…The Word of God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

…The Word of God stands forever. Isaiah 40:8

The God of the Bible is so faithful.  He protects all that He creates.  He gives His Word to His people so that if they read it they will know the truth. Throughout  the Old Testament whenever the Bible which was written on scrolls was lost or even destroyed God preserved His Word.  Lost scrolls were found in the temple, of course, and then the people were called to listen to the Word being read to them. This happened at the beginning of the reign of King Josiah (2 Chron. 34:15).

When  the stone tablets with the 10 commandments, were broken by Moses, who was angry at the people’s blatant idolatry, God restored them. After Moses had reestablished control in the camp and the evil doers punished, God told him to return up the mountain with 2 new tablets to receive the written Word again.

Jeremiah the prophet writes of an event in which the scroll containing the Word of God was destroyed.. In Jeremiah chapter 36 God speaks to Jeremiah in the 4^th year of the reign of King Jehoiachim and tells him to write down all the words that He God, has spoken to Jeremiah since the reign of Josiah the previous king.  God is very upset and angry that the people are blatantly disobeying him and He gives a warning to the Jewish people and to the surrounding nations that there will be grave consequences if they do not stop and repent.  God wants them to realize their sins, repent and turn back to Him.

Jeremiah calls his scribe Baruch to write down all the words that Jeremiah dictates to him.  Because Jeremiah cannot leave his house, he then tells Baruch to take the scroll to the temple, call for a day of fasting, and read the scroll to the people. The following year this is arranged and the people come to the temple to hear the Word read to them by Baruch.  A man named Michaiah, a man of prominence, is concerned and goes immediately to the king’s princes and tells them what he has just heard.  They are concerned so they send a scribe named Jehudi for Baruch to come and read the scroll to them. After hearing the reading the princes become very concerned of the impending judgment so they hide the scroll and fearing for the lives of Baruch and Jeremiah they tell Baruch to take Jeremiah and hide from the king.

Then the princes go and tell the king of the warning in the scroll of Jeremiah. The king commands Jehudi to get the scroll and read it to him.  When Jehudi has read 3 or 4 columns of the scroll the king takes the sword of the scribe and cuts the scroll into pieces and tosses it into the fire and lets it burn completely. None of the princes or scribes or the people protested King Jehoichim’s actions nor do they repent. Next the king sends his sons out to find Jeremiah and Baruch but God protects them and they are not found.  Then God tells Jeremiah to write down all the words that were destroyed in the fire plus the new prophecy God has just told Jeremiah regarding the end of Jehoichim.  All of which comes true. Jehoichim dies and the city of Jerusalem is destroyed and the people are taken to Babylon.

The God of the Bible always keeps His Word and His promises.  He wants His people, those who believe in Him, to know the truth.  He will not hide His word or take it away from us.  God communicates His Will to us through His Word, so if it is hidden or taken away from us how can we know? How can we repent? How can we do His Will? How can we be obedient if we don’t know the Word?  How can we know of His great love for us through the sacrifice and death and resurrection of Jesus?

These things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. John 20:25

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