MONDAY, 4 DECEMBER 2023
TEXT:
Jeremiah 36:1-32
1:
In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to
Jeremiah from the Lord:
2:
“Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning
Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you
in the reign of Josiah till now.
3:
Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on
them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their
wickedness and their sin.”
4:
So Jeremiah called Baruch son of Neriah, and while Jeremiah dictated all the
words the Lord had spoken to him, Baruch wrote them on the scroll.
5:
Then Jeremiah told Baruch, “I am restricted; I am not allowed to go to the
Lord’s temple.
6:
So you go to the house of the Lord on a day of fasting and read to the people
from the scroll the words of the Lord that you wrote as I dictated. Read them
to all the people of Judah who come in from their towns.
7:
Perhaps they will bring their petition before the Lord and will each turn from
their wicked ways, for the anger and wrath pronounced against this people by
the Lord are great.”
8:
Baruch son of Neriah did everything Jeremiah the prophet told him to do; at the
Lord’s temple he read the words of the Lord from the scroll.
9:
In the ninth month of the fifth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah,
a time of fasting before the Lord was proclaimed for all the people in
Jerusalem and those who had come from the towns of Judah.
10:
From the room of Gemariah son of Shaphan the secretary, which was in the upper
courtyard at the entrance of the New Gate of the temple, Baruch read to all the
people at the Lord’s temple the words of Jeremiah from the scroll.
11:
When Micaiah son of Gemariah, the son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the
Lord from the scroll,
12:
he went down to the secretary’s room in the royal palace, where all the
officials were sitting: Elishama the secretary, Delaiah son of Shemaiah,
Elnathan son of Akbor, Gemariah son of Shaphan, Zedekiah son of Hananiah, and
all the other officials.
13:
After Micaiah told them everything he had heard Baruch read to the people from
the scroll,
14:
all the officials sent Jehudi son of Nethaniah, the son of Shelemiah, the son
of Cushi, to say to Baruch, “Bring the scroll from which you have read to the
people and come.” So Baruch son of Neriah went to them with the scroll in his
hand.
15:
They said to him, “Sit down, please, and read it to us.” So Baruch read it to
them.
16:
When they heard all these words, they looked at each other in fear and said to
Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.”
17:
Then they asked Baruch, “Tell us, how did you come to write all this? Did
Jeremiah dictate it?”
18:
“Yes,” Baruch replied, “he dictated all these words to me, and I wrote them in
ink on the scroll.”
19:
Then the officials said to Baruch, “You and Jeremiah, go and hide. Don’t let
anyone know where you are.”
20:
After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to
the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him.
21:
The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of
Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing
beside him.
22:
It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a
fire burning in the firepot in front of him.
23:
Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them
off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire
scroll was burned in the fire.
24:
The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor
did they tear their clothes.
25:
Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the
scroll, he would not listen to them.
26:
Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel
and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the
prophet. But the Lord had hidden them.
27:
After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written
at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:
28:
“Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first
scroll, which Jehoiakim king of Judah burned up.
29:
Also tell Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘This is what the Lord says: You burned that
scroll and said, “Why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would
certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it both man and beast?”
30:
Therefore this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim king of Judah: He will
have no one to sit on the throne of David; his body will be thrown out and
exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night.
31:
I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness; I
will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every
disaster I pronounced against them, because they have not listened.’”
32:
So Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch son of Neriah,
and as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that
Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And many similar words were
added to them.
(New
International Version Holy Bible)
TOPIC:
ARE YOU LIKE YOUR FATHER?
Jehoiakim
is the son of Josiah King of Judah. Josiah is a godly king who loved the Lord
with all his heart but his son who succeeded him was his direct opposite.
Josiah's
dynasty was characterised by Temple repairs, covenant revival and the
destruction of idolatrous centres. One would have expected Jehoiakim to follow
in the steps of his father but he refused to listen to the word of God through
Prophet Jeremiah.
Jehoiakim
is expected to learn a lesson from the story of the sons of Rekabites (Jeremiah
35). While Josiah tore his clothes and repented in ashes at the instance of
God's word, his son tore the word of God and burnt it.
QUESTION:
How are we different from Jehoiakim?
PRAYER: Please,
Father, help us to respond to Your word the same way Josiah did. Amen.
Remain
Blessed
ECWA Food For The Day, 2023.
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