God Keeps Backups

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah after the king had burned the scroll and the words which Baruch had written at the dictation of Jeremiah, saying,

“Take again another scroll and write on it all the former words that were on the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah burned.

“And concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah you shall say, ‘Thus says the LORD, “You have burned this scroll, saying, ‘Why have you written on it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and will make man and beast to cease from it?’

“‘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 also punish him and his descendants and his servants for their iniquity, and I will bring on them and the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the men of Judah all the calamity that I have declared to them—but they did not listen.” ’ ”

Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe, and he wrote on it at the dictation of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire; and many similar words were added to them. (Jeremiah 36:27-32)

Human judgment is often as ineffective as it is wrong. Jehoiakim, king of Judah, learned the hard way that censorship is an ineffective means of quieting God. Josiah, king of Judah, had restored the worship of God in Israel. But then he fought a battle against Pharoah Neco and was killed. The Pharaoh then put Josiah’s son on the throne and changed his name to Jehoiakim. In his third year, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon invaded and made him a vassal. Jehoiakim did not like the message that Jeremiah had pronounced. Rather than repent, rather than seeking help from God, he decided instead to destroy the message, as if the word of God could be undone by burning it.

God’s word is not dependent upon people believing it for its effectiveness. Believed or not, what God says will have its way. God didn’t forget what he had said, unlike a public speaker who might have problems if he lost his notes. Instead, God just printed them out again. Jeremiah had no trouble restoring what had been burned. And it didn’t keep God from adding even more to what he had said originally. He was not intimidated or silenced. Destroying the message is no more effective—or reasonable—than attacking the messenger.

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