Daily Devotions
Jeremiah
"Take yet another scroll"
Text: Jeremiah 36:28
THE BURNING OF JEREMIAH’S SCROLL
King Jehoiakim had shredded and burnt a scroll that Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch. The LORD’s response was very strong and clear.
“Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words
which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah,
the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying:
‘Take yet another scroll,
and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll
which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned.
And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah,
‘Thus says the LORD:
‘You have burned this scroll, saying,
‘Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon
will certainly come and destroy this land,
and cause man and beast to cease from here?”””
Jeremiah 36:27-29
1. “Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written
at the instruction of Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying”
a) The scroll of Jeremiah had been burnt:
i) In personal defiance.
ii) With disdain.
b) The LORD’s response
i) He was aware of what Jehoiakim did.
ii) He would respond immediately.
2. “Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words
that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned”
a) Jeremiah was instructed to write another scroll.
b) The words that were burned can always be written again.
3. “And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘Thus says the LORD: ‘You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from here?”'”
a) The LORD addressed Jehoiakim directly.
i) Jehoiakim was angry when Jeremiah wrote about the destruction of Judah.
ii) Jeremiah also mentioned the fact that the land would cease to have man and beast.
b) But what Jeremiah dictated to Baruch were words that were given by the LORD.
c) The burning of the scroll was therefore a sin against the LORD Himself.