And after that the king had burned the roll, and the words that Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, saying,
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, has cut up the scroll, burned it, and sent men to arrest the two who made it. Then God speaks again, which raises a plain question: what can a fire do to what God has said?
For Jeremiah this was personal. Months of work had gone up in smoke, and the king had thrown his message back at him a second time.
Jeremiah felt it deeply when he learned that the roll was destroyed. It had taken so much effort to write. Once more his ministry has been rejected. But the word of the Lord comes to him: "Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll."
The king's knife and fire changed nothing. One writer shows how pointless the effort was.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Men inspired by the enemy of God's truth can never touch God or His Word. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. People have burned Bibles a thousand times over! … His Word lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and unbelievers attacked the Bible. They are gone. The Bible is still with us. The Lord tells Jeremiah to take another roll. Once more He dictates the same words to him, and Jeremiah dictates them again to Baruch, "with many like words," including a message of judgment about the miserable end of the wicked king.
Verse 26 and verse 27 stand side by side. God does two things at once: He hides Jeremiah and Baruch, the scribe who wrote the scroll at his dictation, and He repeats the message.
It was hopeless to think of escaping the hand of the Lord. He not only hid His servants; He repeated His threats and added more.
God does not always step in like this. At other times He has let His enemies go the whole way.
Sometimes the Lord has allowed men to do their worst. He has let them kill His servants, as He allowed them to kill His Son. But when He willed it, when it suited a purpose of His that we cannot understand, He stopped their evil plans. That is what happened here. The Lord's servants had hidden themselves, as the officials advised, and no one could find them, because "The Lord hid them."
The second scroll was not a copy with the hard parts softened. What the king destroyed came back longer. One writer calls this God's unchanging way.
The old roll was written again with many like words, and more was added, in line with God's unchanging way. Unbelief never holds back God's judgments; instead it brings them about. It may add to them, but it never makes them less.
If God's word is beyond reach, the burning was never about the scroll. It showed what the man holding the knife was like. One writer sees the same thing coming again before a later judgment.
Men cut up and destroyed the prophet's roll before Jerusalem itself was destroyed. The same kind of thing will happen before the judgment of Christendom. This does not mean man can get rid of the Word of God. God knows how to preserve it, just as He did here. But by the way he treats it, man shows his guilt and his irreverence. He brings on himself the very judgments that God's word speaks of.
Jehoiakim's method was crude. Quieter methods are still at work.
Satan uses other means to discredit the Scripture. He spreads doubts ("Has God really spoken?" — Gen. 3) or promotes the idea that the Bible contains the Word of God, but is not the Word of God, as some theologians state. Others use human reasoning, supposedly to explain the Bible. Some strike passages out of it, others add to it, and still others twist or pretend to edit it. But God watches over His Word.
- Burned. The king cut up the scroll and burned it. Trying to destroy God's word is as pointless as trying to destroy God Himself.
- Hidden. God hid Jeremiah and Baruch. He does not always stop His enemies, so this rescue was His own choice.
- Spoken again. The word of the Lord came a second time, with the instruction to write the very words the fire had consumed.
- Enlarged. Unbelief never reduces God's sentence. The replacement scroll carried the old words plus many more, and a personal judgment on the king.
- Exposed. No one gets rid of Scripture. The way a man treats it shows what he is, and it brings on him the judgment written there.
Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.
Jehoiakim had just burned the prophet's scroll in his fire. God's reply to that fire is this verse: write it again.
Jeremiah felt this loss. What God sent back was not comfort but a task.
The destruction of the roll hit Jeremiah hard; it had taken so much effort to write. Once more his ministry met rejection. But the word of the Lord comes to him, telling him to take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, the one Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned (v.28).
