Burning the Book

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.     Jeremiah 36:23 (NLT)

Here’s a strange thing – the king in Jerusalem burning God’s Word.  You expect to hear of craziness – like atheists burning Bibles, or ultra-fundamentalists burning the Quran; but a king of the tribe of Judah (Jesus’ ancestral people), and the leader of God’s chosen, sitting on the throne of David, burning the scroll sent to him by Jeremiah?  This would be like the President of the United States burning the Constitution!

What ticked the king off so much was that the scroll’s content showed him the judgment that would come upon his household and all Judah (Jerusalem and the Southern kingdom).  The judgment was because the king and the people had refused to repent of sin and start living as God’s covenant people.  They had burned God’s law with their actions; now their king was burning every reminder of how wrongly they’d treated the God who cared for them. 

Word of God – Offensive Stuff!

A lot of people get ticked-off in church.  It’s not really about the color of the new carpet, or whether we sing contemporary or hymns…it’s all about the fact that the Word of God cuts sharply and deeply ^{Hebrews 4:12}.  

And when we see our sins revealed, there are two possibilities – get ticked, or get right.  

“Getting ticked” is easy and wrong.

“Getting right” requires humility and repentance, both of which are in short supply in these days.

Today

Don’t be like the king.  He thought he could burn the Word of God and it would be gone.  

It wasn’t!  

And it cost him everything – his throne, his family and his life.

Keep humble before God, being ready to hear as His Word speaks truth to your heart.  

And then be quick to be repent if that Word points out your sin.  

That’s the kind of person to whom God gives grace!