We saw Baruch, Jeremiah’s secretary, in the episode about Burning the Scroll. From Baruch’s point of view, the king’s defiance just produced more work for Baruch!

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire… (Jeremiah 36.32, ESV)

Then in Jeremiah 45, Baruch’s complaints are reviewed from God’s point of view:

The word that Jeremiah the prophet spoke to Baruch the son of Neriah, when he wrote these words in a book at the dictation of Jeremiah, in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah: “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, to you, O Baruch: You said, ‘Woe is me! For the LORD has added sorrow to my pain. I am weary with my groaning, and I find no rest.’” (Jeremiah 45.1 – 3, ESV)

Yep. Life is tough, and judgment is on Jerusalem:

Thus shall you say to him, Thus says the LORD: Behold, what I have built I am breaking down, and what I have planted I am plucking up—that is, the whole land. (Jeremiah 45.4, ESV)

And here’s a word for Baruch…and for us all. It’s one of my favorite short rebukes in the Bible:

And do you seek great things for yourself? Seek them not. (Jeremiah 45.5, ESV)