Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
Jeremiah stands against a crowd of prophets who told their own dreams and called them a message from God. The Lord does not argue with them. He asks two questions instead, and points to what His word does.
Dreams Against the Word
This verse closes a long charge against men who spoke in God's name when God had not sent them. One writer sets the fire and the hammer against what those prophets were selling, and notes what the Lord says next:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey prophesied lies in the name of Jehovah; they were prophets of the deceit of their own heart. They tried to make the people forget the Name of Jehovah. Teachers who have abandoned the truth still do this work today. They speak out of the deceit of their hearts. They prophesy lies. They attack the Name that is above every name. How different is the word of the Lord from the idle dreams of these false prophets. "Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?" (verse 29). Three times the Lord declares He is against these prophets (verses 30-32).
Chaff and Wheat
God offers no outside proof for His word. The question just before this one — chaff or wheat — makes the word its own evidence:
William KellyThe false prophets, the godless priests, and all the other dreamers brought forward their words to deceive. But the Lord stands by His own words. And how? Why should they take heed to it? On what ground? On its own intrinsic power. "What is the chaff to the wheat?" (verse 28). Nutritive value decides.
The test is within reach of people with no training at all:
William KellyThere is one very good way of meeting a man when he is hungry. Give him a piece of bread, and he knows perfectly well it is bread. He may never have seen that kind of bread before, and may never have tasted it, but he is convinced it is bread. Give him a piece of board, and he knows this is not bread. So, by the standards of human learning, a man may know almost nothing. Yet God guards even the simplest of His people with a practical test. "What is chaff to the wheat?" The truth of God always commends itself to the consciences of those who hear it.
The Hammer and the Rock
The rock in the picture is a heart that will not yield. One writer sets two men side by side. One needed the blow. The other did not:
W. W. FeredayThe heart of man is hard towards God by nature... Jeremiah 23:29 likens God's Word to a hammer. The jailer at Philippi needed the hammer when Paul and Silas first dealt with him. King Josiah did not. His heart was already tender.
Another writer describes that blow landing in his own life:
James BoydAs I read, I said to myself: No one on earth knows me as I know myself. But the Author of this Book knows me far better than I know myself. I felt that God was speaking. I found myself under His all-seeing eye, and I fell at His feet. The hammer of His Word had broken the hard rock to pieces.
One Word, Two Effects
Wheat, fire and hammer are not rival pictures. They show one word doing different work on different ground:
Scripture QuarterlyJeremiah 23:28-29 compares the word to wheat. Strangely, it also compares it to fire and to a hammer breaking the rock in pieces. God can use His word to feed or to break hard hearts!
Jeremiah himself had already felt the fire. One writer describes what kept him speaking under constant mockery:
J. N. DarbyHe was the target of constant mockery. They watched for him to stumble, so he would gladly have kept silent. But the word of Jehovah was like fire in his bones... We understand how at such times the word in us is too strong to be shut up in our heart.
Speak It Faithfully
If the power is in the word itself, then the messenger's one duty is to hand it over unaltered:
Frederick W GrantIt would be unfaithfulness and dishonesty, as well as a real breach of love, not to say what the Lord says. To modify or alter it would be dishonest. "Let him who has My word speak My word faithfully," He Himself says.
Summary
- Chaff — Weigh the dreams of false prophets against God's word and they turn out to be husks. Food value settles it, not credentials.
- Wheat — The word feeds, and it proves itself by feeding. A hungry man knows bread from a plank, so God guards even the simplest believer.
- Fire — The same word burns. It burned in Jeremiah until he had to speak, even when mockery made him want to stay silent.
- Hammer — Where a heart is rock, the word breaks it. Some, like Josiah, are already tender; others need the blow before they fall at God's feet.
- Faithfully — The power is in the word, not in the speaker. So changing it or watering it down is dishonesty. Hand it over as it stands.