We are continuing our study through the book of Jeremiah.
We are looking going to be looking at another son of the day, and that is Jericho. And he was actually the first of Jeremiah’s sons to take the throne. And so we’re actually, if we look at it from a chronological standpoint, we’re going back and hearing from the events that are occurring here, that they lead up to what’s happening with Zedekiah.
And part of it is, we’re going to be looking at the total lack of response to God’s word that occurs within the nation of Israel at this time, and the nation of Judah. The lack of respect for God’s word didn’t just happen overnight. During the time of Josiah, Josiah, when he was read the word of God, wept.
And he called together those who were the spiritual leaders of Israel, and he wanted to know more, and so he had them teach him the word of God. And then he took it out to the people, and he had the word of God read to the people, and he had the people taught the word of God. And so the word of God is very important to Josiah.
Not so much to his sons. And we see the total lack of respect for God’s word at this time of year. And so let’s take a look at verse 36, or chapter 36, out of the book of Jeremiah.
And so we’re going to the time that Jehoiachin is the king, and Jeremiah was instructed by the Lord to record what God has told him to do. And the Lord has mentioned to him this morning, the Lord is going to say, Jeremiah will go to the people and say, the Lord has this message for me to give to you, and then you can hear it on this Jeremiah again. Well, that’s because they didn’t want to hear the message.
And Jehoiachin really didn’t want to hear the message. So let’s take a look at what it says here. And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiachin, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Make me a scroll of the book, and write down all the words that I have spoken unto thee, against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from that day I spake unto thee, and from the days of Josiah even unto this day.
And let’s pause here. The Lord had been revealing things to Jeremiah since he first called him, up until this time Jeremiah had not been recording him, but he has a man who is his recorder, he is his assistant, and his name is Baruch. And he is going to be the one that is giving the responsibility, as Jeremiah shares what God has placed on his heart, Baruch is writing it down.
And they didn’t have paper like this, they had scrolls. And so they had either parchment scrolls, or animal skin scrolls, the very scrolls that they would write on, and record on. And so Baruch would be recording on these scrolls, and this is going to be everything that has happened from the time that Jeremiah first began to bring his ministry to Israel during the time of Josiah, up until now, and then later on will continue to be recorded after Jehoiachin is gone.
And it may be that the house of Judah will hear the evil, which I purpose to do unto them, that they may return every man from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. So once you see what the purpose of writing this down was, it just wasn’t so that they have a written record, it was so that people could constantly be brought to their attention again. And what the Lord is saying, if you say this, and record it, and notice where they’re going, and how they’re going, perhaps the people will respond, perhaps the people will repent, perhaps they’ll return back to me.
And this is God’s desire. God’s desire isn’t for judgment. And when it says that the Lord will bring evil upon them, it’s not that the Lord is the cause of evil, the Lord is going to bring circumstances that will cause them to have to examine their hearts and their relationship to Him, and make choices.
God isn’t going to cause evil to come upon them, God isn’t going to cause them to choose to reject Him. God desires that they repent, but He’s going to cause circumstances, and specifically at this time, the Jeremiah’s time, Babylon is going to be used as the tool of God’s chastisement against Judah, and the remnant of Israel that’s with Judah, to try and get them to repent, and if they don’t, they’ll be taken into captivity in Babylon. And so that’s what it means by, it says here that the Lord is going to bring evil upon them, the Lord isn’t the cause of evil, but it results in circumstances that result in chastisement, which is uncomfortable for them.
And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up, and cannot go into the house of the Lord. Therefore go thou, and read in the law, which thou hast written from mine mouth, the words of the Lord, in the ears of the people, in the Lord’s house, upon the fasting day, and also, and shalt thou read them in the ears of Judah, that come out of their cities. It may be that they will present their supplication before the Lord, and in return, everyone from his evil ways, regardless of the anger and fear of the Lord, have pronounced against his people.
And again, in this pause, we can see God’s grace and desire is not to bring judgment, but judgment is coming for them, repenting, and the choice is theirs, and it’s still theirs. And Baruch returned to Moriah, according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading the book of the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house. And it came to pass, in the fifth year of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people that came from the cities of Judah out of Jerusalem.
