Passage Read: Jeremiah 33-36
Meditation Verses: 36:23-24
Thought
This is the worst possible response to the Word of God, to fear nothing of what He says. To have the audacity to ignore it, or worse, to carve it up and throw it into the fire. To have such contempt of God so as to fearlessly cast aside anything He says. Fear is key to a right response. He is the Creator of all things and sustains all things, and all men must one day stand before Him in judgment. He will judge everyone according to His righteous decrees. Those who tremble at His Word and respond with obedience will be honored and exalted and welcomed to dwell with Him forever. Those who cared nothing for what He stood for, who thought nothing of Him, will be condemned to an eternity cut off from His presence, from all that is good and holy, to endure all that is evil and cruel for eternity. Their own hated of God will come back on them.
Application
The only right response is to recognize who God is and to take Him at His Word. He is who He claims to be and will do all He has promised to do. He has all power to ensure that what He wants recorded in the Scriptures is exactly what He had recorded, nothing more and nothing less. He has all power to ensure that what He recorded endures unchanged through all generations, until it is all completed. To doubt that is to belittle God and treat Him with contempt. The only right response to all that He has written is diligent obedience in fear and honor of who He is. I don't want to be condemned with powerful men like Jehoiakim and his officials who treated God's Word with such contempt. I need to tremble before His Word and do what it says.