The question behind the verse is whether a king with a fire can get rid of what God has said.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Men inspired by the enemy of the truth of God can never touch God or His Word. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How often men have burned Bibles — a thousand times over! In pagan Rome and papal Rome Satan has raged against the Bible. His Word lives on. And now the devil, camouflaged as an angel of light, tries it again under the cover of "devout scholarship" and "reverent criticism". His Word lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and unbelievers attacked the Bible. They are gone; the Bible is still with us.
Burning the scroll deleted nothing from it. The question is what the burning did to the man who lit the fire.
Man cannot get rid of the Word of God. He knows how to preserve it, just as He did in this case. But by the way man treats it, he shows his own guilt and profanity, and secures for himself the judgments that God's word speaks of. We see this in the Scripture-mutilating king in our chapter.
The rewritten roll came back longer, and that is God's settled way:
The old roll was repeated with many like words, and more were added according to the invariable way of God. Unbelief never hinders but rather accomplishes the judgments of God. It may add to them but it never diminishes them.
God asks for a copy, not a softened edition.
Here Baruch wrote the words of God from the mouth of Jeremiah. He read them to the people, and afterwards to the princes. They showed a certain respect for them, but were afraid to stand up to the king. Jeremiah then took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe. At Jeremiah's dictation 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" (v. 32). This is God's answer; none of His words will perish; they increase and prosper in the work for which they are sent.
And the rewritten scroll outlived the man who burned it:
Safe in the place where the Lord had hidden them, Jeremiah and Baruch produce the roll again, with all the words that had been on the roll the king destroyed. The foolish king had little idea of what would follow. God carried out to the letter the judgment Jeremiah had pronounced. Then, many centuries later, millions would read the very words Jeremiah had written. They would read the record of his own wicked and foolish act too, for the instruction of the people of God, and to warn those who, like him, would be profane enough to interfere with the written word of God.
The same dislike is at work today, with a pen instead of a fire.
Modernism, like Jehoiakim, does not like the word of God. The king did not want to hear of the judgment of God that was about to come upon him and his nation because of their sins... The modern thinkers of the professing church do not like many things in the Scriptures. They have been trying to get rid of them by cutting them out of the Bible. What passes for criticism is only the mind of man intruding into the holy things of God. It dares to reject as God's word what He has given for the instruction and blessing of His people.
- Burned. A king with a knife and a fire could destroy a scroll — he could not destroy one word that God had spoken.
- Rewritten. God's response to the fire was a command: take another scroll and put back everything that was in the first one.
- Increased. The copy lost nothing, and God added more words to it. His words do not perish; they increase and prosper.
- Repaid. The fire cancelled no judgment. It drew those judgments down on the man who lit it.
- Read. Millions now read the words he burned. They read his act with them, as a warning to anyone who still takes a knife to Scripture.
And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith Jehovah Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from it man and beast?
Jehoiakim had just sliced up Jeremiah's scroll and burned it. Now God sends the prophet back with a message for the king himself. God quotes the king's own objection back to him. His quarrel was never with the writing, but with the judgment written in it.
His protest was aimed at what the scroll announced. Babylon's king would come and empty the land of man and beast. He did not argue the point. He destroyed the page.
The poor king showed his complete unbelief. His way of getting rid of the judgment was by destroying the scroll. "When Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife and threw it into the fire on the hearth, until the whole scroll was burned up" (verse 23). This was an act of daring irreverence before God; futile and complete folly, but no less sin.
God had left the king a way out. Burning the scroll did more than ignore a warning. It threw away an offer of mercy.
Neither king Jehoiakim, nor anyone like him who has cut up the Scriptures or burned them, has ever truly known the God who gave them by inspiration. Nor have they known that the word of God is a living word that cannot be destroyed. So the Lord told His servant Jeremiah to "Take another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned." There was also a special word for the king. It told him of the judgment about to fall on him, on his children, and on his land. The king of Babylon would certainly come and carry out the judgment written in the scroll. God had given him the chance to repent. He not only refused it; he treated the mercy of the God of Israel with contempt.
The fire destroyed nothing that mattered. It only fastened the judgment onto the man who lit it.
