There is an almost instinctive impulse when facing unbearable news: tear up the letter, erase the message, silence the one who brought it. Jehoiakim, king of Judah, took that impulse to the extreme. Faced with the word of God written on a scroll, he cut it with a knife and threw it into the fire, column by column.
He was born Eliakim, son of King Josiah. After his father’s death, the people put his brother Jehoahaz on the throne, but Pharaoh Necho of Egypt deposed him within a few months and installed Eliakim as a vassal king, changing his name to Jehoiakim (2 Kings 23:34).
He reigned eleven years in Jerusalem, but he did what was evil in the eyes of the Lord (2 Kings 23:37). He taxed the people heavily to pay tribute to Egypt and built himself a luxurious palace without paying wages to the workers (Jeremiah 22:13).
When Babylon overtook Egypt, Jehoiakim changed masters and became a vassal of Nebuchadnezzar, only to rebel against him later (2 Kings 24:1). He also had the prophet Uriah killed for daring to repeat the same warning as Jeremiah (Jeremiah 26:20-23).
The climax came when Baruch read, in the temple, the scroll containing the words the Lord had given Jeremiah over many years. On hearing the reading, Jehoiakim cut the scroll with a scribe’s knife and burned it in the firepot of his winter house, without fear, without tearing his clothes (Jeremiah 36:23-24).
God then commanded Jeremiah to write it all again, and many similar words were added (Jeremiah 36:32). The fire destroyed the parchment, not the message.
Jehoiakim’s story reminds us that no power, no fire, can erase the word of God. We can ignore the warning, tear up the page, silence the one who brings it, but the truth we refuse to hear remains true, and continues to be written, until someone finally reads it.
