Jeremiah 23:29

[Is] not my word like as a fire? saith the Lord,.... The legal part of it is as fire; it is called a "fiery law", Deuteronomy 33:2; like fire, it is quick and piercing, and penetrating into the

Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Is not my word like as a fire?

Full of life and efficacy, ; like a fire that warmeth, and healeth, and melteth, and consumeth the dross; and like a hammer that breaketh the flints, so my word breaketh hard hearts. Others think that the word is here compared to fire, and to a hammer, because of the certain effect that it should have upon those that would not obey it, to burn them up like fire, and break them in pieces like a hammer, and so think this text well expounded by the apostle, . Certain it is that God’ s word is like fire in both senses; no words of men have an effect and efficacy like God’ s words; nothing but that taketh hold upon the conscience, and hath such an effect upon the hearts of men; no words shall so certainly and infallibly be justified and made good.

Jeremiah 23:29 [Is] not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer [that] breaketh the rock in pieces?Ver. 29. Is not my word like a fire?] As it is like solid wheat, wholesome food; so it is no less like fire, that most active element, called ðõñ, because it is pure, saith one; and fire, because it was fair. It enlighteneth, enliveneth, warmeth, purgeth, assimilateth, aspireth, consumeth combustible matter, congregat homogenea, segregat heterogenea; so doth the Word, when accompanied by the Spirit, who is of a fiery nature and of a fiery operation. "The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." "Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked with us by the way, and opened unto us the Scriptures?" When the word comes home to the heart in the power of it, the preacher was sent of God. See Galatians 2:8. And like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?] i.e., The rockiest hearts and sturdiest stomachs are tamed and terrified by the Word, when God once takes them to do. It is as his plough to break up their fallow ground, and as his sword to run them through, and to lay them for dead. And like as the hardest ice is broken with hot waters, as well as with hammers, so is the hardest heart with the gospel, as well as with the law.

(29) Is not my word like as a fire? . . .—The prophet speaks out of the depths of his own experience. The true prophetic word burns in the heart of a man, and will not be restrained (Jeremiah 5:14; Jeremiah 20:9; Psalms 39:3), and when uttered it consumes the evil, and purifies the good. It will burn up the chaff of the utterances of the false prophets. (Comp. 1 Corinthians 3:12-13.) As the hammer breaks the rock, so it shatters the pride and stubbornness of man, is mighty to the pulling down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4), and the heart of him who hears it as it should be heard is broken and contrite. What these words paint in the language of poetry, St. Paul describes without imagery in 1 Corinthians 14:24-25. (Comp. also Hebrews 4:12.)

Verse 29. Is not my word like as a fire?] It enlightens, warms, and penetrates every part. When it is communicated to the true prophet, it is like a fire shut up in his bones; he cannot retain it, he must publish it: and when published, it is like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces; it is ever accompanied by a Divine power, that causes both sinner and saint to feel its weight and importance. In the original words there is something singular: הלוא כה דברי כאש halo coh debari kaesh, "Is not thus my word like fire?" I suspect, with Dr. Blayney, that כה coh, thus, was formerly written כח coach, strength or power; and so it was understood by the Targumist: "Are not all my words strong, like fire?" and probably the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews read it thus, and had it in view when he wrote: "For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," Hebrews 4:12. This admitted, the text would read, "Is not my word powerful, like fire?" or, "Is not the power of my word like fire?" But however we understand the words, let us take heed lest we think, as some have thought and affirmed, that the sacred writings are quite sufficient of themselves to enlighten, convince, and convert the soul, and that there is no need of the Holy Spirit. Fire itself must be applied by an agent in order to produce its effects; and surely the hammer cannot break the rock in pieces, unless wielded by an able workman. And it is God's Spirit alone that can thus apply it; for we find it frequently read and frequently spoken, without producing any salutary effects. And by this very thing the true preachers of the word of God may be distinguished from the false, non-commissioned ones; those who run, though they are not sent, Jeremiah 23:21. The word of him who has his commission from heaven shall be as a fire and as a hammer; sinners shall be convinced and converted to God by it. But the others, though they steal the word from their neighbour-borrow or pilfer a good sermon, yet they do not profit the people at all, because God did not send them, Jeremiah 23:32; for the power of God does not in their ministry accompany the word. There may be an allusion to the practice in some mining countries, of roasting stones containing ore, before they are subjected to the hammer, in order to pulverize them. In Cornwall I have seen them roast the tin stones in the fire, before they placed them under the action of the hammers in the stamp mill. The fire separated the arsenic from the ore, and then they were easily reduced to powder by the hammers of the mill; afterwards, washing the mass with water, the grains of tin sank to the bottom, while the lighter parts went off with the water, and thus the metal was procured clean and pure.

29. This v. supplies a further test of a genuine prophetic utterance, viz. penetration and power. like as fire] Cp. Jeremiah 5:14 and note there. The conception is that “of the prophetic word as endowed with God’s living energy and securing its own fulfilment” (Peake).

Like as a fire - God’s word is the great purifier which destroys all that is false and aves, only the genuine metal. Compare Hebrews 4:12.

29. Fire… hammer — That which is “wheat” to the believer is but as a consuming fire to the “chaff” of false prophesyings, and a resistless “hammer” to all opposing obstructions.