JEREMIAH | Lesson 7 | Lesson Notes / Talking Points
Read Jeremiah 36.1-32 [when Jehoiakim burns the scroll]
MAKING THE CONNECTIONS & SETTING THE CONTEXT
1/ Chapter 36 begins another one of those shorter ‘booklets’ I’ve been telling you about – shorter collections of messages and events that are keyed to a common theme, and then compiled to make up the larger ‘book’ of Jeremiah. Chapters 36-45 are sometimes called ‘Jeremiah’s Via Dolorosa [Way of Sorrows]’ because they chronicle some of the prophet’s more traumatic experiences of opposition, persecution, and sufferings he endured while being faithful to deliver Yahweh’s messages. Jeremiah also was a ‘man of sorrows’ much like his Messiah whose life Jeremiah illustrates.
2/ This chapter, in particular, will tell the story of how King Jehoiakim didn’t like what Yahweh was saying through Jeremiah, and so he thought he would ‘destroy’ the word of Yahweh by burning it in the fire pot, thinking he would avert the disastrous judgments that Yahweh was pronouncing against Him and Judah. But, as he found out, you can’t destroy the Word of God by any means you may fight against it. …but the word of the LORD remains forever. [1 Peter 1.25].
3/ Yahweh not only preserved His Word, but He also did what He had said He would do.
“Last eve I paused beside the blacksmith’s door,
And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;
Then looking in, I saw upon the floor,
Old hammers, worn with beating years of time.
‘How many anvils have you had,’ said I,
‘To wear and batter all these hammers so?’
‘Just one,’ said he, and then with twinkling eye,
‘The anvil wears the hammers out, you know.’
And so, I thought, the Anvil of God’s Word,
For ages skeptic blows have beat upon;
Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,
The Anvil is unharmed, the hammers gone.”
—attributed to John Clifford
4/ This is why I have titled this lesson ‘Yahweh’s Word is not Bound!’ taking this phrase from 2 Timothy 2.8-9. The apostle Paul found himself in a situation much like Jeremiah’s – he was imprisoned and forbidden from the public proclamation of the Gospel as he had formerly done. But Paul knew God’s Word cannot be restrained from accomplishing His desired and designed mission! This is our confidence also!
5/ There is also another very valuable lesson we want to learn from this prophetic narrative: here is a historical illustration of how God inspires, records, and preserves His Word in the Holy Scriptures. See 2 Timothy 3.3.16 & 2 Peter 1.20-21.
6/ What we will witness here is: [1] how God inspired holy men of God to speak His words; [2] how He commanded them to record His words in writing; and [3] how He has preserved His words from the times they were first delivered all the way to us … and to the end of the world.
7/ So what we will do is follow this narrative as it develops. There are at least four ‘readings’ of Yahweh’s messages that are recorded here. We will note them in order and then show how Yahweh’s words were still preserved even though Jehoiakim sought and thought he would destroy them.
I / vv 1-4 / The first reading: Jeremiah to Baruch
1/ The dating of this narrative is ‘In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah.’ This is such a significant date, not only in the prophetic ministry of Jeremiah, but also in the history of Judah. Jeremiah dates others of his messages in this same year: 25.1; 36.1; 45.1; 46.1-2. The year was 605 BC. What happened in this year was that Nebuchadnezzar had made his first invasion against Jerusalem and had taken some of the Jerusalemites captive to Babylon [see 2 Kings 24.1-2 & Daniel 1.1].
2/ Inspiration begins in the mind of Yahweh – He has words He wants to deliver to us … for us to hear from Him, and know, and respond to.
3/ Yahweh instructed Jeremiah to hear His words – words that He had been speaking through Jeremiah from the beginning of Jeremiah’s ministry ‘from the days of Josiah until today’ [see ch 1.1-3]. Yahweh had been passionately and patiently pleading with Judah to repent and turn from their disobedience and rebellion against Him. If they would do so, He would forgive their iniquities and not execute all the disaster He had been threatening to bring upon them – the destruction of their city and Temple.
4/ Jeremiah faithfully called for Baruch who was his personal ‘recording secretary,’ or ‘amanuensis’ to listen to him as he recited Yahweh’s words. And Baruch wrote on a scroll at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of Yahweh that He had spoken to him. This was the first reading of these messages.
II / vv 4-10 / The second reading: Baruch reads these words to the people
1/ v 5 / Jeremiah had been ‘banned’ from publicly preaching around the Temple. This may have been from the messages that are recorded in chs 25-26. They were preached during the same times and delivered in the court of Yahweh’s house [chs 25.1-2 & 26.1-2]. When the leaders and authorities heard the messages at that time, [they] laid hold of him, saying, “You shall die!” [ch 26.8]. Jeremiah was spared from being killed, but they may have banned him from any more public speaking.
