"Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe's knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire....The Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 'Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll'....So Jeremiah took another scroll and...Baruch...wrote on it all the Words of the scroll that...had burned in the fire. And many similar Words were added to them." (Jeremiah 36)
This was the king's worst nightmare. Not only did, "The Word of the Lord," come back, but horror of horrors to him, "And many similar Words were added to them."
Did the king really think that cutting up and burning those Words would really put an end to, "the Words of God," coming to humanity?-- perhaps. Yet that is exactly what that school district in Pennsylvania attempted, and what the American Public approved in 1963, and that is what has happened throughout Church History, burning, banning, outlawing, and more and more in the last century, replacing, "The Word of the Lord," in churches with.................
King Jehoiakim is no longer with us, "But the Word of the Lord endures forever." What is that "King Jehoiakim" in your life today which is attempting to do what the king did, "....cut them off...and thr[o]w them into the firepot"? I pray that you and I will always fight this, "principality and power," and sing in our spirits continually, "Sing them over again to me, Wonderful Words of life."
Father, in Jesus' Name, thank You that so long ago you spoke to my heart of my desperate need of the Words which no "firepot" can ever destroy. Amen.
When Peter, an 18 year old Norwegian, "heard the call to evangelize China, on that day he not only emptied his wallet into the collection plate, but included a small note with the words, 'and my life.'"
Hebrews 12:2
Hebrews 12:2