So, they’re putting on the pretense of, we want to hear what God’s got to say, we’re going to listen to what God’s got to say, and they’re really putting on the pretense that perhaps we’re going to change our attitudes. So, we’re going to have a fast, we’re going to call a fast, and it’s going to involve everybody that’s coming to Jerusalem. And so, we’ve got people from these little cities, in the little towns that are surrounding Jerusalem, they’re coming to Jerusalem, and the word is going to be read by Baruch, and we’re all going to fast.
Then Baruch, in the book, the words of Jeremiah, in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Jeremiah, the son of Seraphim, the scribe, in the higher court, at the entry of the new gate of the Lord’s house, in the ears of all the people. And he’s wanting us to see why he’s reading this. He’s reading this as the people are coming in, to the city, to the temple.
This would be a place where all the people could gather, all the Jews could gather. It’s not a place that would just be called a place, like the herder place, or the herder of herders. This would be the court where the people could gather, and it’s a gate to enter in there.
And so, if the people, they are killing us, it’s not going to be just the select group. Jeremiah and the Lord want everyone to hear these words.
Jeremiah 36:11.
When Micaiah, the son of Jeremiah, the son of Seraphim, had heard out of the book all the words of the Lord, then went down into the king’s house, into the scribe’s chamber. And there, all the princes that sat there, even Eliashema of Shemaiah, and Eliathan, the son of Iqbal, and Jemiah, the son of Seraphim, and Zechariah, the son of Hanuman, and all the princes. Then Micaiah declared unto them all the words that he had heard, and they read the book in the ears of the people.
So the first thing was for the general population, the people, the princes went there. They all gathered, the medders, the leaders of Israel, they all gathered away from the people. They hadn’t heard of it.
So then again, they had heard of it, took the words and brought them to the princes. And brought them and shared anything that they had heard, said to the general population. And ensuring that God’s word is for the people of Judah.
Jeremiah 36: 14,
Therefore all the princes sent Jehubi, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, the son of Jelemiah, the son of Hosea, unto the Lord, saying, Take in the scroll which thou hast read in the ears of the people, and come. So Jehubi, the son of Nebuchadnezzar, took the scroll, the word in his hand, and came unto the princes. And they said unto him, Sit down, you now, and read it in my ears.
So Baruch read it in their ears. Now it came to pass, when they had heard all the words, they were afraid, both one and the others, and said unto Baruch, You will surely tell the king of all these words. Now the message of Jelemiah came to them, and it began with the first son, Jehoiachin, the son of Josiah, and the message didn’t change, it only intensified.
It started out that judgment was coming, that God was going to judge them, and was going to judge them because of their wickedness. They had abandoned the true worship of the Lord, they had begun to worship their idols again, and they had begun to worship their false gods, they had been in the town of Josiah, they had been hidden in the houses, and people put them under cover with their false worship, and put on a pretense of seeking to turn back to God. When Josiah died, and the sons took over, what happened is, they brought out their idols, and they brought out their false gods, and they began to worship again, and God sent Jeremiah to tell them, the consequences of this were going to be dire for you, and they were saying, that Jerusalem is going to be destroyed, the temple is going to be destroyed, that you are going to be taken away into captivity, and those that aren’t taken into captivity should be killed by the sword, by pestilence, and it will happen here in Jerusalem.
You think that you’ve got this, that God is going to protect you, but he’s not, and that’s just a change of heart. And when the princes hear this, they’re immediately responses here, because they believe the words of Jeremiah, but they want to take it to the king, and the king is Jehoiachin, and the king, the prince, when they heard all these words, they were afraid, both one and the other, and said unto Beruk, we will surely tell the king all these words, and he asked Beruk, and he said, tell us now, how dost thou write all these words at his mouth? Then Beruk answered them, he pronounced all these words unto him with his mouth, and I wrote them with ink in the book. And so Beruk tells them, this is not something I made up, this is not something that I wrote down, it’s the words that God gave to Jeremiah, it’s the words speaking through Jeremiah, and Jeremiah told me to record these words exactly, and that’s what I did in this book with ink.
Then said the princes unto Beruk, go, hide me now, Jeremiah, and let no man know what you did. Now, they’ve got an idea what Jehoiachin’s response is going to be, so they tell Beruk and Jehoiachin, go find Jeremiah and go hide. Because they said, the king is not going to be happy with what he hears, and his father didn’t come for the events.
