Jeremiah 36:27
Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying,
After King Jehoiakim burned the roll that Baruch had written at the mouth of Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came again to Jeremiah. The special message from God had been sent to be read in the king's hearing, and after listening to three or four pages he cut it out with a penknife and cast it into the fire. He acted as do those whose characters stand in contrast to the binding claims of God's law and His required obedience to His commandments.
God commanded Jeremiah to take another roll and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll. The same rejected message was restored through the same servant by the same Holy Spirit who gave the first testimony, with a great deal more added, and the word was renewed and expanded. Destroying the outward form of the written warning did not silence God or destroy His message, for His word never returns void. Putting a straight plain message out of sight only gives increased publicity to and confirmation of the message that was dismissed and repulsed.
The rewritten message pronounces judgment on Jehoiakim for burning the roll and rejecting its warning that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy the land and cause man and beast to cease from it. He will have no one to sit on the throne of David, his dead body will be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night, and God will punish him and his seed and his servants for iniquity and bring on Jerusalem and Judah all the evil pronounced against them because they did not listen, with the judgment against Jehoiakim and Judah declared again. Those who reject God's reproof may persecute the messengers who deliver it, but opposition to the warning brings ruin rather than averting its fulfillment. Trifling with God by spending the time given for repentance and reform in criticism and human opinions brings terrible evil and shows what people do when they pass the boundary line, as seen in the persecution Christ suffered and in the treatment of faithful servants in every age.
When God in mercy sends a straight plain corrective message to any man or woman to change principles and turn the heart to repentance, refusal to be corrected and receive it leaves wickedness and deceit remaining. The whole transaction stands recorded, and refusers pronounce their own sentence against themselves. Those who step in to make the message of no effect, justify and vindicate the one corrected, and build him up in crooked action that is not justice and righteousness will suffer with the transgressor unless they humble themselves in genuine repentance, and God will be vindicated in His effort to bring people to see crooked ways, turn and be converted, and have registered sins blotted out. The historical events of this chapter will be repeated by people controlled by the same spirit, including the virtual burning of the messages of God's Spirit in recent years, so the warning belongs to later days when similar things would be done and all who desire warning should read the account carefully.