about a four-minute read
the most formidable
As human adversaries go, kings who oppose God’s word may be the most formidable. Godless captains of industry, impious world leaders or prime influencers, universally recognized authorities who set themselves against the authority of God are current equivalents. Whoever they are, they have considerable, though not absolute, power to stifle the spread of God’s message. This would be a terrifying opponent if you happened to be speaking for the LORD.
“Take a scroll . . .”
Jeremiah faced such a person in Jehoiakim. We read: “Now it came about in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: ‘Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words I’ve spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations from the day I spoke to you–from the days of Josiah even to this day. Maybe the house of Judah will hear all the adversities I mean to bring on them, and each one will turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.’ Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah, and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the LORD he had spoken to him” (Jer 36: 1-4).
Image this setting: Winter in Jerusalem. The city lies within two degrees of our own n. latitude, and winter there is much like ours in South Carolina. Often there’s rain, sometimes snow. It’s not bitterly cold, but houses have to be heated.
“Go and read from the scroll . . .”
Jeremiah has told Baruch, “I am prevented, I cannot go into the house of the LORD. You go, therefore, and read in the hearing of the people, in the LORD’s house on the day of fasting, the scroll you wrote at my instruction. Also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities. It may be that, falling down before the LORD, they will turn each one from his evil way, for great is the anger and the fury the LORD has pronounced against this people” (Jer 36: 5-7).
“Tell the king all these words . . .”
The account continues: “Then in the hearing of all the people, Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the LORD, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe in the upper court of the entry of the New Gate of the LORD’s house” (Jer 36: 10). A man named Michaiah hears and goes to the king’s house to tell the princes gathered there. They listen and chose a certain Jehudi to go and fetch Baruch. He comes in and again he reads the scroll, this time to the princes. “Now it happened, when they had heard all the words that they became frightened and said to each other and to Baruch, ‘We must tell the king all these words’” (Jer 36: 16).
“Go and hide . . .”
But first, they ask Baruch for more particulars, and he explains that he wrote “with ink in the book” everything Jeremiah said. The princes say: “Go and hide, you and Jeremiah; and let no one know where you are” (Jer 36: 19). Hearing the words from the scroll, these leaders seem fully aware of the danger to Baruch and Jeremiah, but as they’ve said, they go and, again with Jehudi as spokesman, they take the scroll to King Jehoiakim.
Now the king was sitting in the winter house . . .
The Bible describes the scene: “Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month with a fire burning in the brazier before him. And it happened that when Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it into pieces with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire in the brazier until all the scroll was consumed with fire in the brazier. Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king or any of his servants who heard all these words. Nevertheless, Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah pled with the king not to burn the scroll, but he wouldn’t listen to them” (Jer 36: 22-26).
God dealt with him
The Bible has always had its opponents, Jehoiakim wasn’t unique. God would deal with this king, with his nation Judah, and with Jerusalem the capital as he has dealt with others like them. God is good for his word–here, the word of warning he spoke through Jeremiah.
Nebuchadnezzar
If you are a student of ancient history, you will remember that the calamity written on Jeremiah’s scroll was fully accomplished in 586 B.C. when Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon overthrew and burned Jerusalem, taking the populace captive. The people of Judah would return to the ruins of their city, but only at the end of seventy years in Babylonian captivity.
from The Edgefield Advertiser, oldest newspaper in South Carolina
February 24, 2021
with thanks for the great image: william-krause-IkYuzPneQWs-unsplash.jpg
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