"Is Not My Word Like Fire?"
Why is it, today, that the majority of this World cannot stand to listen to the true message of the Bible? Why do they become so irritated and inflamed with Anger, when approached with this message? They will tell you: "Don't preach to me, I have my beliefs; keep your Jehovah to yourself?" You will hear: "Oh! Another one of those Bible thumpers!" Strangely enough, you will hear these statements coming from the mouths of those who even profess to be followers of the Christ. They will tell you, that 'they are Christian's;' but don't you dare preach the Bible message to them! Strange behavior for a Christian, wouldn't you think? Jehovah is vitally aware of what their problem is, though, as these next word will show:
29 "Is not my word like Fire," declares the LORD, "and like a Hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?" {Jeremiah 23:29 NIV}
To this World, and it's professed Christian's, Jehovah's Word creates in them a fiery anger, when it smashes their false Religious idea's and teachings to pieces and exposes all of their lying Religious Doctrines, as to being the lies that they are.
Notice how Jehovah describes this situation in the following words of Jeremiah the Prophet, and it appears that Jehovah has his own sense of humor, as we'll see from the following words penned by Jeremiah:
14 "Therefore, this is what JEHOVAH of Hosts says: Because you have spoken this word, I am going to make My words become Fire in your mouth. These people are the wood,and the Fire will consume them." {Jeremiah 5:14 HCSB}
Jehovah is here telling us, that when his Fiery Word is spoken, it sets individuals on fire with anger, and as he likens them to pieces of wood, they become something akin to smoldering, smoking, Logs; of which Jehovah's ancient Prophets left a long trail of those smoldering logs behind them as they delivered Jehovah's Warning messages to the Israelite Nation. Notice in the following, how Jeremiah's message affected them in his day:
7 "The priests, the prophets, and all the people heard Jeremiah speaking these words in the temple of JEHOVAH, 8 He finished the address JEHOVAH had commanded him to deliver to all the people. Then the priests, the prophets, and all the people took hold of him, yelling, "You must surely die! 9 How dare YOU prophesy in the name of JEHOVAH 'This temple will become like Shiloh and this city will become an uninhabited ruin'!" Then all the people assembled against Jeremiah at JEHOVAH'S Temple." {Jeremiah 26:7-9 HCSB} So!
It was the Religious element in Jeremiah's day that wanted Jeremiah dead, because he was preaching a fiery warning message about the up-coming destruction of Jerusalem. Which message of destruction was fulfilled in 607 BCE when the City of Jerusalem was, as Jeremiah said it would be, destroyed. So Jeremiah was a Fiery Preacher of God's Word, that in it self was like a scortching fire, to the Israelite Nation, and turned them all into smoldering logs.
Those smoldering Logs continued to ignite with fire when the Christ came on the scene in the first Century; and note the Fiery words of Jesus to those early Jews:
33`Serpents! brood of vipers! how may ye escape from the judgment of the gehenna? 34`Because of this, lo, I send to you Prophets, and Wise Men, and Scribes, and of them ye will kill and crucify, and of them ye will scourge in your Synagogues, and will pursue from City to City; 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood being poured out on the earth from the blood of Abel the righteous, unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the sanctuary and the altar:" {Matthew 23:33-35 YLT}
These words of Jesus, literally set them ablaze with anger. So intense were these flaming logs they crucified the True Messiah. {Matthew 27:45-50} The Apostle Stephen, who himself was another fiery preacher, with Jehovah's word in his mouth like a fire, also suffered martyrdom, when those Jews stoned him to death because they could not stand the fiery words of Stephen spoken to them, to the extent they put their hands over their ears so as not to hear, his fiery scathing denunciation against them all. Note these next words:
51 "You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always resisting the Holy Spirit; as your forefathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They even killed those who announced beforehand the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become. 53 You received the law under the direction of angels and yet have not kept it." 54 When they heard these things, they were enraged in their hearts {set ablaze} and gnashed their teeth at him. 55 But Stephen, filled by the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven. He saw God's glory, with Jesus standing at the right hand of God, and he said, 56 "Look! I see the Heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!" 57 Then they screamed at the top of their voices, stopped their ears, and rushed together against him. 58 They threw him out of the city and began to stone him. And the witnesses laid their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 They were stoning Stephen as he called out: "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!" 60 Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, "Lord, do not charge them with this sin!" And saying this, he fell asleep.{In Death} {Acts 7:51-60 HCSB}
