Words that Endure

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Today's reading titled Words That Endure was written by Tim Gustafson. In the early 19th century, Thomas Carlyle gave a manuscript to philosopher John Stuart Mill to review. Somehow, whether accidentally or intentionally, the manuscript got tossed into a fire. It was Carlyle's only copy. When daunted, he set to work rewriting the lost chapters. Mere flames couldn't stop the story, which remained intact in his mind.

Out of great loss, Carlyle produced his monumental work, the French Revolution. In the waning days of ancient Judah's decadent kingdom, God told the prophet Jeremiah, take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you. The message revealed God's tender heart calling on his people to repent in order to avoid imminent invasion. Jeremiah did as he was told. The scroll soon found its way to Judah's king Jehoiakim, who methodically shredded it and threw it into the fire. The king's act of arson only made matters worse. God told Jeremiah to write another scroll with the same message. He said in chapter 36, Jehoiakim will have no one to sit on the throne of David. His body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. It's possible to burn the words of God by tossing a book into a fire.

Possible, but utterly futile. The word behind the words endures forever. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Jeremiah chapter 36 verses 27 through 32. After the king burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah's dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Take another scroll and write on it all the words that were on the first scroll, which Jehoiakim, king of Judah, burned up. Also, tell Jehoiakim, king of Judah, this is what the Lord says. You burned that scroll and said, why did you write on it that the king of Babylon would certainly come and destroy this land and wipe from it both man and beast? Therefore, this is what the Lord says about Jehoiakim, king of Judah. He will have no one to sit on the throne of David.

His body will be thrown out and exposed to the heat by day and the frost by night. I will punish him and his children and his attendants for their wickedness. I will bring on them and those living in Jerusalem and the people of Judah every disaster I pronounced against them because they have not listened. So, Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the scribe Baruch, son of Neriah.

And as Jeremiah dictated, Baruch wrote on it all the words of the scroll that Jehoiakim, king of Judah, had burned in the fire and many similar words were added to them. Let's pray. Father, thank you for the gift of scriptures and for how you have preserved them through the ages. Please give us humble hearts that always seek to hear and apply your instruction to and in our lives. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. I'm Stephen, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.