Year 2, Week 14, Day 4 Bible Reading Observations

Year 2, Week 14, Day 4

I have a brief observation for today’s reading of Jeremiah 36-37.

Today’s reading continues the fourth segment of the Book of Jeremiah. This fourth segment (chapters 34-45) corresponds to the second segment (chapters 21-29) in that each segment contains messages and incidents that are historically oriented with dates and other historical markers. Like the second segment, this fourth segment does not have the messages of hope and salvation that were found in chapters 30-33, but the focus returns to the destruction brought on by disobedience. Today's reading particularly focuses on some of the afflictions that Jeremiah faced from the hands of those who rejected God’s Word to them. Jeremiah 36, which unfolds events somewhere around 604 BC., notes the curse upon King Jehoiakim as a result of his determination to destroy the scroll that contained Jeremiah’s prophecies: “And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD, You have burned this scroll…Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity” (Jeremiah 36:29-31a). Jeremiah 37, which unfolds about a year before Jerusalem’s destruction in 586 BC., records King Zedekiah’s imprisonment of Jeremiah, but also his secret attempts to inquire of Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD, Do not deceive yourselves, saying, “The Chaldeans will surely go away from us,” for they will not go away…they would rise up and burn this city with fire” (Jeremiah 37:9-10).

One of the things that struck me from today’s reading is the testimony of how God preserves His Word: “Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned” (Jeremiah 36:27-28). King Jehoiakim did not like what he heard read from the Scriptures, so he assumed he could do away with them: “It was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him. As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments” (Jeremiah 36:22-24). When King Josiah heard the Scriptures read, he had a very different response: “Then Shaphan the secretary told the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read it before the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes” (2 Kings 22:10-11). Jehoiakim did not bear much family resemblance to his father Josiah. 

But Jehoiakim’s destruction of the Scriptures did not truly destroy the Scriptures: “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). What Jeremiah had Baruch write down were certainly his own words, but they were much, much more than his own words; they were also the very Words of God. The Book of Hebrews, as it quotes from the Book of Jeremiah, credits the prophet’s words as the Words of the Holy Spirit: “And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds” (Hebrews 10:18, citing Jeremiah 31:33). Peter explains how the words of the prophets were simultaneously the Words of God: “knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Peter 1:20-21). The book of Jeremiah was superintended by the Holy Spirit, crafted by the prophet Jeremiah, who wrote in harmony with his own style and experience, and yet exactly what the LORD wanted to be said, and then written down by Baruch. And the same process that created God’s Word is the same process that preserves God’s Word.

While Jeremiah, much like the Apostle Paul was imprisoned for proclaiming God’s Word, the Word of God itself was not held captive: “for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound!” (2 Timothy 2:9). The written Words of Jeremiah’s prophecies would also be unbound: “I am banned from going to the house of the LORD, so you are to go, and on a day of fasting in the hearing of all the people in the LORD’S house you shall read the words of the LORD from the scroll that you have written at my dictation” (Jeremiah 36:5-6a). And the primary intention of the Scriptures are to provoke a repentance that would lead to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ: “You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities. It may be that their plea for mercy will come before the LORD, and that every one will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and wrath that the LORD has pronounced against this people” (Jeremiah 36:6b-7). The declaration of God’s judgment is a part of God’s gracious purpose to turn sinners from their sins and to Jesus. This purpose will never be thwarted: “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.” And this word is the good news that was preached to you” (1 Peter 1:24-25).

What struck you in today’s reading? What questions were prompted from today’s reading?

Pastor Joe