Jeremiah 36:24. "Yet neither the king, nor any of his servants who heard all these words, was afraid, nor did they rend their garments." The king here is Jehoiakim, a Jew and the son of a good king, Josiah, but essentially a puppet king installed by Judah’s enemies. The words King Jehoiakim heard were those on a scroll written by Baruch as he took dictation from Jeremiah. God told Jeremiah to write down everything He had ever said to Jeremiah in the hope that "It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which 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." (Jeremiah 36:3). Jeremiah dictated this scroll to Baruch, and Baruch read it aloud in the temple. One man who heard it told all the princes of Judah, who listened to the scroll with great fear. They realized they had to tell the king, but they also knew it would be dangerous, so they told Baruch and Jeremiah to hide, and went and reported the words to the king. Thus we get to the verse for today, in which the king hears the words but is nonplussed by them. Jehoiakim actually cuts each passage from the scroll after it is read and throws it into the fire! (Jeremiah 36:23).

When the princes of Judah heard the words of the scroll "they turned one to another in fear" (Jeremiah 36:16), but the king and his servants had no fear at all, so who was reacting properly? Jesus tells us often to "be not afraid," and if we have faith we really should not be afraid of anything in this world - we know that God loves us, and has a plan that is for the good of all humanity; we know that He is trustworthy. But if God is the trustworthy One, the only One who can lead us to true happiness, then we definitely should fear being separated from Him. "Fear of the Lord" is a good and necessary thing. This does not mean being scared of God, but rather seeing God in his rightful place, as Creator and Ruler of all, and wanting to be in right relationship with Him. Without this, we cannot attain Heaven, and that is the greatest loss imaginable, something to be feared above all else. So when King Jehoiakim and his servants hear the many dire warnings given by God to Jeremiah and do not feel afraid, that is a very bad sign indeed. They are Jews, God's chosen people, but they have no fear of the Lord, they do not take His warnings seriously. They are beyond help, and they are in charge, which means the people do not have a ruler who will lead them back to God.

Jeremiah's life as a prophet was particularly thankless. No one listened to him, yet he had to keep doing what God called him to do - try to deliver the message of coming destruction due to the sinfulness of a people who would not repent. I just had a reading from Jeremiah yesterday, and since I started my blog, I've had readings from Jeremiah forty-five times. I think God is trying to tell me, and all of us, that our situation is similar to that of Judah in Jeremiah's time. We are also living in a time when people, especially our leaders, do not have any fear of the Lord, and cannot hear the truth, nor do they want to pursue it. We seem to be on a similar road that Judah was on before its fall, and, though God is definitely giving us prophets and warnings, we don't seem to be listening to them. I really think Jeremiah is the prophet for our times, and we can learn a lot from reading this book of the Bible.