218. Word like Fire and Hammer
Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? Saith the Lord; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?
This is not a promise we want; we don’t think we would appreciate it, at first glance. The promise is that God gives His Word so that it will act like a fire and like a hammer. We don’t want that; but it is necessary. Fire burns and hammers break. This promise means that the Word of God applies the Law to burn up sin and self, and the Word applies the Law to break up the stony and rocky hard heart.
We resist the Law because it burns and breaks. But we cannot receive the Gospel of life and salvation unless the heart is broken and the dross of self is burned. The Law is also compared to a plow that breaks up fallow ground that is hard and weedy and stony. The plow makes good soil that can receive the seed of the Gospel. When the seed of the Gospel falls on a good and honest heart it is believed and we are saved. Therefore, this word is a good promise: we can receive the Gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation.
The hard heart must be broken. When we break a commandment of God it is not the commandment that is broken, but it is the heart that breaks. One may break the law of gravity, but you will be broken, not the law of gravity. If we let the fire and hammer of the Law have its way on our own heart then we will be convicted of our sins; then the hardness of pride is softened, then the resistance of unbelief is broken up, and the guilt of sin is admitted and confessed. This repentance leads to faith in the Gospel. And this is good news.
Thank God for the Law and its threats that leads us to the Gospel with its promises. Thank God for the fire and the hammer. “A broken heart, O Lord, thou wilt not despise. Break up my fallow ground that I may receive your promises mixed with faith.”