Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him.
The verse places King Jehoiakim in his winterhouse in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him, while Jehudi reads Jeremiah's scroll in his hearing. Jehoiakim is king of Judah, sitting to hear a special message from God read to him. The roll being read contains God's words against Israel and Judah and the nations. It consists of written reproofs and rebuke and warning about the people's condition, sent through Jeremiah as God's chosen instrument and meant to turn Judah from evil to forgiveness.
The setting explains how the king was able to destroy the message as he heard it. After Jehudi had read three or four leaves or pages, the king cut the roll with a penknife and threw it into the hearth fire before him until the whole roll was consumed. Neither the king nor his servants were afraid nor tore their garments, and though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah pleaded with him not to burn the roll, he would not listen. The act was a deliberate rejection and refusal to receive the Lord's warnings. It expressed contempt for God's warning, despising of faithful reproof, and defiance of the words of the Lord.
The act shows what men do when they pass the boundary line and trifle with the Lord. They spend in criticism and man-formed opinions and selfish devisings the time that should be given to repentance and reform, turning from light and truth to join the enemy while Satan gains victory after victory for souls. Burning the roll could not destroy the message, for God's Word never returns void. The same Holy Spirit who gave the first testimony that was refused and burned came again to the servant who had caused the first roll to be written, repeated the very rejected message, caused it to be written again, and added a great deal more to it.
Such opposition does not hinder the execution of God's threatenings but provokes His anger and brings certain ruin upon the offender. The historical rejection is a warning to be studied because similar things would happen in the present generation and the same events will be repeated. Some in recent years have virtually repeated Jehoiakim's act by burning the messages of the Spirit of God, but as of old the messages of warning are repeated. The same spirit is seen in the persecution and suffering Christ endured at the hands of wicked men and in the treatment the Lord's faithful servants have received in every age. It appears in indignation against the agent God chooses to deliver reproof, belonging to the same spirit that persecuted and imprisoned Jeremiah for obeying the word of the Lord and still existing today.
The verse places King Jehoiakim in his winterhouse in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him, while Jehudi reads Jeremiah's scroll in his hearing. Jehoiakim is king of Judah, sitting to hear a special message from God read to him. The roll being read contains God's words against Israel and Judah and the nations. It consists of written reproofs and rebuke and warning about the people's condition, sent through Jeremiah as God's chosen instrument and meant to turn Judah from evil to forgiveness.
The setting explains how the king was able to destroy the message as he heard it. After Jehudi had read three or four leaves or pages, the king cut the roll with a penknife and threw it into the hearth fire before him until the whole roll was consumed. Neither the king nor his servants were afraid nor tore their garments, and though Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah pleaded with him not to burn the roll, he would not listen. The act was a deliberate rejection and refusal to receive the Lord's warnings. It expressed contempt for God's warning, despising of faithful reproof, and defiance of the words of the Lord.
The act shows what men do when they pass the boundary line and trifle with the Lord. They spend in criticism and man-formed opinions and selfish devisings the time that should be given to repentance and reform, turning from light and truth to join the enemy while Satan gains victory after victory for souls. Burning the roll could not destroy the message, for God's Word never returns void. The same Holy Spirit who gave the first testimony that was refused and burned came again to the servant who had caused the first roll to be written, repeated the very rejected message, caused it to be written again, and added a great deal more to it.
Such opposition does not hinder the execution of God's threatenings but provokes His anger and brings certain ruin upon the offender. The historical rejection is a warning to be studied because similar things would happen in the present generation and the same events will be repeated. Some in recent years have virtually repeated Jehoiakim's act by burning the messages of the Spirit of God, but as of old the messages of warning are repeated. The same spirit is seen in the persecution and suffering Christ endured at the hands of wicked men and in the treatment the Lord's faithful servants have received in every age. It appears in indignation against the agent God chooses to deliver reproof, belonging to the same spirit that persecuted and imprisoned Jeremiah for obeying the word of the Lord and still existing today.