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Context No. 4131 of 4322 · Jeremiah

Context · Reflection

Jeremiah 36:20-26: in context

20They went in to the king into the court, but they had laid up the scroll in the room of Elishama the scribe. Then they told all the words in the hearing of the king. 21So the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the room of Elishama the scribe. Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king, and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king. 22Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him. 23When Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. 24The king and his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, and didn’t tear their garments. 25Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them. 26The king commanded Jerahmeel the king’s son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but the LORD hid them.

King Jehoiakim, when Jeremiah's words are read to him, responds not with repentance but with contempt. As each few columns are read, he cuts the scroll with a knife and throws it into the fire, until the whole scroll is burned. He and his servants are not afraid, and they do not tear their garments in grief. He thinks he can destroy God's word by burning the paper it is written on.

But he cannot. God simply commands Jeremiah to write it all again, on a new scroll, with more words added besides. Two things stand out. The hardness of the king's heart. Confronted with God's word, he felt no fear and no grief; he cut it up and burned it, a stark contrast to his father Josiah, who tore his clothes and trembled at the same word. And the futility of trying to destroy God's word. The scroll could be burned, but the word could not; it was written again, and it stands to this day. People have burned it, banned it, mocked it, tried in every age to be rid of it, but it endures, for the word of the Lord stands forever.

Do I receive God's word with the trembling reverence of Josiah rather than the defiant contempt of Jehoiakim, knowing that God's word cannot be destroyed but endures forever, outlasting every attempt to be rid of it?

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