Articles
The Replacement Scroll
One day, God told Jeremiah to write down a divinely inspired message onto a scroll (Jer. 36). It was a message that involved terrible calamity coming on God’s people as punishment for their sins. Included in the message, was a hopeful call to repentance. “Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin” (Jer. 36:3). Jeremiah wrote the words down then sent the scroll out to be read among the people.
At first, the words were read to the gathered nation at the temple, then to the scribes, then to officials. Finally, Jehoiakim, the king, heard of the scroll and had it brought to him. The scroll was opened and read in his presence, but the reader didn’t get very far. Jehoiakim rejected the message nearly instantly. He took out a knife and cut the scroll then threw it in the fire. He also tried to have Jeremiah arrested, but God had hidden Jeremiah from him. Still, the king’s response was clear. He rejected the message. He would not repent. He would not listen and would not let anyone else listen to the message again. It was done and finished. The scroll was gone.
Looking back, it is hard to see Jehoiakim’s reaction as being very mature. Childish is more like it. He didn’t like what he heard so he destroyed the message and went after the messenger. But this wasn’t just some scroll. This had come from a prophet. This was the word of God. What right did Jehoiakim have to destroy it? He was king, but not king over God. He could hate God’s message, he could ignore it, he could even destroy the paper it was written on, but he could not stop it from coming true.
Jehoiakim didn’t accomplish much—nothing good, at any rate. God simply told Jeremiah to write another scroll with the same words (Jer. 36:27-28). Just as when Moses broke the tablets of the Law, new tablets were produced (Ex. 32:19; 34:1). God’s word cannot be stopped. Jehoiakim burned the scroll, but the calamity he despised and didn’t believe in, came anyway. Jerusalem and the temple would be burned and destroyed only a few years later.
Jehoiakim had accomplished one thing though. The new scroll wasn’t exactly the same. It had an addition—a curse on Jehoiakim and his children for burning the word of God (Jer. 36:29-31).
God’s word often isn’t popular. When people care more about what they want rather than what is true, they tend not to like God’s word or His messengers (II Tim. 4:3-4). We may not do the same thing as Jehoiakim, cutting the Bible and burning it, but the end result is about the same. Some will despise everything in the book and say it isn’t from God. Some will cut the book up figuratively, picking and choosing which parts they like and will follow and discarding the rest. They will explain away why God’s word doesn’t apply to them or mean what it says. It’s still the same thing. Still others, will simply never read the word, acting as though it doesn’t apply to them if they don’t read it. Is that any less childish than what Jehoiakim did? Is it any more effective?
God’s word cannot be stopped. It comes true no matter whether you like it, believe it, or completely reject it. Still, God sends out His word to all of us, hoping that we will listen and avoid the judgment to come by repenting of our sins. It is read in the churches, on the radio, tv, and online. Today, most everyone has a copy of their own which could be read at any time and any place. The message is out there.
Don’t be like Jehoiakim.
