Jeremiah 36:1-32

36:1-3 | The fourth year of Jehoiakim (605 BC) was a critical time in Judah’s history. The Babylonians had defeated the Egyptians at Carchemish to the north and would take control of all of the ancient Near East.

36:4 | Baruch was the faithful scribe who recorded Jeremiah’s words and courageously read the scroll in the temple when it was not for the prophet to do so. He also played a key role in composition of the Book of Jeremiah and accompanied the prophet when he was taken to Egypt.

36:10-18 | It is instructive that Baruch read the scroll in the hearing of all the people, but there is no response from the people to the prophet’s message (Ps. 36:1).

36:12 | One of the officials who took Jeremiah’s words to heart was Gemariah the son of Shaphan. Ahikam, from this same family, had protected Jeremiah from Jehoiakim’s attempt to have him arrested and put to death.

36:20-23 | Jehoiakim hated the true prophets of the Lord and had executed Urijah for preaching of the coming judgment. The king would have likely done the same thing to Baruch and Jeremiah if the officials had not sent them into hiding before taking the scroll to him. The act of cutting up the scroll reflected Jehoiakim’s disdain for the Word of God and perhaps an attempt to thwart its message. However, the authority of the king was nothing compared to the power of God’s Word.

36:24-26 | Jehoiakim’s response to the prophetic scroll is in direct contrast to Josiah’s reaction to the discovery of the Book of the Law (2 Kgs. 22). Josiah had feared the Lord and had “torn” (the same Hebrew verb used here for Jehoiakim “cutting up” the scroll) his garments. Josiah had burned Judah’s idols; Jehoiakim burned the scroll in his fireplace. Josiah’s godly response had led to a national revival; Jehoiakim was plunging his people into destruction.

36:27-32 | Jehoiakim’s destruction of the scroll had no effect because the Lord simply commissioned Jeremiah to make another scroll, and words were added to it during the rest of Jeremiah’s ministry. Throughout history, God’s Word has survived every evil attempt to destroy it or silence its message.

36:30 | The personal judgment for Jehoiakim burning the scroll is that he would not have an heir to sit on the throne of David and he would be put to death and not given a proper burial. Jehoiakim died before the Babylonians took the city of Jerusalem in 597 BC, and his own countrymen may have put him to death in an attempt to appease the Babylonians.