A brief overview for Sunday School teachers and Bible study leaders, of Lifeway’s “Explore the Bible” lesson for Sunday, August 6, 2023, Jeremiah 36:19-31, with the title: “Speaks.”

(A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRO ??? A lot of times we say of a son that he is “a chip off the ol’ block” and just like his father — but that’s not always the case, is it?  ???Can you think of a son who was a lot different than his father???

(ONE EX:  the characters from the classic book/movie “Giant”:  Bic Benedict and his son Jordy. Bic was a classic Texan, riding horses, running the ranch; but Jordy was more studious and timid, he became a doctor. He was a much different man than his father. 

— George H.W. Bush/George W. Bush are another example. The father was a more “refined” Yale graduate, Ivy League background; while the son had more of a true “Texan” attitude.

— Several Bible characters were like that: Samuel and his sons, David & Absalom, etc. 

— You/your group might share examples of people you know who might fit that description.

Then = Today we are going to look at a son in scripture who had a much different attitude towards GOD and His word than his father did. And it should cause us to examine how WE will respond to the word of God when WE hear it!

CONTEXT

(We’ll spend a little more time on the context today because it’s really important, and sets the table for the focus passage.)

36:1 gives us the context: “In the 4th year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying …”

— So the TIME was the 4th year of King Jehoiakim (scholars tell us that was about 605 B.C. Jehoiakim was the son of King Josiah, who had been a good king — Josiah led Israel to re-affirm the covenant with God, took all the idols out of the Temple and had them burned, broke down the “high places” where they worshiped false idols, and had the Passover for the first time in a long time! But as we will see, Jehoiakim was not his father. He was a very different kind of man. He led Israel to go back to idols again, which led to their final destruction. 

Old Testament scholar F.B. Huey writes that this is one of the most important chapters in the book of Jeremiah, because after this chapter, “Judah’s opportunity to repent had passed … Judah’s fate would be assured; it would be destroyed.” We’ll see the event that led up to that, here in this chapter.  

— When this message from God came to Jeremiah, he had been preaching for 23 years. And God tells him here in :2-3, “Take a scroll and write on it all the words which I have spoken to you concerning Israel and concerning Judah, and concerning all the nations, from the day I first spoke to you, from the days of Josiah, even to this day.”

So what’s God telling Jeremiah? Write down all the messages I’ve given you over the last 23 years. Basically what He’s telling him to do, is to write this Book of Jeremiah!  Huey writes in his commentary that this is one of the most dramatic instances of God showing us in His word, the process of HOW His word came to be written: God commanded Jeremiah to write all these things down. So that’s how the Book of Jeremiah came into being! 

THEN notice :3, because it is significant: “Perhaps the house of Judah will hear all the calamity which I plan to bring on them, in order that every man will turn from his evil way; then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.” 

??? You might ask your group: What’s important about this???
(At this point, God is saying: there is still a chance. He’s telling Jeremiah, write down the messages, read them to the people at the Temple (:6) and He says “Perhaps” they will listen. God is giving them a chance. It’s not a “done deal” yet. But sadly, it soon would be …

So :8 says Baruch (Jeremiah’s scribe) read “from the book the words of the LORD in the LORD’s house.”

:11+ tell how some of the officials heard the messages, and said in :16 “we will surely report all these words to the king.”

So THAT brings us to our focus passage, :19-31.

OUTLINE

I. The Message (:19-20)

II. The Response (:21-26)

III. The Contrasting Fates (:26-31)

I. :19-21  THE MESSAGE

(:19)“Then the officials said to Baruch, ‘Go, hide yourself, you and Jeremiah, and do not let anyone know where you are.’

(:20) So they went to the king in the court, but they had deposited the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and they reported all the words to the king.

(:21) Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it to the king as well as to all the officials who stood beside the king.”

??? How do you think the officials felt about bringing the scroll and the message to the king???  

(They were very nervous about it; they did not expect a good response. ??? Have you ever had to tell a boss, or some powerful person, some news they didn’t want to hear???

That can be a hard thing to do, but it’s these guys had to do here)

??? What “hints” do we see in these verses that they were afraid and reluctant to take Jehoiakim Jeremiah’s messages???

