Jeremiah 36 is a showdown over scripture. The Lord had Jeremiah dictate His warnings to the scribe Baruch, hoping the people would hear and turn back (36:2–3). When the scroll was read to King Jehoiakim as he sat by a fire in his winter house, the king cut off each section with a penknife as it was read and threw it into the fire until the whole scroll was gone, even though some of his officials begged him not to (36:22–25). The Lord simply had Jeremiah write it again, with more words added (36:28, 32). You can burn paper; you can’t burn the word of the Lord.
Later, under King Zedekiah, Babylon’s army surrounded Jerusalem. Some princes accused Jeremiah of discouraging the soldiers and lowered him with ropes into a dungeon, a pit with no water, only mud, and he sank in it (38:4–6). Then an unlikely hero stepped up: Ebed-melech, an Ethiopian officer in the king’s house, an outsider with no power of his own. He went to the king in public and said these men had done evil to the prophet (38:7–9). The king told him to take thirty men. Ebed-melech gathered old rags and worn-out clothes, lowered them on ropes, and told Jeremiah to put them under his arms so the ropes wouldn’t hurt as they pulled him up (38:10–13). The Lord later promised to protect Ebed-melech “because thou hast put thy trust in me” (39:15–18). Zedekiah, by contrast, believed Jeremiah privately but was too afraid to obey, and Jerusalem fell (38:14–28; 39).
Woven through the sad history are huge promises. The Lord says, “I have loved thee with an everlasting love” (31:3) and promises a new covenant: “I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts” (31:31–34). Lamentations mourns Jerusalem’s destruction, yet in the middle of it Jeremiah remembers that the Lord’s mercies “are new every morning” (Lamentations 3:22–23). Our covenants, made at baptism, renewed with the sacrament, and made in the temple, are meant to be written in our hearts, not just followed like posted rules.
For 11- to 14-year-olds: speaking up is hard at this age. Group chats, lunch tables, and hallways are full of moments when someone is being mocked or left out. Ebed-melech shows courage and wisdom: he didn’t start a fight; he went to someone with the power to help, and he was kind in the details (the rags). Help youth see that telling a trusted adult is also speaking up. It’s the day after Halloween, so move early and keep the energy up.
