July 20, 2026 - Jeremiah 36-39

“In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:  ‘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’” (36:1-3).   As Baruch, Jeremiah’s assistant, read the words, what did Jehoiakim do?  Page by page, he cut them into strips and burned them.  Zedekiah next ruled “but neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet” (37:2).  Jeremiah was subsequently imprisoned, then thrown into a cistern and rescued, then warned Zedekiah one last time.  “But neither he nor his servants nor the people of the land listened to the words of the LORD that he spoke through Jeremiah the prophet” (37:2), and “the king of Babylon slaughtered the sons of Zedekiah at Riblah before his eyes, and the king of Babylon slaughtered all the nobles of Judah.  He put out the eyes of Zedekiah and bound him in chains to take him to Babylon” (39:6-7).  Jerusalem and the kingdom of Judah were no longer.  What a sad story!  If only the people had heeded God’s entreaties.

Return, O wanderer, return,

He hears thy humble sigh;

He sees thy softened spirit mourn

When no one else is nigh.

Return, O wanderer, return,

Thy Saviour bids thee live;

Come to his cross, and grateful learn

How freely he’ll forgive.   --William Bengo Collyer (1812)