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A Word No Fire Can Burn

A king burned the Lord’s scroll one strip at a time; the Lord promised to write His law where no knife can reach

  • 📖 Adult Sunday School
  • Week 44
  • 📅 Sunday, November 1, 2026
🏆 Showdown
💡 The big idea

Words on a page can be ignored, cut up or burned, but when we let the Lord write His law in our hearts, it becomes part of who we are, gives us courage to act, and carries us through the ruins with mercies that are new every morning.

I can let the Lord write His word in my heart, act on it with courage when it costs me something, and look for His new mercies each morning.

Study it yourself firstRead Jeremiah 31–33; 36–39; Lamentations 1; 3 in Gospel LibraryCome, Follow Me manualOpen this week (Jeremiah 31–33; 36–39; Lamentations 1; 3)
Know the chapters

This week’s chapters cover the last years before Babylon destroyed Jerusalem in about 586 BC. They are not in time order. Chapter 36 comes first, in the fourth year of King Jehoiakim (36:1), about 605 BC. Chapters 37–39 come nearly twenty years later under King Zedekiah, the same king whose first year opens the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi 1:4), while Babylon’s army surrounds the city. Chapters 31–33, part of a hopeful section often called the Book of Consolation, were given in those same dark years: Jeremiah buys a field while the siege is on (32:6–15) and hears the Lord ask, “Is there any thing too hard for me?” (32:27).

This lesson centers on Jeremiah 36. The Lord tells Jeremiah to write down all His words, hoping the people will turn so He can forgive them (36:3). Barred from the temple, Jeremiah dictates to his scribe Baruch, who reads the scroll aloud on a fast day. When it reaches King Jehoiakim in his winter house, the king cuts off each few columns with a penknife and drops them into the fire until the whole scroll is gone (36:22–23). His father, Josiah, had torn his clothes in sorrow when a lost book of the law was read to him (2 Kings 22:11); the son burns it. The Lord simply has the scroll written again, with more added (36:28, 32).

Set that scene beside Jeremiah 31:31–34. The Lord promises a new covenant: not law carved on stone or written on a scroll, but law put “in their inward parts” and written “in their hearts.” Paul picks up the image (2 Corinthians 3:3), and Hebrews quotes the whole passage as fulfilled in Jesus Christ (Hebrews 8:8–12). Two other threads round out the week: Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian servant who risks his standing to pull Jeremiah out of a muddy cistern (38:7–13) and is promised deliverance “because thou hast put thy trust in me” (39:18), and Lamentations, poems of grief over the fallen city with a turn to hope at their center (Lamentations 3:21–26).

Twenty-five minutes goes quickly. Read Jeremiah 36 well, spend real time on the heart question, and choose between the Ebed-melech and Lamentations discussions if the room is lively. The field in Anathoth (Jeremiah 32) is ready as a bonus step for a class that wants more.

Only have 5 minutes?

Read Jeremiah 36, 38:1–13 and 31:31–34 once. Open by asking what the class once did because they were told to and now do because they love it. Walk through the burning of the scroll, then read Jeremiah 31:33 together and ask where the Lord wants to write His law. Spend most of the time on Ebed-melech’s ropes and rags. Close by reading Lamentations 3:22–23 and inviting one or two testimonies.

What to bring2 items

Tick what you have. Forgot something? Every step that needs a supply has a no-supplies version in the plan below.

Before class

  1. Read Jeremiah 36 straight through, then 38:1–13, 39:15–18 and 31:31–34. Watch for verses 3, 23, 24 and 28 in chapter 36; they carry the story.
  2. Ask two people ahead of time to read: one for the Reader verses (36:16, 19 and 36:22–23) and one to read Jeremiah 38:7–13 in the discussion. A Saturday text is plenty.
  3. Roll up a sheet of paper like a scroll. You’ll hold it up in the opening and again when you read Jeremiah 31:33.
  4. Think of your own honest answer to the opening question. If the room is quiet, your example opens the door.
  5. Choose the two or three questions you most want to reach in each discussion. You won’t get to all of them, and that’s fine.

