“During the fourth year that Jehoiakim son of Josiah was king in Judah, the Lord gave this message to Jeremiah: “Get a scroll, and write down all my messages against Israel, Judah, and the other nations. Begin with the first message back in the days of Josiah, and write down every message, right up to the present time. Perhaps the people of Judah will repent when they hear again all the terrible things I have planned for them. Then I will be able to forgive their sins and wrongdoings.”
Jeremiah 36:1-3
What a hard life for a spokesperson for God. We have the book of Jeremiah because he was told to write things down. And, Jeremiah being obedient, did just that.
He had a scribe (which by the way ended up becoming Pharisees in the New Testament, (LONG story) write down everything that God had told him. All the “prophetic” words of warning, future possibilities and what God was thinking about and communicating to his people at that time.
Whoa! This long line of communication style, from Adam to Noah, Abraham to Moses and now to Prophets, Judges and even Kings was an amazing precursor to Jesus speaking as God Himself!
So Baruch wrote them on a scroll. Then after writing down all these memos from God, Jeremiah tells Baruch, “get down to the temple and read these things to the leaders over Israel, Judah AND “other” nations. These words need a larger audience BECAUSE there’s a chance, a hope, a possibility that people will hear the words (and warnings) and REPENT.
Why would they repent, because the stuff that God says he will do to them will be terrible! That ought to get their attention, right? Well, just about the time we, the reader might think, “yeah, this is going to work!” People will hear the FUTURE and change their ways. Alas, not so much.
Baruch does read and gets not one but two interested audiences. One is a more public reading, the other a private one.
In the private reading two things happen. First the guys tell Baruch, HIDE! What? Yeah, you and Jeremiah hide and don’t tell anyone where you are. Second, we’ve got to read these to King Jehoiakim immediately.
The scrolls make it all the way to the palace! Jeremiah records what happens when the God-memos make it all the way to the King. The next scene reads right out of some ancient, gothic novel (36:22-24) – “It was late autumn, and the king was in a winterized part of the palace, sitting in front of a fire to keep warm. Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then THREW IT INTO THE FIRE 🔥 , section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up. Neither the king nor his attendants showed any signs of fear or repentance at what they heard.”
What? You’ve got to kidding me. Can you even imagine the creator of the entire universe sending you a personal letter telling you what is going to happen and giving you fair warning to get your act together for your sake and the entire country and you casually, but defiantly cut it up piece by piece and flippantly fling it into the royal fireplace? OMG.
We are such a piece of work! That takes some kind of huge human cojones to openly defy God himself. At some point, it seems so ridiculously dark but humorous! Who do we think we are?
Yet, even in that amount of shear audacity of arrogance, God goes through with his plans to save and redeem us. Even guys like King joker-Jehoiakim. This puts a whole new look on Paul’s words to the churches in Rome (5:8), “EVEN while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us!” And, sadly there those, even though they are warned about the future, their future, will take the words of God, sit in front of their cozy fireplace and smugly cut and throw his words into the fire. God help us!
PRAYER
Dad,
Again, I have to see this all in the reality of my own life. I can be aghast at the behaviors of old, egotistical even maniacal kings and think, what a loser. But the truth is so hard. I look into the perfect mirror of your word and see reflections of my own will, selfishness and stubbornness.
Even knowing the warnings and the effects of my own sin, yet still I fail. I am so thankful for your grace and mercy. I am so thankful for confession and repentance. I am also unworthy, yet you still love me.