27 Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: 28 “Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. Jeremiah 36:27-28
Through the Bible: Jeremiah 35-37
Thomas Jefferson was a great writer. He is the chief architect of one of the founding documents of our nation, the Declaration of Independence.
But even the best writers don’t get to write their own Bible. Yet Jefferson attempted to do just that. Like King Jehoiakim in today’s reading, Jefferson took a penknife to the New Testament and cut out any verse that didn’t align with his rational, naturalistic worldview. The result, an 84-page book entitled The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth, contains no miracles, no resurrection, and no references to Jesus as the divine Son of God.
Jehoiakim thought burning the scroll would dispose of the message. Jefferson thought cutting away the supernatural would leave him with a Jesus he could accept. Neither man had the authority to edit God.
There is an irony here. Jefferson cut away the miracles and kept the moral teachings of Jesus. Today, we can be tempted toward the opposite kind of editing. We gladly keep the miracles. We proclaim a supernatural Savior, born of a virgin and raised from the dead. But we can become considerably less enthusiastic when that same Savior tells us to care for the poor, welcome the stranger, love our enemies, speak the truth, and seek justice. Jefferson used a penknife. We are more subtle— we just ignore it. But whenever we decide which parts of God’s Word we will take seriously and which parts we can safely ignore, we are doing our own cutting.
There are parts of the Bible that are hard to obey. There are things that are hard to understand. And there are truths in God’s Word that are inconvenient or make us uncomfortable. But we must always remember that it is God’s Word, not ours. We are accountable to what the Bible says, not to what we wish it said.
I am so thankful for Jeremiah 36:28. Jehoiakim burned God’s Word, and God simply told Jeremiah, “Write it again.” In fact, verse 32 tells us that the second scroll contained all the words of the first, “and many similar words were added to them.” Jehoiakim tried to make God’s Word disappear. He wound up with more of it.
Father, thank You for Your perfect word. Every single word of it!
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