Discussion tips

  • Quiet class? Give thirty seconds to skim Jeremiah 38:7–13 before asking anything, then send the first Ebed-melech question to pairs. People who won’t speak to the room will talk to a neighbor.
  • One voice filling every pause? Thank them sincerely, then say, “Let’s hear from someone we haven’t heard from yet,” and wait.
  • Lamentations speaks to real grief: a death, a divorce, a home or a faith that feels like ruins. Don’t hurry anyone to verse 22. The poet spends twenty verses in the dark before he says, “therefore have I hope” (Lamentations 3:21), and that honesty is part of the message.
  • If someone asks why the Lord let Jeremiah suffer so much for telling the truth, don’t rush to tie it up. Point out that the Lord hid him (36:26), sent Ebed-melech (38:10–13) and kept him alive through the fall of the city (39:11–14), and that deliverance often comes through people.
  • Visitors and new members: explain that the chapters aren’t in time order, show the references on the shared screen, and never ask anyone to read aloud without checking first.

The 25-minute plan25 min + bonus

Bonus steps are for when you have extra time. Each “On the screen” line is what the class sees on a shared screen in Teach Mode in the Gospel Sparks app; on paper, read it aloud or write it on the board. On the web you can play Scripture Showdown from this page.

1. Hook

Paper or Heart?

3 min

Opens with the difference between a rule we’re handed and a conviction we own, before anyone opens Jeremiah.

  1. Hold up the rolled paper scroll.
  2. SAY“A rule written on paper can be lost, ignored or thrown away. Something written on your heart goes wherever you go.”
  3. Ask: “What is something you once did because you were told to, that you now do because you love it?”
  4. Give 20 seconds to think, then take two or three answers. Anything honest counts: scripture study, tithing, temple attendance, kindness to a difficult relative.
  5. SAY“Today a king is going to cut the Lord’s words into strips and burn them, and the Lord is going to answer with a promise about hearts.”

On the screen: 📜 What did you once do because you were told to, that you now do out of love?

No supplies? Do this instead

Instead of: One sheet of paper rolled up like a scroll and tied with string or a rubber band

Handed or Owned

  1. SAY“Think of the difference between a rule someone hands you and a conviction you own. One stays on the page; the other goes wherever you go.”
  2. Ask: “What is something you once did because you were told to, that you now do because you love it?”
  3. Give 20 seconds to think, then take two or three answers.
  4. SAY“Today a king burns the Lord’s words, and the Lord answers with a promise about hearts.”
2. Story

Read It in Context: The King by the Fire

6 min

Reads Jeremiah 36 as a real moment so the contrast between a burned scroll and a changed heart lands.

  1. Open Teach Mode to the scripture scene. The shared screen shows one scene at a time.
  2. Read each scene’s context yourself, then let the assigned voices read the verses. You read the Lord’s words; no one is assigned to speak as the Lord.
  3. Keep it moving: context, verses, next scene. Save comments for the discussion.
  4. After scene 6, hold up the rolled paper and let a few seconds of quiet pass.

On the screen: 🔥 Jeremiah 36: a scroll, a winter fire, and a king who felt nothing · Follow along in Jeremiah 36

3. Scripture

Written in Their Hearts

4 min

Studies Jeremiah 31:33 closely so class members see what the Lord wants to do that no fire can undo.

  1. Put Jeremiah 31:33 on the shared screen and read it slowly.
  2. SAY“With the person next to you, find what the Lord will write, and where He will write it.”
  3. After a minute, draw it out: not on stone tablets like Sinai, not on a scroll like Baruch’s, but “in their inward parts” and “in their hearts.”
  4. Read 2 Corinthians 3:3 aloud: “not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.” Ask: “How does the Lord actually write something on a heart?”
  5. Share Elder David A. Bednar’s questions (in “From general conference” below) and let them sit for a moment before moving on.

On the screen: ❤️ “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.” · Jeremiah 31:33 · What will the Lord write, and where?

4. Talk it over

Ropes and Old Rags

6 min

Shows what a law written in the heart looks like in action: an ordinary person doing the right thing at a cost, and doing it kindly.