Man cannot get rid of the Word of God. He knows how to preserve it, just as He did in this case. But the way a man treats it shows his guilt and irreverence. It brings on him the very judgments that God's word speaks of — as we read of the Scripture-cutting king in our chapter.
The rewritten scroll came back longer than the first. Fighting the message only hurries what the message announced.
The old scroll was written again with many similar words, and more were added, in the way God always works. Unbelief never stops the judgments of God; it brings them about. It may add to them, but it never lessens them.
The king had also denied a prophet an honourable grave. God repaid him in kind.
So the king who denied the prophet's body an honourable burial was himself "buried with the burial of a donkey." He cut up and burned God's book. In turn his own body was torn and burned, left unburied in the scorching sun.
What happened to that scroll has happened to the Bible many times since.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. The efforts of men inspired by the enemy of God's truth can never touch God or His Word. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How often men have burned the Bibles — a thousand times over! … Emperors and popes, philosophers and unbelievers who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
The king never saw the irony coming.
The foolish and irreverent king might cut the scroll, but he could not set aside the divine judgments that were written on it. Little did he think that the very words of the scroll, and his wicked action, would be read by millions of people throughout the world thousands of years after he was dead.
One writer applies this to our own day.
What passes for criticism is only the mind of man pushing into the holy things of God, and daring to reject as God's word what He has given for the instruction and blessing of His people.
- The complaint — Jehoiakim's issue was the content: Babylon coming, the land stripped bare. He answered a message he could not refute by burning it.
- The mercy — the scroll offered the king a way back. Burning it threw away mercy, not just a warning.
- The futility — cutting the page did not cut the sentence. How a man treats God's word proves his guilt and hurries the judgment.
- The reckoning — he burned God's book and denied a prophet a grave. He got a donkey's burial and an unburied body.
- The survival — God had the scroll written again, with more added. The king is dust. Destroying God's Word is as possible as destroying God.
Therefore thus saith Jehovah concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David; and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost.
Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had just cut up the scroll of Jeremiah's words and burned it, piece by piece. This verse is God's reply — a sentence on the king himself, touching his throne, his family line, and his dead body.
But Jehoiakim did have a son, Jehoiachin, who took the throne after him. So how was this word true? One writer answers it from the force of the word and from the family tree:
Jeremiah said of Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin's father, "He shall have none to sit on the throne of David" (Jer. 36:30). The word "sit" here means to "firmly sit," or "dwell." Jehoiachin's short three-month reign was certainly not that. And Zedekiah, Jehoiachin's successor, was Jehoiakim's brother, not his son.
Another writer asks the same question, and answers from what became of the son:
But did Jehoiakim not have a son? A wretched one he was — Jehoiachin, who inherited his father's guilt and misery. How could he be said to sit on the throne of David? He reigned in Jerusalem only three months before the lion came up from his thicket. The destroyer of the nations was on his way. He was God's avenger against a king who did evil in the LORD's sight, just as his father had done.
The second half of the sentence strips him of a grave. Earlier God had said he would be buried "with the burial of a donkey" (Jeremiah 22:19). One writer links that to what Jehoiakim did to the scroll:
It means that a donkey has no burial, and so Jehoiakim would have no burial. He is the only king of Judah whose burial is not recorded. Jeremiah may have added these words at God's command, after this king had cut the scroll to pieces and burned it in the fire. Most likely this uniquely shameful end was announced because he had done that wicked work: he cut the Word of God to pieces and threw it into the fire.
Jehoiakim had once refused a dead prophet an honourable burial. What he did came back on him:
So the king denied the prophet's body an honourable burial. In turn he himself was "buried with the burial of a donkey." He mutilated and burned God's book, and his own body was torn and left unburied, burned in the scorching sun.
The sentence reached beyond the king himself. And it came only after he had refused mercy:
There was a special word for the king. It told him of the judgment about to fall on his person, on his descendants, and on his land. The king of Babylon would certainly come and carry out the judgment written in the scroll. God had given him the chance to repent. He did not just refuse it — he poured contempt on the mercy of the God of Israel.
