Jeremiah 36:21
So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king.
At the king's command Jehudi fetched the prophetic roll from Elishama the scribe's chamber and read its warnings aloud in the ears of Jehoiakim and in the ears of all the princes standing beside him. That reading brought God's special message of warning and reproof directly before the king, exposing the condition of the people and calling them to hear and return from evil. The scroll thus set the Lord's reproofs to ancient Israel plainly before Jehoiakim and his officials while they listened together.
Hearing it led directly to the king's cutting up and burning the roll, an act of defiant rejection and contempt for God's message that refused its reproofs. After listening to three or four pages he cut the roll with a penknife and cast it into the fire. Destroying the written scroll could not cancel or destroy the message, for the Word of God will never return void but accomplishes its purpose. The same Holy Spirit who gave the first testimony that was refused and burned repeated the very message that had been rejected, caused it to be written again, and added a great deal more to it.
The act is to be studied because in the last days those with great light virtually repeat it by turning from the messages of the Spirit of God instead of repenting and reforming. It exposes those who hear the evidence of the binding claims of the law of God and the obedience His commandments enjoin, feel their own characters in contrast to its requirements, and would reject it just as Jehoiakim did.