March 8, Jeremiah 36
Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them. - Jeremiah 36:32
After 23 years of prophesying to the people of Judah, their officials and their kings, there was little if any evidence that Jeremiah's faithful service had done any good at all. His prophecies, warnings and encouragement had not turned the people back or even slowed them down in their descent toward destruction.
God told Jeremiah to write all the words he had given to him on a scroll. When he read it to them, it would be another attempt to convict the people and motivate them to forsake their idols and sins and return to God. It was late, but not yet too late, to avoid the impending doom that Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians would bring to Jerusalem and all of Judah. God wanted to forgive and restore them. The Lord ordered the written record of all Jeremiah had said as another attempt to reach the hardhearted people.
Sometimes the inspired authors of the Bible wrote the words of their books by their own hands. Paul usually dictated and a secretary recorded the words from God. That’s how we have Paul’s epistles in our Bibles today. Tertius, for example, said in the closing lines of Romans that he wrote that epistle. He did not mean the words were his, but he had done for Paul what Baruch did for Jeremiah in Chapter 36. He faithfully wrote the words the inspired man told him to write.
Surely the Lord brought all those words Jeremiah had spoken back to his mind, just as Jesus promised the apostles the Holy Spirit would do for them about the Savior's words. By this time, the king and the temple officials no longer allowed Jeremiah to come to the temple. They did not want to hear the prophet's words and did not want the people to hear them. So Jeremiah dictated all God had told him to say to Baruch.
Baruch was a scribe, a trained penman skilled in writing exact copies of documents. His profession was a valuable one in a time 2,000 years before printing was invented. After Baruch recorded the dictation, Jeremiah sent him to the temple on a proclaimed fast day when there would be a large crowd to hear the scribe read the inspired words of warning. Baruch did just as Jeremiah told him.
When one of the officials named Micaiah heard Baruch's speech, he took him to a group of officials who listened and trembled with fear. The king had to hear these strong words! To protect Baruch and Jeremiah they sent them into hiding, but delivered the scroll to the king.
A man named Jehudi read the words from the scroll in the king's presence. As Jehudi read a few columns, the king would cut those words off the scroll and throw them into the fire. He displayed his contempt for God's message and God's messenger in this way, even when some of his officials pleaded with him not to show such disrespect for God. But Jeholakim continued until the entire scroll, all the words of Jeremiah, had been burned. He ordered the men to arrest Baruch, but the Lord had hidden both the scribe and the prophet in a safe place.
After the first scroll was burned, God told Jeremiah to repeat the process with another scroll. The second edition of the prophecies had more words than the first. God sent Jehoakim a personal word. He told the rebellious king that he would die without an heir. The once great Davidic dynasty would end with him. He told the king he would die without honor or burial. The destruction he had warned them about would rain down on Judah and Jerusalem, just as Jeremiah had said.
Surely it requires a degree of foolhardy boldness to destroy a copy of God's word. We are warned not to edit it to suit our preference. But whatever a human being does to a copy of the word of God to demonstrate his disrespect for it, the word of God is still there and still true. Jesus said that his words would never pass away, and that the word he had spoken would judge us at the last day.
Like old King Jehoiakim and the nation of Judah, we ignore and despise God's message and God's messengers to our own ruin. May God grant you and me a holy reverence for his inspired word.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—March 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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