LESSON 8.—AUGUST 20.—JEHOIAKIM BURNS THE WORD OF GOD
The Sabbath-school lessons have been discontinued. The Lesson Quarterly may be obtained, containing three months' lessons and notes, for five cents. Address, Pacific Press, Mountain View, Cal. The Sunday-school lessons will continue.
INTERNATIONAL SERIES THE SUNDAY SCHOOL
LESSON 8.—AUGUST 20.—JEHOIAKIM BURNS THE WORD OF GOD.
(21) "So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll; and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes that stood beside the king. (22) Now the king was sitting in the winter-house in the ninth month; and there was a fire in the brazier burning before him. (23) And it came to pass, when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, that the king cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. (24) And they were not afraid, nor rent their garments, neither the king, nor any of his servants that heard all these words. (25) Moreover Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll; but he would not hear them. (26) And the king commanded Jerahmeel the king's son, and Seraiah the son of Azriel, and Shelemiah the son of Abdeel, to take Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet; but Jehovah hid them.
(27) Then the word of Jehovah came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, (28) 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. (29) And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah thou shalt say, 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 thence man and beast? (30) 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. (31) And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; 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, but they harkened not. (32) Then took Jeremiah another roll, and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote therein from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and there were added besides unto them many like words."
Golden Text.—"Amend your ways and your doings, and obey the voice of the Lord your God." Jer. 26: 13.
SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS.
(1) What did King Jehoiakim desire to have brought to him? What did Jehudi do, after bringing in the roll? Verse 21. Note 1. (2) What time of year was it? What provision was made for the comfort of the company? Verse 22. (3) As a few leaves of the roll were read, what did the king do? How much of the roll was treated in this manner? Verse 23. Note 2. (4) How were the king and his companions affected by the reading? Verse 24. Note 3. (5) Was there any protest against the king's action? Verse 25. Note 4. (6) What did the king command concerning Jeremiah and his scribe? Why were they not arrested? Verse 26. Note 5. (7) After this event, what word came to Jeremiah? Verse 27. (8) What was the prophet directed to do? Verse 28. (9) What was to be especially said concerning Jehoiakim? Verse 29. (10) What was to be the consequence of the king's rash act? Verse 30. Note 6. (11) What was the judgment pronounced against the king's seed and the people in general? Verse 31. Note 7. (12) What did Jeremiah and Baruch then do? Did they merely copy what had been written in the first roll? Verse 32.
NOTES.
1. The event which forms the basis of the present lesson occurred about sixteen years after those mentioned in the lesson of last week. King Jehoiakim was the son of King Josiah, but he was a very different kind of man. "He did that which was evil in the sight of the Lord his God." See 2 Chron. 36: 1-8. When Josiah was confronted with the law of God, the book having been found in the temple, he immediately set about carrying out its requirements. The roll which Jehoiakim ordered Jehudi to bring before him contained matter which the Lord had told Jeremiah to write out. Jeremiah obeyed the command of the Lord, and had read the matter to the people. Read the first part of the lesson chapter. Then it was brought to the attention of the king, and he ordered it to be brought in, and read to him.
2. This disposition of the message of the Lord, especially designed to cause the backslidden people to return to Him and be forgiven, shows a great departure from the course pursued by Josiah.
3. The apostasy of the king and his princes is emphasized by their stupidity in supposing that a message from the God of Israel could be destroyed by fire. The very history which the book contained was the evidence that God's Word could not be made void. Of this word Christ says, "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63. And Peter, quoting from Isaiah, says: "All flesh is as grass. . . . The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away; but the word of the Lord endureth forever." 1 Peter 1:24, 25. Cutting in pieces the vessel's chart will not remove the rocks and shoals therein marked for the guidance of the mariner.
4. The king's contempt for the warning message, sent in mercy to him and his people, was not because of his ignorance. He was faithfully entreated by some of the princes not to be so rash; but he was so much under the influence of the king of Egypt, who had made him king, that his heart was completely hardened, and his "conscience seared with a hot iron" (1 Tim. 4:2). So is every one who persistently rejects the overtures of the merciful God of Israel.
5. We are not told how the Lord hid the prophet and his faithful scribe, but His arm is not shortened by lack of ways and means.
6. Because Jehoiakim rejected the Word of the Lord, the Lord rejected him, just as Saul was cut off for a like reason. The reign of his house was to end with himself. His son Jehoiachin did attempt to reign, but in three months the king of Babylon dethroned him, and put Jehoiakim's brother in place of his son. See 2 Kings 24. The details of how Jehoiakim's body was left to decay without burial are not given, but it is probable that he was killed in battle. Jehoiachin could hardly be said to rule in Judah while he did nominally reign, for the land was occupied by the army of Nebuchadnezzar, and Jerusalem was in a state of siege.
7. Rejecting the Word of God by denying its authenticity, or by denying such portions as do not harmonize with the science and theology of "learned" men, is just as blasphemous as Jehoiakim's cutting it to pieces with a knife, and the effect is far more disastrous, in that its influence is far more extensive. Another way of cutting the Word is to accept those portions that are pleasing to us, or may answer some special purpose, and ignoring such portions as cross our preconceived ideas or reprove our course of conduct. Let it be always remembered that it will meet us in the judgment, however we may treat it here. Christ has made the perpetuity of the Word of God very emphatic: "Man shall not live by bread alone; but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," Matt. 4:4. "It is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." Luke 16:17.
