God Longs to Forgive

Don't believe the news that God is out to get people. Nor believe the rumor that God in the Old Testament is nasty and mean. He is loving, patient, and constantly seeking to forgive. The problem is that the human heart resists Him at every turn. 

Jeremiah 36:1–3 (ESV) In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD: 2 “Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. 3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

Jeremiah does this and enlists Baruch, his assistant to deliver the document. 

Jeremiah 36:5–6 (ESV) And Jeremiah ordered Baruch, saying, “I am banned from going to the house of the LORD, 6 so you are to go, and on a day of fasting in the hearing of all the people in the LORD’s house you shall read the words of the LORD from the scroll that you have written at my dictation. You shall read them also in the hearing of all the men of Judah who come out of their cities.

This is now 23 years of Jeremiah's preaching written down and delivered by Baruch to the people as they come to worship in the Temple. 

One man, Micaiah, hears these words and delivers the news to the officials of the nation. Those officials hear from Baruch the reading of Jeremiah's sermons and are also alarmed. This needs to be delivered to the king. 

Jeremiah 36:15–16 (ESV) And they said to him, “Sit down and read it.” So Baruch read it to them. 16 When they heard all the words, they turned one to another in fear. And they said to Baruch, “We must report all these words to the king.”

What should you expect to happen? The king would surely respond. Even some of his constituents are concerned with the flood of egregious testimony regarding the nation's spiritual state. No. In fact, we get the surest example of hard-heartedness from the Bible. 

Jeremiah 36:21–22 (ESV) Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary. And Jehudi read it to the king and all the officials who stood beside the king. 22 It was the ninth month, and the king was sitting in the winter house, and there was a fire burning in the fire pot before him.

The narrative builds suspense but you can tell what is about to take place from the details about which we are informed. 

Jeremiah 36:23–24 (ESV) 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. 24 Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments.

With evil intent, the king unceremoniously destroys the scroll in the fire. The moment wreaks of appalling arrogance. For ancient people, words written were believed to have the power to come to pass. This is Jehoiakim's attempt at undoing it. The rest is history, and we read those words today. 

But we see the tortured nature of the human heart. It is bent on evil constantly. Yet God longs to forgive even THESE PEOPLE! Jehoiakim had every chance to repent and did not. His kingdom would be cut off.

Jeremiah 36:30–31 (ESV) Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: He shall have none to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night. 31 And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity. I will bring upon them and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem and upon the people of Judah all the disaster that I have pronounced against them, but they would not hear.’ ”

So, have you blown it? Are you feeling your life cut off from God's grace? It is not too late. If Jehoiakim could have been saved, you can be. The Lord longs to forgive the worst of sinners.