Commentary - Jeremiah 36:27-32

Bird's-eye view

This passage is a stark and dramatic confrontation between the unshakeable Word of God and the impotent rage of a rebellious king. Having just witnessed King Jehoiakim's defiant act of burning Jeremiah's prophetic scroll, we see that such gestures, however bold, are utterly futile. God's response is immediate and absolute. He simply commands Jeremiah to do it all again. The central theme here is the indestructibility and immutability of God's revealed will. A man can burn the paper, but he cannot burn the Word. A king can silence the messenger for a time, but he cannot thwart the decree of the King of Heaven. Jehoiakim's act of defiance does not alter God's plan; it only seals his own doom. The passage serves as a powerful illustration of God's sovereignty over history and His faithfulness to His own covenant pronouncements, both of blessing and of curse. The story ends with a detail that drips with divine irony: the second scroll not only contained all the words of the first, but many similar words were added to it. Rebellion does not diminish God's judgment; it intensifies it.

In essence, this is a covenant lawsuit in its final stages. The indictment has been read (the first scroll), the defendant has contemptuously thrown the indictment into the fire, and now the Judge pronounces the sentence. The sentence is specific, personal, and generational, falling on Jehoiakim, his lineage, and his entire administration. This is not just a historical anecdote; it is a foundational lesson on the nature of divine revelation and the utter foolishness of resisting the Almighty.

Outline

Context In Jeremiah

This incident occurs late in the ministry of Jeremiah, during the reign of Jehoiakim, one of Judah's last and most wicked kings. The broader context is the impending judgment of the Babylonian exile, which Jeremiah has been prophesying for decades. Chapter 36 details a specific initiative from God to give Judah one more opportunity to repent. God commanded Jeremiah to write down all his prophecies from the beginning of his ministry into a single scroll. Because Jeremiah was barred from the temple, his scribe Baruch read the scroll aloud to the people and then to the princes of Judah. The princes, alarmed, took the scroll to King Jehoiakim. In an act of supreme arrogance and contempt for God, the king listened to a few columns, then took a scribe's knife, cut the scroll into pieces, and tossed it into his winter brazier until it was completely consumed. Our passage is God's direct response to this high-handed rebellion. It demonstrates that the covenant lawsuit against Judah is proceeding, and the king's defiance has only served to remove any last shred of mercy.

Key Issues

The Unburnable Book

There is a profound lesson here about the nature of God's Word. Men have been trying to destroy the Bible for millennia. They have burned it, banned it, and belittled it. Diocletian tried to eradicate it with the full force of the Roman Empire. Voltaire famously boasted that within a hundred years of his death, the Bible would be a forgotten book, found only in museums. As it turned out, a hundred years later the Geneva Bible Society was using Voltaire's old house and printing press to produce Bibles. The story of Jehoiakim is the story of every tyrant, every skeptic, and every rebel who thinks he can dispose of the Word of God with a gesture of contempt.

What Jehoiakim failed to understand is that the Word of God is not ultimately ink on a page. The words written on that scroll were simply a tangible expression of the eternal decree of God. To burn the scroll is like trying to stop the sunrise by smashing your alarm clock. The reality it points to is entirely unaffected by your tantrum. God's Word is living and active; it is His power unto salvation and His instrument of judgment. Jehoiakim thought he was destroying a threat, but all he did was destroy himself. The Word simply reconstituted itself, and with heavier tidings than before.

Verse by Verse Commentary

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

The action begins immediately after the king's defiant act. There is no delay. God's response is swift and decisive. The king has made his move on the chessboard, and now God makes His. The text emphasizes the origin of the words: Baruch wrote them, but they were from the mouth, or "dictation," of Jeremiah. And of course, Jeremiah spoke them as the word of Yahweh. The chain of authority is clear, and Jehoiakim has not just insulted a prophet; he has assaulted the throne of God Himself.

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.

God's instruction is simple and sublime in its authority. "Do it again." There is no hint of frustration or setback in the divine command. The first scroll was not a failed attempt. It accomplished exactly what God intended it to accomplish: it revealed the hardness of Jehoiakim's heart and provided the legal basis for his condemnation. Now, the Word is to be reconstituted. Notice the emphasis: all the former words. Not one jot or tittle of God's judgment would be lost. The Word is eternal and cannot be edited or erased by impious kings. Jehoiakim's fire was utterly impotent.