So the Fiery tongue of fire, of the Apostle Stephen inflamed them to the point of murdering him, as it had the Christ, when his fiery tongue lashed out at them. Notice how these flames spread as great persecution broke out against the Congregation, and these smoldering logs displayed great fiery anger against the true followers of the Christ:
1 "Saul {Paul} agreed with putting him to death. On that day a severe persecution broke out against the church in Jerusalem, and all except the Apostles were scattered throughout the land of Judea and Samaria. 2 But devout men buried Stephen and mourned deeply over him. 3 Saul, however, was ravaging the church, and he would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison." {Acts 8:1-3 HCSB}
They had also killed James the Brother of John with the Sword. {Acts 12:1,2}
Just prior to the coming of the Christ into Kingdom Power, these flames of Religious hatred will break out for one final time, because of the fiery tongues of the true followers of the Christ, and these smoldering logs will ignite into a World-Wide display of blazing intense fiery hatred. Jesus predicted these following words:
9 "Then you will be arrested, persecuted, and killed. You will be hated all over the world because you are my followers." {Matthew 24:9 NLT}
Obviously, the ancient Nation of Israel, as well as those early Jews, simply would not, could not, listen to the Prophets, Jesus, nor to his true followers. They had a very serious problem that can be accurately applied to this entire World today, and it's Christian Community. That is the following words of Jesus to those early Jews, which were, as follows:
54 "Jesus answered, "If I want glory for myself, it doesn’t count. But it is my Father who will glorify me. You say, ‘He is our God,’ but you don’t even know him. I know him. If I said otherwise, I would be as great a liar as you! But I do know him and obey him." {John 8:47,54 NLT} This World along with its Christian Community, so called, will tell us: "He is Our God!" But they too, do not even know Jehovah; and that is evident by the following words of Jesus:
47 "Anyone who belongs to God listens gladly to the words of God. But you don’t listen because you don’t belong to God." {John 8:47 NLT} One thing that this World, nor Religious Christendom, has never done, is listen gladly to the fiery words of Jehovah God's true messengers. Speak it to them, and they will erupt into blazing flames, and become like those pieces of burning wood those smoldering logs, which Jesus will extinguish during the battle of Aramageddon, because they 'do not belong to God!' In spite of their claims to the contrary. {Revelation 16:13-16}
Oh! They do have a god alright! Small "g"! That is the god of this world, satan the devil, who has blinded their minds, so they do not see the, "Illumination of the glorious light of the good news about the Glory of the Christ, who is the image of God." {2 Corinthians 4:3,4} So! It is not only Jehovah they do not know, they do not know his Son either. Not knowing the Son, they would not know the Holy Spirit, as Jesus foretold they would not. {John 14:15-17} satan does not allow them to see his Glorious position, as Crowned King of God's Kingdom. He has, as I said blinded their minds from seeing that Glory. {Acts 2:33}
When the prophecy of Zephaniah is fulfilled that will be the time, these flames of hatred for Jehovah's true messengers, will be extinguished forever. Note the words of Zephaniah:
18 "Their silver and their gold will not be able to rescue them on the day of the JEHOVAH'S wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy. For He will make a complete, yes, a horrifying end of all the inhabitants of the earth." {Zephaniah 1:14-18 HCSB} {Jeremiah 25:31-37} {Ezekiel 38:18-23} {Isaiah 24:1-6} {Revelation 16:13-16} When those five scriptures are finally fulfilled, the flames of hatred for Jehovah's True messengers, will be extinguished forever. But they all will be fulfilled simultaneously. That will end, the flames of hatred, for those who had Jehovah's word put in their mouths like a Fire, and gone will be all of those flaming, smoldering Logs.
"Is Not My Word Like A Fire? Like a Forge Hammer that breaks the Rocks in pieces?" Indeed! It most certainly Is! Wannabe