Burning The Roll

by Toms, A. F. | Category: Gems From Jeremiah | Dec 1991

Have you ever read the story of how we got our English Bible? It is an enthralling story of men who gave all that they had, and even life itself - to bring the Word of God to us in our own mother tongue.

William Tyndale was perhaps the foremost of the pioneers, and one day he said to the local clergy, "If God give me life, 'ere many years the ploughboys shall know more of the Scriptures than you do". And that is just what he did, but it cost him his life to do it: The invention of the printing machine greatly helped him, of course, but the opposition to his work was almost unbelievable. At one time his antagonists bought every copy of the Scriptures that they could find and burned them at St: Paul's. But God can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and with the money received, Tyndale was able to publish copies of the Scriptures more cheaply and in clearer print, and so the Word of God prevailed. It must do, of course, for it is God's living Word, and He plainly says, "the Word of the Lord abideth forever" (1 Pet: 1:25).

Burning copies of God's Word was not new, for we read in Jeremiah chapter 36 that king Jehoiakim did the very same thing. God spoke His words to Jeremiah, and Baruch his scribe wrote it down on a roll as Jeremiah dictated it to him. Then Jeremiah told Baruch to go and stand at a busy thoroughfare leading to God's house and read the words to the people as they passed by. This was done at a specially busy time in Jerusalem, a day of a Fast, and crowds of people heard the words God had spoken through Jeremiah. Among those who heard them was a young man called Micaiah, and he passed the word to the princes, who were so concerned about the judgement Jeremiah predicted that they reported the words to the king. Jehoiakim, the king, was not satisfied in hearing about it by word of mouth; he commanded them to bring the roll and read it to him. It was winter time, and he was sitting in his winter house warming himself before a fire. It is a vivid picture that the scripture presents to us of the godless king surrounded by his princes, all with solemn faces because of the seriousness of the words they were hearing. The king was renowned for his angry outbursts, and as he listened to the words being read he became visibly enraged. Snatching his knife he hacked through three or four columns of the roll and threw them into the fife. Three of his princes were horrified and tried to persuade him not to do it, but he just continued in his anger until the whole of the roll was destroyed. And the scripture says that they were not afraid, neither the king nor any of his servants. Foolish king! Did he think that he could do away with God's Word as easily as that? If he did he was terribly mistaken. The Lord Jesus said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but My words shall not pass away" (Mat. 24:35), and that applies to all of God's Word. Men may destroy copies of it, but the living Word itself can never be destroyed. God told Jeremiah to write again on another roll all the former words and to them were added pronouncements of judgement on Jehoiakim which in due course were fulfilled.

Men are still bent on destroying God's Word, not burning it now, at any rate not often, but in more sophisticated ways they are destroying it. Today we frequently find men and women taking it upon themselves to criticize God's Word; they hack away large portions of it by casting doubt on its truthfulness. Have nothing to do with such error. Stand firmly and bravely, if need be, for the truth of God's Word in its entirety, for the whole of it is divinely inspired. Men have been attacking it for centuries, but it stands firm like a rock. A poet has written:

Last eve I passed beside the blacksmith's door

And heard the anvil ring the vesper chime;

When looking down, I saw upon the floor

Old hammers worn with use in former time.

"How many anvils have you used" said I,

"To wear and batter all these hammers so?"

"Just one!" said he, and then, with twinkling eye,

"The anvil wears the hammers out, you know".

Just so, thought I, the anvil of God's Word

For ages sceptic blows have beat upon;

Yet, though the noise of falling blows was heard,

The anvil is unharmed - the hammers gone.

(Source unknown)

How very true. No harm can come to the Word of God; it is safe in God's keeping, but great harm comes to those who refuse its words. Jehoiakim found that to his cost, and so will all those who refuse to receive God's Word into their hears. The Lord Jesus spoke very solemn words when He said:

He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My sayings, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I spake, the same shall judge him in the last day (John 12:48).

One final point. Is it not a remarkable thing that fathers and sons so often stand in contrast to one another? Jehoiakim had a father called Josiah, and he was a king who loved God and deeply reverenced God's Word. In fact it was during his reign that Hilkiah found the book of the law in God's house. It had been lost for a long time, and amazingly enough, lost in God's house. When it was found and read to the king he humbled himself and wept because of the disobedience of his people. What a difference! Two men, a father and a son, but poles apart in their attitude to God's Word. God says, "to this man will I look", or as the New International Version puts it, "This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at My Word" (Is. 66:2). Let us be among those who have such reverence for God's Word that we tremble at the prospect of disobeying it.

Toms, A. F. | Dec 1991
Gems From Jeremiah