Jeremiah 36:1, commentary and pictures

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah and opens the events of this chapter. The word that came was a command to take a roll of a book and write in it all the words spoken to Jeremiah from the days of Josiah even to that day. Those writings were words of warning against Israel and Judah and the nations.

Their purpose was that the house of Judah, hearing all the evil purposed against them, might present supplication before the Lord. Hearing the great anger and fury pronounced against them, every man might turn from his evil way to receive forgiveness of iniquity and sin. Because Jeremiah was shut up and could not go into the house of the Lord, he called Baruch the son of Neriah, who wrote from Jeremiah's mouth all the words of the Lord upon the roll. At Jeremiah's command Baruch read the words in the Lord's house upon the fasting day in the ears of all Judah that had come out of their cities, and the writing was then carried to the king.

When the king had heard only part of it he cut the roll with a knife and burned it in the fire, showing no fear and no repentance. Burning the scroll could not destroy God's message, for by the same Spirit it was written again with still more added. So the account shows that men may reject and destroy a divine warning, as with reproofs sent to ancient Israel that they would not receive, yet refusing a message of correction does not end it. The refusal is recorded and brings accountability, while God protects His servants who bear the message.

This record of an act of Jehoiakim's time is to be studied, for the same takes place in the present generation while messages of warning are repeated. Some in recent years have virtually repeated the burning of the roll by rejecting the messages of the Spirit of God. They trifle with the Lord and spend in criticism the time given for repentance and reform, showing what men do when they pass the boundary line.