God's Word — “Like A Fire …. Like A Hammer”
Categories: Church of Christ Bulletin ArticlesWhen we think of the fact that sin is running rampant in our country, we cannot restrain a feeling of distress. Jeremiah, the weeping prophet said regarding Judah in Jeremiah 23:10):
“For the land is full of adulterers; For because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, And their might is not right.“
When we consider the divided state of the religious world and see error being promoted and find indifference to and prejudice against the unadulterated Word of God, we have difficulty preventing discouragement added to our distress.
Jeremiah felt these emotions when he wrote:
“Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets …. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah” (Jeremiah 23:9,14).
So, in Jeremiah’s day, as in our day, there were religious leaders who strengthened the hands of evildoers by their disregard for the Word of the Lord. Then for Jeremiah’s encouragement (and for ours), God said in Jeremiah 23:28-29:
“What is the chaff to the wheat? says the Lord? Is not My word like a fire? says the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?“
In other words, all who were wicked and that in spite of flinty hearts, His Word once received, would burn out impurities and break up hard-heartedness. It will not return to Him void or empty (Isaiah 55:10-11); it will fulfill God’s purpose and desired end.
No one can estimate the ultimate good accomplished when God’s word is faithfully proclaimed and taught. Like a fire burning chaff, it will destroy the false doctrines of men; and like the hammer breaking rock, it will break the hard heart into repentance.
The apostle Paul fully understood its power when he said:
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation….” (Romans 1:16).
Brethren, let us faithfully proclaim the powerful gospel message of Christ to those who are lost, motivating them to render obedience to His word (Matthew 7:21; James 1:22,25).