The king tried to cancel the threat by burning the page that carried it. Two writers say what he achieved:
Unbelief never hinders the judgments of God. It carries them out. It may add to them, but it never lessens them.
God's judgments are not set aside by burning rolls of parchment.
The scroll did not stay burned. The first one was ash. The new one held everything the fire had taken, and more besides:
Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe. Baruch wrote on it every word of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire, "and many similar words were added to them" (v. 32). This is God's answer: none of His words shall perish. They increase and prosper in the thing for which they are sent.
One writer names what drives such treatment of the Bible:
It is not faith that does such damage to the messages of the Most High. It is the reckless unbelief of that godless king of Judah. He first cut the prophet's scroll to pieces, then went on to burn it with fire. So when we see men take scissors to the Scriptures, we may well fear that the fire will follow next.
- Mercy first. God gave the king a chance to repent. He refused it, and only then did this sentence fall.
- Throne. "None to sit" means none to sit firmly. His son held the throne three months, and the next king was Jehoiakim's brother, not his son.
- Grave. He is the only king of Judah with no recorded burial. He denied a dead prophet an honourable grave, and got none himself.
- Fire. Burning the page changed nothing. Unbelief never reduces God's judgments; here it enlarged them.
- Word. Jeremiah wrote the scroll again, with more added — what men cut and burn, God restores and increases.
And I will visit their iniquity upon him, and upon his seed, and upon his servants; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; and they have not hearkened.
Jehoiakim had just cut up God's message and burned it piece by piece. This verse is the reply he got back: judgment on the king, his children, his officials, and all Judah, because they would not hear.
A scroll can burn. No flame can touch the One whose words it carried.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Neither God nor His Word can ever be affected by the efforts of men inspired by the enemy of the truth of God. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How the Bibles have been burned a thousand times over! ... His Word lives on! Emperors and popes, philosophers and infidels who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
The replacement scroll was not a copy. It carried everything the first one said, and this verse is part of what was new.
The old scroll was repeated with many similar words, and more were added, according to the unchanging way of God. Unbelief never hinders but rather accomplishes the judgments of God. It may add to them, but it never reduces them.
The judgment here falls on the king, on his offspring, and on his land. But God had first given him a way out.
In addition, there was a special word for the king, telling him of the divine judgment that was about to fall on his person, on his offspring, and on his land. The king of Babylon would certainly come and carry out the judgment written in the scroll. God had given him the opportunity to repent, but he had not only refused it, he had profanely despised the mercy of the God of Israel.
The punishment here is not a new subject. It is what the burned scroll already said, now falling on the man who burned it.
Not that man can get rid of the Word of God: He knows how to preserve it, just as He did in this case. But the way a man treats it shows his own guilt and profanity. It secures for him the judgments that God's word speaks of. We see this in the king in our chapter who cut up the Scripture.
The next king was Jehoiakim's own son. His reign shows what it means for a father's sin to be visited on his line.
But did Jehoiakim not have a son? Wretched was he, Jehoiachin, who inherited his father's guilt and misery. How could he be said to sit on the throne of David? He reigned in Jerusalem only three months. Then the lion came up from his thicket, and the destroyer of the nations was on his way. Under God's providence he came as the avenger against a king who did evil in the sight of Jehovah, just as his father had done.
The closing clause explains the reach of the punishment. The officials in the room had trembled at first; by the end of the scene their fear had drained away.
When the princes first heard the word of God read to them, announcing the judgments that were to come, they were all afraid. But then their profane king cut up the Scripture and threw it into the fire. This time they were not afraid, and they did not tear their garments. Men soon get used to hearing about judgment. They become indifferent to the warnings God gives them.
- Word — the scroll burned, the words did not. Destroying God's Word is as impossible as destroying God Himself. The Bible has outlived every ruler who attacked it.
