We Are To Obey, No Matter The Response - Jeremiah 32-36

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: “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. 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.”

The above lines are a summary of Jeremiah’s ministry.  He is to record what God tells him and then deliver what God tells them to the people and the leaders.  Jeremiah does this throughout the book.    In the above section we read the specifics of what he is to do.  He will do this and give it to his servant to write as he dictates what God tells him.  However, here is what happens when his servant delivers the content of Jeremiah’s message to the King of Israel:

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. Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was afraid, nor did they tear their garments.

Imagine going somewhere to speak to an audience and you provide handouts to them.  How would you respond, if once completed with your talk, the audience stands and destroys and burns your material, one column at a time?   This was Jeremiah’s audience and their response.   Jeremiah will not be judged, however, for their response.  He will only be judged by his obedience to God.  The results of our work for God are in God’s hands.  We are only to be obedient to the task He assigns us, not the results of those who He is working with.