Have you ever told someone something you knew to be true and they responded “I don’t believe that!”
Did their response change the reality of what you said? Certainly not. Why? Because the truth never retreats. Nor does it retract its statement. God says it this way.
“My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.”
Psalms 89:34 NKJV
And this:
“For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”
Isaiah 55:10-11 NKJV
Jeremiah the prophet encountered a king who said, or I should say acted, as though God’s Word can be burnt and that would be the end of it. But how many of you in my audience know that God remembers what He said verbatim, and can replicate it without blinking? Moses found that out too. When he smashed the tablets containing the Ten Commandments, God said get new stone tablets and I will write it again.
“And the Lord said to Moses, “Cut two tablets of stone like the first ones, and I will write on these tablets the words that were on the first tablets which you broke.”Exodus 34:1 NKJV
Don’t you love it! I’m so grateful that even when I forget His promises He doesn’t. That should bring a sense of peace to your heart. He never forgets and He never breaks them. Glory to His wonderful Name! Hallelujah! He’s so yummy 🥰 I kiss His face. Earth to Winsome..I could lose myself in Him right now and you’d have to finish the message on your own lol. He’s just so wonderful.♥️♥️
Yes! Yes! The lesson. What was I talking about? O yes the folks who think because they don’t believe the Word of God that it changes what God has said. 🙄 duh it doesn’t!
Well anyway, Jeremiah had a run in, well his transcriber did, with a king who thought that ignoring God would make Him go away. So he burned the warning. Jeremiah and Baruch had to go in hiding because this idiot thought silencing the prophet would silence God.🤦♀️ We flesh creatures can really be daft at times. That’s an English word for foolish. We start to smell ourselves, drunk on power we’re led to believe that God is subject to us. Isn’t that what we’re seeing in America today and some countries? Beware of the Nebuchadnezzar syndrome -it doesn’t go well. So anyway Jehoiakim, king of Judah thought he was big and bad and said “I don’t believe that” and here’s the rest of the story, now that I have your undivided attention 😊 it’s kinda long so I’ll trust you to go read it on your own. But I’ve given you enough of a background to pick it up in the middle.
“Now it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, that this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying: “Take a scroll of a book and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel, against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah even to this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the adversities which I purpose to bring upon them, that everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.” Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah; and Baruch wrote on a scroll of a book, at the instruction of Jeremiah, all the words of the Lord which He had spoken to him. And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, “I am confined, I cannot go into the house of the Lord. You go, therefore, and read from the scroll which you have written at my instruction, the words of the Lord, in the hearing of the people in the Lord’s house on the day of fasting. And you shall also read them in the hearing of all Judah who come from their cities. It may be that they will present their supplication before the Lord, and everyone will turn from his evil way. For great is the anger and the fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people.” And Baruch the son of Neriah did according to all that Jeremiah the prophet commanded him, reading from the book the words of the Lord in the Lord’s house. Now it came to pass in the fifth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, in the ninth month, that they proclaimed a fast before the Lord to all the people in Jerusalem, and to all the people who came from the cities of Judah to Jerusalem. Then Baruch read from the book the words of Jeremiah in the house of the Lord, in the chamber of Gemariah the son of Shaphan the scribe, in the upper court at the entry of the New Gate of the Lord’s house, in the hearing of all the people.”
Jeremiah 36:1-10 NKJV
This is where it gets dicey, the people were on board. But….oh my, there was someone who wasn’t going to be fazed by all this ‘thus saith the Lord’ stuff. The politicians, I meant the king of Judah, what was I thinking- He was ticked that God would dare to threaten judgment against his kingdom. And who was this Jeremiah, this Christian, to tell him what the Bible says?
“And they went to the king, into the court; but they stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the hearing of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to bring the scroll, and he took it from Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and in the hearing of all the princes who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning on the hearth before him. And it happened, when Jehudi had read three or four columns, that the king cut it with the scribe’s knife and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. Yet they were not afraid, nor did they tear their garments, the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words. Nevertheless Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah implored the king not to burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them.”
Jeremiah 36:20-25 NKJV
The man didn’t even get to finish reading, he had heard enough and didn’t need to listen further. Will somebody please warn king Biden and the Congress that their arms are too short to box with God? Will somebody please warn mister Xi Jinping of China, Kim Jon Un of North Korea and Governor Newsom of California and anyone else who seeks to raise their voices over the Word of God, that God’s Word stands and He has the final say? That because they say it isn’t so doesn’t change anything God says. Any law that tries to supersede the written Word will fail in God's courtroom. Burning Bibles and churches, imprisoning Christians, reproductive rights, homosexual rights will not Will Not! Change God’s Word. The Truth is not hate speech! Do you know that preachers in Canada will go to jail for preaching Romans 1:18-32? My children want me to go on social media. I spoke to the Lord about it. I said “you know what You tell me to write is considered hate speech.” He said “as long as the answer of your tongue is from Me, speak on.” My website was hacked the next week. So if there are Democrats in my audience don’t stone the messenger. If there are Republicans in the audience, don't gloat, no better herring no better barrel. That’s Jamaican for “they’re all the same.” God’s Word is the only and final authority in my life, and it should be in yours as well! Anyone and Any government that rejects God, should be rejected.
King Jehoiakim burned the Words God gave through the prophet Jeremiah, but God said “Write it again!-Only this time I’ll address Jehoiakim directly.” This will no longer be a general word of warning. You never want to take God on. Ask Governor Cuomo, he’s one of many who will fall because of their arrogance and haughtiness towards God. Thinking they know better than God who created all life. Thinking they stand in the place of God with their policies. The difference now is, it is written! And it will not be rewritten. God has spoken and who can thwart it? Isaiah 14:27.
“Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, saying: “Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, ‘Thus says the Lord: “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from here?’ ” Therefore thus says the Lord 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. I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them; but they did not heed.” ’ ” Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And besides, there were added to them many similar words.”
Jeremiah 36:27-32 NKJV
Not only did God reiterate what He said, He added more words. Lol the first writing didn’t say anything about the destruction of Jehoiakim or his family. It was a general call to repentance to avert the judgment of God. But because the king thought he was bigger than God, and could ignore the warnings, he burned the Word. Right now in this country we’re ignoring the warning signs. We think we can bully God into submission by living contrarily to His written Word. But we will fail miserably. A compromised nation is a nation marked for destruction.
“This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, And this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, And who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, And who will turn it back?”
Isaiah 14:26-27 NKJV
Whoever has ears let him hear. We have time to avert the judgment of God, the question is, will we heed the Word of God and repent? God is a merciful and compassionate God. He desires that we all come to repentance. But if we spurn His invitation and dig our heels in to oppose His Word we will pay the price. What makes us believe we’re better off doing worse than Judah under Jehoiakim’s leadership did? God is no respecter of persons. When we obey His Word He blesses us, when we disobey He chastens us. That’s the responsibility of a loving Father. He says His wrath is reserved for those who reject Him.
“But in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who “will render to each one according to his deeds”: eternal life to those who by patient continuance in doing good seek for glory, honor, and immortality; but to those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness—indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, on every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek; but glory, honor, and peace to everyone who works what is good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.”
Romans 2:5-11 NKJV
So you said you ‘don’t believe that’. Think again. These words were written in the age of grace. New Testament warnings from Paul not Jeremiah but they sound the same to me. God never changes!
Written by permission of the Holy Spirit
W. Tennant
October 22, 2021
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