Remembering back to your childhood days, you probably remember a common practice by kids that don’t want to listen to other children–they stick their fingers in their ears, and sometimes shout, “I’m not listening…I’M NOT LISTENING! LA LA LA LA LA.” But here is the thing, the child with his or her fingers in her ear may not be listening, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t being spoken to by someone else. The fingers in the ear trick works for the stubborn child, but it doesn’t negate the message.

The prophet Jeremiah had repeatedly spoken out words of warning and calls for repentance, all of which went unheeded. He had suffered abuse and ridicule, and yet he continued to faithfully declare everything that the Lord God told him, even at great personal cost.

In chapter 36, Jeremiah received words from God that he dictated to his faithful assistant. The words were threatening the wrath of God, and Jeremiah’s hope was that the warning might affect the hearts of the people and that they might turn from their sins and return to the Lord in humble submission and obedience. Jeremiah, who was imprisoned and unable to go himself, took the completed scroll with the Words of God written in them, and he handed them to his assistant Baruch with these instructions:

““So you shall go and read from the scroll, which you have written at my dictation, the words of Yahweh in the hearing of the people in the house of Yahweh on a fast day. And also you shall read them in the hearing of all the people of Judah who come from their cities. “Perhaps their supplication will come before Yahweh, and everyone will turn from his evil way, for great is the anger and the wrath that Yahweh has spoken against this people.”” (Jeremiah 36:6–7, LSB)

Baruch took the scroll first to the elders of Judah, and when they heard the words written from the mouth of God through Jeremiah, they were struck with terror at what the scroll said. Clearly, God was angry and they needed to have these words read before the king. As the leader of God’s people in Judah, surely he would do what is best and right. But instead of an open heart that was willing to listen, King Jehoiakim figuratively did what a 1st-grade child might do on the playground–he plugged up his ears and refused to listen. Except, the king was no child, and his actions went far beyond those of a child in his offense against the King of Heaven:

“Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it out of the chamber of Elishama the scribe. And Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king as well as in the hearing of all the officials who stood beside the king. Now the king was sitting in the winter house in the ninth month, with a fire burning in the brazier before him. And it happened that when Jehudi had read three or four columns, the king cut it with a scribe’s knife and threw it into the fire that was in the brazier, until all the scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. Yet the king and all his servants who heard all these words were not in dread, nor did they tear their garments.” (Jeremiah 36:21–24, LSB)

No wonder wickedness ruled in the land with such a wicked king upon the throne! Instead of listening with a broken and contrite heart, Jehoiakim literally cut the scroll that contained the Word of God and tossed it into the fire, piece by piece. He refused to listen and made sure that nobody else was bothered by the message from God either.

Today, rulers all over the world, politicians, people of wealth, power, and influence sit in places where they have a great responsibility. God’s Word is not hidden from our world. He has given us His complete revelation in the written Word of God, the Bible, and in His Son Jesus Christ. Our institutions of Higher Learning treat the Bible as classical literature, our judges and officials swear upon a copy of the Word of God, and in many of our halls of government the Words of God are inscribed in the stone and marble upon the walls. We have no excuse.

And the common man has no excuse either. Ministries like Gideons International according to their own accounts, “have taken more than 2 billion Scriptures in more than 95 languages to 200 countries, territories, and possessions across the globe.” You can find a Gideons Bible in many hotel rooms to this day.

But are they listening? Is the world listening to the warnings clearly written in the Word of God? Some politicians and leaders, including religious leaders, are doing what Jehoiakim did–they are cutting out the parts of the Bible they don’t like. They don’t like hearing about sin (especially those sins they indulge in themselves), and they don’t like feeling the conviction that comes when God’s Word and Spirit press upon their hearts and tells them that they have committed these sins not only against men but worse, against the holy Creator God!

You cannot muzzle God. People have tried throughout history. Communism and other godless regimes have sought to confiscate and destroy Bibles, but they cannot. They have tried to silence God’s servants, imposing sanctions, imprisoning, torturing, and murdering them. But they have found out that they cannot silence God! They plug their ears, but the Words are still spoken and they are still true. The rebellious heart may not want to hear them, and they may stifle the sound for their own conscience, but it will be to their own detriment. God cannot and will not be silenced.

The question is not whether they (the rulers, leaders, celebrities, politicians, and the “power brokers” of this world) have refused to hear God. The question is whether YOU have done this. Have you plugged your ears to the warnings that God has sent in the Bible? Have you ignored the reality that if you would simply listen, these warnings are filled with the mercy and grace of God offered to you? If God didn’t care, why would He warn? If He did want you to turn from your sin, why would He mobilize an army of His servants to take His message all over the world? God cares, the question is, are you listening?