- Refusal — unbelief never cancels God's judgments; it carries them out, and can only add to them.
- Mercy — God gave this king the chance to repent. He did not just refuse it; he despised the mercy of the God of Israel.
- Reach — the sentence spreads from the king to his offspring, his officials, and all Judah. His own son inherited his father's guilt and misery, and lasted three months.
- Result — how a person handles God's word secures for him the very judgment that word describes. A room that stops trembling at warnings is ripe for them.
And Jeremiah took another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Nerijah; and he wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah, all the words of the book that Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides unto them many like words.
A king had just cut up God's message and burned it, piece by piece. The chapter's last verse gives God's reply: the same prophet, the same scribe, a fresh scroll, and more words than before.
The chapter ends not with the king's bonfire but with a new roll. One writer hears in it God's reply to the way men treat His records.
God is not mocked! He knows the way men are treating His own God-breathed records, profaning and making them merely human, and He will treat them accordingly... This is God's answer; none of His words shall perish; they increase and prosper in the purpose for which they are sent.
Jehoiakim destroyed parchment. One commentator weighs what fire can and cannot reach.
But did the king destroy the Word of God? One might just as well speak of destroying God Himself. Neither God nor His Word can ever be affected by the efforts of men inspired by the enemy of the truth of God. The Word of God endures forever. It is, like God, eternal. How the Bibles have been burned a thousand times over again!... Emperors and popes, philosophers and infidels who attacked the Bible are gone; the Bible is still with us.
Another writer sets the Lord Jesus' own promise beside this verse:
Jeremiah and his friend set to work again to duplicate the destroyed scroll, and "many similar words were added to them" (v.32). The Lord Jesus Himself said, "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away" (Mark 13:31).
The second roll was not a shorter copy. It held everything the first had, and more.
The old roll was repeated with many like words, and more were added according to the invariable way of God. Unbelief never hinders but rather accomplishes the judgments of God. It may add to them but it never diminishes them.
Refusing a warning does not cancel it. In Jehoiakim's case the new roll carried a new sentence on the king himself:
The prophet wrote "another roll," and added to it. As a mark of God's displeasure he said, "Thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night." How true are the words of the LORD: "Those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed."
The verse stresses the method: Baruch wrote at Jeremiah's dictation. One writer calls that simple and certain. Human helpers set no limit on God's power to inspire.
Sometimes an assistant writer worked instead of the inspired writer. This is true in both Testaments. A scribe wrote, as Baruch did after Jehoiakim burned the first roll, adding many like words at the prophet's dictation. That is as simple as it is certain... Twenty years, a century, a thousand years — none of it can make any difference to the inspiring power of God. He works through means, or without them, according to His sovereign pleasure and wisdom.
Jeremiah and Baruch worked in hiding. The king never guessed how far that second scroll would travel.
The Lord had hidden Jeremiah and Baruch in a safe place. There they made another roll, with all the words that had been on the roll the king destroyed... The foolish king had no idea what would follow. Centuries after God's judgment through Jeremiah had been carried out to the letter, the very words Jeremiah wrote would be read by millions down the ages. His own wicked and foolish act would be written down and read too — to instruct the people of God, and to warn anyone who, like him, would be irreverent enough to interfere with the written word of God.
- Fire — Jehoiakim's knife and fire reached the parchment and nothing more. Asking whether he destroyed God's word is like asking whether a man can destroy God.
- Answer — The verse is God's reply to the fire: a second roll, written the same way, by the same two men. None of His words perish.
- Addition — The new roll was longer than the first. Refusing a warning never shrinks it. Unbelief can add to God's judgments, but it never reduces them.
- Sentence — The added words named the king's own end: no heir on David's throne, his body left out in the heat and frost. Those who despise God are themselves lightly esteemed.
- Reach — The roll he thought he had ended is now read by millions. His own act stands inside it, warning anyone tempted to tamper with Scripture.