Eating or Burning

Three guys in the Bible.

Three very different guys.
Three very different stories.
Three very similar situations.

The first guy is named Josiah.
He was a King of Judah.
We can find his story in 2 Kings 22:

"Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem thirty-one years. His mother’s name was Jedidah daughter of Adaiah; she was from Bozkath. He did what was right in the eyes of the LORD and followed completely the ways of his father David, not turning aside to the right or to the left." (1-2)
Now to put this in some perspective... Josiah was not David's kid. But Josiah lived as if he was.

Josiah was actually the son of Amon... who was so wicked in his ways that God only allowed him to reign for two years... Amon's father, Josiah's grandfather was named Manasseh. Manasseh was potentially the most wicked King the world has ever seen... the description of his 55 year reign is found in 2 Kings 21:2-9...


"He did evil in the eyes of the LORD, following the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put my Name.” In the two courts of the temple of the LORD, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced divination, sought omens, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of the LORD, arousing his anger. He took the carved Asherah pole he had made and put it in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put my Name forever. I will not again make the feet of the Israelites wander from the land I gave their ancestors, if only they will be careful to do everything I commanded them and will keep the whole Law that my servant Moses gave them.” But the people did not listen. Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites."(WOW! We all know how God felt about those people... and this guy was worse.)

Josiah did not have any Godly influences in his life when it came to his family... we do not know much about his mother... she could have been the person who taught him all his ways. But we do not know.
What we can assume though is that the people wanted a King just like Manasseh and Amon... that is why they placed Josiah on the throne at such a young age.
He's young, and he only has the wickedness of his father and his grandfather as an example of how to lead a whole country...yet God gives him a heart for righteousness. A desire to do good.
Josiah rejected complacency.
He refused to follow the path that was expected of him.
He decided to stop being comfortable and instead to be in a position where God would use him.
We can do that too.

Josiah is an encouragement for those of us who have a bad history... a bad gene pool. By the power and grace of God we all can decide to follow God instead.
In 2 Kings 23:25 we see this final description of Josiah's reign,

"Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did—with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strength, in accordance with all the Law of Moses."

Neither before nor after... David, the man 'after God's own heart' Solomon, the 'wisest of all kings' Hezekiah, the great reformer... they don't compare to the way Josiah turned to the LORD.

Now that is a statement.

What happened, what did Josiah do that so merited this to be said about him?
A reaction.
It began with one reaction to God's Word.
During his reign he decided to do some construction on the Temple of the LORD, and what was found in a storage closet, was the long lost Book of the Law... many scholars believe it was Deuteronomy. Between the 57 years of wickedness... God's Word was actually lost.

This is Josiah's reaction...
"When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Akbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD’s anger that burns against us because those who have gone before us have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”(22:11-13)

And this is what God had to say:

"Tell the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the LORD, ‘This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says concerning the words you heard: Because your heart was responsive and you humbled yourself before the LORD when you heard what I have spoken against this place and its people—that they would become a curse and be laid waste—and because you tore your robes and wept in my presence, I also have heard you, declares the LORD. Therefore I will gather you to your ancestors, and you will be buried in peace. Your eyes will not see all the disaster I am going to bring on this place.’" (22:18-20)

Tearing of the robes was a visual physical sign of grief, repentance, and guilt.
Josiah took God very seriously.
He didn't ask for different translations, different opinions, or try to swindle himself out of what the Word said.
He admitted his guilt.
When the Word of God corrects us... it demands a response, a reaction. How do you react? How do I react?
Do we humble ourselves, acknowledge our fault or our folly... or do we try to get around God's laws.
You know some of us may have just enough Bible in them to be dangerous and we use other scripture and bend it to what we want to hear... misinterpreted, out of place, but when it comes down to it we have only two responses we can make.

Eating or Burning

Which leads us to our second guy.
Jehoiakim.
He was also a King of Judah.
And his story is found in 2 Kings as well... but to be honest in this instance, I don't care about his story.
Because his story is just a repeat of the previous wicked kings' stories.
But there is one thing Jehoiakim did that we need to discuss... because he too was faced with God's word... he too was in a position where God demanded a response... a reaction.
God tells Jeremiah the prophet to “Take a scroll and write on it all the words I have spoken to you concerning Israel, Judah and all the other nations from the time I began speaking to you in the reign of Josiah till now. Perhaps when the people of Judah hear about every disaster I plan to inflict on them, they will each turn from their wicked ways; then I will forgive their wickedness and their sin.” (Jeremiah 36:2-3)
And eventually this scroll gets brought to the Jehoiakim the King.

