Day 249 · Sunday, September 6
"As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot."JEREMIAH 36:23
Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 249, The Word Cannot Burn.
"As Jehudi read three or four columns, the king would cut them off with a knife and throw them into the fire in the fire pot, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the fire pot." Jeremiah 36:23.
This scene is one of the most striking in the entire book of Jeremiah. God had told the prophet to dictate, word for word, everything He had spoken over the years — every warning, every call to repentance, every invitation for the people to turn back. Baruch wrote it all down carefully, column after column, onto a single scroll. And that scroll reaches King Jehoiakim.
Look closely at the scene: Jehudi reads three or four columns. The king listens. And then, with a scribe's knife, he cuts off exactly the portion just read — and throws it into the fire pot warming him. And tells him to keep going. Jehudi reads another section. The king cuts again. Throws it in again. Until the entire scroll is ash.
Notice this is not a sudden burst of rage. It's calculated. It's methodical. It's cold. The king does not tear it all at once in a fit of fury — he processes God's word piece by piece and destroys it piece by piece, in total control. And the text takes care to note: neither he nor the officials around him were afraid or tore their garments, as you would expect before such a serious word. Silence. Indifference. Calculation.
My friend, this makes me think about how often we do a subtler version of the same thing. We don't take a literal knife, of course. But how often do we read a part of the Word that unsettles us, that confronts us, that asks for change — and simply decide not to continue? We cut away the hard passage from our reading. We skip the chapter that names something we don't want to face. We close the subject before it gets too close to the heart.
But here is the most powerful part of this story: the fire did not win. Shortly after this episode, God tells Jeremiah to write it all again. And not merely to repeat it word for word — God adds even more words to the second scroll. The king burned the parchment, but he could not burn God's word. It was written again, larger than before.
This is a truth that runs through all of history: you can ignore the Word, you can cut away the passage that unsettles you, you can even try to destroy what has been spoken — but God's word always finds its way back. It does not depend on the paper it's written on. It is alive.
So today, I want to challenge you to do the opposite of what Jehoiakim did. Choose one part of the Word you have been avoiding — maybe because it unsettles you, maybe because it confronts an area you'd rather leave undisturbed. And read it in full today. Refusing to cut away any section out of discomfort.
Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.