Jeremiah 36:31
And I will punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring upon them, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and upon the men of Judah, all the evil that I have pronounced against them; but they hearkened not.
The verse concerns Jehoiakim king of Judah, to whom a special message from God was sent to be read in his hearing, and after listening to three or four pages he cut it out with a penknife and cast it into the fire. That burned roll had warned that the king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy the land and cause man and beast to cease from there. It pronounces God's final judgments because Jehoiakim and his lords in arrogance and pride refused His invitation, would not heed His warning, and would not repent. The gracious opportunity given at the burning of the sacred roll was their last, and because they refused then to hear His voice He visited with special wrath the man who proudly lifted himself against the Almighty and inflicted fearful retribution as He had declared.
The punishment is that He will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity, and bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the men of Judah all the evil He had pronounced against them because they did not listen. To the rewritten roll was added that Jehoiakim shall have none to sit upon the throne of David and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat and in the night to the frost. Destroying the warning does not destroy the message or stop it, but makes judgment certain and gives the rejected testimony increased publicity and confirmation. The same Holy Spirit who gave the first testimony that was refused and burned repeated the very message through the servant who had caused the first to be written, caused it to be written again in another roll, and added a great deal more to it, for the Word of God will never return unto Him void.
Refusing correction does not end the message, for the refusal and all the transaction are recorded in heaven, and those who reject it and take part in refusing correction pronounce sentence against themselves. God will be vindicated in His merciful effort to bring men to see their crooked ways, turn, be converted, and have their registered sins blotted out. The verse warns that Jehoiakim's act is virtually repeated today by those who reject the messages of the Spirit of God, trifle with the Lord, and spend the time for repentance and reform in criticism and following selfish devisings, passing the boundary line as seen in the persecution and suffering Christ endured and in the treatment of faithful servants in every age. It applies in Battle Creek and in later times to all who follow the same spirit, especially to those who hear the evidence of the binding claims of the law of God and the enjoined obedience to His commandments and feel their characters in contrast to the requirements, warning them not to do as Jehoiakim did.
The punishment falls not only on the one corrected who goes on in wickedness, deceit, falsehood and underhand dealing after a straight, plain message of correction, but also on ministers, doctors and others who step between God and the one reproved, make the reproof of no effect, and justify, vindicate and build up the transgressor in his crooked, unjust course. They will suffer with the transgressor unless they humble themselves before God with repentance that needeth not to be repented of.