The text of Jeremiah takes a somewhat more personal and professional direction now. Jeremiah is a writer for God, Baruch assists him, editors and other writers listen in to what Jeremiah has dictated to Baruch and then like all good editors, they tell Baruch and Jeremiah to run and hide. That's some writing convention.  Doomsayers International.

Jeremiah's delivery of bad news was met with contempt. The king uses his scroll to keep his fire burning. Bad News Burning. Assumed powerlessness often brings out the symbolic side of our character. There was nothing the king was willing to do to turn the course of his nation. He was not willing to be responsible as the leader of a doomed people to take a positive role. They were going down and he was powerless to do anything about it. So burn the evidence. what else could he do?

There is a hint of what could be done in vs 24.

²⁴ The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes

They showed no fear. They could have torn their clothes in horror and fear and taken a stand against the rampant apostasy that was taking place. That fear could have been turned into hope and hope into confidence and confidence into a return to Israel's security in the hand of God. A simple theme runs through Jeremiah, Turn Back Toward God, you've got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Some choose to burn that theme in the fire. They shed their responsibility in the matter. They make a few gestures and scribble a few symbols in the dust of their lives, issuing  commands to get rid of those who pester them and then go to their death. Jehoiakim's future was very dark indeed. He would have no real lasting effect for good on anyone it seems. His dynasty was nearly done and would be remembered poorly. He tried to destroy God's word but ended up being destroyed by that very word.

God's word will not be burned or removed or hidden. It will come back again. As much as we think God can pester us like a parent that nags us to put our coat on, or get good grades in school, God is persistent as well. But His persistence revolves around love. Who do you love? Self, someone or something else, or God? Loving God would have saved these people. It is no different for us. That's why loving His word is so important. In a sense that I cannot explain in this short space, God's word is God's love. God's word is God. Not the ink, the paper, or even the words. But the story. The power that comes from that story. The power to live in the light of that story, the shelter and companionship of that story.

We need that story as much today as they did. His story becomes our story when we take His message to heart. It's easy to ignore it, toss it aside, scoff at it's writers and editors like Jeremiah and Baruch, but in the end, it is God Himself who is talking to us. If there has ever been anything worth listening to, God's word is it. Let it burn within, a fire that does not consume us, but warms us and protects us.


Jeremiah 36

Jehoiakim Burns Jeremiah's Scroll

 ¹ In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD : ² "Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. ³ Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, each of them will turn from his wicked way; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin."

 ⁴ So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the words the LORD had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll. ⁵ Then Jeremiah told Baruch, "I am restricted; I cannot go to the LORD's temple. ⁶ So you go to the house of the LORD on a day of fasting and read to the people from the scroll the words of the LORD that you wrote as I dictated. Read them to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns. ⁷ Perhaps they will bring their petition before the LORD, and each will turn from his wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against this people by the LORD are great."

 ⁸ Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do; at the LORD's temple he read the words of the LORD from the scroll. ⁹ In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, a time of fasting before the LORD was proclaimed for all the people in Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah. ¹⁰ From the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple, Baruch read to all the people at the LORD's temple the words of Jeremiah from the scroll.

 ¹¹ When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the LORD from the scroll, ¹² he went down to the secretary's room in the royal palace, where all the officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah, Elnathan son of Acbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and all the other officials. ¹³ After Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read to the people from the scroll, ¹⁴ all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son of Cushi, to say to Baruch, "Bring the scroll from which you have read to the people and come." So Baruch son of Neriah went to them with the scroll in his hand. ¹⁵ They said to him, "Sit down, please, and read it to us."
      So Baruch read it to them. ¹⁶ When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear and said to Baruch, "We must report all these words to the king." ¹⁷ Then they asked Baruch, "Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Did Jeremiah dictate it?"

 ¹⁸ "Yes," Baruch replied, "he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in ink on the scroll."

 ¹⁹ Then the officials said to Baruch, "You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don't let anyone know where you are."

 ²⁰ After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. ²¹ The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. ²² It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. ²³ Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. ²⁴ The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. ²⁵ Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. ²⁶ Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them.

 ²⁷ After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: ²⁸ "Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up. ²⁹ Also 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?" ³⁰ 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. ³¹ I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness; I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them, because they have not listened.' "

 ³² So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah, and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were added to them.