In these studies in the second half of the book of Jeremiah,  we will see God’s word coming through Jeremiah and being rejected again and again. We will see the difficulties of Jeremiah but also the way he is saved through it all. Jeremiah is God’s reporter on the spot, in the midst of one of the most tumultuous periods in Israel’s history.

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, and the particular theme, as with studies elsewhere, each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read on the main Bible page.

Jeremiah’s Scroll

Jer 36:1-10

 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.

A. Find Out

1. What did God want Jeremiah to do? v.2
2. What did He hope? v.3
3. Who did Jeremiah use to help him? v.4
4. Where did he ask him to go? v.6
5. When was he to go? v.6b,9
6. What was he to do? v.6c,10

B. Think:

1. How was God making His intentions even more clear to His people?
2. How was mercy and grace bring revealed before judgement?
3. How was Jeremiah’s life seen to be restricted at this time?

C. Comment:

We see in this passage the grace and mercy of God as He calls Jeremiah to take His word to His people yet again. This time He wants Jeremiah to actually write down His words and then have them read out to the ‘apparently’ God-fearing people in the city.

The Lord wants Jeremiah to ensure His words are read, a) at the temple and b) on a day of prayer and fasting.  In such a way they should be heard by the most  pious people who, God hopes, will respond with repentance, and perhaps even intercession for Jerusalem. It is clearly God’s heart to give opportunity for judgement to be avoided. He wants the people to return to Him. It is NOT His desire to bring judgement.  As we read these passages we will never be able to say that God was a harsh, condemning God who delighted in judgement. He did all He could to again and again steer His people away from it all – to no avail!

The tragedy of this passage is that the word of God came to the people at the temple and while they were fasting, i.e. to a people showing a form of piety, a religious people who you would expect to be those who would respond.  Are we that sort of people?

D. Application:

1. Thank the Lord for His love and mercy that is seen in His patience as He calls yet again and again to His people.
2. Thank Him for His patience with you.

The Scroll Destroyed

Jer 36:11-26

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.

A. Find Out

1. Who did Micaiah tell? v.11,12
2. What did they instruct? v.14,15
3. What was their response to what they heard? v.16
4. What did they tell Baruch to do? v.19
5. What did they then do? v.20,21
6. What was the king’s response? v.23,24

B. Think:

1. What had been God’s intention in having this message written down? (look back to v.3)
2. Did the officials respond as God had hoped?
3. Did the king respond as God had hoped?

C. Comment:

Yesterday we saw how the Lord had instructed Jeremiah to write down His warning of destruction, in the hope that those who read or heard the words would repent and turn back to the Lord.   The message was about God planning judgement if the people would not respond.

Today we see Baruch reading it but we are not told of the response of the general people to it. Instead one person goes to the palace and tells the officials and the officials, in turn, tell the king.

In each case there is no sign of repentance. The fear the officials show may be more about their concern as to what the king will say or do when he hears they have been reading it, so to forestall any negative response from the king, they tell him immediately.

This foolish king openly displays his contempt for God’s word. He could not be more graphic in his rejection of the Lord. Sometimes the heart of people is not always clear. That is not so here!  Perhaps the Lord knew the king’s heart and had wanted him to have an opportunity to display his foolishness.  He did!

D. Application:

1. Do we always respond wisely and with obedience to the Lord’s word to us?
2. What sort of heart is revealed in us by our words and deeds?

The Second Scroll

Jer 36:27-32

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.

A. Find Out

1. What had just happened? v.27a
2. So what did the Lord say to do? v.28
3. What had Jeremiah previously written? v.29b
4. So what does the Lord say would happen to the king? v.30
5. What does the Lord say He is doing?  v.31
6. So what did Jeremiah do? v.32

B. Think:

1. What do you think the king thought and hoped when he burnt the first scroll?
2. How does the Lord show this will not be so?
3. How would the producing of the second scroll be seen by the people when they heard what had happened?

C. Comment:

The king had callously cut up and destroyed the first scroll that Jeremiah had written. His rejection of its message meant he didn’t want it or believe it would happen. Destroy the scroll and you destroy the possibility of it happening.   Foolishness!

The Lord is not put off!  Just write again, Jeremiah. The king must learn that he could not just shrug off God’s word. It will come to pass. Not only that, we will add more detail. God’s judgement will come against this foolish king.   It will not be put off merely because the king tries to ignore it!

Even if we ignore Him, He is still God. He will still be Himself and do what He, in His perfect wisdom, has decided shall be done.  Many people in the world hope that God will go away if they ignore Him. They think that if they don’t think about judgement, it won’t happen. Simply because people are silly in their thinking, God won’t change His declared will.

D. Application:

1. Do we try to ignore God’s word in the hope that it will go away when it is uncomfortable.
2. Pray for those around you who foolishly try to pretend that God is not there.