Monday, April 25, 2011

Burning Words

“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. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him. When Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier. Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not afraid, nor did they rend their garments” (Jeremiah 36:21-24).

King Jehoiakim of Judah heard difficult words on that cold winter day long ago. As Jehudi read God’s words of warning to His people, the king was faced with an important choice. Would he listen to the words and make the necessary changes in his life as his father Josiah had done (2 Kings 22:8-20) or would he continue to ignore God’s appeal? Sadly, Jehoiakim chose the latter. In fact, he brazenly displays his defiance by destroying the scroll itself -- as if destroying the words would somehow alter his responsibility to heed them.

The authority of the word of God is not found in the ink or the paper on which it is written but in the God Who spoke it. You can shred every page and burn every book in which the words of God are recorded, but you cannot evade the God behind the words. Isaiah reminds us that “...the grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever” (Isaiah 40:8). You can’t change the word of God by slicing it, burning it, or ignoring it. “Forever, O LORD, Your word is settled in heaven” (Psalm 119:89). You can ban the word of God but you can never ban the God of the word. Instead of burning the word of God, let it kindle a fire in you!

God loves you!
Mike

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