(— :19 They told Baruch and Jeremiah to hide themselves. That sounds like they were NOT expecting a good response, right? They were afraid the king would do something to them.)

— :20 tells us they didn’t take the scroll with them, but “deposited” it in Elishama’s chamber. Sounds like they were protecting it, because, again, they did NOT expect a good response.

II. THE RESPONSE (:21-26)

:21 says the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll … and Jehudi read it to the king as well as to all of the officials …”.

:22 says “Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the NINTH month (Kislev) which would be November or December for us, so he had a fire going. Picture a “fire pit” like a lot of us enjoy in the winter months (an inviting picture this hot summer!)

So :23 says ‘When Jehudi had read three or four columns” (remember it’s on a SCROLL, not a book, so it was going from side to side (right to left in Hebrew!) in columns across the scroll.

So Jehudi had read three or four of these “columns” when:

“The king cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier.”

??? Have you ever personally seen or known someone who responded in a heart-hardened way to the word of God — maybe in church, or an evangelistic visit, or some other time???

(Once I was giving out some outreach pamphlets in a public place, and a person took it from my hand and just threw it in a nearby trash can. It was just an ugly response. 

You/your group can share others …)

ONE EXERCISE you might do, is COMPARE and CONTRAST

Jehoiakim’s response here, with his father’s Josiah’s response to the scroll that had been found in the house of the Lord by Hilkiah in II Kings 22. 

You might write JOSIAH over one column, and JEHOIAKIM over another.

After you’ve read :23-24 here, you might read or have someone read II Kings 22:8-13, or maybe :11-13. Say, this is when Jehioakim’s father, Josiah was king in Jerusalem. They found the Book of the Law that had been lost in the Temple, and they read it to Josiah. Here was his response: 

:11 “When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his clothes. (:12) Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Achbor the son of Micaiah, Shapan the scribe, and Asaiah the king’s servant saying:

(:13) Go, inquire of the LORD for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the LORD that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

Then ask your group: ??? How did Jehoiakim’s father Josiah’s response to God’s word, DIFFER from Jehoiakim’s response???

(— Josiah LISTENED to God’s word being read

— HUMBLED himself (tearing his robe, a Hebrew custom of mourning, indicative of a broken heart); 

— he had the priests and scribes go seek the Lord. 

— He was fearful of the wrath of God (“great is the wrath of the LORD”

And if you read II Kings 23 you see what scholars often call the “Josianic Revival” in Judah, where he tore down idols and began following God’s word) 

This is where we see that contrast between the father and the son. Jehoiakim was NOTHING like his father Josiah. 

— Jehoiakim did NOT listen to God. He didn’t even hear it out! He only heard 3 or 4 columns, and he was already done with it!

— He did NOT humble himself. He cut the scroll up and threw it into the fire.

— He did NOT fear God. (:24 specifically says “Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were NOT AFRAID, nor did they rend their garments.”

— and instead of sending his officials to seek God, Jehoiakim sent HIS officials to go seize Jeremiah and Baruch (:26) although it says “the LORD hid them.” 

So Jehoiakim had the exact OPPOSITE response to his father Josiah’s. He totally rejected what God said in His word.

So, that is a notable thing, and it had tragic consequences, as we will see in a minute. But again: this is NOT just a “history lesson;” we need to apply this US:  What will OUR response be to God’s word when we hear it? 

Can you think of time when God’s word said something to YOU recently, that may have been difficult to hear — maybe it dealt with a sin in your life; maybe it told you to stop doing something, or to start doing something you have not been doing; or to treat someone differently than you have been, etc.  HOW DID YOU RESPOND TO THAT? Let’s don’t just “shake our head” at how bad Jehoiakim was; let’s make sure that WE respond to God’s word like Josiah, and not his son Jehoiakim! 

III.  THE CONTRASTING FATES OF GOD’S WORD vs. THE FATE OF JEHOIAKIM   (:27-31)

So what happened after Jehoiakim responded like that? We see in :27+.

Verse 27 says “Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying,

(:28) take again another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.’”

??? Have you ever had to do a big project all over again??? 

(I have had a sermon all typed and printed, and had it wiped out on a computer.  

