In the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2“Take a scroll and write on it all the words that I have spoken to you against Israel and Judah and all the nations, from the day I spoke to you, from the days of Josiah until today. 3 It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the disaster that I intend to do to them, so that every one may turn from his evil way, and that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin.”

It makes no difference whether we lived in the days of Jeremiah or in our society today: God is still the same. He does not change.

He is not the God some people imagine today – full of anger and judgement in the Old Testament but now a God of love. He is the same God.

Read his words in Malachi 3.6: ‘For I am the Lord, I change not’. Here in Jeremiah 36:1-19, we read of terrible judgement that he would pour out against the sins of the people. And yet the passage is still full of mercy.

Countless times God had given a clear warning – ‘rising early’ as we read in 35:.14. The message was simple: turn away from all your evil works and you will find mercy and blessing. And still through his faithful prophet the voice of mercy sounds yet again.

Jeremiah is locked up in prison, but God tells him to write down everything so it can be heard by the people. Why? ‘That they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin’ (v.3). If as you read this, you are still outside of Christ, turn to him now for mercy.

‘How oft of thy danger and guilt he hath told thee!
How oft still the message of mercy doth send!
Haste, haste, while he waits in his arms to enfold
thee; The harvest is passing, the summer will end.’

Editor’s note: The above is taken from the ‘Daily Readings,’ printed weekly for the Dumbarton Free Sunday School by Tommy MacKay, elder. Each entry is edited lightly for the blog post.

Excerpt from Reading Notes Week 101, Tuesday. Copyright Tommy MacKay, used by permission.