Archaeologists in Israel never know what they’ll find next, and some of their discoveries can confirm the identities of certain Bible characters. For example, in 1975, workers found pieces of two hundred different bullae, which are seals made by imprinting a stamp onto clay. When the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, much of the city was burned, including libraries of ancient documents. But the clay seals on those documents were hardened in the fire and preserved.

The cache of bullae found in 1975 reportedly dates from the days of Jeremiah, and one of the seals has been identified as belonging to Jeremiah’s assistant, Baruch. On the upper left side of the seal is a clear impression of a fingerprint, perhaps belonging to Baruch himself. The authenticity of the seal is disputed, but it’s fascinating to think we may have a fingerprint from one of the men who wrote a portion of Scripture, as Baruch did under Jeremiah’s guidance.

Baruch is one of those minor characters in the Bible whose example encourages us to be faithful wherever we are. He was Jeremiah’s assistant and scribe, and the two men stood shoulder to shoulder amid a crumbling nation. Baruch lived in days like our own. Some of the older people remembered the great revivals of the past, but the younger generation had never known a time that wasn’t corrupt. The nation’s leadership went from bad to worse, and the culture took a downward turn from which it would not recover.

Jeremiah stood firm to the end, but he needed help. God gave him an assistant, Baruch, who left his fingerprints on the history of the Kingdom of God. Baruch defined his imprint on the world, and his example shows us how to do the same.

Live a Blessed Life

First, Baruch reminds us we are blessed. That’s our identity and our very name. The word Baruch means “blessed.” He is identified in the Bible as “Baruch the son of Neriah,” and the word Neriah means “the Lord is my Lamp.” What a great identity! Baruch knew he was blessed, and he came from a family who walked in the light of the Lord.

The book of Ephesians says, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ…. Walk as children of light” (Ephesians 1:3; 5:8).

You may not feel blessed right now—perhaps you’re battling a bad case of discouragement or frustration—but we are blessed in Christ all the time. We simply have to remind ourselves to walk in the light and acknowledge the Lord as our Lamp.

Years ago, a ministerial student asked Dr. H. Edwin Young, a pastor in South Carolina, about a pastor’s role. “What does a pastor do?” Dr. Young replied, “It’s not what I do that counts. It’s who I am. Being always comes before doing.” That’s true whatever our role, and at the very heart of our being is awareness that we are blessed with the light of the Lord, our Lamp. We have to decide we’re going to identify with God’s blessings.

Help Others With Their Ministry

Second, we can leave an imprint by helping others with their ministry. In Jeremiah 32, the Lord told Jeremiah to purchase a field outside Jerusalem in an area under Babylonian domination. In other words, the land was worthless, a fool’s investment. But the Lord wanted Jeremiah to symbolically demonstrate the future was bright for Israel. One day land would be bought and sold once again. Since Jeremiah was in prison, he needed someone to help with the transaction, and Baruch was there.

Jeremiah 32:12 says, “I gave the purchase deed to Baruch the son of Neriah.” And Baruch superintended the legal processing of the document.

Your greatest work might be helping others with theirs. We shouldn’t always be in the spotlight or performing in the center ring. If we can help someone else fulfill God’s will, we are making an imprint on the world with multiplied influence. Motivational writer Napoleon Hill said, “It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed.”

Look around you—in your church or community. Instead of asking, “What can I do?” ask yourself, “How can I help someone else in what they are doing?” It sheds a different light on things.

Proclaim the Message of God

The next time we see Baruch in Scripture is in Jeremiah 36. Jeremiah is unable to move freely in Jerusalem, but God’s Word isn’t restricted. The Lord told the prophet to write down some messages, and verse 4 says, “Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book, at the instruction of Jeremiah.”

The passage goes on to say: “And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, ‘I am confined, I cannot go into the house of the Lord. You go, therefore, and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the Lord’s house’” (verses 5-6).

That took enormous courage, but Baruch faithfully ascended to the temple, read Jeremiah’s sermon, proclaimed the Lord’s message, and faced the ensuing controversy. The authorities called him into the scribe’s chamber and demanded he read the words privately to them. “So Baruch read it in their hearing. Now it happened, when they had heard all the words, that they looked in fear from one to another, and said to Baruch, ‘We will surely tell the king of all these words’” (verses 15-16).

Baruch had to go into hiding, but he was determined to proclaim the message of God boldly, regardless of its reception.

To make an imprint on our world, we must remember we are stewards of the Gospel of Christ and we must proclaim it boldly. If people reject our message, we should remind ourselves that the rejection of the Truth is nothing new. Jeremiah and Baruch tried to persuade their generation, but the king cut up the scroll with a penknife and burned the pieces in the fire; but he could not destroy the Word of God or thwart its purpose (verse 23).

Seek Great Things for God

To define our imprint on the world, then, we have to be joyful and blessed, people who know how to walk in the light of God. We must look around to find others we may help and support in their ministry. And we must be willing to proclaim the Gospel, even if it’s not well received. But there’s one more fascinating passage devoted to Baruch—an entire chapter, albeit a short one.

The book of Jeremiah is quite long, but this one chapter contains only five verses—chapter 45, which is addressed exclusively to Baruch and is a personal message from God to the scribe, in which the Lord said to him: “And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them” (verse 5).

Notice the verse does not warn us against seeking great things. It warns us against seeking great things for ourselves.

The Lord warned Baruch that time was short for the future of Judah, that destruction was coming, that Babylon was mustering its troops, and that the accumulation of wealth or fame in Judah would be short-lived. Instead of seeking fame and fortune, Baruch understood he must make his mark on the world in another way, by seeking great things for God and fulfilling His will even if the process appeared small and hopeless.

Very often the great things God wants us to do involve being faithful in the little things that come our way. A useful life is one in which we go about the Lord’s will for us with faithful, daily determination, prayerfully doing God’s will in a thousand little ways and trusting Him to turn our small efforts into great results for His glory.

Let’s be like Baruch. When we’re gone from this planet, our fingerprints will still cling to this world. We will leave an imprint on this planet, and we can define it now. We must determine to leave the right mark on our age by recognizing how blessed we are to walk in the light, by helping others with their ministries, by proclaiming the Gospel, and by seeking great things, not for ourselves but for Christ and His Kingdom.