As each section was read, he cut it with a penknife and threw it into the fire. Then he sent men to arrest Jeremiah.
📖Based on Jeremiah 36:23
Jeremiah was barred from the temple.
He dictated his words to Baruch the scribe.
Baruch read the scroll in the temple to all the people.
The officials heard about it and summoned Baruch.
They heard it and were afraid.
They told Baruch that both he and Jeremiah should hide.
They brought the scroll to King Jehoiakim.
It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in his winter house.
There was a fire burning before him.
Jehudi read it to him three or four columns at a time.
As he read, the king cut the scroll with a penknife.
He threw the pieces into the fire.
Until the entire scroll was consumed.
Neither the king nor his servants were afraid.
They did not tear their garments.
Three men urged the king not to burn the scroll.
He would not listen to them.
He commanded that Baruch and Jeremiah be arrested.
But the LORD hid them.
The word of the LORD came to Jeremiah.
He was told to take another scroll and write on it all the words that had been on the first.
Jeremiah took another scroll.
He gave it to Baruch.
He dictated all the words again.
And many similar words were added.
The king had burned the scroll in pieces.
Holding it over the fire column by column.
Deliberately.
Not in a rage. Methodically.
And the words came back.
God told Jeremiah to add a specific message about Jehoiakim.
He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David.
His dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night.
He burned the words.
The words outlasted him.
Scripture — Jeremiah 36:23
"And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth."
Reflection
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He burned the scroll column by column. Not impulsively. Deliberately. Each section an act of chosen defiance.
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The words came back. Every word. Plus more. What he burned could not be unwritten.