised Land, but now, after more than 800 years, he was about to uproot it. For 70 years the land of the kingdom of Judah was to lie empty of Jew and domestic animal, while its people were in exile in the land of Nebuchadnezzar. In view of such impending things, was it the appropriate time for a man who knew of Jehovah’s purpose as proclaimed by Jeremiah to be seeking “great things” of a personal kind for himself? Not at all!

11. What depended upon Baruch’s making the right decision, and that now?

¹¹ That is why Jehovah told him to stop seeking such things. What if Baruch kept on seeking selfish things? Could he then have any heart harmony with the message that he was being used to write down and to proclaim? No! Some sort of break between him and Jehovah’s prophet Jeremiah would certainly follow. If Baruch wanted to keep in heart harmony with Jeremiah and his message, then he would have to stifle selfish ambition. There were 18 years yet to pass till the foretold calamity, and yet it was now necessary for Baruch to make a decision. His very life, his “soul,” depended upon his making the right decision, yes, sticking to it. This he had to do if he wanted to keep his ties unbroken.