God Told Jeremiah What to Write

Intro

What are some ways we talk with other people?

We talk with them in person! Sometimes we talk with them on the phone, or if you’re like most other younger people, texting them. Maybe writing letters to someone, or maybe even digital letters, known as email!

There are a lot of different ways we can talk with someone.

Here’s another question: how does God talk to us?

Does He speak with a loud voice from the sky above?

Does He text or call us like some of our friends and family do?

How does God talk to us?

Well, if you guessed the Bible, you guessed correctly!

The Bible is God’s Word. Inside of this book is everything God wants us to know about Him and even about ourselves.

In today’s lesson and story, we are going to learn how the Bible was written. Did it just magically appear one day? We are going to see how God used ordinary people like you and me to write His Word. But, it wasn’t just them writing His Word; it was God Himself.

Jeremiah

Take for instance, the prophet Jeremiah!

We know that a prophet is someone that God speaks directly to, and they are supposed to deliver that message from God to God’s people.

A long time ago, in the days after King Josiah (who we learned about last week) died, the people chose Josiah’s son to be king. His name was Jehoiakim. Can you say that with me? (Juh-hoy-a-kim)

Now remember from last week: God’s people did not obey His Law. Therefore, God was going to punish them, because: when you disobey, there are consequences.

However, because of Josiah’s obedience and His sorrow over the people not obeying the law, God promised to hold off the punishment until after Josiah had passed away. Now, some time after Josiah’s death, the Lord God spoke to Jeremiah the prophet and told him this:

Jeremiah 36:2–3 (CSB)

2 “Take a scroll, and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah, and all the nations from the time I first spoke to you during Josiah’s reign until today.

3 Perhaps when the house of Judah hears about all the disaster I am planning to bring on them, each one of them will turn from his evil way. Then I will forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

God was telling them that if they turned away from their evil ways and turn to obeying God, He would forgive them.

So, Jeremiah told Baruch (Bah-rook), his friend and scribe > (someone who would write the things you said down on paper, or in their case, a scroll) to write all the words that God has spoken to him.

-The word “scribe” is also where we get the word “scribble,” which is when you write crazy and careless.

After Baruch wrote down God’s Word spoken to Jeremiah, Jeremiah told Baruch to go and read the words in the temple to God’s people so they would hear God’s warnings, and, as Jeremiah said:

Jeremiah 36:7 (CSB)

7 Perhaps their petition will come before the Lord, and each one will turn from his evil way, for the anger and fury that the Lord has pronounced against this people are intense.”

King Jehoiakim

Now, unfortunately, King Jehoiakim was not like his father. He was not a good king. He did not obey God’s Law.

So, some of the king’s officials were listening to the words Baruch read from the scroll.

They knew that the king would probably be upset with this message from God, so they told Baruch and Jeremiah to hide and tell no one where they were!

The scroll that Baruch had written on got into the hands of the king. Guess what the king did? He would read portions of the scroll, cut it up, and toss it into the fire to burn it! He did this until the entire scroll had burned up completely.

God Creates Another Scroll

Although the scroll with God’s Word on it got destroyed, God, being powerful and stronger than even the strongest king in the whole world, had Jeremiah tell Baruch to write another scroll!

In this new scroll, God had another warning for King Jehoiakim:

Jeremiah 36:30–31 (CSB)

30 Therefore, this is what the Lord says concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah: He will have no one to sit on David’s throne, and his corpse will be thrown out to be exposed to the heat of day and the frost of night.

31 I will punish him, his descendants, and his officers for their iniquity. I will bring on them, on the residents of Jerusalem, and on the people of Judah all the disaster, which I warned them about but they did not listen.’ ”

What does all of this tell us?

Now we know how God wrote His Word! He used specific people, telling them exactly what to write, and they either wrote the words themself, or they had a scribe pen it for them.

What a miraculous thing, right?

God’s Word was written by 40 different men over the course of 1500 years, across 3 different continents (Asia, Africa, and Europe). That’s a lot of people, a lot of time, and a lot of places!

Main Point

God inspired people to know what to write in the Bible.

Our verse of focus for this month is:

2 Timothy 3:16 (CSB)

All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,

In other translations, it says that all Scripture is God breathed or breathed out by God. His Word isn’t a bunch of mumbo jumbo from random people; He spoke to and through specific men who wrote His Word.

Conclusion

So, we know that the Bible was written by God through human authors.

We know that God’s Word is perfect and true.

We know that God’s Word tells us how we should live.

We also know that God’s Word tells us that we haven’t lived the way we are supposed to.

And that is when God’s Word tells us the good news of Jesus Christ, how He obeyed everything God ever commanded perfectly.

And God’s Word tells us that if we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Rom. 10:9.)

If we trust in Jesus, God will forgive our sin and give us a clean record before Him because of what Jesus has done.

It would be like if you had a report card with bad grades, and because you trust in Jesus, He gives you His report card which is perfect and flawless.