  1. Give the context: years later, under King Zedekiah, officials lower Jeremiah into a cistern with no water, only mud, and he sinks in it (Jeremiah 38:6).
  2. Ask your assigned reader to read Jeremiah 38:7–13 while the class follows along.
  3. Point out verse 5, where the king shrugs, “the king is not he that can do any thing against you,” and verse 11, the old rags.
  4. Pick two or three questions. Start the second one in pairs for a minute, then invite a few to share.
  5. Count to seven in your head before rescuing a silence.
💬 Ask the class
  • Ebed-melech was a foreigner and a servant, not a prince. What might speaking up to the king have cost him, and why do you think he did it anyway?
  • King Zedekiah said he couldn’t do anything against the princes (verse 5). Why do good people sometimes go along with something they know is wrong? (Talk with a neighbor first.)
  • He brought ropes, and also old rags so the ropes wouldn’t cut under Jeremiah’s arms. What does that detail teach about how to help someone well?
  • Who around us is sinking in some kind of mire right now, and what might our ropes and rags be?
  • The Lord later promised to deliver Ebed-melech “because thou hast put thy trust in me” (39:18). How are courage and trust connected?

On the screen: 🪢 Ebed-melech brought thirty men, ropes, and old rags so the ropes wouldn’t cut. · Jeremiah 38:7–13; 39:15–18

5. Talk it over

New Every Morning

4 min

Finds hope in the ruins through the poems of Lamentations, written after Jerusalem fell.

  1. SAY“Everything Jeremiah warned about happened. Jerusalem burned. Lamentations is a set of poems of grief over the ruined city.”
  2. Ask a volunteer to read Lamentations 3:19–26 while the class follows along.
  3. Point out the turn in verse 21: “This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.”
  4. Ask one or two questions, then move to the testimony on time.
💬 Ask the class
  • Surrounded by ruins, the poet chooses what to “recall to my mind.” What do you call to mind when things fall apart?
  • What is the difference between a one-time rescue and mercies that are “new every morning”?
  • Verse 26 speaks of hoping and quietly waiting. How do we wait on the Lord without giving up or going numb?

On the screen: 🌄 His compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. · Lamentations 3:19–26

6. Testimony

His Word in Us

2 min

Ends with testimony of Jesus Christ, who writes His law in willing hearts, and a concrete invitation for the week.

  1. Hold up the rolled paper once more and say: “The king could burn this. He could never have burned what the Lord writes in a heart.”
  2. Invite one or two people to share, in a sentence or two, a truth the Lord has written in their heart over time.
  3. Bear a short testimony that Jesus Christ keeps the new covenant, forgives, and remembers our sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34), and that His mercies are new every morning.
  4. Invite: “This week, choose one truth you know on paper and live it until it’s yours, and be someone’s ropes and rags.”

On the screen: 📖 I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. · Jeremiah 31:34 · This week: live one truth until it’s yours. Be someone’s ropes and rags.

No supplies? Do this instead

Instead of: One sheet of paper rolled up like a scroll and tied with string or a rubber band

  1. SAY“The king could burn a scroll. He could never have burned what the Lord writes in a heart.”
  2. Invite one or two people to share, in a sentence or two, a truth the Lord has written in their heart over time.
  3. Bear a short testimony that Jesus Christ keeps the new covenant, forgives, and remembers our sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34).
  4. Invite: “This week, choose one truth you know on paper and live it until it’s yours, and be someone’s ropes and rags.”
7. Talk it over

A Field in a Doomed Land

5 minBONUS

Explores Jeremiah’s strange purchase during the siege as an act of faith in the Lord’s promises.

  1. Give the context: Babylon’s army surrounds Jerusalem, and Jeremiah is confined in the court of the prison (Jeremiah 32:1–2).
  2. Read Jeremiah 32:6–15. He buys his cousin’s field for seventeen shekels and seals the deed in a clay jar to last many days.
  3. Read Jeremiah 32:17 and 32:27 side by side: the prophet’s confession and the Lord’s question.
  4. Ask one or two questions.
💬 Ask the class
  • Why would the Lord ask Jeremiah to buy land that was about to fall to Babylon?
  • What “fields” do we invest in now because we believe the Lord’s promises about the future?
  • Jeremiah says “there is nothing too hard for thee,” then honestly asks why (verses 24–25). What does that teach about faith and questions living together?

On the screen: 🌾 With an army at the walls, Jeremiah bought a field. Is any thing too hard for the Lord? · Jeremiah 32:6–15, 17, 27

8. Game

Scripture Showdown

5 minBONUS

A light, friendly review if you finish early.

