Baruch

My name is Baruch. I am the prophet Jeremiah’s secretary.
Come with me now back to the grim times of the Hebrew prophets.
Dark clouds of oppression gather around Judah, especially to the East.
Babylonia, Syria and Moab are all threatening us.

Prompter & Echoes

600 years before Christ.

Baruch

Oh! Here is the prophet Isaiah.
Tell us, please, how God commissioned
you to warn and console Judah’s people.

Isaiah

In King Uzziah’ final year, I see the Lord high and exalted on a throne;
the train of His robe fills the temple. Winged seraphim cry out,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the earth is full of His glory.”
The foundations tremble, the temple fills with smoke, and I cry out.

Prompter & Echoes

Woe is me!

Isaiah

I am ruined! I have unclean lips, and I have seen the Lord of hosts.
One of the seraphim flies to me; he touches my lips with a burning coal!
He says, “Your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
The Lord calls “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
I reply, “Here am I.”

Prompter & Echoes

Send me!

Isaiah

The Lord sends me to warn both Judah and the pagan nations around her
that He will punish their wickedness and idolatry severely.

Baruch

How fearful!

Isaiah

There is a brighter side. The God of the whole earth will send a Messiah,
a descendent of David, born of a virgin, whose name will be Immanuel,
meaning God with us. He will establish God’s kingdom, and make Jerusalem a truly holy city. The word Messiah, or Christ in Greek,
means an anointed King. He will come to His people.

Baruch

I will read what you prophesied about Him.
“He bore our griefs and our sorrows; He was pierced for our crimes;
our punishment fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed.
All of us like sheep have gone astray,
each of us has turned to his own way;
but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.
Like a lamb led to slaughter, and a sheep that is silent
before its shearers, He did not open His mouth.”

Prompter & Echoes

Lamb of God!

Baruch

Isaiah, God has shown you things far in the future.

Isaiah

Yes, He told me, “Look, I create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things will not be remembered or come to mind.”

Baruch

We move on in time. Those dark clouds of oppression are now closer;
God’s prophets repeatedly warn the people to repent, or be punished.
Let us meet another of those holy seers.

Jeremiah

I am Jeremiah. The Holy One tells me, “I put My words in your mouth.”
His words are harsh; he condemns Judah for their sins and faithlessness.

Prompter & Echoes

And Jeremiah weeps!

Baruch

I have been recording your prophecies on this scroll, Jeremiah.
You warn that the Babylonians would capture Judah.
Our King Jehoiakim knows about it, and demands a copy of that scroll.

Jeremiah

When his scribe reads a few columns, the King cuts them with a knife,
and throws them into the fire, until it consumes the whole scroll.

Prompter & Echoes

Oh no!

Jeremiah

But God tells me to repeat those prophecies, Baruch. Write them again.

Baruch

Jeremiah suffers many abuses; adversaries throw him into a pit of miry clay.
Those dark clouds of oppression are moving closer and closer.
Jeremiah, soon King Nebuchadnezzar will capture our land and carry its inhabitants to Babylon.

Jeremiah

Yes. Everyone is selling their land for whatever they can get for it,
because it will soon be taken by the invaders.
However, I had prophesied that God would one day
bring his people back, so I bought a field for 17 shekels of silver
and preserved its deed in an earthen jar,
to show that I am confident that God will someday bring us back t
o our land; my descendants will then own that field.

Baruch

Ezekiel warns and consoles.
He sees God’s shining glory leave the temple, rise over Jerusalem,
and finally, sadly, go out of sight. Ezekiel also sees a valley of dry bones;
they come together, take on flesh and live.

Prompter & Echoes

New life!

Baruch

Ezekiel also sees a vision of Messiah entering a New Jerusalem,
but those dark clouds of oppression are now sweeping over Judah. Jerusalem falls to the Babylonians, and they march us 1000 miles away
in chains; children die along the way.

Prompter & Echoes

How painfully sad!

Baruch

Pagan soldiers make us sing for their entertainment.
They do not know what we are singing in Hebrew,
or they would run us through with their swords.
We are singing about bashing their children against the rocks!

Prompter & Echoes

How terrible!

Baruch

Yes, it is terrible. We Jews are captives in a pagan land for 70 years.
Then God brings His repentant people back,
and we will never again worship idols.
Things are not yet perfect; there still is war and oppression.

Prompter & Echoes

Come, blessed Messiah, come!