2/ vv 6-8 / So he told Baruch to go in his place and ‘you shall read the words of Yahweh from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities.’ Jeremiah still held out hope that the people would listen, hear, and obey Yahweh’s calls to repent and turn from their sins.
3/ vv 9-10 / Baruch faithfully obeyed Jeremiah. ‘In the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month….’ You’ll notice that this is one year later from v 1. So, during this year, Jeremiah had been reciting to Baruch many of the messages he had previously delivered – the same messages we have written in our Bibles – and Baruch had been writing them down.
4/ In the meantime, it appears that the people themselves had declared this fast day before Yahweh. This was a ‘grass-roots’ movement … probably because they had witnessed the amassing Babylonian armies that were besieging Jerusalem at that very time, and they were terrified at the prospects of the impending disaster Yahweh had been warning them about.
5/ This reading of Yahweh’s words was in the house of Yahweh, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the secretary….
- BTW, this prominent family of ‘Shaphan the secretary (royal scribe) goes all the way back to the previous king, Josiah / see 2 Kings 22.3, 8-10. Shaphan was the ‘secretary/scribe’ who had read to Josiah the words of the previously-abandoned ‘book of the law’ they had discovered in the Temple during Josiah’s sweeping reforms only a few years before…
6/ So, this was the second reading of Yahweh’s words.
III / vv 11-19 / The third reading: Baruch reads these words to the royal and priestly officials
1/ v 11 / There was a certain priestly/Temple official who attended this public reading of Yahweh’s words by the name of Micaiah. Interestingly, he was the only one who was personally present, even though Jeremiah’s prophetic messages held weighty importance and consequences for them all. But they hadn’t cared enough to attend the public reading.
2/ vv 12-13 / When Micaiah ‘heard all the words of Yahweh from the scroll, he went down to the king’s house, into the secretary’s chamber, and all the officials were sitting there….’ We don’t know, but they may have gotten wind of the public reading and had gathered in council to deliberate what it meant and what they should do about it. Micaiah gave them a full report of what he had just heard.
3/ vv 14-15 / So now there’s another prominent character who is introduced: Jehudi. They promptly dispatched Jehudi to go back to the Temple compound to fetch Baruch and bring him to them: ‘Take in your hand the scroll that you read in the hearing of the people, and come.’ They wanted to hear these words for themselves. “And they said to him [Baruch], ‘Sit down and read it.’ So Baruch read it to them.”
4/ v 16 / These officials were terrified. They had enough confidence in the inspiration of these words – that they had, indeed, come from Yahweh – and in Jeremiah’s authority to speak from Yahweh, that they took the messages as a dire warning that must be heeded. ‘We must report all these words to the king!’
5/ vv 17-18 / They just wanted to be sure, though, that these were bona-fide words, so they asked Baruch once again: “‘Tell us, please, how did you write all these words? Was it at his dictation?’ Baruch answered, ‘He dictated all these words to me, while I wrote them with ink on the scroll.’” I just want to reiterate and reinforce at this juncture that this is indeed how all the words of our Bible, God’s Holy Word, the Scriptures, have come to us: from Yahweh Himself, through His inspiration of His prophets, and then written down for us in perpetuity! You can trust your Bible – it is The Word of God!
6/ v 19 / How Jehoiakim will respond is still an unknown, so they care enough about Jeremiah and Baruch that they want to be sure they are protected: ‘Go and hide, you and Jeremiah, and let no one know where you are.’ This is now the third reading of these words.
IV / vv 20-26 / The fourth reading: Jehudi reads Jeremiah’s words to King Jehoiakim
1/ v 20 / These concerned officials put the scroll containing Yahweh’s messages through Jeremiah in a safe place in Elishama’s office area – they want this scroll preserved. They go first to give King Jehoiakim an oral report. They want to see how he is disposed to what they have heard. They are terrified for themselves; perhaps King Jehoiakim will share their concern and take the lead to act for their preservation.
2/ v 21 / King Jehoiakim wants to hear it for himself. So, once again, he dispatches Jehudi to go where they had secured the scroll and bring it to him. ‘And Jehudi read it to the king and all the officials who stood beside the king.’
3/ vv 22-23 / It was winter-time, our December. ‘…and the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him’ … some kind of heating stove or brazier, maybe even open-flame. Whatever it was, it was convenient for Jehoiakim to display his overt displeasure with what he was hearing Jehudi read from the scroll. ‘As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them in the fire that was in the fire pot.’ The scroll would have been written in the Hebrew form: from left to right. As the scroll was unrolled, the words would be written in columns. In succession, as Jehudi read what Yahweh had inspired Jeremiah to write, Jehoiakim would show his contempt and disdain for the words by taking the same kind of scribal razor Baruch had used to trim the scroll to begin with, and just cut the scroll and burn it … ‘until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot.’