  1. Split the room down the middle into two teams.
  2. Launch Scripture Showdown on your phone or tablet and read each question aloud.
  3. After each reveal, read the reference so people can mark it.
▶ Play Scripture Showdown on the web

On the screen: 🏆 Scripture Showdown: how well do you know Jeremiah and Lamentations?

Read it together

The King by the Fire

Jeremiah 36 ↗

Reading parts

  • BaruchReads Jeremiah 36:4, where the scribe writes the Lord’s words as Jeremiah speaks them.
  • ReaderReads Jeremiah 36:16, 19 (the frightened princes) and later 36:22–23 (the penknife and the fire).
  • The ClassEveryone reads Jeremiah 36:24 together.

Scenes

  1. ⏳ One more chance to turn

    It is the fourth year of King Jehoiakim, about 605 BC. Babylon is rising, and Jerusalem is running out of time. The Lord tells Jeremiah to gather every warning He has given into one scroll. Listen for why.

    🎬 The teacher reads Jeremiah 36:2–3. Point out the last words of verse 3: the goal is forgiveness.

  2. ✍️ Baruch writes and reads at the temple

    Jeremiah has been barred from the temple, so he speaks the words aloud and his scribe, Baruch, writes them down. On a fast day, with crowds in the courts, Baruch reads the whole scroll to the people.

    🎬 Baruch reads Jeremiah 36:4. The teacher summarizes verses 5–10.

  3. 😨 The princes are afraid

    Word reaches the king’s officials. They send for Baruch and ask him to read it to them. When they hear it, they are shaken. They know the king must hear it, and they know what he might do.

    🎬 The Reader reads Jeremiah 36:16 and 36:19.

  4. 🔥 A penknife and a winter fire

    It is winter. The king sits in his winter house with a fire burning in front of him. As each few columns are read, he cuts them off with a knife and drops them into the flames, calmly, until the whole scroll is gone.

    🎬 The Reader reads Jeremiah 36:22–23. Let the room sit with the picture for a moment.

  5. 🧊 Not afraid, not sorry

    Years earlier, when a lost book of the law was read to this king’s father, Josiah, he tore his clothes in sorrow. His son hears the Lord’s words and feels nothing. Three officials beg him to stop, and he won’t listen.

    🎬 The Class reads Jeremiah 36:24 together. The teacher reads verses 25–26 and points out the end of verse 26: the Lord hid them.

  6. 📜 “Take thee again another roll”

    The Lord’s answer to the fire is almost quiet. He doesn’t strike the king down on the spot. He tells Jeremiah to write it all again, and this time many more words are added.

    🎬 The teacher reads Jeremiah 36:27–28 and then 36:32. Hold up the rolled paper.

Key verse

Jeremiah 31:33 ↗
“But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
In plain words: The Lord promises a covenant that isn’t only on stone or paper. He will write His law inside us, in our hearts, so that knowing Him and belonging to Him become part of who we are.

More verses

Jeremiah 36:28 ↗
“Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned.”
In plain words: A king can burn the page, but he can’t burn the Lord’s word. The Lord simply has it written again.
Jeremiah 39:18 ↗
“For I will surely deliver thee, and thou shalt not fall by the sword, but thy life shall be for a prey unto thee: because thou hast put thy trust in me, saith the Lord.”
In plain words: The Lord promises to save Ebed-melech, the servant who rescued Jeremiah, and names the reason: he trusted the Lord.
Lamentations 3:22–23 ↗
“It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
In plain words: Even among the ruins, the Lord’s mercy hasn’t run out. It comes fresh every morning, because He is faithful.
Jeremiah 32:27 ↗
“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?”
In plain words: With an army outside the walls, the Lord asks a question that answers itself: nothing is too hard for Him.

Scripture Showdown7 questions

  1. Who wrote down Jeremiah’s words on the scroll?
    • A. Baruch
    • B. Ebed-melech
    • C. Zedekiah
    Show answer

    ✅ A. Baruch Jeremiah 36:4: Baruch “wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord.”

  2. What did King Jehoiakim do with the scroll?
    • A. Sealed it in a jar
    • B. Cut it up and burned it
    • C. Sent it to Babylon
    Show answer

    ✅ B. Cut it up and burned it Jeremiah 36:23: he cut it with a penknife and cast it into the fire.

