BURNED

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com.

In Christ, Mark

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

** Follow The Christian Walk on Twitter @ThChristianWalk

** Like posts and send friend requests to the author of The Christian Walk, Mark Cummings on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/mark.cummings.733?ref=tn_tnmn

** Become a Follower of The Christian Walk at http://the-christian-walk.blogspot.com

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

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: “Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up. 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 wipe from it both man and beast?”

“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. 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.’”

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.

Jeremiah 36:27-32

This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

In yesterday’s devotion, we saw where Jehoiakim, the king of Judah, chose to reject the words of God that were written on a scroll and delivered to him. God had hoped His words, first given to the prophet Jeremiah and then dictated to the scribe Baruch who wrote them down, would lead His people to repent and turn from their sins, averting His judgment. But those hopes became dashed when King Jehoiakim took the scroll containing God’s words and burned it in a firepot inside his winter apartment.

Through his actions, Jehoiakim thought he would burn the words of God away so that they would be no more.

As we see today, all his deed did was lead to he, his people, and his kingdom getting burned. Look again at these words from today’s scripture:

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: “Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up. 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 wipe from it both man and beast?”

“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. 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.’”

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.  Jeremiah 36:27-32

First, note that the Lord doesn’t immediately go after Jehoiakim. Rather, He places His focus on the words He had spoken that had been burned with the first scroll.

God did not want those words to be lost. He had given them to Jeremiah for a reason and so He asked for the words to be resurrected and captured on another scroll which would be used to replace the one that was destroyed. As He did the first time, God spoke to Jeremiah the prophet who in turn dictated God’s words to the scribe Baruch.

After this, God laser-pointed words toward were directed to the king who had questioned why it was written on the scroll that the “king of Babylon” was coming to “destroy” the land and “wipe from it both man and beast.” Maybe Jehoiakim thought that by burning the scroll, he would do away with that threat but all he did was bring the threat to fruition for the Lord Himself sent the following message to first the king and then all the Israelites under his rule:

“He (Jehoiakim) 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. 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.”

Ouch.

Bad days were ahead for the southern kingdom of Judah and its beloved, holy city of Jerusalem. God had given His people a chance to turn from their wickedness, instead embracing His righteousness but the king of Judah would have none of it. And so in the end translation, he would be left with nothing and it’s sad because it could have all been avoided. All Jehoiakim had to do is repent of his sins and lead his people to do likewise, recommitting their lives to God in a way that would bring them out of the crosshairs of His judgment and into the beauty of His grace and mercy and love.

How does the old saying go?

Play with fire and you will get burned.

It’s what happened when Jehoiakim decided to reject the words of God and then destroy them. He succeeded in destroying the scroll but as we see and know, the word of the Lord will endure forever. No one or nothing will ever be able to take it away.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com