The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll. Jehudi brought it from Elishama’s room and read it to the king as all his officials stood by. It was late autumn, and the king was in a winterized part of the palace, sitting in front of a fire to keep warm. Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section, until the whole scroll was burned up. Neither the king nor his attendants showed any signs of fear or repentance at what they heard. Even when Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah begged the king not to burn the scroll, he wouldn’t listen Then the king commanded his son Jerahmeel, Seraiah son of Azriel, and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch and Jeremiah. But the Lord had hidden them. (Jeremiah 35:21-26)It was late Autumn, and Jeremiah had sent a prophecy to the King. The King was angry with Jeremiah because insisted on sending him prophecies he didn’t want to hear. He wanted to hear from God, but he only wanted to hear what he wanted to hear, not what God wanted to say.
When he got the prophecy, which Jeremiah had written down, he cut it up as he read it and burned it up. Needless to say, the prophecy came true anyway and the King was punished by God for his rebellion.
There are a lot of times that God tells us things we do not want to hear. Of course, just because someone comes up and tells you that they have a word from God doesn’t mean it is. But even so, we can usually tell when God is telling us something. It may be circumstances keep ordering a certain way, or something keeps impressing itself on our minds, or a scripture stands out from the page.
Whatever the case, and however he speaks to us, we ignore him at our peril. King Jehoiakim, the king who did all this, was in rebellion to God. God told him things he didn’t want to hear. And he told them through Jeremiah, so he tried to punish Jeremiah. He figured that if he could silence the messenger, he could silence the message.
However, it wasn’t so easy. God told Jeremiah to write it again, only this time it would include the fact that King Jehoiakim’s line would die. He would have none of his children or his family to sit on the throne.
When we refuse to listen to God and his voice, we risk bad things happening. We need to keep our minds attuned to him and to his will and voice.
Only then can we live the life he wants of us.
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