Feb 13, 2019 - Suggested Reading Jeremiah 23 for Feb 17ths message on Hosea 1 thru 2:13 in our worship service at 9:00am

“Let the prophet who has a dream recount the dream, but let the one who has my word speak it faithfully. For what has straw to do with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not my word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?”

Jeremiah 23:28-29 (NIV) 

Jeremiah began his ministry to Judah in 627 BC, more than a hundred years after Hosea began his ministry to the northern kingdom called Israel in 753 BC. One of the commentators point out that it appears by the language in Jeremiah, that Jeremiah was influenced by Hosea’s writings, which seem to have been taken into Judah to preserve them, when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom and deported God’s people in 722 BC. We can see in this chapter that Jeremiah follows the theme of Hosea in his use of the metaphor of marriage/adultery. We see in verse 10 and 14 that adultery is used in the spiritual sense of a people joining themselves in the worship of other than the One True God, and that the metaphor is taken further than Deuteronomy 31 in the sense that the spiritual adultery is revealed by their evil actions, and furthermore that this adultery charge is levelled against the prophets and the priests.

Yet I chose this text not for the adultery parallels, between Jeremiah and Hosea, but for what verse 28 and 29 teach us about the purpose of God’s Word.

God’s Word is grain - full of spiritual nutrients that sustain the soul.

The words from false prophets are straw - empty of any spiritual nutrients.

God’s Word is fire, that burns away the dross of sin and evil in us.

God’s Word is a hammer, that breaks the most stubborn head and heart into pieces.

Oh to be broken before my God by His Word!

Oh to have my sin and evil burned away by God’s Word!

Oh to have my soul truly nourished by God’s Word!

The priests and prophets who are called adulterous are the ones whose words neither cleanse, nor break, and therefore do not nourish our souls. 

They may use God’s Words, but they frame them, as they deliver them in such a way to rob God’s people of the true purposes of God’s Word. 

Mainly peace, peace, peace, don’t worry God loves you, He won’t judge you.

Will we allow our stubborn self to be broken by the Hammer?

Will we allow the Fire to burn in our hearts?

Perhaps then we will open our mouths to eat what our soul needs for life.