Jer. 36:25 " Nevertheless Elnathan and Delaiah and Gemariah had made intercession to the king that he would not burn the roll: but he would not hear them."

I'm sure that the four little words "he would not hear" stand among some of the saddest in Scripture. I always want it to be that he could not hear, or he did not hear, or some other rendition that takes responsibility away from the individual's will. It seem too awful to admit that people choose whether or not they'll hear.
Hearing is the precursor to obedience. You must hear what God has to say before you do it. Without a willing ear, there is no obedient heart. In this passage Jehoiakim, the king, is engaged in burning piece by piece Jeremiah's scroll as it is read. The appeal to stop is lost in the flames because he would not hear.
How often do God's people miss what God has to say because we have predecided that the Scripture does not mean what it says or that it doesn't apply to current culture, or some other devised excuse that excises a passage from present responsibility? Then, when the appeal to hear the Word comes from the Holy Spirit we choose to ignore it. Let us determine to be a people that will hear what God has to say no matter how counterculture it may be.

Just enough faith to start.....but not enough will to finish

Jer. 34:10-11 "Now when all the princes, and all the people, which had entered into the covenant, heard that every one should let his manservant and everyone his maidservant, go free, that none should serve themselves of them any more, then they obeyed, and let them go.
But afterward they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids."

It is so easy to start a project or to get excited about a big plan and begin it. How many of those ideas and projects make it beyond the first few days of excitement and beginning?

God's people had ignored His word for many years. They had not practiced the year of the Sabbath where every seven years they were to set free their brethren who had become slaves in the previous six years. As Judah was under siege, and Jeremiah was proclaming God's coming judgement, God's people covenanted to obey, and set their brethren free.

Their intentions were enough to get them to begin. They set them free, "But afterward they turned" and reenslaved their fellow Israelites. This reminds me of The Parable of the Sower in Mt. 13:3-8. Some of the seed fell among thorns and were eventually choked by them and became unfruitful. According to Mt. 13:22, the thorns here represent the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches.

I can imagine that the struggle of doing your own work when you'd previously had slaves, and the cost of paying a servant would be a definite deterrent to willing obedience in the slaveowners' minds. But just because it was difficult and required hard work and sacrifice did not mean that they were not required to obey God's word and do it. God condemns their reenslavement of their brethren in Jer. 34:15-17 and pronounces definitive judgement on them for it.

1Cor. 9:24 "Know ye not that they which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run that ye may obtain it.

You have to finish the race to win the prize. Starting isn't enough.