“Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast?”
The full verse · Jeremiah 36:29 · KJV
And thou shalt to of , Thus the ; Thou hast this , , hast thou therein, , The of shall and this , and shall cause to from thence and ?
Asked by
Asked to
Self, Jehoiakim — the king demands why such a message of judgment was written, then burns it.
Why It Was Asked
The purpose behind the questionJehoiakim’s defiant question, demanding why Jeremiah wrote of Babylon’s certain coming, expresses his contemptuous rejection of God’s word as he burns the scroll, an act of defiance God answers with judgment and the rewriting of the very words he sought to destroy.
The Response
What Scripture recordsGod declares that because Jehoiakim burned the scroll, he will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his body will be cast out; yet the words are rewritten (Jeremiah 36:30-32).
The Bigger Picture
Where this fits in God's storyJehoiakim’s defiant question, demanding why Jeremiah wrote of Babylon’s certain coming, expresses his contemptuous rejection of God’s word as he burns the scroll. God answers with judgment and the rewriting of the very words. It points to the indestructibility of God’s word, fulfilled in Christ, the Word of God, whose words will never pass away though men oppose them.
God’s word cannot be destroyed by human defiance; though men reject it, it stands forever. Jehoiakim burned the scroll, but God had it rewritten with even more. We cannot nullify God’s word by ignoring or opposing it. His word endures, fulfilled in Christ, whose words will never pass away. Defiance against God’s word brings judgment, but the word itself stands undefeated.
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