Also, in seminary, before the advent of the computer, I had a 100-page Hebrew term paper Cheryl & I were typing out, and we made a mistake halfway through, that made all the page numbers and footnotes wrong, so we had to type it all over again — on a MANUAL typewriter!)

You/your group can share your examples.  

Then = “This is like what Jeremiah had to do: he had to write that whole Book of his sermons (basically the Book of Jeremiah again — NOT on a manual typewriter, but hand write it on a SCROLL! Anybody do calligraphy? That’s a lot of work to do!

But then God says in :29: “And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD, ‘You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written on it that the King of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will make man and beast to cease from it?”
(:30) Therefore, thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. (:31) I will also punish him and his descendants and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on the and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the calamity that I have declared to them — but they did not listen.”

So this is what F.B. Huey was talking about:

— Jeremiah 36 opened with :3, “Perhaps the house of Judah will hear … then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

— But now, after it’s been read to both the people and the king, it has been rejected, and now God says, the punishment IS coming. It was a huge crossroads, as they rejected God’s word, so now judgement IS coming.

BUT one thing I would really emphasize in this last point is THE CONTRASTING FATES of Jehoiakim, and God’s word:

— What all did God say was going to happen to Jehoiakim?

(He’s going to die, he will have no son who will remain on the throne, his body will be cast out and not buried with honor, and his descendants will suffer for their iniquity. 

AND: II Chronicles 36:5 says that Jehoiakim was captured by King Nebuchadnezzar when he came against Jerusalem, and he was bound with chains and taken into captivity to Babylon, where he died.

But all the things God said in His word, took place. So Jehoiakim thought he would just cut up God’s word, and throw it into the fire — but God’s word came to pass, and survives to this day — we are reading it now! — while Jehoiakim was the one who perished. 

All this reminds me of the story of Voltaire, the famous French philosopher and writer, who was an atheist. (This story has appeared in a number of forms over the years, and some have suggested it is just an “urban legend,” but Daniel Merritt on crossexamined.org gives the specific quotes and details that I am going to relate. It is very well-researched. 

Voltaire hated Christianity, and in 1764 he wrote, “The Bible. That is what fools have written, what imbeciles commend, what rogues teach and young children are made to learn by heart” (Voltaire, Philosophical Dictionary, 1764) and he wrote: “We are living in the twilight of Christianity” — he believed that Christianity was about to become extinct.

But in August of 1836, only fifty-eight years after Voltaire’s death, Rev. William Acworth of the British and Foreign Bible Society saw with his own eyes Voltaire’s former residence in Geneva, Switzerland, Les Delices, being used as a “repository for Bibles and Religious tracts.”

“Let it also be noted, only sixteen years after Voltaire’s death, in 1794 … in the town where he spent the last eighteen years of his life, Ferney, France. On the very printing presses which Voltaire employed to print his irreverent works was used to print editions of the Bible and which were printed on paper that been especially made for a superior edition of Voltaire’s works. The Voltaire project failed, and the paper was bought and devoted to a better purpose [of printing Bibles]!”

So Voltaire rejected God’s word and predicted its downfall — but the Bible outlasted him, and ironically even took the place of his works. 

You can see how this is very similar to the fate of Jehoiakim in today’s lesson: Jehoiakim thought he could cut up God’s word and throw it into the fire, because he was a king. But Jehoiakim would soon be dead and gone — but God’s word through Jeremiah continues to be read and followed to this day — including US reading and studying it this week! 

We hear this phrase batted around a lot today, that you want to “be on the right side of history.” They refer to how slavery was once justified by so many, but time has shown that those who opposed it were “on the right side of history.” So SOME today say: you’d better support gay rights, or other such issues, so you’ll be on “the right side of history.” 

But today’s lesson shows us that if you want to be the REAL “right side of history,” you’d better not be swept away with the political/moral whims of our age, but rather take your stand with the word of God!  

??? What are some things we might be tempted to compromise on today???

(Moral/sexual standards; LGBT/transgender issues; Jesus as the only way to heaven; the truth/authority of God’s word, like Voltaire and many others today; etc. 

But remind your group: DO NOT give in to those temptations; make sure you will be on the REAL “right side of history” by standing with God’s word.

As Jeremiah’s predecessor Isaiah wrote in Isaiah 40:8: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever”!

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