Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 36-38.

In today’s passage we have two different, but equally bad responses to God’s word.  At the beginning of the passage, Jeremiah dictates a scroll of the prophecies which God has given him to Baruch, who then reads said scroll to the people entering the temple.  The express purpose of this was that when the people heard the disasters which God had planned they might repent of their sin and God would forgive them.  When officials discovered that this was going on they took the scroll to Jehoiakim, the king.  As the scroll was read to Jehoiakim, he casually cut off the parts which had already been read and burned them.  Jehoiakim then ordered Jeremiah and Baruch to be arrested, but the officers he sent to do this could not find them.  Jehoiakim casually ignored the words of warning which God had sent to him and continued to sin.  At the end of the passage, when Zedekiah was king he sent for Jeremiah and consulted him about God’s will.  But Zedekiah was afraid of what people might do to him if he did as God commanded.  Both Jehoiakim and Zedekiah refused to do as God commanded.  Jehoiakim did so because he did not fear God.  Zedekiah feared God, but he feared man more than he feared God.  Both men suffered because they would not listen to God.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 36-38.

The first thing I thought about when I read today’s passage was that everything in this book up to this point would have been first written down when Jeremiah dictated the scroll to Baruch.  My second thought was that most of this book was derived from the second scroll which Jeremiah dictated to Baruch.  The next part I want to comment on gives us an insight into the political divide in Jerusalem.  When Baruch read Jeremiah’s scroll at the temple, Micaiah heard everything he read and went to the “all the officials” and told them what he had heard.  The officials sent for Baruch and had him read the scroll for them.  When they heard what Jeremiah had dictated to Baruch, they were frightened.  They were frightened because they feared the Lord.   They knew the king would react badly, but they knew that they had to tell him what Baruch had read to the people.  So, they told Baruch that he and Jeremiah should go somewhere to hide and tell no one where they were going.  Then they went to tell the king about what Baruch had read in the temple.

Which brings us to the other political faction, the king and his attendants (note this king was King Jehoiakim).  Unlike the officials, the king and his attendants were completely unmoved by the words of Jeremiah’s prophecies.  Perhaps unmoved is the wrong word, Jehoiakim burned the scroll upon which Baruch had recorded Jeremiah’s prophecies, almost as if by doing so he could erase them.  Then the king sent someone to arrest Jeremiah and Baruch, but they were unable to locate them.  Later in this passage we see the same divide after Zedekiah became king.  In fact, we see the same divide today.  Those who read Scripture and fear the Lord from those who dismiss the Scripture and try to make it not exist.  The former seek to protect those who speak God’s word while the latter seek to persecute them.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Jeremiah 36-38.

So, God instructed Jeremiah to record all of the prophecies He had given to Jeremiah on a scroll.  Jeremiah’s scribe, Baruch, wrote down what Jeremiah dictated, then went and read it to the people at the temple.  One of the temple officials (or, perhaps a government official) heard what Baruch read and had him read it to a collection of other officials.  When the officials heard the words which God had spoken to Jeremiah they were frightened.  The officials then read the words for the king and his attendants.  The king reacted to hearing Jeremiah’s words with contempt and neither he, nor any of his close associates, were concerned in the least by Jeremiah’s predictions.   Initially I was not sure what frightened the officials: the word Jeremiah had spoken, or the reaction of the king when he heard them.  However, today when I read the king’s reaction I realized that the writer was contrasting the fear which the officials felt to the indifference of the king and his attendants.  We need to ask ourselves which group we fall into: those who were frightened when they heard God’s words condemning evil? Or those who were completely unconcerned and sought to silence those speaking it?  Those who respect and fear God will listen to His words and change.  Those who hold those words in contempt will continue in their wickedness and suffer the consequences.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 36-38.

One of the things which is revealed in today’s passage is that there was a faction of government officials who were seeking to get the government of Jerusalem to rule more justly and righteously.  When Jeremiah had Baruch write all of his prophecies on a scroll and read them at the Temple, they attempted to use this to convince King Jehoiakim to make changes.  The passage does not say so explicitly, but the King and his attendants appear to have taken pleasure out of the making that faction uncomfortable by destroying the scroll (reading between the lines I see them also getting pleasure out of rubbing the righteous officials faces in the sins they committed).  We see similar things today where some people take pleasure in blatantly sinning in front of those calling them to repentance.  Later, we see the same divide when Zedekiah was king.  I believe that King Zedekiah wanted to act righteously, but was more afraid of men than of God.  He was too afraid of the corrupt officials in his government to do as God commanded.  Let us not fall into that trap.  We must be willing to stand up for what God says, no matter what opposition we will face.

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Jeremiah 36-38.

I am struck as I read through the Book of Jeremiah by the political factions within the Kingdom of Judah during Jeremiah’s lifetime.  In today’s passage we see that one faction wanted to kill Jeremiah, and other prophets of God, while another faction protected them.  King Jehoiakim was a member of the anti-prophet faction, later, his brother, Zedekiah was part of the pro-prophet faction when he was king.  When Jehoiakim was king, those supporting Jeremiah were able to protect him, but later when Zedekiah was king those opposing Jeremiah were able to endanger his life.  We see from various comments of King Zedekiah recorded here that he was not a strong enough king to stand up to the faction which wanted Jeremiah dead.  As I read this, King Zedekiah was not just politically weak, but also a personally weak man.  Part of him wanted to do what was right, but he was too afraid of others to do so.  It seems likely to me that King Jehoiakim was similarly weak, but, since he did not desire to do what was right, covered it up by being a bully.

The question is, what does all of this mean for us?  Well, we see that God protected Jeremiah for doing his will, both when King Jehoiakim tried to have him killed and later when those who opposed him tried to starve him to death.  I will note that through all of this Jeremiah experienced quite a bit of suffering, and that God allowed several other prophets to be killed.  We also see that King Zedekiah’s failure to do the right thing did not protect him from the consequences he feared.  There is one more thing which I want to point out.  Those who wanted to kill Jeremiah did so out of “patriotism”.  They felt that his prophecies concerning the fall of Jerusalem encouraged the enemies of Judah, especially its internal enemies.  They placed what they perceived as the best interests of the nation above doing what was right.  Of course, it is quite likely that some of them mistook their own interests for the interests of the nation and allowed others to do things they knew to be wrong because they needed support for their policies.