The Fire of The Word

The Old Testament prophet Jeremiah had a very unpopular ministry in a very difficult time. Jeremiah was a prophet in Judah in the days leading up to and during the exile into Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar.

There were times in his life when Jeremiah felt like packing it all in and giving up his ministry. After all, no one was listening, and not only were they not listening, they were punishing – punishing Jeremiah for the things God was telling Jeremiah to tell the people. And so, Jeremiah resolved to keep quiet, but alas, he could not…Jer 20:7 O Lord, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone mocks me. 8 For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted, "Violence and plunder!" Because the word of the Lord was made to me A reproach and a derision daily. 9 Then I said, "I will not make mention of Him, Nor speak anymore in His name." But His word was in my heart like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could not.

The reason Jeremiah could not hold back the Word of God? It was because it burned in his heart like fire. He could not hold it back.

Cut to 600 years later. Two men walking along the road which travels from Jerusalem to Emmaus. The men are disconsolate. Downcast. Discouraged. They may be escaping Jerusalem in fear of persecution, or in fear of their lives. At the very least, they have left their greatest of all hopes behind – their hope in the Messiah – and are headed sadly back to their ‘normal’ lives. All the faith they had placed in Jesus had not panned out. Jesus was dead.

Suddenly the two men are joined by a fellow traveler, whom they fail to recognize. He asks questions about their sorrow, and what has caused it? The men respond as Jeremiah had responded 600 years before. They had been induced and persuaded by the Lord to believe, and now they were in a position to be mocked for that belief. But then, the stranger declared, Luke 24:25 Then He said to them, "O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory?" 27 And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.

He ventured into Emmaus with the pair, joining them for supper, and blessing and breaking the bread with them. And then they recognized Him! Luke 24:2 And they said to one another, "Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?"

The Word of God has always been capable of fanning the smallest embers of faith and trust into a raging fire in the heart.
- Pastor Bill