During the prophet Jeremiah’s crisis at his public trial on the temple grounds, friends saved his life (Jeremiah 26). Yet, King Jehoiakim killed the prophet Uriah and tried to arrest Jeremiah. Would this end Jeremiah’s public ministry? Was public speaking the only way to communicate the Lord’s messages to Judah's leaders and people?
Killing and silencing the messengers did not stop the Lord's messages. The Lord can also effectively share his message in writing. The Lord told Jeremiah to write down all the messages he had preached (Jeremiah 36). Jeremiah had a helper named Baruch, who was skilled in writing and making copies.
While hiding, Jeremiah and Baruch bought a scroll (a paper roll made of papyrus) and prepared it to write the messages. When they finished writing, they read the scroll in the temple courtyard and to King Jehoiakim. The king cut up the scroll and burned it. But Jeremiah wrote the messages on a new scroll, adding new material. For the rest of Jeremiah's ministry, he wrote his messages on papyrus. Then he sent them to leaders of various countries and to the Israelite exiles in Babylon (see Jeremiah 29).
The first instance of writing God's word of course appears in Exodus. God instructed Moses to write the words of the covenant (Exodus 24:4, also see Exodus 17:14). It specifically states that Moses wrote the book of Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 31:9, 24). The existence of the written law likely started a tradition of documenting God's revelations (Joshua 24:26; 1 Samuel 10:25; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29; Isaiah 8:16–17; 30:8). It seems that prophets recorded many of Israel’s historical writings (see 2 Chronicles 12:15; 13:22).
Communities preserved these documents for a long time, especially those written on leather scrolls. They made many copies from one document. These copies were so valuable that people carefully preserved them for centuries. They also translated the copies into many languages.
The book of Jeremiah and the writings of other prophets, wise men, and teachers have become preserved, collected, and handed down to us as the Old and New Testaments. These texts provide a written record of God's messages to his people (see 2 Timothy 3:16–17; 2 Peter 1:20–21).
Passages for Further Study
Exodus 17:14; 31:18; 34:27–28; Deuteronomy 31:9–13; Isaiah 30:8; Jeremiah 30:2–3; Jeremiah 36:1–32; 45:1; 51:60–64; Ezekiel 43:11; Daniel 7:1; Luke 1:1–4; John 5:46–47; 20:30–31; 21:24–25; Acts 1:1–2; Romans 15:4; 1 Corinthians 10:11; 2 Timothy 3:16–17; Philemon 1:21; Hebrews 13:22; 1 Peter 5:12; 2 Peter 1:20–21; 1 John 1:4; 2:12–24; 5:13; Revelation 1:11; 10:4; 21:5; 22:18–19