(Jeremiah 23:28-29) “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”
False prophets have always been around but in these last days they are multiplying within the wider Body of the Messiah. In the last days of the Southern kingdom in the nation of Israel the prophets were all basking in the euphoria within the circle of the merrymakers. Jeremiah was God’s prophet in those days and like all true prophets was an outcast, reviled, rejected and bullied and denigrated by these false prophets. Jeremiah, being faithful to God and to his Word could not sit in the circle with the merrymakers but sat alone. As he writes; “I did not sit in the circle of merrymakers, Nor did I exult. Because of Your hand upon me I sat alone, For You filled me with indignation” (Jeremiah 15:17).
Jeremiah’s heart was broken by this wickedness of the false prophets and physically trembled with the Spirit of holiness resting upon him and he could not go along with the levity, the lightness and the garrulousness of these false prophets declaring the visions of their own imaginations. They were telling God’s people they would not see disaster, and scratching their itching ears with what His people were craving to hear, but not telling them what they needed to hear. They were also telling the people in Jerusalem, who were thriving and thronging around the Temple and having things so good, that they would never see famine, plague and the sword, and that that God would give them prosperity and protection from the Babylonians who were advancing towards Jerusalem.
Even the priests in the temple were joining in with the merrymaking. None of these false prophets in Jeremiah’s time had stood in the council of the Lord to see or to hear His Word, and the storm of the Lord’s judgement was about to descend upon the nation, the city and upon the temple and the religious structures and ceremonies in which the people had based their security. God had not sent these prophets who ran with their message and He had not spoken to them. If they had stood in His council they would have proclaimed His Word without compromise to God’s wayward people and turned them from their evil ways and deeds. Holiness and righteousness and the coming judgement were not even on the radars of these false prophets. They were boasting about their dreams and visions of one sort or another which were all focused on prosperity and having things so good in this world and causing God’s people to forget His name and who He really is.
These false prophets were experts in greed “as accursed breed” and prophesying the delusions of their own imaginations and stealing their revelations from one another just like thy are doing today. God Himself was against these men who were prophesying false dreams and leading His people astray with their reckless lies. Now God spoke through Jeremiah about the difference between dreams and the Word of God. Let’s briefly look at our text in Jeremiah 23:28-29. And so we read…
“The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream,” Dreams and visions have their place in scripture and among the people of God and often we see God speaking to His people in both Testaments through dreams and visions which God still does and especially will do in the last days leading up to the Second Coming of the Messiah our Lord Jesus (Acts 2:17-18). Today within wider Christendom in the western democracies, historically associated with Biblical Judeo-Christianity, there is no lack of those on the internet and in the mega-churches declaring their dreams and visions that for the most part are centred in prosperity, making Christians feel good, and telling them that God wants them to be blessed with abundance and have things good in this world, and that persecution will not come. This is even widespread in the Evangelical and charismatic Churches.
Kingdom Dominion, seeker-friendly, purpose driven ‘Christianity’ and Charismania gone wild is all the rage today! Any dream or vision today that comes from the Lord will always be undergirded, founded and affirmed according to the Word of God. Now a prophet may have a dream or a vision from the Lord but is it according to the Word of God? The vision may well be from the Lord but what does God also say which is more important than the one who has the dream; And so we read…
“but let him who has My word speak My word in truth.” We are told in God’s Word that His Word is absolute truth and that the whole sum of His Word is truth and that by the Spirit of Truth He leads His people. The true prophet does not add to the scripture but brings out of it the revelation which is in there already. It is the entrance of the Word into the inner spirit of a believer that brings spiritual light and guidance and it is the same with one called to the office of a prophet within the l;ocal; Body of the Messiah. Many are looking for guidance and leading from the Lord but are not doing what He has already clearly revealed in his Word. This is why the Church in the west is like the last days of the Southern kingdom of Judah. You have men and women of God faithfully proclaiming and teaching the Word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit but are sadly and tragically outnumbered by those who are not rightly dividing the Word of truth, and in some cases who are masters of visions and personal prophecies, dreams and visions, but have no ability to teach sound doctrine as we see revealed in the Word of God.
God places more importance of the revelation from His Word than He does on dreams and visions which often are subjective rather than factually framed by the Word of God. He who has God’s Word must speak it faithfully and in truth. One of the tragedies within the wider western Body of the Messiah is that many pastors and ministers and those who are prophets and teachers are always speaking about God’s love and faithfulness and goodness, which they should be preaching because it is true. However, they are neglecting to speak about God’ holiness and righteousness and that we must be holy as He is holy with the holiness of the Lord Jesus if we would ever enter God’s kingdom because without His holiness and righteousness we cannot see God.
Hell and the coming judgement are mostly neglected by and large. It is not so much what these ministers are teaching but more so what they are not teaching and they’re not declaring the whole counsel of God which has that perfect balance between His unfailing love and His righteous judgements. God always places His priority on His Word than He does on dreams and visions. And then we read what God says through Jeremiah…
“What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord.” Straw has no nutritional value and it is not conducive for human consumption and it easily blows away in the wind. However, grain is nutritious and brings health and vitality and satisfies one’s physical hunger. Dreams and visions apart from the Word of God are like straw which the wind blows away. However, the nutritious grain of God’s Word will sustain and fulfil the spiritual hunger within the human heart and not be blown away by every ‘wind’ of false and deceptive doctrine. God then tells us what his Word is like…
“Is not My word like fire? declares the Lord, and like a hammer which shatters a rock?” God’s Word “is like a fire” and it was deep down on the inside of Jeremiah and he could not hold it in but it had to come out from his inner spirit man where God resided by his Spirit. Fire sets dry tinder alight. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of burning and judgement and one that enflames the heart with the all-consuming love and righteousness of God and that causes others who are spiritually dry to be spiritually ignited as well!
Then God says that His Word is “like a hammer which shatters a rock.” It is only the Word of God accompanied by the power of the Holy Spirit that can shatter the hard rock of the human heart that resists God and does not know God. Hardness of heart is not confined to the unsaved but also applies to those who belong to God, who have been saved by his blood, but over time have hardened their hearts to Him, resisted the promptings of the Spirit, neglected the Word of God and continuous prayer in the Holy Spirit by the deceitfulness of sin which has, by spiritual neglect, settled deep down on the inside of them and enslaved their mind, their emotions and especially their will to resist. This rock like hardness of heart can only be broken when the Word of God comes in the power of the Holy Spirit and breaks apart that hard rockiness of heart and replaces it with a heart that is responsive and tender towards God.
Often we can be swayed by the opinions and the commandments of man and embrace them as doctrine, but it is the Word of God that establishes the truth and shatters the opinions of man. C.H. Spurgeon said that “The Word of God is the iron anvil upon which the hammers of the opinions of men are shattered!” Yes a man may have his dream and his vision and we must not despise prophesying in this manner. However, when it comes to really hearing from God we need the revelation of the Word of God. There is no more scripture to be written but only a deeper understanding and revelation of what is already there in God’s Word.
Just as there were many false prophets in the time of Jeremiah, so today we have an infestation of them within the wider Body of the Messiah and the spiritual gift of discernment of spirits is desperately needed today as we are to test all things by the Word of God, not be being moved only by one’s emotions which are often deceptive where spiritual truth is concerned. After all, as born again, blood-washed, blood redeemed Bible believers we are to live by faith and not by sight!
And so God is still saying to us in these last of the last days; “The prophet who has a dream may relate his dream, but let him who has My word speak My word in truth. What does straw have in common with grain?” declares the Lord. “Is not My word like fire?” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer which shatters a rock?”
