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TEXT: Jeremiah 36:1-32
Do you like to look at books? Some books have big pictures that are very pretty. Some books tell animal stories. There are books for just big people to read. Most books are only make-believe. The stories are not about real people, just play-pretend people.
There is one special Book we have that is the very best Book of all. It has stories for grownup people and boys and girls, too. Every single story in the whole Book is real and true. It is God’s own Book, the Bible.
Long, long ago God gave us the Bible. God told His good helpers what to write. God wanted us to have something to read so we could know how to pray and get the sin taken out of our heart. He wanted to tell us about Heaven, and how to live so we will be ready to go there.
A long, long, long time ago before the Bible was made into a book, the children would hear the stories told to them like you do in Sunday School. Because God had not sent His Bible-Book yet, the boys and girls would try very hard to remember every word. God wants you to sit up big and still, and listen to your teacher at Sunday School, just like these little boys and girls did when they were told about God.
One time there was a little boy named Josiah, who was a king when he was only eight years old. He loved God and he loved God’s house the Temple Church. The Temple Church was all dirty and dusty when Josiah was told he was the king. That made Josiah feel bad. He knew God felt bad, too. Nobody had gone to church for a long, long time.
Eight-year-old King Josiah told some workers to scrub and clean the Temple Church and fix all the holes. While the men were working they found a Book. God’s Book. It had been hidden in a safe place all this long time, but nobody knew where it was. King Josiah was so glad that they had found God’s Book. He told all the people they should mind God. For a long time the people did mind God, until a new king began to tell the people what to do. He did not love God.
In those days, people did not have paper and pencils as we do. Sometimes they wrote on sheep-skin after the fuzzy wool was taken off and the skin dried. They used scrolls or rolls to put their words on, too.
One day when Josiah’s son was king, God told a preacher named Jeremiah to take a roll and write a letter to the people. Jeremiah got a man to write down all the words God told Jeremiah to say.
The king heard about Jeremiah’s having this man write something in a book, so he wanted to hear it. He wanted someone to read it to him.
It was winter, and it was cold. The king had a nice warm fire in his fireplace. He was in a big, cozy chair by the warm fire. He was ready to hear the man read what Jeremiah had said.
He listened for a while. He did not like what he heard. Not at all! Why? Because it told how naughty the people were, how they needed to love God again, how they should pray and get the sin cleaned out of their heart.
The king did not like that. He got so cross! He asked to see that Book. Then he did a terrible thing. He took out his pocket knife. He cut out those pages and threw them right into the fire. He was not going to listen to God.
Some of the men near him tried to get him to stop, but the bad king kept right on cutting out the pages and throwing them into the fire. What a bad, bad terrible thing to do to God’s holy words.
God saw what that king did and God did not like it. He did not want those words to be lost. God told Jeremiah to get another roll and write them all over again just like they were before. God said He would make that bad king sorry for what he had done. God did, too.
What does God see when you have your Bible? God’s Book is a present to us from God. He wants us to take care of it. The next time you have your Bible with you at Sunday school, just remember God is watching to see if you love it and take good care of it. God is watching you.
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