The entry for today uses the last part of the verse from yesterday (we skipped the middle for some reason, perhaps tomorrow). The King James version uses the phrase, “I will give thee thy life for a prey” and the Hebrew uses a word normally used for “plunder” or “booty”; think “spoils of war” and so on. One interesting qualifier is the phrase, “in every place you walk there”, which to me means that Baruch could walk anywhere he chose, and Yahweh would still provide him his soul for his labor on the side of Yahweh.
Have you ever seen movies, read books, or heard stories where the captor releases a captive and when the captive asks to take something with them, the captor says, “you leave alive, that is enough” or something to that effect. It never sounds like much of a gift, but on the other hand the captive might be seen as fortunate. The captor still retains the tough bad-boy exterior while making a concession which is “good” in some sense. That is not my Master in this case. The middle portion of the verse reads, “For behold I bring in evil on all flesh.” That term, “all flesh” would ordinarily include Baruch. So, the gift of his life, and giving that gift in any place he goes really is a nice gift. It is far more than the rest of the nation receives. Jerusalem is about to be wiped out like a dish, and that is not something a priest or Levite wants to be a part of.
There is a danger I fall into indicated in the thought flitting through my mind that my Master has somehow “shorted” me. I look around me at what others might have, or what others might be doing (even for my Master), and envy sneaks up and through my mind. I am not content with what my Master has given to me. Sometimes I quickly ascribe my lack to my habitual sinfulness, but not always. Envy does sometime remain. That is the sort of thing to which Chambers is referring in his discussion of abandonment to my Master. If I envy what He has done for others, then I am not abandoned to my Master. If I am abandoned to my Master, then I everything I have from Him is gravy on top of what I already have been given, my life in every place I walk.
If you have the entries from January and February, you may have run across or remember my struggles with fears. If my Master has promised me my life in every place I walk, then I have nothing to fear. I am about to “walk” out of this state and move, lock, stock, and barrel, several states over. The truck is reserved. We have two months. Still no job, no house per se, so really we walk the rope blindfolded. But my Master is the net below, and we follow His voice. Guided by this “spiritual sonar” we trust in the promise from my Master that He gives us our life in every place we walk. The hard part is that we want more than just our “life”, we want a “comfortable life”, a life of relative ease, to retire before retirement, to have all we want without accumulating wealth. It doesn’t work that way, and we know it. The promise from my Master is our life, not our ease or comfort.
So, today, I will seek the Kingdom of my Master and His righteousness. I will allow my Master to provide as He sees fit. I will be content with my life since all around me people are headed for destruction. I will be thankful, and count the blessings along the way to work (like that I have a car to drive there – public transportation take over 2 hours to take me 8 miles and puts me there 20 minutes late, is that crazy or what?). I will love the Lord my God with all my heart and soul today. For He has given them to me for plunder. Arg! Avast there matey and man the cannon!
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