Jeremiah 36:3, commentary and pictures

In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, God commanded Jeremiah to take a roll of a book and write in it all the words He had spoken from the days of Josiah even to that day against Israel and against Judah and against all the nations. Because Jeremiah was shut up as a prisoner and could not go into the house of the Lord, he called Baruch the son of Neriah the scribe and dictated all the words to him from his mouth, and Baruch wrote them upon the roll on parchment. Baruch was sent to go and read the roll in the ears of the people in the Lord's house upon the fasting day, the national fast-day in the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim. He was to read to the multitudes assembling at the temple and to all Judah coming out of their cities, bringing the written warnings to temple worshipers, princes, and king. Jeremiah gave the roll to Baruch to read to the king.

The written roll was a solemn reproof for sin, a record of disobedience and of the judgments sin brings, a warning of the sure result of continual apostasy, and an earnest appeal to renounce all evil. It was given so that the house of Judah hearing all the evil God purposed to do unto them might recognize sin, present supplication before the Lord, and return every man from his evil way. God delays judgment and rehearses their long history of disobedience and its declared consequences to give them another opportunity to repent. The threatened evil was meant to prompt repentance because God's purpose in warning the erring is to correct and save them, so that He might forgive their iniquity and their sin. The warning of coming judgment was meant to lead Judah to turn from evil so God could forgive their sin, for great is the anger and fury pronounced against them.

The command sprang from pity and yearning for salvation, for God graciously sought Judah's good and was reluctant to give up His people. He desired to restore rather than afflict them, for He does not delight in afflicting them but patiently entreats them to return. He pities men struggling in the blindness of perversity and seeks to enlighten darkened understanding by sending reproofs and threatenings. Those reproofs are meant to cause even the most exalted to feel their ignorance, deplore their errors, become dissatisfied with vain attainments, and seek spiritual blessing through close connection with heaven.

He does not send messengers to please and flatter sinners nor messages of peace to lull the unsanctified into carnal security. He lays heavy burdens on the conscience of the wrongdoer, pierces the soul with sharp conviction, and by ministering angels presents fearful judgments to deepen the sense of need until the cry for salvation comes. His conviction reveals need and prompts seeking after salvation, while the same Hand that humbles to the dust, rebukes sin, and shames pride and ambition lifts up the penitent stricken one in deepest sympathy and compassion. The reproofs were not received, and the king burned the roll that Jeremiah gave to Baruch to read. Yet rejecting or destroying the written warning could not destroy the message, for it was written again with more added, and refusal of correction did not end the warning but left those who rejected it accountable.

The record belongs to historical events that will be repeated and is to be read carefully and studied by all who desire to receive warning. As the king's burning of the message and refusal to heed it warned Battle Creek, so people in the present day may likewise reject a warning from God. In recent times some have virtually repeated Jehoiakim's act of burning the messages of the Spirit of God, yet today as of old the messages of warning have been repeated.