Burning words
/One Friday found me at Wendy's in
By this time in Jeremiah’s life he had been preaching for over twenty
years; what a chore it must have been to recall everything he’d said. I doubt
he had a folder of sermon notes in his file cabinet. Maybe he kept some form of
journal through the years - that isn’t too farfetched since much of the book of
Jeremiah is made up of his personal observations and analysis. Also, since he
was following Gods direction to write it all down, maybe God helped him
remember.
The story says Jeremiah asked another man, Baruch, to write down the
words while Jeremiah dictated. Being a writer who edits a lot, I can’t imagine writing
with pen and ink on a papyrus scroll without a word processor. Almost nothing
that I write is readable on the first draft.
But they did it, and Baruch went to the temple to read Jeremiah’s words
aloud. Some of the king’s officials got wind of the reading and had Baruch give
them a private reading. What they heard scared them. It was obvious to them these
were words from God, and they recognized Jeremiah’s hand in all of it. They
knew that King Jehoiakim needed to hear it.
The next scene is one of those stories I have known since early
childhood. I remember the picture from children's Bible class showing a regal-looking
bearded king sitting in his throne beside an open fire while Baruch read the
words.
The Bible says Jehoiakim used a scribe’s knife – I guess an early
editing tool - to slice off the portion of the scroll after the words were read
aloud and then burned those pieces in the fire. It was a dramatic scene, which
is probably why I remember the picture so well even though I haven’t seen a
copy in at least 45 years.
What did Baruch think as he was reading? The king was destroying months
of work right before his eyes. Surely he was angry about that; yet he was
reading aloud before the king himself, an honor few experienced. And what would
happen when he read the last paragraph and it was burned up - would the king turn
his scribe’s knife on Baruch? He must have worried about that as he read.
I wonder how often our work for God gets burned up by some contemptuous
unbeliever after we’ve spent months or years working on it? Do we wonder why we
did it all when the only remainder is smoke curling up to the ceiling?
And why did God expect Jeremiah and Baruch to go through all of this if
he knew it would be burned up? Did God intentionally waste their time? Did he
assign them a futile mission as a mean joke?
No, of course not. I think God was giving King Jehoiakim one more
chance to repent before the hammer fell on him. Or maybe God’s intended
audience that day was never the king himself but some member of his royal
court. Preachers and teachers never know for certain which person in their
class is the real target.
All we can do is speak what God gives us, when he asks us, and trust
him with the outcome. After all, Jeremiah’s words were burned, but I still have
a copy.
Cyndi likes to say, “It’s possible to become richer by giving away.”
The problem with giving away – whether money or home-cooked food or talent and
energy, or even written words directed by God – is that we don’t know what the
recipient will do with the gift. If we worry about whether it will be used or
appreciated, well, we haven’t really given it away, have we? We simply have to
give ourselves and our stuff away and trust God to take care of it.
Jeremiah must have known the only way to preserve his words for all
time was to give them away, even if that meant they might be destroyed by an
unbelieving king. His gift certainly lasted longer than the arrogant King
Jehoiakim. There I was, 2,600 years later, in Wendy’s, in
“I run in the path of Your
commands, for You have set my heart free.” Psalm 119:32
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Copyright
2009 Berry D. Simpson, all rights reserved.