And so he tells them, go hide, but we will speak this to the king, and we will let you know, and we will speak these words to him, so he has no excuse. And they went in to the king, into the court, but they laid out the wall in the chamber, and Elah-chahmah, the scribe, came out and told all the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudah, Jehudim, that’s the scroll, and took it out of Elah-chahmah, the scribe’s chamber, and Jehudim read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes that stood beside the king.
So the princes were hearing it the second time, the king was hearing it the first time, and it wasn’t that the princes misreported them, so it was their rendition of what they heard, and they may have left something up, and may not have gotten anything, but now they’ve got the scroll, and these are the words of the Lord spoken to Jeremiah exactly. And it would be like the Bible, this is the word of God, this is what God had instructed the people, and inspired them to write down, that would have been what the scroll was, that Jeremiah was taking before the king. Now the king sat in the winter house, and there was a fire, and the harp rang before him.
I want you to take note of that, because that fire is going to become very significant in about 30 seconds. The king’s got a fire, it was very easy to see, the fire can, it’s an open fireplace, they didn’t have screens all over them, so it would be very easy to get out the fire. And he came past, there was a woman, had read three or four of those, hadn’t read the whole scroll yet, had just read a portion of it.
He cut it with a pen knife, and cast it into the fire, that was under the hood, and so all the water was consumed in the fire, that was the harp. That is the respect that Jeremiah came after the Word of God. He basically said, if I give you the Word of God, it’s not going to happen.
God’s Word is just written down, and it’s just Jeremiah’s words, it’s not really going to happen, I’m not going to listen to this anymore. Like I said, he didn’t even listen to a portion of it, he didn’t even listen to the whole thing. He didn’t even listen to everything that the Lord had to say to him.
But he took and cut it with a pen knife, cut it up in pieces and cast it into the fire, and it burned. And so he destroyed the Word of God. I want to tell you, people that do not want to repent of their heart, that have got a hard heart towards God, the one thing you want to do is destroy the Word of God, say it makes no difference, it’s not real.
Now people debate, what are they trying to do? They’re trying to destroy the Word of God. The Word of God says that in the beginning God created. What are they going to do? They’re going to destroy the Word of God.
They say, well no, God didn’t create in the beginning, it was evolution. The Word of God says that a man should take a woman, and the two should be one, and they should be married together for life. That’s the one man.
Well, I don’t want the Word of God, so I’m going to cut it up, throw it away, and I’m going to say, I can live with anybody whenever I want to, whenever I want to, I can change partners whenever I want to, and it makes no difference, because it’s what I want to do, not what God says. You can go and look at a number of different things that God says. God says that we ought to be holy and just, we ought to be righteous in our living.
And people say, I’m going to do my thing in my way, and I’m going to do it. I’ll live the way I want to live. I’ll associate with the people I want to associate with, and I’ll do the things I want to do, and if I want to allow those drugs to take over my life, I’ll allow them to take over my life.
I’m not going to listen to God’s Word and make His Spirit the center of my life, and the Spirit controlling me, I’m going to do what I want to do. That is Jehoiachin. When you’ve heard the Word of God, God says, I’m not listening.
I’m done. I don’t want to hear it anymore. I’m not going to listen to it.
I’m not going to change. And if I burn it up, it won’t happen. If I burn it up, it’s not real.
That was his answer. A lot of people would say that, well, if I just ignore it, God isn’t real. Well, as God used to say to me, you know what you’re saying now? Well, if there’s a, say for example, there’s a storm, and it’s half an hour west of Fargo, and it’s coming, and there’s a tornado, and the weatherman comes on, and he says, there’s a tornado approaching, it’s going to hit Fargo in half an hour.
Get in the vacations. And the person goes, well, if I just ignore it, it’s not going to happen to me. I’ll just ignore it.
And say, well, that guy is what gave me fear. Well, that’s a weatherman. This is God speaking.
And God controls all things. And God says, this will happen to you. I will cause these events to occur to bring my judgment upon you if you don’t repent.
And the guy says, well, if I ignore them, it won’t happen. And God really can’t even listen. And he’s right there.
