Is not my word like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?
Jeremiah 23:29 (ESV)
God’s words through Jeremiah in this chapter are directed against lying prophets. Prophets who claimed to be speaking from the Lord. But in reality, their message came from their own imaginations. And God compared them to straw, worthless.
How can we distinguish a word that comes from God from words from other sources? We might rightly say that a message from God will glorify Him. And it will not be at odds with what He has revealed to us in the Scripture. However, this verse provides us with another measuring stick.
God says that His word is like fire or a hammer that breaks rocks into pieces. And in Hebrews, he compares it to a double-edged sword (Heb. 4:12). The word of God is much more than just words on a page. It has the power to create a universe (Gen. 1, Heb. 11:3). How much more will God’s word be able to change the lives of those who will listen to it and take it to heart (Ps. 119:11, Col. 3:16)?
We can find God’s words for us today in the pages of our Bibles. These are words that the Holy Spirit can use like a refiner’s fire to purify us. And like a hammer to break down our pride and anything else that keeps us from being what God wants us to be.
And that is how we can know that we have heard the word of God. His word is a fire and hammer. It will change us. We cannot come away from actually hearing God’s word unchanged. If we read the Bible and God does not speak to us through it, then we have only read words on a page; we have not heard the word of God.