"After they put the scroll in the room of Elishama the secretary, they went to the king in the courtyard and reported everything to him. The king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and Jehudi brought it from the room of Elishama the secretary and read it to the king and all the officials standing beside him. It was the ninth month and the king was sitting in the winter apartment, with a fire burning in the firepot in front of him. Whenever Jehudi had read three or four columns of the scroll, the king cut them off with a scribe’s knife and threw them into the firepot, until the entire scroll was burned in the fire. The king and all his attendants who heard all these words showed no fear, nor did they tear their clothes. Even though Elnathan, Delaiah and Gemariah urged the king not to burn the scroll, he would not listen to them. Instead, the king commanded Jerahmeel, a son of the king, Seraiah son of Azriel and Shelemiah son of Abdeel to arrest Baruch the scribe and Jeremiah the prophet. But the LORD had hidden them." (Jeremiah 36:20-26)

Jehoiakim did not learn from his father. Instead of heeding the Scripture that is calling him to repentance... he burns it. Correction: He cuts the scroll apart... then he burns it. And none of his servants react either.
They are passive.
They are proud.
They are complacent.
In them... there is no fear of God.
What is going on here?
Did he think that he could scratch out, erase, disqualify the very words of God?
With words, God created all things.
With words, Jesus taught.
With words God redeems.
God has revealed his character, will, and plan of salvation through words, the way we react to them is of vital importance.

What is going on here?
A fool who surrounded himself with fools.
A person who surrounded himself with people who agree with him... don't we do that?
Don't we pick and choose sometimes.
Don't we 'burn' God's Word with our actions...when we decide to be apathetic in our pursuit of knowing the Bible?
We don't go to our Bibles with the passion and zeal that we claim to believe.
And this is where our seeking... our searching comes to a stop sign.
God is telling us to go. Green light.
Maybe a yield sign...
And we treat it as a red light, as a stop sign...
We sit and idle, in one spot.
Our tires aren't flat.
Our engines are fine.
But before we know it our car stops, our engines aren't on... the car won't fire over.
We wonder why we seem to run out of steam midway through the week... we wonder why Monday morning makes us forget everything that Sunday was.
We wonder why by Thursday we are are still trapped in our sin, why by Friday our relationships are strained again.
Have we ever stopped to consider our response to God's word?
Our gasoline.
Because while we sit in idle... our engine is burning our fuel... but we don't go anywhere.
We need to stay fueled.
The way we listen to his Word being preached.
The way we read his Word.
The way we evaluate his Word.
We need to approach God's word with a passion for allowing it to fill us. To give us energy. To be taken in... as if eating it.
Which brings us to our third guy. We've already mentioned him.
He was probably just a little younger than Josiah.
He wasn't a King.
He saw the rise and fall of five Kings of Judah.
He was a prophet... God's prophet.
The weeping prophet.
Lamenting.
Jeremiah.
And there is only one thing I want to show concerning Jeremiah's attitude toward God's Word.
I pray that you can chew on this one verse found in Jeremiah 15.
That we all would react to Jesus Christ... who is the Word of God (John 1:1) in this manner, that He would live within me, within you, that He would be our joy and our hearts delight.


I pray we are encouraged by Josiah's example, that we are sobered by Jehoiakim's ungodly actions, and that we would understand what God is saying to us as we go after Jeremiah's prayer.


"When your words came, I ate them;
   they were my joy and my heart’s delight,
for I bear your name,
   LORD God Almighty." (15:16)

And what is God's response to Jeremiah's prayer?

"I will make you a wall to this people,
   a fortified wall of bronze;
they will fight against you
   but will not overcome you,
for I am with you
   to rescue and save you,"
            declares the LORD.
"I will save you from the hands of the wicked
   and deliver you from the grasp of the cruel."

Why? because that's what God does... He does it all. It's His story... and when we react to His story in such a way... he brings us in, he allows us to be a part of His story... becoming our story.
He's the hero... How will we respond to Him?

What's the bottom line here: We need to seek God's word... but that we would seek it with Godly intentions.