Jeremiah 36-39

Does it shock you that King Zedekiah could cut off a portion of God’s Word and throw it into the fire? He cut off one section at a time until the whole scroll was destroyed. Can you believe this man’s audacity? His blatant disrespect for God’s word is astounding.

When I was in pre-school our Sunday School teachers, Aunt Minnie and Aunt Rose taught us to never set anything on top of our Bibles. They had us practice stacking books so we would learn to place the Bible above all others. Aunt Minnie and Aunt Rose would not be happy with Zedekiah!

But, as always, God asks me to dig a little deeper. I am right to be appalled at Zedekiah’s unbelievable rejection of God’s Word. But am I as appalled at my own?

You don’t reject God’s Word, Connie. You read it every day. You write what you’ve learned about what you’ve read every day. You even throw it out into cyber-space, praying someone will be drawn closer to God through your blog. You teach Sunday School, for crying out loud. You haven’t rejected God’s Word. You proclaim it every day.

Ain’t I special?

But God doesn’t let us pat ourselves on the back very long before He slaps us in the face:

What about those thoughts you have that dishonor me? Did you cut out Philippians 4:8 and throw it into the fire? How about Matthew 10:37-39? Aren’t you more concerned about offending your family than you are about being true to Me? That’s a hard verse. Maybe it’s just easier to cut it out of Scripture and throw it into the fire.

Ouch.

I can condemn old Zedekiah all I want. But I don’t think God included this account in His Word so we could point fingers at some guy who’s been dead for thousands of years.

I hear God asking me today: How chopped up is your own Bible, Connie?

If we are cutting out portions of God’s Word because we don’t want to deal with the Truth and we don’t like what it’s telling us about ourselves, we might be preparing the kindling to start the very fire that will torture us in eternity.