Not Heeding the Word of God

Jeremiah 36:29-30: "Tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, 'This is what the LORD says: You burned that scroll and said, 'Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and cut off both men and animals from it?' Therefore, this is what the LORD says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night.'"

After four years of King Jehoiakim's evil reign, which was filled with wickedness and idolatry against the Lord, God summoned the prophet Jeremiah to inscribe on a scroll sacred words of judgment decreed from His Sovereign Heavenly throne. Whereas the edict from God was descriptive of the coming judgment that would befall the people of Judah for their detestible sins, God still was using these words redemptively with the hope that the people would respond to His warnings by confessing their sins and turning from their wickedness (Jeremiah 36:3). Tragically, they would not respond with repentance.

Jeremiah received the words of the LORD and summoned Baruch his scribe to write them down. This was not an overnight process, for it would be a year before Jeremiah could send his scribe to the temple to communicate the Lord's words to the people (see 36:9). It is interesting that Jeremiah did not go himself, because he was "restricted" from going to the temple. Whereas we don't know exactly why the prophet was forbidden to be at the temple (especially since in chapter 35 we find that Jeremiah was in fact there and had been there on previous occasions [see Jeremiah 26:7, and 7:2]), presumably, this "restriction" was caused by previous confrontations that the prophet had had with the evil religious leaders at the temple. Specifically, Jeremiah had gone to the temple to declare to the priests and prophets that if they did not heed the words of the Lord, confess their heinous sins, and turn from their wickedness, then God would make the temple and the city of Jerusalem "an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth." The religious leaders would not have such an obscure prophetic figure discredit their prestigious positions within the community, and they sought to kill him. Later, when Jeremiah would bring the rather insignificant, nomadic Recabites to the temple grounds and decree to them that the Lord would bless them for their faithfulness by permitting them to serve Him, this was a further slap in the face of the religious elite. It is no surprise that Jeremiah was forbidden to step one foot on the temple grounds.

Baruch took the words of the Lord and shared them while the people were participating in a fast. We are not necessarily told in the chapter whether the fast was part of a ritualistic formulation that had been observed without much attention to obedience to the Lord or if the fast was called in response to the invading Babylonians who by this time were dominating the Judean landscape with their vast armies. In any event, Baruch read to the people from the room of the secretary in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple. This place of prominence would have helped the scribe communicate the words of God to all the people in the vicinity. When the officials heard the message, they went to King Jehoiakim to share what Baruch had done; the king in response summoned an official to secure the scroll and return to read what was inscribed on it. As Jehudi, one of the king's officials, stood before the king and read the first words of God's judgment against Judah, the king snatched the scroll, cut it to pieces, and threw it into a firepot nearby. Rather than falling prostrate in fear at the Divine Edict and tearing their clothes in mourning, the king and his attendants showed neither concern nor respect for what God had communicated to His people. In fact, the king summoned one of his sons and several other officials to find Jeremiah and Baruch and arrest them.

I find this response of Jehoiakim interesting, given that his father, King Josiah, had twenty-five years before found the sacred Book of the Law in the temple and upon hearing the words of God's judgment, tore his clothes and humbled himself before the Lord (see 2 Kings 22). It is amazing that his son did not follow a similar path, and one has to wonder if Josiah's passing over of Jehoiakim for the throne in preference to his younger son, Jehoahaz, was in part due to Jehoiakim's rebellious spirit. Or possibly Jehoiakim resented his father for passing him over for succession of the throne for Jehoahaz and lived a life completely counter to His father's life of obedience to the Lord [see 2 Kings 23:25]. (NOTE: Little history is given for Josiah's eldest son, Johanan, thus leading to the possible conclusion that he died at an early age). Jehoahaz only served three months before being captured by Pharoah Neco and carted off in bondage to Egypt, giving Jehoiakim opportunity to secure the throne.

God would not be mocked by such disrespect for His Word. He summoned Jeremiah to write His Words again down with an addendum that the kingdom would be taken from Jehoiakim and his descendants; in fact, the king would die and his body would be shown disrespect by being thrown out on the streets and exposed to the elements. The offering of grace had passed for the king, his family, and his kingdom. Now the wrath of God was to be poured out upon them with such furor that they would be consumed by it.

As we think about our modern day, we must pause and reflect upon our own disregard for the words of the Lord as found in His Holy Scriptures. How often do we show contempt for His Divine edicts by refusing to obey them, instead choosing to follow our own evil schemes. We as a nation would do well to hear the message that God is giving to us through His Scriptures during this age of grace, repent of our sins, and submit to Him as our King. If we continue down the same path as Jehoiakim and the people of Judah 2600 years ago, we should expect the same consequences from the LORD. He is a God of constancy, and will not permit His commands to be disregarded. If we are unwilling to surrender ourselves to Him and follow Him faithfully, we can only expect a similar fate as is prophesied in Jeremiah 36.