“When Micaiah, the son of Gemariah, son of Shaphan, heard all the words of the Lord from the scroll, he went down to the king’s house, into the secretary’s chamber, and all the officials were sitting there. Elishama the secretary, Delaiah the son of Shemaiah, Elnathan the son of Achbor, Gemariah the son of Shaphan, Zedekiah the son of Hananiah and all the officials.”
– Jeremiah 36:11–12
So did you get the picture? Hopefully you didn’t get too lost in all these different words that I’m trying to pronounce. The whole picture is the word of God is being read, all the words of the Lord from the scroll. And the king and his officials are nowhere to be found. They’re not listening to the word. They are leading, they’re making decisions, they’re going on with their lives and ways that affect them and all those they lead. And they’re doing it all apart from God’s word.
Jeremiah 36:11–12 Points Us to God’s Word
Is that possible for you and me? To go through our days making decisions, having conversations, thinking, desiring, doing all sorts of things and not consulting God’s word, not listening closely to God’s word in ways that affect not only our lives, but the lives of people around us. I hope this few minute podcast is an encouragement to you when it comes to just meditating on God’s word for a couple minutes and praying according to it. But I sure hope, and I suppose I assume, that this is just supplementing much more time that you have in your day meditating on God’s word, reading it, studying it, memorizing it, praying according to it.
Encouragement to Feast on God’s Word
I would definitely encourage you not to let this be your only diet from God’s word. There’s so much going on in your life, so much going on in your family or your work, so much going on in your church, so much going on in the world. You cannot afford to not listen to the word a lot in your life every day. And so, God, we pray. Help us not to ignore your word like we see your word being ignored here in Jeremiah 36. Help us not to just listen every once in a while a little bit to your word. God, help us to soak in your word. Make us the people who love your word.
This Verse Shows Us the Importance of Studying God’s Word
All of us. Not just this or that person who’s really good at Bible teaching or this or that. All of us. You’ve given us all the privilege of knowing you through your word. We’ve prayed this in light of the new covenant promises in Jeremiah that we can all know you, that your word is written on our hearts. So, God, help us all to be students of your word. We pray for hunger for your word in all of our lives. God, from the youngest, we pray for kids who are listening to this to the oldest, God, we pray that you would saturate our minds with your word, that we would meditate on it and memorize it and read it and study it and obey it and live according to it.
For those of us who you’ve placed in leadership positions in any capacity, whether that’s in an organization or in the church or at work or just in our homes or just a position of influence in others’ lives, which you’ve placed all of us in in that way, God, we pray that you would help us to obey your word, to put your word. God, we pray that you would help us to hear your word, to not live influence others apart from it. Help us to live and lead and do all that we do in accord with your word because we’re hearing it and obeying it.
Jeremiah 36:11–12 Calls Us to Pray for Unreached People
God, may that be true in our lives. May what was true of the king and the officials here in Jeremiah 36:11–12 not be true of any of our lives. God, make us. God, don’t let us do anything apart from your word. And even in this, God, we pray for people who don’t have your word today. Those who haven’t heard your word, who are unreached by the gospel. Those who may not have the word even translated into their language. God, we pray for the spread of your word among all the nations. For the translation of your word among all the peoples, all the languages of the world.
God, we pray for the Dungin people of Dungun people of Kyrgyzstan. No known followers of Jesus, only portions of Scripture that exist in the Dungun language. God, we pray for all your word to be translated into the Dungun language. And we pray for the spread of your word and the life that’s found in it among the Dungun of Kyrgyzstan and thousands of other people, groups like them. In Jesus’ name, we pray all of this according to your word. In Jesus’ name, we pray all of this according to your word in Jeremiah 36:11–12. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
