The story is told that many years ago, while on a visit to England, a wealthy businessman was fascinated by a powerful microscope.  Looking through its lens to study crystals and the petals of flowers, he was amazed at their beauty and detail.  He decided to purchase a microscope.  He took it back to his home.  He thoroughly enjoyed using it, until one day he examined some food he was planning to eat for dinner.  Much to his dismay, he discovered that tiny living creatures were crawling in it.  Since he was especially fond of this particular food, he wondered what to do.  Finally, he concluded that there was only one way out of his dilemma – he would destroy the instrument that caused him to discover the distasteful fact.  So he smashed the microscope to pieces!

            “How foolish!” you say.  But many people do the same thing with the Word of God….with God period.  They hate God’s Word, and would like to get rid of it, because it reveals their sinful nature.  They want to be rid of God altogether.   We know there have been many Bible burnings.   There are still countries where the officials will not allow Bibles into the country.  And many Bibles have much dust on them.  I know that when I was going through a very rough time back in my 30’s I literally put my Bible – and God with it, up on a very high shelf – way back in a dark and dusty corner.  Not that I rejected God – totally.  I was sure He did not want anything to do with me – so why should I have anything to do with Him.   Many other people do outright reject God.  

That is how Jeremiah got to the point of rewriting God’s Word.  The King of Judah and the Chaldeans rejected God.  Now, as a prophet called by God, Jeremiah has been calling the people of Israel to follow and obey God.   Jeremiah emphasizes repentance and a personal faith in God.  Because of their former disobedience Jeremiah also warns the Israelites against false teachers, and false hopes in times of peace and prosperity.  He also warns that, if the Israelites don’t obey God, their enemies will take control of Jerusalem.

We know their history.  The Israelites break covenant with God…and so God acts.  Jerusalem is under siege.  The Chaldeans – also known as the Babylonians – have taken the city captive.  While those many troops are camped outside the walls and taken the people captive inside, word comes that that the Pharoah from Egypt is on his way with troops to take the lot of them by force.  The Chaldeans retreat.  Sooner than later, the Chaldeans return and take Jerusalem again.  The Chaldeans are like a boil that never goes away.  It gets infected. It festers.  It just never goes away.  The Chaldeans never seem to go away.

The ungodly kings who rule Judah are the ones who constantly pick at that boil.  The current king is Jehoiakim.   The Prophet Jeremiah is King Jehoiakim’s microscope – revealing the detail of his sinful nature.   Remember that the place then where God’s Word was to be read and people gathered to hear God’s Word is the Temple.  King Jehoiakim believes that if Jeremiah is forbidden to preach in the Temple, then that is the end of Jeremiah, the end of God’s word…the end of God.    Jeremiah is banned, forbidden, from entering and preaching in the temple.  

In the midst of the ban, God instructed Jeremiah to write His words on a scroll.  These words were to be all that God had spoken to Jeremiah from the days of the good King Josiah’s rule…this would include all of Jeremiah’s ministry, since God called him during King Josiah’s leadership.  God is hopeful in the beginning.  He says Jeremiah should write all that God has spoken because, “It may be that when the house of Judah hears all of the disasters that I intend to do to them, all of them may turn from their evil ways, so that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”  Wow – what a concerned, hope-filled, loving God.

Jeremiah obeys.  He calls upon his good friend and secretary, Baruch to take dictation.  And so God’s word is written upon that scroll.   Since Jeremiah is forbidden to enter the Temple, he asks Baruch to “go and read the words of the Lord from the scroll… and read the Word in the hearing of the people of Judah who come from the towns.”  Baruch does as he is asked. He reads the Words of the Lord to the people who are there.  He also reads it to the other secretary’s and some Chaldean officials are also within hearing range.   Many who hear do respond with respect and appreciation of its urgency and relevance to their present situation. 

However, some of those officials are alarmed.   These people are a lot like  Jehoiakim, habitually unsympathetic and roused to cold-blooded contempt and opposition to God’s Word.   The officials take the news – the actual scroll to Jehoiakim – the puppet king for the Chaldeans.  Jehoiakim’s own reception of the scroll is to systematically have it burned.   Strangely enough Jehoiakim has it read to him first.  Then after a section is read to Jehoiakim, he takes his pen knife, cuts off that section and throws it in the fire.  After the next section is read to him, he takes his pen knife and cuts that part off and throws it into the fire.

            Note that a pen knife was used to cut off the scroll for burning.  I think it is ironic that the same type of pen knife would have been used to sharpen the quill that would have been used to write God’s words on that scroll.  The very sad thing is that no one is alarmed.  No one grieves over the burning of the scroll…God’s Word.