4/ vv 24 / Jehoiakim deceived and deluded himself into believing he could destroy the Word of Yahweh and avoid the impending disaster Yahweh was pronouncing against him by burning the scroll that contained the words. [Like cancelling an event by burning a flyer that advertises it.] Nor was he even phased by them: ‘Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments.’ This is in stark contrast to the fear his officials felt among themselves when they heard the same words [see v 16].
- AND, Jehoiakim’s arrogant response was the opposite of his father, Josiah’s, when he had heard similar words from his secretary, Shaphan [see 2 Kings 22.8-11]. [The ‘tearing of garments’ was a sign of repentance, grief, remorse, horror, or despair at one’s realization of sin against Yahweh or the danger of impending trauma.] But the proud rebel, Jehoiakim, feels none of this.
5/ v 25 / Even when Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemeriah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. These officials were among those who had attended Baruch’s previous reading [see v 12]. They ‘got it’ and understood the clear and present danger they were facing. That’s why they had brought it to Jehoiakim’s attention and had arranged this present reading of the scroll.
6/ v 26 / Not only was Jehoiakim unmoved by Yahweh’s words of judgment and calls to repentance, but he also ordered his immediate attendants to go and seize Jeremiah and Baruch, have them arrested, and bring them into custody so he could execute his wrath against them. ‘…but Yahweh hid them.’ Whether it was through the instruction of the officials who were sympathetic toward them [see v 19], or through some miraculous intervention, Yahweh providentially protected them. Of course, we know why, because even though Jehoiakim had burned that scroll, Yahweh still remains. And His Word will yet be preserved!
V / vv 27-32 / “Take another scroll and write on it…”
1/ vv 27-28 / YES! The Word of Yahweh remains! His Word cannot be destroyed, nor can it ever be cancelled! Why? Because Yahweh Himself remains, and He still has His words in His mind, and He can re-deliver it as easily as He delivered it the first time! His purposes will be accomplished, and His words will be fulfilled! So, Yahweh tells Jeremiah simply to take another scroll and dictate to Baruch the same words that Jehoiakim had burned – ‘AND many similar words were added to them’ [see v 32].
2/ These words that Jeremiah dictated and Baruch wrote down are the words we are holding in our hands and reading right now! This is WHERE and HOW and FROM WHOM the words we are reading came to us!
3/ vv 29-31 / Yahweh has a word of personal judgment for King Jehoiakim: ‘You rejected and burned the words I delivered to you, calling you to repent from your rebellion against Me and avert the disaster I have pronounced upon you, Judah, and Jerusalem … because you didn’t like what I have to say. But it all is going to happen just as I have prophesied!’
- Jehoiakim and his immediate family/clan will be deposed from the royal lineage of Judah, and the Davidic promises Yahweh has made will be kept – but they will pass to another line within Josiah’s family. Jehoiakim will die an ignominious death, and his corpse will be unceremoniously abused. Interestingly, the verb Yahweh used for ‘cast out’ [v 30] is the same verb used for ‘throw’ [v 23]. They would do with Jehoiakim’s corpse just as he had done with Yahweh’s words.
- NOTE: we do know that even though an individual king and his immediate descendants may be disqualified from carrying on the Davidic royal lineage, “David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of Israel…” Jeremiah 33.14-17 & 2 Samuel 1-17. This covenant promise can be and will fulfilled – only in Jesus Christ and His Gospel!
- All the disasters Yahweh has threatened against Judah will be executed … and all because ‘but they would not hear!’
4/ The value of reading aloud The Word of God. I want to conclude here with an excerpt from ESV Expository Commentary [Jerry Hwang]:
“The narrative of Jeremiah’s first scroll illustrates how reading in Biblical times always involved the act of reading aloud (Jer. 36.2, 8, 10, 13-15, 21, 23). In turn, the oral performance of God’s word through Jeremiah formed the basis of Baruch’s written text, which journeyed to places where the prophet himself was unable to go. The first scroll of Jeremiah not only traveled into the temple and palace in Jerusalem, where Jeremiah was forbidden to enter; its public reading in these places also caused fear, which eventually resulted in its destruction by King Jehoiakim. Ironically, that scroll was replaced by another scroll and eventually an entire canonical book that prophesies the demise of Jehoiakim and the kings of Judah who follow him. / These observations show the unique power of reading Scripture when orality and textuality work together according to God’s design. An oral event of receiving and proclaiming God’s word is captured in a written text, while a written text provides a stable basis for oral performance on new occasions when God’s authorized messenger is restricted or has passed from the scene. Such a synergy applies not only to the inspiration of Scripture in biblical times but also to its reading today, when oral performance brings out the dynamism of Scripture in a way that generates greater passion for reading the written text, and vice versa.”
~Dave Parks 