The Book of Baruch is named after the scribe of the Prophet Jeremiah. However, since there is not a Hebrew version of the book, Martin Luther excluded it from what has become the Protestant Bible. (The way certain passages are written suggests they were translated from Hebrew but no text has been found.) Baruch addresses the people at the time of the exile and continues the themes present in Jeremiah. We did not heed the voice of the Lord, our God, in all the words of the prophets whom he sent us, but each one of us went off after the devices of his own wicked heart. We are challenged today to ask not if God is with us but if we are with God.