29 And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says Yahweh, “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and make this land a ruin and will make man and beast to cease from it?’ ”

Now God turns from the general instruction to the specific sentence. He addresses Jehoiakim directly through the prophet. God begins the indictment by quoting Jehoiakim's own rationale. The king's objection was to the content of the prophecy: the certainty of Babylon's victory and the totality of the coming desolation. He didn't want to hear it, and so he thought burning the message would avert the reality. This is the essence of all unbelief. It is a refusal to submit to what God has plainly declared. Jehoiakim was not an atheist; he simply wanted a God who would prophesy what he wanted to hear. He wanted a court chaplain, not a prophet of the Lord.

30 Therefore thus says Yahweh 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.

Because of his rebellion, the sentence is pronounced. It is twofold and terrible. First, his dynasty is cut off. He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David. This was a catastrophic curse for a Davidic king, a direct nullification of the covenantal promise for his line. His son, Jeconiah, would reign for a mere three months before being carted off to Babylon, never to sit on the throne in Jerusalem again. Second, he will suffer personal humiliation in death. His corpse will be unceremoniously dumped outside the city walls, exposed to the elements. This was a fate of ultimate dishonor, denying him the royal burial of his fathers. The man who sat by a warm fire in his winter palace would have his body exposed to the scorching sun and freezing cold. The punishment fits the crime with poetic justice.

31 And I will also punish him and his seed and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the evil that I have spoken about to them, but they did not listen.” ’ ”

The judgment expands. It is not just personal to Jehoiakim. It is corporate. His seed (offspring) and his servants (his entire administration) will be punished for their shared iniquity. And beyond them, the judgment will fall upon all the people of Jerusalem and Judah. Why? Because the evil was spoken to them, but they did not listen. The king's rebellion was representative of the people's rebellion. They were a covenant people who had stopped their ears to the voice of their covenant Lord. The burning of the scroll was just the climactic visual aid for a spiritual condition that had plagued them for generations.

32 Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, and he wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them.

The narrative concludes with quiet, faithful obedience. Jeremiah and Baruch get another scroll and get back to work. The Word is written down again, word for word. But then we have this final, chilling detail: and many similar words were added to them. Jehoiakim's rebellion did not get any words subtracted from the book of judgment. It got more words added. His sin increased his condemnation. This is a terrifying principle. When men defy God, He does not back down or compromise His message. His response to rebellion is not to soften the judgment, but to intensify it. The second edition of the book was thicker than the first, and the news was not any better.

Application

The spirit of Jehoiakim is alive and well today. It is present in every attempt to edit the Bible to make it more palatable to the modern mind. It is there when we use a mental scribe's knife to cut out the parts about judgment, hell, wrath, and the exclusive claims of Jesus Christ. It is there when a culture decides that God's definitions of marriage, sexuality, and justice are outdated and need to be tossed into the fire of cultural progress. It is there in our own hearts when we encounter a command of God that chafes against our personal desires and we choose to ignore it, pretending it does not apply to us.

We cannot destroy the Word of God, but we can be destroyed by it. The choice before us is the same one that was before Jehoiakim: to hear the Word, tremble, and repent, as his father Josiah had done, or to hear it, resent it, and be crushed by it. There is no third option. The Word of God is a rock. You can build your life upon it, or you can stumble over it and be broken to pieces.

The good news is that this indestructible Word does not just contain threats of judgment. It also contains indestructible promises of grace. The same God who promised judgment on Jehoiakim also promised that a righteous Branch would one day sit on David's throne forever. That Branch is Jesus Christ. All the threats and curses in the Bible find their ultimate fulfillment in Him on the cross, where He absorbed the full heat of God's wrath for all who would repent and believe. And all the promises of the Bible find their 'Yes' and 'Amen' in Him. We cannot edit the book, and we must not try. We must receive the whole counsel of God, the bitter with the sweet, and in so doing, find that the God of judgment is also the God of breathtaking mercy.