What Would You Take

Watching the news reporters interviewing people being evacuated from their homes, many were asked, "What did you take?" An interesting question I suppose. Most of the people answered something like I took my important papers, computers, photos and pets. If this were you, what would you take?

The first thing I would save would be my Bible. The thought of God's Word burning up due to a senseless fire is too painful. But it reminds me of the story of King Jehoiakim from Jeremiah 36.

The king was just like us. He didn't want to hear what God had to say. In fact, when God's Word was read aloud to him, he took the scrolls, cut them up and threw them in the fire. No amount of pleading would change the King's mind as we see in Jeremiah 36: 25 NKJV: "Nevertheless Elnathan, Delaiah, and Gemariah implored the king not to burn the scroll; but he would not listen to them".

Sometimes we're like that too, if we're honest with our self. There are parts of God's Word that are hard, like "love your enemy" and "be kind, tender and forgiving to one another". But God's Word is still final. When we "cherry-pick" only the good or easy parts, we put our self in God's place, thinking we know best. Oh believer, this is very wrong.

God has ways of correcting this kind of behavior. Look at how He dealt with King Jehoiakim in Jeremiah 36:27-32:
"Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words which Baruch had written at the instruction of Jeremiah, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah, saying: "Take yet another scroll, and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll which Jehoiakim the king of Judah has burned. And you shall say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, 'Thus says the LORD: "You have burned this scroll, saying, 'Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land, and cause man and beast to cease from here?'" Therefore thus says the LORD concerning Jehoiakim king of Judah: "He shall have no one to sit on the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat of the day and the frost of the night. I will punish him, his family, and his servants for their iniquity; and I will bring on them, on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and on the men of Judah all the doom that I have pronounced against them; but they did not heed."'" Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to Baruch the scribe, the son of Neriah, who wrote on it at the instruction of Jeremiah all the words of the book which Jehoiakim king of Judah had burned in the fire. And besides, there were added to them many similar words."

There are two things to point out:
(1) God's Word will remain. Jesus said in Matthew 5:18 NKJV "For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled."
(2) God is God. There is no one above Him. His judgment is just. We may not have to face what King Jehoiakim did, but we will experience consequences if we don't heed God's Word.

In conclusion, all of God's Word is important. Read it daily to get to know this God we worship. Allow His Word to get into our hearts and renew our minds.

Lord, thank you for your Word that lasts forever. Thank you for love and disciple when it's needed. Help us to desire your Word daily. In Jesus' name Amen.