            And yet, God is not finished.  God turns right around and calls on Jeremiah once again.  He tells Jeremiah to “take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first one” that was burned.  And then God tells Jeremiah to add a few choice words as a direct message to Jehoiakim himself.   No one from the lineage having blood ties to Jehoiakim will ever sit on the throne of David.  Our Lord Jesus who did have claim to that throne did not come from Jehoiakim’s line.  Mary was born in the line of Nathan, another son of David.  It is through her that Jesus has blood title to the throne of David.  Again - what a hope-filled, far-sighted…and tenacious God!

In all, the Israelites will be in exile, in captivity, for over 60 years – a life time.  At the time of the burning of the scroll, and under siege of the Caldeans, they are only in year eight.    Some of you have experienced attack one sort or another for a lot of years – perhaps a life time.  Our modern-day Chaldeans come in many ways:  the current economic situation has been a bigger Chaldean/enemy for some than others; illness for some continues to be a living hell.    When our situations look beyond repair, beyond healing, beyond hope and beyond God, God is still with us – even if we are still early in the attack or a life time in captivity.   When our modern day Chaldeans do not go away but keep attacking us and overwhelming us, and festering, this passage tells us the situation is not beyond God.  God is not done.

God’s purpose will not be set aside.  It will not be burned up.  It will not be stopped.  It will not settle being put on a high and dark and dusty shelf.  The unfathomable thought is that God seeks us for a hope-filled relationship.  God loves us in that relationship - tenaciously. 

            We see that Jeremiah started again.  The second time the scroll had even more words from God.  Jeremiah and Baruch were tenacious even in the face of the evil king, their captors, and their captors’ response to God’s word.  Jeremiah and Baruch do not throw their hands up in the air.  They do not say in effect:  Can’t fight city hall.  Baruch takes quill in hand.  Jeremiah begins to speak.  Their labor resumes – again.  They do not give up.  They remain tenacious.

            Tenacity involves trust in God.  Through Him another scroll is written….with even more to say than the first.  Bad news for the ungodly king and the Chaldeans.  Good news for those who rely on God.  Good news for us, we have the book of Jeremiah today.  Tenacity equals God!  Tenacity is the ability to keep on working and moving forward when the work seems never done or life is constantly shifting.  Tenacity will not let go, nor give up!  Jeremiah and Baruch were certainly tenacious.  God was, and is tenacious.  With God, we are to be tenacious. 

Another year will soon begin.  Yes, there will still be Chaldeans in our lives.  Turning over the page in our calendars or getting a brand new calendar does not remove the bad things, bad people and bad events and ills from our lives.  However, God is already ahead of us.         

            I believe tenacity actually makes room for possibilities.  Possibilities do not always explode upon the scene.  Possibilities do not always rush in to change, repair and fulfill or even heal.   Tenacity in most circumstances equals alternatives and definitely more patience.  Tenacity involves trust in the ultimate outcome, by God.

            We often look for a creative and hopefully, effective word from God.  Certainly we want an immediate response and action from God in whatever our situation might be.  And yet disability continues, illness does not go away, bills pile higher because of no job or a cut in salary, concern over troubled kids or marriages keeps sleep away and antacids close, or we still hold that life-long grudge or have an unforgiving heart.   Somewhere in there God tells us to hang tight, keep doing, go back to school, stay in your marriage, keep loving your son or daughter, or spouse; learn again to receive and give forgiveness and love.  God says, “Do it all over again!”  God also says, “Listen, have faith.”  Nothing is too hard with God or for God.  It is faith trusting that God is in control of His plan.  It is trusting, even in the midst of the mess of life we cause, or when our human eyes just cannot see clearly God’s purpose.  Through it all, His purpose is for us to be drawn closer to Jesus.  To grow closer to Jesus, trust must be the basis of our relationship.  As the years go by, we learn that the reason we can trust the Lord is because of His faithfulness – His consistency and His Tenacity.  And somehow we are refreshed and renewed by Him.  Trust is not so much getting what we want as being willing to take what God is offering each and every day; each and every year…His only begotten son and new life in him.

            God seeks us with grace, with mercy, with love – tenaciously.  Who else would send His only Son to redeem the world – to redeem us?  There is no other way we can describe the birth, the life, the ministry, and passion of Jesus?  He is the One who forgives enemies, does not cease to love disciples who desert and deny.  He is the One who lovingly moves us closer to Him in all circumstances – even when we move away from Him.  He is the One who holds, comforts, and loves us in crises, struggles, illness and pain and death – and yes, joys.  He is the One who cries and grieves with us.  He is the One who helps us to start all over again – with more than before, better than before.  We are loved by God – Who will not let us go!