God's Word -- A Fire

"But if I say, 'I will not mention his word or speak anymore in his name,' his word is in my heart like a fire, a fire shut up in my bones. I am weary of holding it in; indeed, I cannot." Jeremiah 20:9 

"Each time Jehudi finished reading three or four columns, the king took a knife and cut off that section of the scroll. He then threw it into the fire, section by section until the whole scroll was burned up." Jeremiah 36:23

Years ago, I went with a church member to his house. It was an odd mixture of sadness, regret, gratefulness and hope. He had put the ash from a fire they had over 24 hours earlier into a metal can and put in the garage. Sadly, the coals were still hot enough to flame up and catch nearby combustibles on fire. Amazingly, the cars didn't explode, the family escaped without harm and the talented firefighters were able to keep the house from becoming a complete loss. As we looked at the charred sections of the house, we both stood there lost in our own thoughts. 

Jeremiah, the prophet of God, spent years warning the people to stop with the idols, turn and obey God. Or else. It wasn't a fun job. He never won any popularity contests. He even tried in vain to stop speaking the words God had given him. They were like fire in his bones. It couldn't be contained. The sinful king tried to silence the word, too. He burned the scroll of Jeremiah's warnings. His fire was no match for God's. Jeremiah simply had the words rewritten. Their preservation continues to this very day as we read all that God gave him to say.

Paul talks about accurately handling the "word of truth." Why? It's a fire. It's "alive" and "sharper than any two-edged sword" Paul would say. Fire and two-edged swords are not to be trifled with. Playing with God's word by -- picking and choosing what we like and don't like, heralding it with our lips but not our lives or dismissing it all as made up silliness is not a wise idea. King Jehoiakim found out the hard way. We don't have to.