Day 229 – Jeremiah 35-37

Talking Points

• Jeremiah writes the message from God on a scroll and instructs Baruch to read it in the temple before all the people. God’s desire and Jeremiah’s hope is that the people would hear, repent, return to God, and be saved (Jeremiah 36:3,6). God’s grace is amazing!
• King Jehoiakim hears the Word of God, takes the scroll, defiantly cuts it in two, and throws it in the fire. He is unrepentant and unconcerned with what he has heard. In short, he is unaffected by the Word of God. This serves as a testimony to the hearts of men: pride and sin can cause us to be unaffected by even the words of our Creator.
• God tells Jeremiah to write it all again – God preserves His Word.
• Later, having ignored God and His Word and faced with certain doom, King Zedekiah asks Jeremiah to “please pray to the LORD on our behalf” (37:3). God was not the object of his love and trust, but treated as an insurance policy in times of need.
• Jeremiah is falsely accused, arrested, beaten, and imprisoned, yet he continues to speak as the LORD had commanded.

Thoughts

In a world full of voices, sometimes we might consider which voices we are listening to. Are we listening to the world, the culture, or even those set against God? Are we listening to our own logic or selfish desires? Through Jeremiah and an unlikely group of people, God brings this question to our attention: Amid all the voices, what about the voice we are not listening to?

In our verses, we read of the Rechabites, a tribe of nomadic people who have made their way to Jerusalem. We learn that these people have been radically obedient to the instructions of their forefather Jonadab. Approximately 250 years earlier, he gave them commands for their nomadic existence. They were not to drink wine, plant vineyards, nor build houses. We don’t know how or why he came to those conclusions, but we do know this: his people adhered to his commands faithfully. All these years later, they still were.

God uses these people to make a point: How absurd to meticulously keep the words of a mere man, yet pay no attention to the words of God. Where this clan honored their forefather in obedience, God’s people neglected God Himself.

Today, let us consider the voice heard in the Word of God. It is the voice of the Creator, possessing infinite and perfect wisdom. It is the voice of the faithful God, trustworthy, pure in motive, and righteous in every way. It is the voice of the Savior, merciful, kind, and gracious to sinners. God, thank You for Your voice!