  3. How did the Lord respond to the burned scroll?
    • A. He sent fire from heaven
    • B. He let the words be lost
    • C. He had Jeremiah write it again
    Show answer

    ✅ C. He had Jeremiah write it again Jeremiah 36:28, 32: it was written again, with many like words added.

  4. What did Ebed-melech send down with the ropes?
    • A. Bread and water
    • B. Old rags to pad the ropes
    • C. A ladder
    Show answer

    ✅ B. Old rags to pad the ropes Jeremiah 38:11–12: old cast clouts and rotten rags, to go under Jeremiah’s armholes.

  5. Where does the Lord promise to write His law in Jeremiah 31:33?
    • A. In their hearts
    • B. On tablets of stone
    • C. On the temple doors
    Show answer

    ✅ A. In their hearts “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts.”

  6. What did Jeremiah buy while Babylon besieged Jerusalem?
    • A. A house in Egypt
    • B. A boat
    • C. A field in Anathoth
    Show answer

    ✅ C. A field in Anathoth Jeremiah 32:9: he bought his cousin Hanameel’s field for seventeen shekels of silver.

  7. Finish Lamentations 3:23: the Lord’s compassions “are new every…”
    • A. morning
    • B. Sabbath
    • C. season
    Show answer

    ✅ A. morning “They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”

▶ Play Scripture ShowdownTeams take turns on one screen.

From general conference

“Are the truths of the Savior’s gospel written in the fleshy tables of our hearts? Are we coming unto and gradually becoming more like Him?”

— Elder David A. Bednar, ““Abide in Me, and I in You; Therefore Walk with Me”,” April 2023

Share in Written in Their Hearts, right after reading 2 Corinthians 3:3.

Read the talk ↗

Songs

  • Redeemer of Israel Hymns, no. 6

    A hymn about the Lord gathering and restoring His scattered people, the hope Jeremiah held out in the ruins. Find it ↗

  • We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet Hymns, no. 19

    Jehoiakim burned a prophet’s words; this hymn gives thanks for prophets who guide us. Find it ↗

This week’s invitation

From Paper to Heart

Choose one gospel truth you know “on paper” but haven’t fully lived, and practice it every day this week until it starts to feel like yours. Then be someone’s ropes and rags: notice one person sinking and help them out gently.

Take it home

In Sunday School we read how King Jehoiakim burned Jeremiah’s scroll and the Lord had it written again, and how Ebed-melech pulled Jeremiah out of a muddy pit with ropes and old rags. The Lord promised to write His law in our hearts (Jeremiah 31:33). Take it home: ask everyone to name one thing they do because they love it, not because they’re told to, and read Lamentations 3:22–23 together some morning this week.

📝 After class

What worked? Who needs a check-in this week? Jot it here on a printed copy, or in the app’s private class notes.

Got extra time?

🤫 Is There Any Word from the Lord? · 4 min

  1. Read Jeremiah 37:16–17, where King Zedekiah secretly asks Jeremiah, “Is there any word from the Lord?”
  2. Read Jeremiah 38:19–20 and notice what the king was afraid of.
  3. Ask: “Why do we sometimes ask for the Lord’s counsel privately but hesitate to follow it publicly? What helps us close that gap?”

🕊️ Rachel Weeping · 4 min

  1. Read Jeremiah 31:15–17: Rachel weeping for her children, and the Lord’s promise, “there is hope in thine end.”
  2. Read Matthew 2:17–18, where Matthew applies the verse to the grief in Bethlehem after Jesus was born.
  3. Ask: “How can the Lord’s promises comfort grief without dismissing it?”

⛵ The Son Who Escaped · 4 min

  1. Read Jeremiah 39:6–7: King Zedekiah’s sons are killed before his eyes.
  2. Read Helaman 8:21 and Omni 1:15–16: one son, Mulek, survived, and his people came to the promised land.
  3. Ask: “What does it mean to you that the Lord was preserving a remnant even on Jerusalem’s worst day?”

Sources

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, the Bible used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tap or click a reference to open it in Gospel Library. Start with the official Come, Follow Me manual; these ideas are here to help it come alive.

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