God can’t even listen, but God won’t change the fact that circumstances are coming. And it came to pass that the Jehovah had led the blistering forth. Yet they were not afraid, nor lame for their garments, nor were they the keen, nor any of the servants that heard all those words.
So notice, when the servants, when the princes were by themselves, they were filled with fear. But when they had the keen that disregarded the word of God to the extent that it threw it away, the fear left them. And they didn’t wear their garments.
And a lot of times, what happens is, people will listen to someone that can see instead of believing the authority that’s really there. And the keen wasn’t the real authority. The word was the real authority.
But they didn’t want to listen to the word. Initially, they were afraid because they knew that the word was the only one in control. But all of a sudden, they forgot that and the keen spoke because their fear was greater for the keen in respect of him more than God.
In respect of them, they didn’t believe the word and they did extreme foolish things about the king’s ultimate demands. And Goliath and Jorah had made an assertion to the keen that he did not bring the word, but he did not hear them. The keen commanded Jorah and Noah in the same hand in the rock and Goliath in the same pass of the arrow and Sholine in the same of Abderrah and to take Baruch, the scribe, and join one of the prophets that the Lord had given.
So, the princes then told Baruch you better go get Sholine, you better go hide and they really knew what keen’s response was going to be. And that’s exactly what the response was. They wanted to go and get them and they wanted to punish them for saying these things.
Baruch did again another word and noted all the former words that were in the priest’s word which Jehorak and the keen of Judah had found. And now shall say to Jehorak and the keen of Judah let’s say it the Lord thou hast borne this word saying why hast thou written the king of Babylon that shall certainly come and destroy this land and shall cause to cease from things among the beasts. Therefore let’s say it the word of Jehorak and the keen of Judah he shall have none to sit upon the throne of David and his dead body shall be cast out in the day of the heat and in the night of the frost.
So, God pronounced a severe judgment on Jehorak and the keen of Judah as bearing the word of God. God did not treat this lightly. He says that his body shall be cast out.
Jehorak and his body when he died was cast out. Remember when we went through looking at the various kings of Israel and Judah we talked about all the kings of Judah were buried with their fathers and buried in the place and Jehorak was buried in the mercy place he was buried in the place where they took weapons and animals and were robbing to throw at other carcasses. That’s from Jehorak and a king of Judah was buried and that came about just as God said it would come about.
And because of his lack of respect and honor of the word of God he did not respect but given those who were under his authority he disrespected the same way. God doesn’t take it lightly. The consequences for those who have led people astray are serious.
You know what Jesus was doing in the past teaching the Pharisees and the fact that they had no concern for children it means to leave them and teach them falsehood and Jesus said that if you hang on to these little ones the better they are and most of them place around your neck and cast into the depths of the sea. God doesn’t take destroying life spiritually or physically lightly and he pronounces judgment through John 1 and it is written this day and morning and I will punish him 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 that they have committed. God said this is going to happen and you got it on yourself.
I gave you an opportunity to go out wear your clothes and do not cry out in your presence and do not even think once Jehoiachin is in your presence but instead listen to him so Jehoiachin is coming and then he said that and it goes sort of through and he took Jeremiah and another girl and gave it to her and the servant and the servant from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiachin king of Judah had burned and he flung them and he added the Psalms and the new like words so God expanded his prophetic judgment against Judah and against Jehoiachin in the new book new scroll and he got it I want you to understand that people think that they can destroy the word of God but they have never been destroyed and a prime example of that is a French philosopher who lived in the during the 16th years and he said that we will destroy the word of God and the word of God will bear no consequence because of the teachings that he invented and none of them spoke out so inflammatory against it and as a result he decided to destroy it it’s very interesting that after Voltaire’s death and a number of years later that the house of Voltaire here in London became a place for Bibles to be sent out of into the lips of the Christian ministry God is not going to be trifled with and cannot be destroyed as the lot of God had to try it’s a lesson in trying trying to destroy the word of God trying to change the word of God by having a Chinese communist Bible which is really written which destroys God’s word and God’s word but they’re still not as beginning Christians that are probably underground and the church is growing and changing and they’re trying to destroy it and trying to prevent God’s word from being destroyed and God’s word will not be stopped God’s authority cannot be quenched he is God and king of all things and he does not have and he does not have the the God’s word